总结写作风格演示稿.doc

A discussion of the story “Love is a Fallacy”. l The text is a piece of narrative writing, and a light humorous satire as well. 1. CharactersThe three main characters are successfully depicted by Max Shulman. protagonist Dobie Gillisantagonists Petey Burch & Polly EspyWhat do you know about the characteristics of the three characters: first Dobie GillisDobie Gillis: pompous, pretentious, self-adored, self-conceited, imaginative.Petey Burch: emotional, impressionable, simple-minded, indecisive. (He suffered a lot from not being able to make a choice between a raccoon coat and his girlfriend. ). But he is a lucky boy, for he gets what he wants, the girl and the raccoon coat.Polly Espy: beautiful, impatient, emotional, poorly-bred, abrupt, superficially stupid, smart (beautiful, not well-bred because of her abrupt manners. She turned out to be very clever,(Once she learned how to make logical reasoning, she is so good at it, that she can refute and defeat Dobie Gillis with exactly what Dobie Gillis taught her.)Summary of the story The narrator Dobie Gillis is a freshman of a law school. He is self-conceited. He thinks he is a more intelligent and rational person than his roommate Petey Burch. He thinks Petey is an emotional, and simple-minded person. At the moment Petey is eager to have a raccoon coat because it is the fashion, and Dobie is desiring for Peteys girlfriend Polly Espy. So Dobie sends Petey a raccoon coat in return for dating her girlfriend. He makes a plan to smarten Polly up before she could become his wife, so he decides to teach her how to recognize some common logical fallacies. His teaching is so successful that Polly refutes all his arguments as illogical based on exactly the same fallacies that he tries so hard to teach her. ThemeThe theme is stated with the title “Love Is a Fallacy”. That is love is a matter of emotion, it does not follow the principle of logic.ToneMax Shulman tells the story in a self-mocking way, so the story is ironic and humorous in tone.l The author employs many ways, to achieve a humorous effect. What methods do you know that are employed by the author to bring a humorous effect of the story?1) The hyperbole employed by the author in Par 4 makes the satire of the narrator humorous. Para 4 brings out the pomposity of the narrator (Para 4).2) The frequent switches from the narrators formal, bookish, learned words to the girls colloquialism and slang create humorous effect. 3) To smarten the girl up, the narrator teaches her how to recognize some common logical fallacies. Perhaps his teaching is too successful because the whole thing backfires on him when the girl refutes his arguments as illogical based on exactly the same fallacies that he tries so hard to teach her.4) The striking contrast between the superficially stupid Polly and the genuinely smart Polly contribute to the humor of the story.5) The ironic conclusion also contributes to the humor of the story.( In what sense is the conclusion ironic? The narrator does not like the raccoon coat, and he sends the coat to Petey for the privilege of dating his girlfriend. He thinks the girl will surly choose to marry him rather than Petey, for he is more intelligent than Petey. But the result is that the girl promises to go steady with Petey exactly because Petey has a raccoon coat. So the conclusion is ironic. )Stylistic FeaturesTo make a discussion about Max Shulmans writing style of the story, we will do it through linguistic description from the lexical features, the syntactic features and the semantic features of the story.Lexical features:1) In order to create vivid and lively images of the main characters in the story, the author makes Polly Espy use a lot of exclamatory words and clipped vulgar expressions, for example,60: Gee (surprise, astonishment, admiration)63: Oo 68: Wow-dow120: Pshaw( used to show contemp or impatience)60: delish.delicious marvy.marvelous sensaysh.sensational terrif.terrific magnif.magnificentBy using these exclamatory and clipped words, the author successfully creates such a vivid image of the a girl: an abrupt, poorly-bred, impatient, emotional girl she is.2) And Petey Burch uses a lot of American colloquial and slang expressions of school boys; this makes the conversation sounds natural, and real.13: The Big Men on Campus17: Dont you want to be in the swim? 55： Its just been a casual kick (occasional fun)3) Similarly, the author makes the narrator Dobie Gillis use a lot of very formal words (especially a lot of ajectives) in his monologue. The frequent shift from the narrators big, formal word to the colloquial, slang and clipped expression creates humorous effects and increases the force of satire and irony as well.4: calculating , perspicacious, penetrating (polysyllabic words)61: dimension, informationThe formal words employed by the narrator shows that he is serious in tone; his serious attitude towards the task of smartening the girl up, paves the way for his complete failure in the end.4) The author makes good choice of words to make his characters more vivid and lively. He knows when to use general words, and when to use specific words. In fact, this serves two purposes 1）To avoid the repetitious and dull expression 2) to bring the character to the readers more vividly and lively.The word “say” is a general word, and there are many specific words that are heavily loaded with emotions. 63: she replied ( say something in response ) 68: she cried ( say loudly, in a frightened way) 70: she urged (persuade earnestly) 81: she exclaimed (speak suddenly, loudly and emotionally) 83: she promised (say definitely that she will do sth) 87: she chirped (speak in a cheerful way) 145: I croaked (say in a coarse rough voice.)Syntactic features:The author is very skillful in keeping the story develop at a rapid pace. He uses many short sentences ranging from simple sentences, elliptical sentences, exclamatory sentences, to maintain the fast pace of the story. Besides, he also uses some inverted sentences and periodic sentences to put emphasis on some ideas.Semantic features:Semantic is related to the meaning in language or logic.To achieve more effective communication, the author uses many rhetorical devices.1） Simile4: My brain was as powerful as a dynamo, as precise as a chemists scales, as penetrating as a scalpel.5: Petey Burch is as dumb as an ox.2） Metaphor20: My brain, that precision instrument, slipped into high gear.3） Hyperbole135: You are the whole world to me, and the moon, the stars, the constellations f the outer space.4） AntithesisTo achieve force and emphasis and also to maintain the beauty of sentences, the author employs the rhetorical device of antithesis. Antithesis is the deliberate arrangement of contrasting words or ideas in balanced structures.27: It is easier to make a beautiful dumb girl smart than to make an ugly smart girl beautiful.5） Analogy105-：Surgeons have X-rays to guide them during an operation, lawyers havev briefs to guide them during a trial, carpenters have blueprints to guide them when they are building a house. Why, then, shouldnt students be allowed to look at their textbooks during an examination?132: Five dates is plenty. After all, you dont have to eat a whole cake to know its good.123: It was like digging a tunnel. At first everything was work, sweat, and darkness. I had no idea when I would reach the light, or even if I would. But I persisted. I pounded and clawed and scraped, and finally I was rewarded. I saw a chink of light. And then the chink got bigger and the sun came pouring in and all was bright.6） allusionAn allusion is a reference to a person, event, story, that writers assume is well-known to their readers. To achieve the purpose of conciseness, clarity and vividness, Max Shulman alludes to Pygmalion,an mythological figure from Greek mythology, and Frankenstein, the title character in a novel by Mary Shelly. e.g.Pygmalion: (Greek mythology) a king of Cyprus, and a sculptor, who fell in love with his own statue, later brought to life by the goddess of love at his prayer. Based on this classical myth, Max Shuman describes how the narrator reeducates the girl Polly Espy both in the refinement of her manner and the smartness of her logical thinking. Like Pygmalion, he thinks, he will be rewarded with the girl becoming his wife.e.g.Frankenstein: the title character in a novel by Mary Shelly. Frankenstein is a young