UNIT 9 detailed study and brief(book 6)

1、.,UNIT 9 Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts,.,.,An Introduction,.,About the Author,.,Bruce Catton,Bruce Catton (1899 1978) was a journalist and a notable historian of the American Civil War. He won a Pulitzer Prize for history in 1954 for A Stillness at Appomattox, his study of the final campaign o

2、f the war in Virginia.,.,American Civil War,The American Civil War was fought from 1861 until 1865 between the United States forces coming mostly from the 23 northern states of the Union and the newly-formed Confederate States of America, which consisted of 11 southern states that had declared their

3、 secession.,.,The North: Industrialized,The South: Slavery,Rich,Poor,.,Division of the Country,.,Blue represents Union states, including those admitted during the war; light blue represents Union states which permitted slavery; red represents Confederate states. Unshaded states had not been admitted

4、 to the Union at the time of the War.,.,Ulysses Simpson Grant,An American Civil War general deeply moving e.g. The photograph awakens poignant memories of happier days. It is especially poignant that he died on the day before the wedding.,.,Para.3,They were two strong men, these oddly different gene

5、rals, and they represented the strengths, of two conflicting currents that, through them, had come into final collision.,Note that this paragraph serves as the preliminary step leading to the process of contrast and comparison.,.,Para.4,1Back of Robert E. Lee was the notion that the old aristocratic

6、 concept might somehow survive and be dominant in American life.,1Back of: behind, at the back of ( The sentence means “what backs Lee up was the belief that ”),.,Para.5,1Lee was tidewater Virginia, and in his background were family, culture, and tradition the age of 2chivalry transplanted to a New

7、World which was making its own legends and its own myths. 3He embodied a way of life that had come down through the age of knighthood and the English country squire.,1Lee was tidewater Virginia: Lee was representative of the better-developed coastal region of Virginia.,2chivalry : the qualities of k

8、nights and institutions and values of the mediaeval Europe,3. Lee represented a way of life embedded in the tradition of aristocracy and feudalism.,.,America was a land that was beginning all over again, dedicated to nothing much more complicated than the rather 4hazy belief that all men had equal r

9、ights and should have an equal chance in the world. In such a land Lee stood for the feeling that it was somehow of advantage to human society to have a 5pronounced inequality in the social structure.,4hazy: vague, indistinct, unclear e.g. Hazy sunshine Hazy memories,5pronounced : adjective very not

10、iceable; strongly marked or certain: Im told I have a very pronounced English accent when I speak French. Shes a woman of very pronounced views which she is not afraid to air.,.,There should be a leisure class, backed by ownership of land; in turn, society itself should be 6keyed to the land as the

11、chief source of wealth and influence. It would bring forth (according to this ideal) a class of men with a strong sense of obligation to the community; men who lived not to gain advantage for themselves, but to meet the solemn obligations which had been laid on them by the very fact that they were p

12、rivileged.,6keyed to: look to ;depend on，be in harmony with,What is the logic reasoning behind this statement? (The implication),Society depends on the land. But land is in the hands of the leisure class. Therefore, society depends on the leisure class.,.,From them the country would get its leadersh

13、ip; to them it could look for the higher values - of thought, of conduct, of personal deportment - to give it strength and virtue.,The implication of this statement: They were the very people who were capable of steering the country to the right direction and who set the nation fine examples in term

14、s of thought and behavior.,.,Para.6,Lee embodied the noblest elements of this aristocratic ideal. Through him, the 1landed nobility justified itself. For four years, the Southern states had fought a desperate war to uphold the ideals for which Lee stood. 2In the end, it almost seemed as if the Confe

15、deracy fought for Lee; as if he himself was the Confederacy. the best thing that the way of life for which the Confederacy stood could ever have to offer.,1. The noble class with land in its control proved its value of existence.,2. The implication:Lee almost became the incarnation of the Confederac

16、y.,.,3He had passed into legend before Appomattox. Thousands of tired, underfed, poorly clothed Confederate soldiers, long since past the simple enthusiasm of the early days of the struggle, somehow considered Lee the symbol of everything for which they had been willing to die.,3. Paraphrase: He had

17、 become a legendary hero before the meeting for the surrender at Appomattox.,.,But they could not quite put this feeling into words. If the Lost Cause, 4sanctified by so much heroism and so many deaths, 5had a living justification, its justification was General Lee.,4. Made holy,5. Had a reason or v

18、alue for its existence,Translation: 如果说，许多人英勇奋斗、流血牺牲使这个行将失败的事业变得神圣起来并有其存在的价值/(理由)的话，那么李将军便是这价值所在。,.,Para.7,1Grant, the son of a tanner on the Western frontier, was everything Lee was not. He had come up the hard way and embodied nothing in particular except the eternal toughness and 2sinewy fiber of

19、 the men who grew up beyond the mountains.,1. What does this statement mean? Please paraphrase it.,2. Strong muscle,Ans.: Grant was completely different from Lee.,.,He was one of a body of men who owed reverence and obeisance to no one, who were self-reliant 3to a fault, who cared hardly anything fo

20、r the past but who had a sharp eye for the future.,3to a fault: to an extreme degree; excessively e.g. Generous to a fault, he was noted for his hospitality.,.,Para.8,These frontier men were the precise opposites of the tidewater aristocrats. Back of them, in the 1great surge that had taken people o

21、ver the Alleghenies and into the opening Western country, there was a deep, implicit dissatisfaction with 2a past that had settled into grooves.,1. great surge of westward settlement,2. A life characterized by fixed routine,.,They stood for democracy, not from any reasoned conclusion about the prope

22、r ordering of human society, but simply because they had grown up in the middle of democracy and knew how it worked. Their society might have privileges, but they would be privileges each man had won for himself. 3Forms and patterns meant nothing. 4No man was born to anything, except perhaps to a ch

23、ance to show how far he could rise. Life was competition.,3. Ranks or titles of nobility were meaningless to them.,4. No man came into this world with privileges but was endowed with only a chance to show how successful he could become.,Six basic American values: Self-reliance/ hard struggle; Equali

24、ty of opportunity/ competition; Independence/ material wealth,.,Para.9,Yet along with this feeling had come a deep sense of belonging to a national community. The Westerner who developed a farm, opened a shop, or set up in business as a trader, could hope to prosper only as his own community prosper

25、ed - and 1his community ran from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada down to Mexico.,1. What does “his community” refer to ?,.,If the land was settled, with towns and highways and accessible markets, he could better himself. 2He saw his fate in terms of the nations own destiny. As its horizo

26、ns expanded, so did his. 3He had, in other words, an acute dollars-and- cents stake in the continued growth and development of his country.,2. He linked his own destiny with that of his country.( i.e. He was a nationalist.),3.He had great confidence in the ever-growing expansion and development of h

27、is country.,.,Para.10,And that, perhaps, is where the contrast between Grant and Lee becomes most striking. 1The Virginia aristocrat, inevitably, saw himself in relation to his own region. He lived in a static society which could endure almost anything except change.,1.Lee linked his fate with that

28、of his region.(i.e. He was a regionalist),.,Instinctively, his first loyalty would go to the locality in which that society existed. He would fight 2to the limit of endurance to defend it, because in defending it he was defending everything that gave his own life its deepest meaning.,2to the limit o

29、f In full (capacity, energy, resources, etc.) e.g. The sailors struggled to the limit against the wind and wave.,.,Para.11,The Westerner, on the other hand, would fight with an equal tenacity for 1the broader concept of society. He fought so because everything he lived by was tied to growth, expansi

30、on, and a constantly widening horizon.,1. What does it suggest?,.,What he lived by would survive or fall with the nation itself. He could not possibly stand by unmoved in the face of 2an attempt to destroy the Union. He would combat it with everything he had, because he could only see it as an effor

31、t 3to cut the ground out from under his feet.,2an attempt to destroy the Union: This refers to “secessionism”or “splittism”,3to cut the ground out from under his feet. To destroy the chance of success; to destroy the foundation of ones existence e.g. by challenging the traditional beliefs of mankind

32、 we cut (dig ,sweep) the ground out from under our own feet.,.,Para.12,So Grant and Lee were in complete contrast, representing two 1diametrically opposed elements in American life. Grant was the modern man emerging; beyond him, ready to come on the stage, was the great age of 2steel and machinery,

33、of crowded cities and a restless burgeoning vitality.,pletely,2steel and machinery, of crowded cities This refers to the great age of industrialization and urbanization,.,3Lee might have ridden down from the old age of chivalry, lance in hand, silken banner fluttering over his head. Each man was the

34、 4perfect champion of his cause, drawing both his strengths and his weaknesses from the people he led.,4. staunch defender of his faith, completely reliant on the people he led,3. The readers will be easily reminded of an image of a knight in the middle ages, an image of feudalism. In former times,

35、a knight was a warrior who followed a nobleman or a nobleman who followed a king.,Today a knight is a person who has been given a royal recognition. In the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth nations the knight is styled Sir.,.,Para.13,Yet it was not all contrast, after all. 1Different as they were

36、 in background, in personality, in underlying aspiration - these two great soldiers had much in common. Under everything else, they were marvelous fighters. Furthermore, their fighting qualities were really very much alike.,1. Although they were different,Note that this paragraph serves as a transit

37、ion from “contrast” to “comparison”.,.,Para.14,Each man had, to begin with, the great virtue of utter tenacity and fidelity. Grant fought his way down the Mississippi Valley in spite of acute personal discouragement and profound military handicaps.,.,Lee 1hung on in the trenches at Petersburg after

38、hope itself had died. In each man there was an 2indomitable quality the born fighters refusal to give up as long as he can still remain on his feet and lift his two fists.,Persisted; held on，refuse to stop,2. unyielding,.,Para.15,1Daring and resourcefulness they had, too; the ability to think faster

39、 and move faster than the enemy. These were the qualities which gave Lee the dazzling campaigns of Second Manassas and Chancellorsville and won Vicksburg for Grant,1. What effect can result if this sentence is changed into “They had daring and resourcefulness ,too.”?,.,Para.16,Lastly, and perhaps gr

40、eatest of all, there was the ability, at the end, to turn quickly from war to peace once the fighting was over. 1Out of the way these two men behaved at Appomattox came the possibility of a peace of reconciliation.,1. The peace of reconciliation became possible as a result of what the two men did at Appomattox. ( i.e. working out the terms for the surrender) Why inverted order?,.,It was a possibility not wholly realized, in the years to come, but which did, in the end, help the two sections to becom