The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas 张汉熙高级英语第二册课件.ppt

1、(Edited) Variations on a theme by William James URSULA LE GUIN,9. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,Objectives,To understand the text To learn the useful words and phrases learn about an allegory（寓言） story,Teaching Contents,1. Introduction (10 min.) 2. Detailed study of the text (140 min.) 3. Struc

2、ture analysis (5 min.) 4. Language appreciation (5 min.) 5. Summary of words and phrases(5 min) 6. Exercises (15 min),1. Introduction,The author: Ursula K. Le Guin is a well-known science fiction and fantasy writer.,Ursula Le Guin,She was born in Berkeley, California in 1929. After graduating from R

3、adcliff College, she took an M.A. degree at Columbia University. Her writings force us to re-examine many of the things that we once took for granted, like our cities, our political and social structures, etc.,Ursula Le Guin,She began writing during the 1950s, but not until the 60s did she begin pub

4、lishing. Le Guins work has appealed to a wider audience than science fiction fans. Bringing a social scientists eye and a feminists sensibility to science fiction, she has employed this speculative genre to criticize contemporary civilization.,Ursula Le Guin,Many of her storieslike “The Ones Who Wal

5、k Away From Omelas” (1974 Hugo Award)create complex imaginary civilizations, envisioned with anthropological authority. Le Guin has also written poetry and juvenile fiction, including the Earthsea video-2 trilogy, Wizard of Earthsea video-2 (1968), The Tombs of Atuan video-2 (1971), and The Farthest

6、 Shore video-2 (1972), which rank among the classics of modern childrens literature. She lives in Porland, Oregon.,Ursula Le Guin,In an interview with Larry McCaffery the author explains why she likes the science fiction form. She says: “Science fiction allows me to help people get out of their cult

7、ural skins and into the skins of other beings. In that sense science fiction is just a further extension of what the novel has traditionally been. In most fiction the author tries to get into the skin of another person; in science fiction you are often expected to get into the skin of another person

8、 from another culture.,William James,(1842-1910),American philosopher,William James,He was born New York City and graduated from Harvard University in 1869 with a doctor of Medicine degree. In 1872 he joined the Harvard faculty as a lecturer on anatomy and physiology (生理学), continuing to teach until

9、 1907 (3 years later he died), after 1880 in the department of psychology and philosophy. In 1890 he published his brilliant and epoch-making Principles of Psychology, in which the seeds of his philosophy are already discernible/ perceptive.,William James,Jamess fascinating style and his broad cultu

10、re and cosmopolitan outlook made him the most influential American thinker of his day. His philosophy has three principle aspects-his voluntarism, his pragmatism, and his “radical empiricism.”,The text,This text is taken from The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. This writing may be called a piece

11、of allegorical description.,Allegory（讽喻） in literature,is a symbolic story that serves as a disguised representation for meanings other than those indicated on the surface. The characters in an allegory often have no individual personality, but are embodiments of moral qualities and other abstractio

12、ns.,Allegory,The allegory is closely related to parable /religious teaching story, fable, /animal story, and metaphor, differing from them largely in intricacy and length. Although allegory is still used by some authors, its popularity as a literary form has declined in favor of a more personal form

13、 of symbolic expression.,“Omelas”,So Omelas should not be read as a realistic story. Le Guin is playing around with the old idea about the greatest good for the greatest number and taking it to its logical extreme. What if, magically, all the evil in the world could be heaped on one person and every

14、one else could be happy. Would it be worthwhile or would the injustice done to that one probably retarded child outweigh the good of all the rest.,The ones who walk away are buying out of the system, refusing to accept their own happiness if it comes at the expense of someone else. On one level the

15、story can be understood about the western world living off the suffering of the third world. On another level it can be understood about our societys refusal to accept the legitimacy of the plight of the poor.,Note on “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”:,Ursula K. Le Guin once explained in one of h

16、er story collection The Winds Twelve Quarters,The central idea of this psychomyth, the scapegoat, turns up in Dostoyevskys Brothers Karamazov and several people have asked me, rather suspiciously, why I gave the credit to William James video-2 The fact is, I havent been able to re-read Dostoyevsky,

17、much as I loved him, since I was twenty-five, and Id simply forgotten he used the idea. But when I met it in Jamess “The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life” it was with a shock of recognition.,Of course I didnt read James and sit down and say, Now Ill write a story about that “lost soul.” It seldo

18、m works that simply. I sat down and started a story, just because I felt like it, with nothing but the word “Omelas” in mind. It came from a road sign: Salem (Oregon) backwards. Salem equals Peace. Melas. O melas. Omelas. “Where do you get your ideas from, Ms Le Guin?” From forgetting Dostoyevsky an

19、d reading road signs backwards, naturally. Where else?,The general idea of the text:,In this allegorical writing, Le Guin brings up a rather provocative theme, the nature of happiness and on what it depends. In the beginning, Le Guin fashions a utopian city, Omelas. It is celebrating the Festival of

20、 Summer. There is an air of excitement throughout the city with its clanging bells, flag-adorned boats, beautiful buildings and joyful processions.,People march in procession to watch a horse race, which will begin very soon. Then Le Guin comments indirectly on the people of Omelas to convince that

21、they are not simple but happy. According to her, their happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive. They do without monarchy, slavery, or any commercial, political or military institution. There is no guilt in O

22、melas. People live a happy life which they love earnestly.,However, Le Guin discloses the truth of Omelas happiness shortly, which shocks the readers. In a cellar in Omelas a child has been locked in a tiny room and mistreated for a very long time. All the happiness of Omelas is based on its sufferi

23、ng. The people of Omelas accept this as a terrible justice of reality and let the childs misery go on.,By this sharp contrast between the former happiness and the present cruelty, Le Guin draws the attention upon her themethe nature and basis of happinessshould the happiness of the many be based upo

24、n the suffering of the few? But she provides no solution except an open, thought-provoking ending that some people leave Omelas after seeing the child.,2. Detailed study of the text,“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”: In Ursula Le Guins short story, The ones who walk away from Omelas, she brings u

25、p the idea of the scapegoat who, by living a life of constant suffering, ensures that everyone else in the city of Omelas has the perfect, happy life. They all know it is there, the people of Omelas.,they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendsh

26、ips, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvests and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly upon this childs abominable misery.,Some people, of course, cannot accept the idea that to free the child would be to

27、 let misery into the lives of everyone in Omelas, to let in guilt, even if they accept that the child, ruined by its miserable life, would not be able to understand or indeed survive the free and joyous world outside its cell.,These people cannot stand to live dependent on anothers misery; they refu

28、se to benefit from the childs suffering, though they make no apparent effort to help the child. In effect, they opt out of the system, and they dont try to fix it. These are the ones who walk away from Omelas.,Omelas is a fictional city of happiness envisaged by the writer. She describes emotionally

29、 and colorfully the city of Omelas and its citizens but it is a piece of allegorical description. In reality, however, she discourses on a rather provocative themethe nature of happiness and on what it depends.,What does Ursula Le Guin want to tell us through her story?,Through her story the author

30、wants to shock readers to think again about a philosophical question: could one be happy in a world that provided every perfection one could wish IF it depended on one person living in absolute misery?,Variations on a theme by William James:,The text discusses on a theme by William James. The author

31、 shows different ideas from William James theme concerning happiness and what it is based on.,Para.1,the city of Omelas,What does Paragraph 1 describe?,the happy city of Omelas. Omelas is a port city by the sea with bright towers and houses with red roofs and painted walls. There are tree-lined aven

32、ues, moss-grown gardens, great parks and public buildings. Towards the north side of the city there is a great water-meadow called the Green Fields. Far off to the north and west are mountains with snowy peaks half encircling Omelas.,The people there were joyously celebrating the Festival of Summer

33、with music, dance and processions. Men, women and children except for the riders who were naked. The highlight of the celebrations was a horse race to be held on the great water-meadow called the Green Fields. So the whole city is immersed in happiness.,With a clamor of bells the city Omelas, bright

34、-towered by the sea:,The loud ringing of the bells, which sent the frightened swallows flying high, marks the beginning of the Festival of Summer in Omelas. bright-towered by the sea: Omelas is a port city by/near the sea. It had white towers that shone bright in the sun.,The rigging of the boats in

35、 harbor sparkled with flags:,The lines and chains on the ships were decorated with flags which were shining in the sun. rigging: lines and chains used aboard a ship especially in working sail and supporting masts and spars; the rigging U: all the ropes, chains, etc. that hold up a ships sails. e.g.

36、The sailor climbed up the rigging to see if he could sight land.,. In the streets processions moved:,The streets were lined with houses with red roofs and painted walls. Between the houses there were old moss-grown gardens. There were also avenues lined with shady trees. The city had many big parks

37、and public buildings. There were many processions moving through the streets and avenues. In this long sentence, the main idea “processions moved” is at the end of the sentence. This is a good example of a long periodic sentence (圆周句), preceded by a string of modifiers.,Some were decorous:,old peopl

38、e in long stiff robes of mauve and grey, grave master workmen, quiet, merry women carrying their babies and chatting as they walked. Some of these processions were marked by propriety and good taste, because they were made up of old people, grave master workmen and women carrying babies. There were

39、no children or young people among them. In this long sentence, the main idea is at the beginning. This is an example of a loose sentence (松散句). The writer uses a vast variety of sentence structures.,decorous: adj. fml. (of appearance or behavior) correct; showing proper respect for the manners and c

40、ustoms of society.,e.g. Behavior that is decorous is polite and correct and doesnt offend people. He gave his wife a decorous kiss. Teenage lovers are strolling decorously. mauve: adj. having a pale purple colour. n. sth. that is mauve is of a pale purple color e.g. mauve writing paper,In other stre

41、ets the music beat faster, a shimmering of gong and tambourine, and the people went dancing, the procession was a dance:,In other streets the processions were different. The music was much faster and one could see the glimmering light reflected from gongs and tambourines. The people danced to the mu

42、sic as they moved forward. The whole procession was a dance. shimmer: shine with a soft tremulous slightly shaking light; glimmer,Children dodged in and outover the music and the singing:,The children ran about playfully, now in and now out of the procession. Their high-pitched shouting could be hea

43、rd clearly above the music and singing like the calls of the swallows flying by overheard.,dodge: v. to avoid (sth.) by moving suddenly aside.,e.g. He dodged the falling rock and escaped unhurt. She dodged past me. infml. to avoid (a responsibility, duty, etc.) by a trick or in some dishonest way e.

44、g. She somehow managed to dodge all the difficult questions. dodger: a tax dodger, a draft dodger 逃避服兵役者 dodge: n. infml. a clever way of avoiding sth. or of deceiving or tricking sb. a tax doge逃税花招,synonyms: avoid, escape, avert, evade, elude,avert: to prevent (sth. unpleasant) from happening e.g.

45、An accident was averted by his quick thinking. evade: derog. to avoid (esp. a duty or responsibility), esp. using deception e.g. Give me a direct answer and stop evading the issue. elude: escape from esp. by means of a trick e.g. The fox succeeded in eluding the hunters by running back in the opposi

46、te direction.,their high calls rising like the swallows crossing flights over the music and the singing: a simile,flight: rising, settling or flying in a flock,All the processions wound towards the north side of the city:,The streets twisted and turned so the processions also twisted and turned as i

47、t moved forward to the north side of the city. wound: past participle of the verb wind to make (ones way) in a winding or twisting course.,where on the great water-meadow exercised their restive horses before the race:,This is an attributive clause modifying the north side of the city. The main stru

48、cture of the clause is “where (on the great water-meadow) boys and girls exercised their restive horses before the race.”,naked:,This shows the boys and girls were very natural and unsophisticated. They did not feel there was anything wrong in being naked and barefoot.,lithe: adj. (esp. of people or

49、 animals) able to bend and move easily and gracefully,e.g. the lithe bodies of the dancers exercised their restive horses before the race: put their horses through some exercises because the horses were eager to start and stubbornly resisting the control of the riders,restive: stubbornly resisting c

50、ontrol; unruly; disobedient; unwilling to keep still or be controlled, nervous,e.g. If youre restive, youre impatient, bored, or dissatisfied. The horses are restive tonight; there must be wolves about. The crew were restive and rebellious. restively: adv. restiveness n.,The horses wore no gear at a

51、ll but a halter without bit:,The horses didnt wear harness but a rope or leather band without bit. gear: n. the harness for a horse halter: a rope or leather band fastened round a horses head, esp. to lead it Bit: n. a metal bar, part of a bridle, that is put in the mouth of a horse and used for con

52、trolling its movements 马嘴子；马衔,Their manes were braided with streamers of silver, gold, and green:,The manes of the horses were also decorated with small silver, gold and green flags.,mane : n. the long hair along the top and sides of the neck of certain mammals, such as the horse and the male lion b

53、raid: v. interweave three or more strands of (hair, straw, etc.) streamer : a long narrow piece of colored paper, used sep. for decorating at parties; a long narrow flag,They flared their nostrils and pranced and boasted to one another:,The writer uses personification here by treating the horses as

54、human beings. The horses open wider their nostrils, jumped about and seemed to be boasting to one another. All this shows the horses excitement before the race.,flare: to (cause to ) open outwards, esp. to widen gradually towards to bottom,e.g. flared trousers Her nostrils flared with anger. flare:

55、n. a widening towards one end e.g. trousers with wide flares prance: v. (of animal, esp. a horse) to jump high or move quickly by raising the front legs and springing forwards on the back legs,the horses being the only animal who has adopted our ceremonies as his own.:,a nominative absolute construc

56、tion and a continuation of personification. The horse was the only animal that considered the ceremonies of human beings as also their ceremonies.,Far off to the north and west the mountains stood up half encircling Omelas on her bay:,Far off to the north and west stood up the mountains half surroun

57、ding Omelas on her coast.,the snow still crowningthe miles of sunlit air, under the dark blue of the sky:,a very beautiful metaphor describing the sunlit snow peaks. The white snow peaks glowing with golden sunlight seemed to be on fire. The dark blue of the sky makes the golden peaks stand out more

58、 clearly.,one could hear and broke out into the great joyous clanging of the bells:,The music through the streets far and near was as pleasant as the sweet perfume of flowers. The music was sometimes faint and distant but sometimes gathered in strength and finally climaxed in the joyous clanging of

59、bells.,farther and nearer and ever approaching:,these words, in a grammatical way, also indicate the music movement heard from the starting place “farther” to the comparative degree “nearer” to the continuous tense “approaching,” stressing the distance is getting shorter and shorter.,a cheerful faint sweetness of the air:,a metaphor describing the beautiful music,Para.2,questioning the joy of the Omelas people,Joyous! How is one to tell about joy? How describe the citizens of Omelas?,The very short paragraph is a special feature of this piece of writing. The writer u