Unit 13 Christmas

1
Unit 13 Christmas

• Contents
• I Background
• II Questions
• III Text structure
• IV The Writing style
• V Language points
• VI Discussion
• VII Homework

2
I Background

• About the author Floyd Dell (18871969 ), U.S.
  versatile and prolific writer and an editor for
  several newspapers and magazines. Christmas is
  an excerpt from his Homecoming An Autobiography
  (1933).

3
About the author

• Floyd Dell was born on 28th June, 1887 in Pike
  County, Missouri. His father, Anthony Dell, found
  it difficult to find regular work and the family
  experienced a great deal of poverty. At school
  Dell developed a love of reading. He later
  claimed that it was books by William Morris and
  Frank Norris helped convert him to socialism. At
  sixteen, he joined the Socialist Party and gave
  speeches on street-corners about his political
  beliefs. He also produced material for a small
  Socialist monthly, Tri-City Workers' Magazine.

4
About the author

• Dell believed that the everyday life of the
  middle and working classes provided subjects
  worthy of serious literary treatment. Dell valued
  authenticity and accuracy of detail and welcomed
  those like Russell and Phillips who wanted to use
  literature to bring about social reform.
• Dell, like most of the people working with The
  Masses, was opposed to USA involvement in the WWW
  I. After the USA declared war on the Central
  Powers in 1917, The Masses came under government
  pressure to change its policy. When it refused to
  do this, the journal lost its mailing privileges.

5
About the author

• After the war Dell published the best-selling
  autobiographical novel, Moon-Calf (1920). Other
  novels such as The Briary-Bush (1921), Janet
  Marsh (1923) and Runaway (1925), were less
  successful. As well as writing for the
  left-wing magazines such as the New Masses
  (1924-39) Dell produced several non-fictional
  works including Upton Sinclair (1927), Love in
  the Machine Age (1930) and an autobiography,
  Homecoming (1933). Floyd Dell died in 1969.

6
II Questions

• 1. What association of ideas does the word bring
  to you?
• 2. How do people in the West usually celebrate
  Christmas?
• 3. How did the child react to what the Sunday
  Scholl superintendent said?
• 4. Why wouldnt the childs mother look
  distressed when she learned that he had written
  his name on the envelope?
• 5. What are your impressions of the child?

7
III Text Structure

• The text can be divided into six parts
• Part one(Line130 ) Those were hard times, poor
  children did not have enough to eat. The boy
  brought food and money to Sunday school as he was
  told.
• Part two (Line3146)The boy left school. He was
  anxious and frightened when Christmas is
  approaching.
• Part three (Line 4758) On Christmas Eve, the
  family was in the queer mood.
• Part four (Line 5974) The boy began to be aware
  of the familys plight.
• Part five (Line 7584) The boy felt the cold
  emotion of renunciation.
• Part six (Line 8589) The second morning the boy
  received the present, but he no longer desired
  anything.

8
IV The Writing Style

• The story is told in the first person by the
  child himself, It is informal in style and
  reflects a childs thinking and manner of
  expression.
• 1) The writer uses plain words, simple, unadorned
  sentences, short paragraphs, simple grammatical
  structures an clear and straightforward
  statements. He concentrates on narrating events
  with a minimum amount of comment and description.
• 2) The style is distinctly conversational in
  tone.
• 3) A considerable number of sentences begin with
  And or But to show the boys attempts at
  narrative.
• 4) The writer produces a certain tension in the
  narrative by keeping the boy in the dark about
  his own plight while the reader is all the time
  being told the truth about it.

9
V Language points

• 1. Hard times times of money shortage,
  unemployment and times when the poor suffer a
  great deal. Times, when plural, is used to refer
  to the conditions of life, the circumstances of a
  period characterized by certain qualities, or a
  period of time, more or less definite, associated
  with certain events, circumstances, etc., e.g.,
  terrible times, bad times, prehistoric times, the
  good, old times. The hard times mentioned in this
  excerpt most probably refer to 1893, when the
  United States suffered from a severe and
  prolonged depression.
• 2. I supposed the poor childrens mothers would
  make potato soup out of them.
• out ofwith (a material)/from (a material)

10
Language points

• More examples
• Scarlet made herself a pretty dress out of the
  curtain material.
• The stool was made out of the bits of wood the
  furniture factory had disposed of.
• My father was out of work and we hadnt any
  money.
• e.g The enemy surrendered as they ran out of
  rice, water and ammunition.
• He was out of breath when he climbed to the
  top of the mountain without stopping.

11
Language points

• 3. She wouldnt tell me how much money she had
  put in it, but it felt like several dimes.
• feel like seem like when touched
• e.g. In pitch darkness when the wounded soldier
  touched the ground, it felt like water
  everywhere, Early next morning, his
  comrades-in-arms found him lying in a pool of
  blood.
• On Christmas Day my uncle gave me a parcel
  which contained something that felt like bars of
  chocolate.
• Feel like (doing) sth. means be inclined to do
  something.
• Peter is down with measles. He does not feel
  like eating anything.

12
Language points

• 4. Some expressions and saying related to
  poverty
• 1) live hand-to-mouth
• 2) eke out a living
• 3) make both ends meet
• 4) tighten ones belt
• 5) Poverty is no sin.
• 6) Poverty is not a shame, but feeling ashamed of
  it is.
• 7) lead a dogs life
• 8) be in financial straits
• 9) be in a wretched plight

13
Language points

• 5. up in the left-hand cornerAnother way of
  saying this is in the upper left-hand corner
  ?????
• 6)Quincy-- a suburban town near
  Boston,Massachusetts

14
Language points

• 7. the Santa Clauses and holly wreaths in the
  advertisementsIn Western countries, during the
  Christmas season, there are always pictures of
  Santa Claus and holly wreaths in the
  advertisements. Santa Claus is an imaginary old
  man in read clothes with a long white beard,
  believed by children to come down the chimney on
  Christmas Eve to put presents in their stockings.
  The holly wreath is a ring of holly, an evergreen
  shrub with prickly leaves, small green flowers,
  and red berries. It might be said that Santa
  Claus and holly wreaths are symbols of Christmas.

15
Language points

• 8. I didnt want my father to have to keep on
  being funny about itThe two infinitives used
  here may seem confusing. The fact the boy was
  referring to was that his father had to keep on
  acting strangely about it, but the boy did not
  want his father to do so.

16
Language points

• 9. My body knew before my mind quite did. This
  sentence sums up the ideas expressed in the
  preceding paragraph. The boy was numb. He felt as
  if he had been hit by something. He found it hard
  to breathe. And he ached all over. When the pain
  in his body was gone, his mind began to work out
  the truth, and he was greatly shocked.

17
Language points

• Ann Arbor is a very beautiful city which attracts
  tourists from all over the world each year. The
  education there is good, hence many people would
  like to have their children attend the schools
  there, esp. the University of Michigan.

• 10. Ann Arbor the site of the University of
  Michigan, one of the best-known universities in
  the United States. It had been the boys wish to
  go to Ann Arbor to attend the University.

18

• University of Michigan
• at Ann Arbor

19
VI Discussion

• 1. Discuss the boys life as reflected in the
  text. Why does not he know the real picture of
  the life?
• 2. How did his parents reveal the practical life
  to the boy?
• 3. What do you feel after you read this story?

20
Homework

• 1. Finish the exercise in the workbook.
• 2. Surf on line and find out the authors
  autobiography. Then express the main idea of it.
• 3. Imitate the authors writing style, and give
  account of one event happened in your childhood.