英语短篇小说教程 虞建华 高等教育出版社 课后答案(4)

(2) What is it about Julius, the husband, that annoys the wife? Is he an annoying person? Why do you think he behaves the way he does? Does he understand her emotional situation?

(The husband, Julius, suffers from the same problem. Old age made him physically weak so he moved about less and talked less. He shares the feeling of loneliness, but the man’s reaction is different from his wife. The ending part of the short story proves that. He keeps the emotion to himself, becoming more withdrawn and behaving, in his wife’s eyes, rather strangely.)

(3) In one of the flashbacks, there is description of one of the Sunday dinners at the adult son’s home. How is the mother-son conversation different from her talks with her boy on the swing?

(The conversation between the mother and her adult son does not have the intimacy and attachment it once had when the son was a boy. Behind the mature politeness, there is some distance between generations. While in the past, they could talk about anything and everything and could share true sentiments.)

(4) How do you explain the jacket hanging on the nail?

(We cannot explain it realistically or rationally, unless we regard is also as part of the dream. There is a literary school of writing called ―magic realism,‖ in which the real and the fantastic are merged for a special effect. So, this can best be understood as a touch of ―magic realism.‖)

3) Explanation and Interpretation:

(Explain the implied meaning of the following sentences, and point out their significance

英语短篇小说教程 虞建华 高等教育出版社 课后答案

in the context of the story.)

(1) (The mother thought:) ―I wish that when I ask him how he is he wouldn’t tell me that there is every likelihood that the Basic Research Division will be merged with the Statistics Division.‖

(The grown-up son’s interest is in his work, while the mother’s interest is in his personal life. Her question shows her concerned of him as a son, but his mind bends on his career. He is now living in a world that his mother knows little about, and he is no longer as dependent on her as he was when he was a child. The mother feels some sadness because the conversation once again reminds her of the fact that her son has left her nest and now is flying on his own wings.)

(2) she had had the ancient piano tuned… had been reading books on China… and was going to dig it (phlox) all up and try iris (in the garden)…

(She has been trying to find things to do, possibly to kill boredom and loneliness.)

(3) He came every night or two after that, and she lay in bed in happy anticipation, listening for the creak of the swing.

(She waits, lying in bed, for the happy time with eagerness. So the meeting with her son in dream highlights the problem in her old age living with a reticent and inactive husband. It is her only moment of great joy – remembering the life of the past.)

(4) … she sat and watched as he walked down the little back lane that had taken him to school, and off to college, and off to a job, and finally off to be married…

(It is the boy’s growing-up process: leaving home, going to school, to college, to working unit and establishing his own family. The scenes pass before her mind’s eye quickly and there is a tragic sense reminding her that her son, as a child, has left her forever.)

英语短篇小说教程 虞建华 高等教育出版社 课后答案

Unit Seven

James Joyce: Araby

2) Questions for Discussion:

(Suggested answers for reference)

(1) Why does the boy isolate himself in his room reading books and why does he retreat into dreams of idealized love? Find the contrasts between his real life and the imagined perfection.

1. The living place was musty, cold, damp and gloomy.

2. The neighborhood was described as being ―the most hostile to romance.‖ (line 50)

3. The rigid religious life seems to deprive a boy’s pursuit for romance, so the protagonist resorted to imagination as his escape from the day-to-day existence.

3. The protagonist’s Uncle and Aunt seem accustomed to living the kind of monotonous life. 1. ―I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.‖ (lines 48-49)

2. ―Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance.‖ (line 50)

3. ―I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.‖ (61-63)

4. The girl was even nameless, being called Mangan’s sister, but she appears like an angel on earth.

(2) Why is the journey to the bazaar so important to the boy? Has he taken the matter over-seriously?

(The journey and the buying of something is not important in itself. What is important is the boy’s promise to Mangan’s sister. The boy regarded it as a sacred mission that he had to fulfill. It became a token of his youthful love and everything that was beautiful and ideal.)

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