Структура занятия. The aim of the lesson is to teach you to determine the purpose of the author judging by the expression of his character's mood

The aim of the lesson is to teach you to determine the purpose of the author judging by the expression of his character's mood. You will have to understand that the way the author expresses one's mood influences the structure of the story and makes it a story.

1. Отбор из заданного списка тех слов и словосочетаний, которые характеризуют эмоциональное состояние того или иного героя рассказа.

Find and read aloud the words and phrases which characterizethe state of the boy, that of the teacher, and that of the boy and the teacher together:

Ill; lonely; sick; tense; electrical; stiff; the caught mind; something in a trap; no sense, no meaning; sorry; sad; anger and hatred; ashamed; grief; emptiness; disgusted; in a mess.

2. Поиски в тексте случаев применения основного стилистического приема и сжатый парафраз выраженного им смысла.

By means of enumeration (and sometimes by means of repetition) Saroyan makes us feel the accumulation of certain qualities that describe the character's state and mood. Give as many cases of enumeration as you can find and say what mood or state they characterize. E. g.:

" Everything tied up, everything graceless and ugly, something in a trap, no sense, no meaning... " (p. 59) - these phrases characterize the state of being all mixed up (= in a mess).

3. Установление последовательности словосочетаний, выражающих настроения героев, согласно сюжетной линии.

Arrange the following descriptions of the characters' state so that they can give us a plan of the story. (You may repeat the definitions of the states as they are repeated by the author as the story goes on):

The feeling of compassion; feeling ashamed and disgusted; hatred and anger; misunderstanding; understanding each other; loneliness; humiliation.

4. Отбор фраз из списка, отражающих внутренний смысл рассказа, и сопоставление в этом плане нескольких прочитанных рассказов данного писателя.

The story is rather rich in meaning. Say what the story is about, choosing among the following phrases. Then explain which inner meanings bring the story close to those you have already read (" Oranges", " A Curved Line "):

• the inborn goodness of people;

• social injustices and their causes;

• the natural loneliness of people that stimulates pessimism and anguish;

• the sense of responsibility that makes people go on no matterhowhard it is for them to expose themselves to humiliation;

• the instinctive desire to establish contact with others;

• the knowledge that your appeal to others will be a cry in the wilderness;

• the joy of discovering other people's friendliness behind the mask of indifference.

5. Поиск в тексте случаев внутреннего монолога как средства выражения различных настроений; сопоставление внутренних монологов по сходству или контрасту ведущей темы.

As in the story " Oranges", in " Laughter" the author employs interior monologues to reveal the character's attitude to himself and to the world that surrounds him. Find some cases of interior monologue and try to prove that the character's moods and attitudes change as the story goes on.

6. Сопоставление мироощущения героев двух рассказов.

The last two stories we have read - " Oranges" and " Laughter" -have boys for their main characters. The boys of Saroyan are sensitive and wise. Maybe too wise for their age. They ask questions that we cannot find answers to.

What questions do the boys ask? (They may be given in the form of statements, but in any case, they are problems.) How do the questions show the boys' attitudes to the world that surrounds them? Classify thequestions according to the topic they belong to.

7. Объяснение символики рассказа с помощью опор.

In his story Saroyan gives us several symbols of Man and Life and the relations between the two. Life is symbolized by the words on the blackboard: the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Nile - all eternal, all forever -but the teacher erases them from the blackboard! That means that life passes. The Sphinx also symbolizes Man, because we must remember its puzzles. They are the puzzles of Life. Those who cannot guess the answers are eaten up by the greedy monster. But even if you guess the answer, you come to understand that all your life you are a passer-by: first going on your four, then on your two, and finally on your three.

What does the symbol of the Southern Pacific tracks stand for? What associations does it cause in the given story? (The way to freedom? the feeling of loneliness which arises because life goes by? the feeling that you are doomed to go along certain tracks all your life through? etc.)

8. Обобщение цели автора и путей ее достижения.

What are the means Saroyan employs to make you see what he wants to say? Use all the pieces of information. Illustrate what you say by examples, showing what the story means to you personally.

Как видно из структуры занятия, каждый стилистический прием, независимо от того, выражается ли он в слове, предложении или сверхфразовом единстве, рассматривается в контексте всего рассказа как законченного целого. Поэтому здесь даже тренировочные задания «проецируются» на весь рассказ; и хотя задание 2 может быть выполнено и на отрывке текста, рассматриваемый в нем прием аккумуляции - основной прием данного рассказа - помогает учащимся трактовать все произведение в плане непрерывности создания художественного образа.

Задание 8 призвано обобщить результаты всех предыдущих, однако не представляет собой повторения сказанного. Его творческое начало состоит в личностной оценке рассказа, в перераспределении его тем по степени важности для каждого читателя.