teach a "moral" - a lesson about right and wrong, how to act, how to behave, how to live our life
simple meaning, simple lesson, unambiguous, clear, certain
Lesson for the turtle/tortoise: "Go slowly but continuously. Go step by step. Slowly but surely is the secret to winning. Slow but steady wins the race. Never give up. 'persistence/consistency' Perseverance will succeed."
Lesson for the rabbit/hare: "Don't be arrogant. Don't be lazy. Don't be disrespectful. Don't be cocky/overconfident."
"The Bears and the Monkeys"
James Thurber - comedy writer, funny
irony, politics, human psychology
playing into stereotypes of animals
-fox - sneaky, sly, tricky, clever
bears - strong, huge, lazy, simple
monkeys - smart, behave like humans, imitate, like children, mischievous
monkeys use language to trick/scare the bears
"prisoners of pastime" amusement, relaxation, freetime
"addicted to leap-bear" addiction - obsessed, too much of something, can't stop, dependent on something, reliant, usually associated with drugs
"slaves of honey and buns" no freedom, controlling someone else, ownership of a human
Bears "impressed and frightened"
Glib - (of words or the person speaking them) fluent and voluble but insincere and shallow
decadence - decadent - lowering moral standards, corruption
"bright of eye" "light of heart" lighthearted "quick of paw" psychologically and physically happy and healthy
"liberate you from Freedom" take away their freedom, make them a slave
"New Liberation" - lie,
symbols of loss of freedom
"wear a collar"
"linked together with chains"
"ring in the ... nose"
allusion to "See no Evil" monkeys
"sparing you the burden of electing your leaders"
"the dangers of choice"
"chanted the slogan"
two meanings of the word 'ring'
“The Ninny”, Anton Chekhov, Russian
rubles - currency in Russia
translated from Russian "The Nincompoop" - fool, dummy
Small group discussion Questions
1. Who has the power in this story?
Where
does the power come from?
How is this power expressed?
2. Imagine
Yulia stood up for herself. What might a
conversation between her and the man sound like? What would she say to him
3. What is the meaning of the last line in
the story?
No comments:
Post a Comment