《高级英语》 精品课程 第一册 制作人： 徐李洁

Unit Four Everyday Use for Your Grandmama

Teaching Objectives To understand the story To understand ccolloquial, slangy or black English To appreciate the style and rhetoric of the text. 4. To understand cultural difference between nationalities in the US

The author Walker, Alice (1944- ), American author and poet, most of whose writing portrays the lives of poor, oppressed African American women in the early 1900s. The Color Purple which won the Pulitzer Prize of Fiction （普利策小说奖） and The American Book Award（美国图书奖）. She was also active in the movements for civil and women's rights.

Walker's other works By the Light of My Father's Smile (1998) The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970) Meridian (1976) The Color Purple (1982) The Temple of My Familiar (1989) Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992) By the Light of My Father's Smile (1998)

The story “Everyday Use” is included in the Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, 2nd ed.). The story describes three women. The mother is a working woman without much education, but not without intelligence or perception. The two daughters form a sharp contrast in every conceivable way: appearance, character, personal experience, etc. the story reaches its climax at the moment when Dee, the elder daughter, wants the old quilts only to be refused flatly by the mother who intends to give them to Maggie, the younger one. The old quilts, made from pieces of clothes worn by grand-and great-grandparents and stitched by Grandma’s hand, are clearly a symbol of the cultural heritage of the black people. Their different feelings about the quilts reveal their different attitudes towards their heritage as blacks.

Theme The story addresses itself to the dilemma of African Americans who, in striving to escape prejudice and poverty, risk a terrible deracination, a sundering from all that has sustained and defined them. Walker is saying that true art not only represents its culture, but is an inseparable part of that culture. The manner in which the quilts are treated shows Walker's view of how art should be treated Alice Walker is using the quilts, and the fate of those quilts, to make the point that art can only have meaning if it remains connected to the culture it sprang from.

Structure Analysis Part 1 (1-2) General introduction Preparation made to receive Dee hinting the relationship between Mother and Dee is alienated; the relationship between the two sisters is unfriendly and tense. Part 2 (3-12) Description of Mother and two sisters (3 - 4) what Mother expected to be (5 - 6) what Mother actually was (7-12) Description of the two sisters Part 3 (13-16) More about Mother and Dee Part 4 (17-the last but one para) Dee’s visit (17-23) Dee and her boyfriend’s arrival (24-25) Dee’s new name (26-28) about Dee’s boyfriend (29- ) Dee wanted the everyday use Part 5 (the last para) Mother and Maggie felt relieved to see Dee leave

Translation In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. My fat keeps me hot in zero weather. I can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing; I can eat pork liver cooked over the open fire minutes after it comes steaming from the hog. One winter I knocked a bull calf straight in the brain between the eyes with a sledge hammer and had the meat hung up to chill before nightfall. But of course all this does hot show on television. I am the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake. My hair glistens in the hot bright lights. Johnny Carson has much to do to keep up with my quick and witty tongue.

译文：在现实生活中，我是一个大块头、大骨架的妇女，有着干男人活儿的粗糙双手。冬天睡觉时我穿着绒布睡衣；白天身穿套头工作衫。我能像男人一样狠狠地宰猪并收拾干净。 我的一身脂肪使我在寒冬也保持温暖。我能整天在户外干活儿，敲碎冰块，取水洗衣。我能吃在明火上烧熟的猪肝，而这猪肝还冒着热气，从刚宰死的猪身上切下来的。有一年冬天，我用一把大铁锤砍倒一头公牛，锤子正打在小牛两眼之间的大脑上。天黑之前，我把牛肉挂起来凉着。不过，这一切当然都没有在电视上出现过。我的女儿希望我的样子是：体重减去一百磅，皮肤像下锅煎之前的大麦面饼那样细腻光滑，头发在炽热耀眼的灯光下闪闪发 亮。而且，我有一口伶牙俐齿，能够妙语连珠。就连乔尼·卡森也望尘莫及。

1) 一场大火把贫民区三百多座房子夷为平地。 2) 咱们一边喝咖啡一边谈这件事吧。 3) 只要我们坚持这些原则，我们就会成功。 4) 他们的生活方式可以追溯到一千多年前他 们的祖先所开创的古老传统。 5) 这个消息使她大为震惊，但她很快就镇定了下来。

译文： 1) A big fire burned to the ground more than 300 homes in the slum neighborhood. 2) Let's talk about the matter over a cup of coffee. 3) As long as we stick to these principles, we will surely be successful. 4) Their way of life could be traced to the ancient traditions handed down to them by their ancestors more than one thousand years ago. 5) She was shocked at the news, but before long she recomposed herself.