Transcript Document

LESSON FIVE
Say
Yes
A Profile : Tobias Wolff (1945---- )

Tobias Wolff was born in Alabama in 1945. His
parents divorced when he was a boy. Wolff’s mother
retained custody of him, while his brother Geoffrey
who also became a writer who lived with their father.
As a child, Wolff traveled with his mother, Rosemary,
to the Pacific Northwest, where she remarried.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, young Tobias
soon was forced to endure life under his strict and
cruel stepfather. His efforts to get away from his
stepfather led to his self-transformation.
That period of Wolff’s life is recounted in This Boy’s
Life: A Memoir, which was later made into a film.
He lives with his family in upstate New York and
teaches writing at Syracuse University.
 From
1964 through 1968, Wolff served as
a lieutenant with the U.S. Army Special
Forces (Green Berets) in Vietnam. He
later recounted his wartime experiences
in the memoir In the Pharaoh’s Army:
Memoirs of the Lost War.
In 1972 Wolff earned his B.A. and then
his M.A. from Oxford University with First
Class Honors in English three years later.
That year, his first book, Ugly Rumours,
was published in London. Also that year,
he won a prestigious Stegner Fellowship
from Stanford University.
 He
is the author of the short novel The
Barracks Thief, which won the 1985
PEN/Faulkner Award;
 two collections of short stories, Back in
the World (collecting “Say Yes”) and In
the Garden of the North American
Martyrs, which received the Saint
Lawrence Award for fiction in 1982;
 Mr. Wolff's work appears frequently in
Esquire, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and
other magazines and reviews.
Works:
Old School
The
Night In Question : Stories
This Boy’s Life
(autobiography)
BACK IN THE WORLD
BARRACKS THIEF/SELE/
In Pharaoh's Army : Memories of the Lost War
In The Garden Of The North American Martyrs
The Vintage Book of Contemporary American
Short Stories
Theme of the text:
The idea of racism is a theme in the story,
for the implication of the husband’s
racism is what causes the couple to
quarrel. The wife dislikes her husband’s
beliefs that African Americans are
different from whites. He maintains that
it is not that he is prejudiced against
African Americans, but that they come
from a different culture than white people
they even have their own language.
His protestation that I like hearing them talk
because it makes him feel happy reveals much
about his personality: his belief that African
Americans are inherently foreign to whites,
and his condescending(亲切却显出优越的）
attitude. He needs something completely
unlike himself to bring him pleasure.
The husband’s negative response to Ann’s
question of whether he would marry her
were she African American indicates the
pervasive and destructive nature of his
racism.
Husband
The husband in the story is generally an unsympathetic
character. He appears to have racist feelings and seems
to be dishonest with himself. He claims to appreciate
the stability of his life with Ann, yet he makes efforts to
undermine it. He refuses to take responsibility for his
actions. Throughout the evening, he is seen to be less
than a genuine person; he does things for effect rather
than out of a genuine, sincere desire. In the story, his
most significant trait is his rejection of his wife, which
she takes quite seriously, much to his surprise. By the
end of the story, the husband demonstrates yet
another shift in mood: excitement as he realizes that,
in certain ways, his wife is unknowable to him. The
final scene has him awaiting his wife in their darkened
bedroom, imagining that she is a stranger that he
seems to embrace, as demonstrated by the excited
pounding of his heart.

Introduction: Wolff has often been likened to
other writers of his generation such as
Raymond Carver and Richard Ford. In his short
stories, Wolff practices a direct, even
nondramatic, style of writing. This is certainly
the case in his story “Say Yes” which takes as
its backdrop an average evening in the life of a
married couple. When the conversation delves
into an issue on which the couple do not agree,
the relationship experiences a newfound
rockiness. The husband’s reaction to this
argument demonstrates the secret
undercurrents that run through relationships.
– Comments:
Tobias Wolff is perhaps best known by the American
reading public for his memoir This Boy抯 Life, which
was later made into an acclaimed movie, but his
literary reputation was first established on the merit
of his short stories. He is still primarily known for
these short stories, in which he depicts many
characters’ voices and a wide range of emotions.
Since the early 1980s, Wolff has produced several
collections of short stories. These fictions focus on
the important relationships and the moral choices in
everyday people’s lives: men and women, husbands
and wives, parents and children. As scholar Marilyn
C. Wesley writes in the Dictionary of Literary
Biography, Wolff writes about the basic needs of
Everyman, written with a respect that Everyman
deserves.
Historical Context: The Republican Years
The
1980s was a decade led by
Republican policy.
Ronald Reagan took office as
president of the United States in
1980, and served two terms,
after which his vice president,
George Bush, was elected to the
nation’s top office.
Reagan
held conservative
political beliefs, both on the
domestic front and when it came
to foreign policy. Although his
economic programs brought the
national inflation rate down, they
also seemed to favor the wealthy.
During the Reagan era, many
middle-class Americans saw their
personal income shrinking, while
the richest of Americans
increased their wealth.
 By
the 1980s, as the United States
and the Soviet Union built up a
stockpile of nuclear weapons, the
cold war had been ongoing for
almost forty years. led by the two
superpowers. Reagan, an ardent
opponent of communism,
encouraged his administration to
greatly increase military spending.
Topics for Further Study
1. How do you think the husband and wife
will resolve their situation?
Do you think they will resolve it?
Write a scene that takes place the
following day.
2. Analyze the husband in terms of
whether or not he is a racist character.
Topics:
3. Write a counterargument to the
husband’s statement that African
Americans don’t come from the same
culture as whites.
Information background

1980s: At the beginning of the 1980s, nine percent of all United
States households are made up solely of a married couple. There
are over forty-eight million married couples in the United States.
1990s: At the end of the 1990s, only three percent of all United
States households are made up solely of a married couple. There
are close to fifty-five million married couples in the United States.
1980s: In 1980, 67.2 percent of the white American population
is married, and 51.4 percent of the African-American population
is married.
1990s: While more than half of the American population
continues to marry, the percentages for both whites and African
Americans has decreased in the past ten years. In 1997, 62.1
percent of the white American population is married, and 42.4
percent of the African-American population is married.
1980s: In 1980, there are 651,0000 interracial couples in the
United States....
a look at the new integrated Literatures
 Units
on Toni Morrison's Beloved,
 Alice Walker's The Color Purple,
 Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun,
 Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My
Cry.
 Johnnie Lee Gray was an AfricanAmerican painter whose themes focused
around the Jim Crow era. His paintings
bring to life the experience of African
Americans in the South of his youth and
the South of today.
Band-Aid
A
trademark for a piece of thin
material that is stuck to the skin to
cover cuts and other small wounds.
hypo- : prefix meaning “below, under”
1) in words denoting an organ or location
below a given body part 在-- 下面
hypoderm 皮下组织
2) in terms denoting a body condition in
which substances or functions are at
below-normal levels 低于
hypotension 血压过低 hypothermia 体温过低
3) used in the names of chemical compounds
that are in a lower state of oxidation（氧化）
than a given compound 亚
4) counterpart to a word formed with
“hyper”(在--上面，超越， 过于，极度)
hypotension 血压过低 ---- hypertension 血压过高
hyper-: excessive上面, 超越， 过于，极度
hypersensitive
hyperphysical超物质的 超自然的
hyperoxide 过氧化物
hypercritic 过于苛严，吹毛求疵的
hyperbole 夸张的
hyperacid胃酸过多
consider: v.
E.g. All things considered, the reform is a success.

considerate: a. showing kind regard for the feelings,
thoughtful, careful not to hurt or cause inconvenience
to others
E.g. It is considerate of you not to play
the piano while I was having a sleep.

considerable: a. rather large or great , as in
size , distance, or extent
E.g. He bought a house at a considerable expense.

considering: prep. in view of, having regard to
E.g. She’s very active, considering her age.
break up: divide/ split, (a couple, relationship) come to
an end
break down: collapse, failure in machinery useless,
suffer physical or mental weakening
break in (to): enter a building by force
break away: go away suddenly, give up (idea, belief)
break through: make a way through
break off: stop, pause
His health has broken ____ from overwork.
A. down B. in C. off
D. away
ashamed: feeling shame感到羞愧的，惭愧的
E.g. You should feel ashamed of what you
have done.
shameful：可耻的，导致羞愧的
E.g. shameful conduct
shameless: without shame, immodest厚颜
无耻的
E.g. shameless exploiter
Ku Klux Klan:
a secret white supremacist organization at various times in American
history terrorized blacks and white sympathizers with violent acts of
lynching, shootings, and whippings.
pronunciation: kOO klucks klan also Known As: kKK

KKK Symbol
Founder: Confederate Civil War veterans Captain John C. Lester, Major
James R. Crowe, John D. Kennedy, Calvin Jones, Richard R. Reed, Frank O.
McCord

Founded: 1866

Headquarters:
Imperial Klans of America is headquartered in Powderly, Kentucky;
American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Butler, Indiana;
Knights of the White Kamelia in Jasper, Texas.
Background: The Klan has fragmented into scores of competing factions.
Most of these are nominally independent, while a few remain affiliated
with one of the umbrella groups listed above.
KKK






Estimated size: No more than a few thousand,
organized into slightly more than 100 units.
Media: Mass mailings, leafletting and the Internet
Strategy: Public rallies and protests, "Adopt-AHighway" programs, Internet
Ideology: Some Christian fundamentalist beliefs,
Christian Identity, white supremacy
Connections: Militias, Aryans Nations, National
Alliance
Financial support : Little. Even Imperial Wizards
have to hold day jobs. Most funding comes from
membership dues and sales of Klan paraphernalia.
Birth of the Klan

Six college students founded the Ku Klux Klan
between December 1865 and the summer of
1866 in the town of Pulaski, Tennessee.
Former Confederate officers, the six young
men organized as a social club or fraternity
and spent their time in horseplay of various
types, including wearing disguises and
galloping about town after dark. They were
surprised to learn that their nightly
appearances were causing fear, particularly
among farmer slaves in the area. They quickly
took advantage of this effect and the group
began a rapid expansion. Various factions
formed in different towns, which led to a
meeting in April 1867 to codify rules and
organizational structure.
 Targeting
those set free after the
American Civil War - the African
Americans, KKK designed to spread
fear throughout the Black population
that still lived in the southern states.
This was the KKK. Only WASP’s could
belong to it — White Anglo-Saxon
Protestants. It is common that the KKK
targeted only the Blacks - also the Jews,
Catholics, liberals etc but most hatred
was directed against the poor black
families in the south who were very
vulnerable to attack.
Reconstruction era kkk


In 1867, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Grand
Wizard of the Empire, converted the Klan into a
paramilitary force that served to directly oppose the
formation of Republican governments set up by
Congressional Reconstruction acts. Klansmen dressed
in white robes and covered hoods, rode on horses,
and dragged black people and some white republicans
from their homes, assaulting them by whipping or
lynching them. Such assaults were successful in
keeping black men from the polls, and thus altering
election results.
To stop the reconstruction era Klan, federal
intervention was necessary. With the enactment of
Congressional legislation and enforcement of the law
by the federal government, the Klan was extinguished
in 1871 – 1872.
The World War I Era Klan
In 1915, the second Klan era began. As
World War I was underway, a strong
patriotism developed and anti-Catholic
sentiments emerged. Along with these
new ideas, white supremacist attitudes,
the publication of Thomas Dixon’s novel,
The Clansman (1905), and the 1915
movie, Birth of a Nation, by D.W.
Griffith, a new Klan emerged.
It was at this time that cross burning
became a popular form of intimidation.
Periods:

The leader of the KKK in the 1920’s was a
dentist called Hiram Wesley Evans whose
name in the KKK was Imperial Wizard.
The KKK were a violent organization. The
white KKK burnt churches of the black
population, murdered, raped, castrated
etc and they were rarely caught as most
senior law officers in the South were
high ranking KKK men or sympathetic
with their aims - which was a white
protestant south. Even white people who
had contacts with the blacks had reason
to fear the KKK.


The Black Americans tried to fight back
using non-violent methods. The NAACP
(National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People) asked Washington for
new laws to help combat the KKK violence
but received very little, if any, help.
In the 1920’s Black Americans started to
turn to the ‘Back to Africa’ movement which
told blacks that they should return to their
native America. This was started by Marcus
Garvey but the whole movement faltered
when he was arrested for fraud and sent to
prison.
The Civil Rights Era Klan
 By
the 1960s, as the civil rights
movement was emerging, the Klan’s
membership reached almost twenty
thousand. Like the former Klan
organization, there was not a central
leadership.
 While the Klan still exists today, its
membership is in the low thousands. The
Klan has ties to other white supremacist
organizations such as the Aryan Nations
and the Skinheads.
Creation of the Jim Crow South
 In
the South, during the 1870s and
1880s, it was not uncommon for blacks
and whites to use the same public
facilities. However, Supreme Court
decisions began to strip away the gains
of Reconstruction, which led the way to
the creation of Jim Crow laws.
Jim Crow Laws

After 1877, and the election of Republican Rutherford
B. Hayes, the South quickly replaced Reconstruction
laws with new ones that restricted the rights of blacks.
These laws allowed the South's new upper class of
planters, merchants and industrialists to prosper,
while most blacks sank deeper into poverty. Between
1880 and 1900, the per capita income of the Deep
South showed no increase at all, and the average
black farmer's decreased. Racial segregation, called
"Jim Crow," excluded blacks from public transport and
facilities, jobs, juries, and neighborhoods. Blacks had
separate hospitals, prisons, orphanages, parks and
pools. The 19th century ended with the races firmly
segregated -- culturally and legally.
The End