Background Knowledge About the Author and His Works
1) A brief introduction to the author, Priestley: www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jpriestley.htm
2) Admass
The whole system of an increasing productivity, plus inflation, plus a rising standard of material living, plus high-pressure advertising and salesmanship, plus mass communications, plus cultural democracy and the creation of the mass mind, the mass man the part of society that can be influenced by advertising or publicity
Exposition and Argument
1) Type of literature: part exposition and part persuasion or argument
For further information, connect to
< http://homepages.iol.ie/~laoistec/LENGLISH/lpers.html>
Difference between exposition and argument
Difference between persuasion and argument
Honest persuasion and dishonest persuasion
Formal argument and informal argument
Detailed Study of The Essay
1. The dominant intention or the controversial topic of his argument is stated early in paragraph one in one unambiguous sentence: “ The English are different”.
1) It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actual events in England.
“ Englishness again”
— an inserted elliptical phrase standing for perhaps: This shows their Englishness again.
“Below the noisy arguments, the abuse and the quarrels, there is a reservoir of instinctive fellow – feeling”
— The English people may hotly argue and abuse and quarrel with each other but there still exists a lot of natural sympathetic feeling for each other.
“Some cancer in their character has eaten away their Englishness”
figure of speech:___________. Compare ________ to _______.
2) The English do not feel at home in the contemporary world, representing the accelerated development of our whole age. They are suspicious of largeness, severe efficiency and admass.
“ Along with the demand for bigness goes a demand for severe efficiency, ofter quite rational but not reasonable, therefore alien to Englishness.”
— Along with the demand for bigness, there is also a demand for strict and demanding efficiency. This is often the product of cold logical thinking but not sensible. Therefore it is opposed or repugnant to Englishness.
3) The English are also deeply suspicious of change for change’s sake.
4) The English can soon feel bored and that’s why they gamble and booze so much and enjoy any dramatic change in public life.
5) The English have a sense of community, decent fellow feeling, fairness.
6) The English are at heart and at root an imaginative people immediately responsive to any suggestion of drama in their lives.
2. The Future of the English hangs on
1) The final result of a battle between Admass and Englishness.
The striking contrast between admass and Englishness to show how inevitable the battle is.
|
Admass |
Englishness |
|
1.Already conquered most of the western world 2.receive vast subsidies of dollars,francs, Deutschmarks and the rest for public relations and advertising campaigns 3.offers more and more things for more and more money ,creates the so-called “Good Life” 4.operates in the outer visible world 5.a poster in full colour |
1.ailing and impoverished 2.in no position to receive vast subsidies of dollars,francs, Deutschmarks and the rest for public relations and advertising campaigns 3.offers states of mind in place of that rich variety of thins 4.belong to the invisible inner world 5.a poor shadowy show, a faint pencil sketch |
“ Against this, at least superficially, Englishness seems a poor shadowy show — a faint percil sketch beside a poster in full colour …”
Shadowy show: ____________.
The conflict between Admass and Englishness.
|
Admass: What is central to Admass is the production and consumption of goods. Dissatisfaction is embedded in Admass Ruthless competitiveness Take man only as a producer and consumer Dependence upon dissatisfaction, greed and envy |
|
Englishness: With its relation to the unconscious Dependence upon instinct and intuition Adherence to the past and deep long roots Not hostile to change and deeply suspicious of change for change’s sake Rejecting being committed to some inevitable mechanical progress |
While Englishness can still fight on, Admass could be winning.
Reason:
Not all the English hold fast to Englishness
Some important and influential men carefully train themselves out of it
A horde of others, shallow and foolish, wander away form it
The spirits of age is working for Admass
Most of what we read and what we hear is working for Admass
Inflation proved that we need more and not less Admass
2) The Future of the English rests upon the decision made by English workers together with the people on the management side who will have to put an end to the conflict between Admass and Englishness.
3) The Future of the English hangs upon men and women who are strong-minded enough to hold the Englishness and reject Admass
4) The Future of the English depends upon the quieter young, who under the influence of one or two of those professional men and women, far-sighted enough to think what life would be like in the future.
5) The Future of the English can not depends on the SLOOPY PEOPLE
3. Boredom is a MENACE.
Heavily industrially society
↓
offer boring work shatter slow rhythms, crowd and excite people by
traditional skills, closely knit promises that cannot be kept
communities of rural societies
↓
boredom
↓
idiot vandalism, frustration, ferocious robbery with violence, vicious criminality
4. English is still with us. But it needs reinforcement, extra nourishment.
1) On a hidden level, there remains of a characteristically English sense of community, decent fellow feeling, fairness.
2) Englishness cannot be fed with the east wind of a narrow rationality, the latest figures of profit and loss, a constant appeal to self-interest.
3) English are at heart and at root an imaginative people immediately responsive to any suggestion of drama in their lives.
Question:
“And this is true, whether they are wearing bowler hats or ungovernable mops of hair.”
The rhetorical device used in this sentence is __________.
“bowler hats” is standing for ___________.
“ungovernable mops of hair” is standing for ___________.
5. The writer’s voice
To face the future properly they need both a direction and a great lift of the heart. A rather poorer and harder way of life will not defeat them so long as it is not harder and poorer in spirit, so long as it still refuses to reject Englishness- for so many centuries the secret of the islanders oddity and irrationality, their many weaknesses, their creative strength.
Oral Practice: Talking about the following questions
1) Are there any special characteristics in Priestly’s diction? Pick out some words and idioms that you think are peculiar to British English.
2)What is the dominant intention of this piece of argument? The proposition clearly stated?
3)What conflicts or issues are put forward in this argument? Are all the conflicts resolved?
4)Does Priestly provide sufficient evidence to support his position?
5)Is this reasoning sound? Are there any logical fallacies in his argument?
6)How does the writer make use of emotional appeals? Cite some examples.
7)Which paragraph do you like best? Give your reasons.
Paraphrase:
1. Below the noisy arguments, the abuse and the quarrels, there is a reservoir of instinctive fellow – feeling (Para 2)
2. at heart they would like to take a whip to the whole idle troublesome mob of them (Para 2)
3. there are not many of these men, either on the board or the shop floor (Para 2)
4. It demands bigness, and they are suspicious of bigness.(Para 3)
5. Against this, at least superficially, Englishness seems a poor shadowy show (Para 4)
6. while Englishness is not hostile to change, it is deeply suspicious of change for change’s sake (Para 5)
7. To put cars and motorways before houses seems to Englishness a communal imbecility. (Para 5)
8. I must add that while Englishness can still fight on ,Admass could be winning. (Para 6)
9. It must have some moral capital to draw upon, and soon it may be asking for an overdraft. (Para 6)
10. They probably believe, as I do, that the Admass “Good Life” is a fraud on all counts. (Para 9)
11. They can be found, too – though not in large numbers because the breed is dying out – among crusty High Tories who avoid the City and directors’ fees. (Para 9)
12. they are inept, shiftless, slovenly, messy (Para 11)
13. he will not even find much satisfaction in this scrounging messy existence, which does nothing for a man’s self -- respect (Para 11)
14. To them the House of Commons is a remote squabbling- shop. (Para 14)
15. heavy hands can fall on the shoulders that have been shrugging away politics (Para 14)
Organization Pattern
1) The thesis stated in the title of the essay
2) The structural organization of this essay: loose
3) A quite informal piece of argument which appeals more to the emotion of his English readers
4) Weakness: insufficient evidence to support the writer’s position, and his reasoning on some points not logically sound Style and Language Features
1) Smooth and polished
2) Readable and informal
3) It is the instinctive and intuitive feelings not rational reasoning that shape and colors the style of the essay.
4) Use of various rhetorical devices
metaphor
simile
ellipsis
transferred epithet
metonymy
euphemism
Connect to http://www.megabrands.com/carroll/faq3.htmlto get specific information on rhetorical devices
Special Difficulties
1) Identifying and understanding British English in this essay
to take a whip to
whole troublesome mob of them
cosy
safe to say
along the way
shrug off
nudge
2) Understanding some colloquialism
swing
junk
Victorian
3) Paraphrasing some sentences
4) Identifying figures of speech
5) Understanding some important terms
American counterculture
Madison Avenue
Hippy California
Hippie
road to Katmandu
Englishness
state of mind
industrial action
do-it-yourself
repertory company
Common Market