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C O L L E C T I O N 10
The Paradox of Progress
LITERARY FOCUS
Realism
CONTENTS
Matthew Arnold
Thomas Hardy
A. E. Housman
Jason La Canfora
Rudyard Kipling
COMPARING TEXTS: WORLD LITERATURE
Leo Tolstoy
Anton Chekhov
Guy de Maupassant
“There are only two
tragedies in life: one
is not getting what
one wants, and the
other is getting it.”
–Oscar Wilde
960
Unit 5 • Collection 10
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Evaluate and
analyze the philosophical, political, religious, ethical,
and social influences of a historical period.; understand
realism.
Realism
by Leila Christenbury
Influences on Realism
·
·
·
·
Transition from a farming society to an industrialized nation
Rejection of the Romantic idealism that had previously dominated literature
Emergence of scientific objectivity as a goal in writing
Enthusiasm of writers across the globe for the themes of realism
The Switch to Industrialization
As England moved from an agrarian society to a world
force and an industrial power, its material progress
and prosperity also meant change. People left the
security of small villages for the urban centers where
they worked in manufacturing. Industries and cities
dominated, new ways of living caused upheaval, and
traditional beliefs and customs were questioned. The
writers in this collection felt these changes keenly
and described them using factual detail and direct
language, often in the context of the lives of everyday
people. Look for the sense of stoic pessimism in this
literature, and in particular, consider the last few lines
of “Dover Beach.” They are some of the most famous—
and chilling—in English poetry and signal a belief that
the world had entered a new era of unprecedented
change.
A Reaction to Romanticism
Realism was an attempt to produce an accurate
portrayal of real life without filtering it through
personal feelings or Romantic idealism. Noting that
liberal reforms and the revolutions of the nineteenth
century had failed to bring about an era of justice,
realist writers rejected the century’s earlier Romantic emotionalism, seeing it as an ineffective tool for
reforming—or even describing—industrial society.
Realism concerned itself with more than just the
details of daily life, however. It also sought to explain
The Louth-London Royal Mail Traveling by Train from Petersborough East in December
1845 by James Pollard (1792– 1867) Oil on canvas. Post conservation. Yale Center
for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, U.S.
why ordinary
people behave
the way they do.
Realist novelists
often relied on
the emerging
sciences of human
and animal
behavior—biology,
psychology, and
sociology—as well
as on their own
insights and
observations.
Uriah Heep and David Copperfield. Illustration
by Harold Copping for “Character Sketches from
Realists could be
Dickens,” compiled ny B. W. Matz (1924).
divided into
several different camps: Some emphasized social reform, others
stressed scientific objectivity, and still others leaned
toward social satire.
The values of realism, such as social satire and an
unflinching factual observation of ordinary people’s
lives, still exert a powerful influence on literature
and thought.
France: Scientific Objectivity
French realists, led by novelist Gustave Flaubert,
tried to make a science of their art by eliminating all
sentimentality. They aimed simply to mirror life,
without judgment or distortion. Nevertheless, a novel
like Flaubert’s Madame Bovary is admired today not so
much for its objectivity as for its perfect prose and its
satire of the middle class.
Literary Focus 961
Naturalism, a radical offshoot of realism, arose
in the 1870s. Led by Emile Zola, naturalist writers
considered free will an illusion and often portrayed
their characters as helpless victims of heredity, fate,
and circumstance. These writers tried to abolish the
boundary between scientist and artist. Relying heavily
on the growing scientific disciplines of psychology and
sociology, they tried to dissect human behavior with as
much objectivity as a scientist would dissect a frog or a
cadaver. For naturalists, human life seemed a grim,
losing battle against forces beyond the individual’s
control. The most talented naturalists, however, could
not stay within the narrow ideology of their school.
Guy de Maupassant (see page 1032), for example, is
sometimes called a naturalist, but his work is sharpened by irony and by a gift for choosing the right
details to illuminate.
Dickens: A Master at Work
In Victorian England, no one embodied realist
principles more than Charles Dickens. A master
storyteller, Dickens was able to combine calls for social
reform with biting satire and comedy. The son of a
debt-ridden clerk, Dickens lived out one of the favorite
myths of the age. Through his own enormous talents
and energy, he rose from poverty to become a wealthy
and famous man. His success was made possible by
increasing affluence and literacy, which gave him a
large reading public, and by improved printing and
distribution technology.
The conventional happy endings of Dickens’s
novels satisfied his readers’, and probably his own,
conviction that things usually work out well for decent
people, but many of Dickens’s most memorable scenes
show decent people neglected, abused, and exploited.
Children, especially, endure terrible suffering. The
hungry Oliver Twist begs for more gruel in the
workhouse; the handicapped Tiny Tim in A Christmas
Carol cheerfully hobbles toward his possible early
death; and young David Copperfield is abused by his
stepfather, the cold, dark Mr. Murdstone.
Russia: Ultimate Questions
Realistic Russian novels began with those of Ivan
Turgenev, whose ornate, lyrical prose brimmed with
sympathy and warmth. Later Russian novelists,
including Leo Tolstoy (see page 1008) and Fyodor
Dostoevsky, wrote epic, sprawling novels filled with
violence, love, and family crises, and populated with
characters from a wide cross-section of society. The
novels of these writers helped foster a powerful
movement that called for the liberation of the serfs
(peasants) and, later, the entire society. Yet the primary
aim of Russian realists was not social reform, but a
desire to answer the ultimate questions of human life.
In different ways, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky repeatedly
asked, “How should people live?” and “What are good
and evil?”
Unlike these two giants, the playwright and shortstory writer Anton Chekhov (see page 1022) worked on
a much smaller scale. Chekhov found his subjects and
themes in the common illusions and daily sufferings
of unremarkable people. Like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky,
however, Chekhov dealt with the meanings of life
and death. His stories and plays are about people’s
attempts—usually frustrated—to find meaning and
purpose in their lives.
Ask Yourself
1. Why did realists try to shed the sentimental
ideas of Romantic idealism?
2. How did the struggle for social justice influence
the rise of realism?
3. Why did Dickens choose to show children
suffering?
4. What universal aspects of realism inspired
writers around the world?
Learn It Online
Explore realism through PowerNotes online.
go.hrw.com
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L12-962
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SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Understand and
analyze elements of literature from the Victorian
period; understand realism.
Analyzing a Photograph
As the rise of industry and science created a new, urban way of life, many writers and visual artists turned to realism, a movement that stressed the observation of the lives of ordinary people. The photograph on this page shows a scene
from everyday life, without idealization or sentimentalism.
Guidelines
Use these guidelines to consider how this photograph reflects realism.
• How does the photograph’s setting relate to concerns of realist writers?
• Realist writers used factual details to describe characters and situations. What
details in the photograph help you understand the boy’s daily life?
• How effective would this photograph have been for social reform? Explain.
1. What do you notice about
the boy’s clothing? What
does this detail tell you
about him?
2. Why do you think the photographer chose to show so
much of the machine instead
of focusing more on the boy?
3. What do you see on the
floor? What can you infer
from this evidence about
working conditions?
Young boy working in a Lancashire cotton mill, c. 1880s.
Your Turn Analyze Realism
Choose another image in this collection, and write a short paragraph explaining how it
conveys the themes and values of the realist movement.
Analyzing Visuals 963
MEET THE WRITER
Matthew Arnold
(1822–1888)
Dover Beach
Unlike the other major Victorian poets, Matthew Arnold is as
famous today for his essays of literary and social criticism as he
is for his poetry.
How can appearance
be different from
reality?
QuickWrite
To what do people cling in times of crisis? In your
Reader/Writer Notebook, write a short list of people,
places, or things you value and depend on the most
when times are tough.
An Uneven Start
In his youth Matthew Arnold had difficulty living up to the
expectations of his famous father, Dr. Thomas Arnold, a leading
thinker of the Victorian era and headmaster of Rugby School.
Although his performance at his father’s school was inconsistent, Arnold nevertheless won a scholarship to Oxford University in 1841. His performance at Oxford was a failure by Rugby
standards, and he graduated without knowing what he wanted
to do.
Arnold won prizes for his poetry at both Rugby and Oxford.
In 1849, he published his first book of poetry, The Strayed Reveller, to mixed reviews. Two more volumes of poetry followed in
1852 and 1853; as a result, he was elected an Oxford professor
of poetry in 1857.
Success Beyond Poetry
After his marriage in 1851, Arnold became a government
inspector of schools for poor children, a job he held for thirtyfive years. It became increasingly difficult for him to write
poetry, and he told a friend, “My pen, it seems to me, is even
stiffer and more cramped than my feelings.”
After 1860, Arnold almost completely stopped writing
poetry and began a separate career as a critic. His travels had
given him firsthand knowledge of social problems, and he
became an energetic essayist and lecturer on literary, political, social, and religious questions. In his essays, Arnold warns
that without the steadying influence of culture, the nineteenth
century’s technological and political changes would create a
grossly materialistic society. Throughout his life, Arnold knew
both the excitement of trying to change the values of his age
and the loneliness of not being comfortable in his own time.
In what way has Arnold’s warning about the
influence of technology and political change
come true? Explain.
Matthew Arnold (1880) by George Frederic Watts. Oil on canvas.
National Portrait Gallery, London.
964
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Understand mood. Reading Skills Visualize setting.
Use your RWN to complete the activities for this selection.
Mood Arnold creates a mood that shifts at certain points in the poem
like the ebb and flow of the tide he describes. Mood is the feeling, or
emotional atmosphere, in a work created by the writer’s choice of
descriptive details, images, and sounds.
Literary Perspectives Apply the literary perspective described on page
966 as you read this poem.
blanched (blancht) v. used as adj.: made
white or pale. The pale light of the moon creates a blanched scene.
tremulous (TREHM yuh luhs) adj.: quivering;
wavering. The tremulous waves beat back
and forth.
cadence (KAY duhns) n.: the beat of a repetitive motion; a sound that rises and falls. The
sea, which at first seemed calm, beats on the
shore with a steady cadence.
Visualizing Setting Writers like Arnold pack their writing with visual
details to help you picture a particular place at a particular time. As you
read, focus on descriptive words that give you a sense of the setting, the
time and place of the events in the literary work. You may find it useful to
pause every few lines and summarize the specific details of the setting.
While details are often visual, the writer may appeal to other senses by
indicating how the place sounds, smells, feels, or even tastes.
Into Action To visualize the setting of “Dover Beach,” make an idea map
like the one below. In the center circle, write the name of the place Arnold
describes. Then, write each element of the setting outside the center,
circle it, and draw a line connecting it to the center circle.
sea
moon
Dover Beach
Think as a Reader/Writer
Find It in Your Reading In your Reader/Writer Notebook, record words
that you think help Arnold create a particular mood. Some of these words
may be adjectives such as “calm” (line 1), but others may be nouns or
verbs, like “Gleams” (line 4).
turbid (TUR bihd) adj.: cloudy; confused. In
the turbid waves, Sophocles sees a metaphor
for human suffering.
melancholy (MEHL uhn KAHL ee) adj.: sad or
causing sadness. The loss of faith leaves the
speaker feeling melancholy.
certitude (SUR tuh tood) n.: a feeling of
sureness. Changes in values and ideas leave
the speaker without certitude.
Latin and French Roots The word
blanched comes from the French word blanc,
meaning “white.” Although English belongs
to the same language family as German,
Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish,
over time many words from Latin and French
have come into the English language. Knowing the original meanings of some of these
root words can help you understand English
words that include them. Since both French
and Spanish developed from Latin, knowing related Spanish words can also help you
understand these roots.
Learn It Online
Meet this poem with an introductory video online.
go.hrw.com
L12-965
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Preparing to Read
965
POEM
Dover Beach
Play Audio
by Matthew Arnold
Read with a Purpose
Build Background
Read to understand the analogy Arnold
makes between the physical setting that
he describes and the crises of his time.
Arnold wrote during a complex time, much like our own, when scientific discoveries
threatened to undermine traditional beliefs. Political upheavals were also eroding social
stability: In 1848, just three years before Arnold began writing this poem, several European countries were rocked by rebellions. Arnold believed that art should unify a culture,
a function traditionally served by religion.
5
10
15
20
The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits°—on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. A
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,°
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring B
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles° long ago
Heard it on the Aegean,° and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
A
Literary Focus Mood What feelings are conveyed by the image of
the sturdy cliffs standing above the calm sea?
B Reading Focus Visualizing Details What sounds and sights does
Arnold draw attention to in lines 9–13?
Vocabulary blanched (blancht) v. used as adj.: made white or pale.
tremulous (TREHM yuh luhs) adj.: quivering; wavering.
cadence (KAY duhns) n.: the beat of a repetitive motion; a sound that
rises and falls.
turbid (TUR bihd) adj.: cloudy; confused.
966
3. straits: Strait of Dover, a
body of water separating southeastern England and northwestern France.
11. strand: shore.
15. Sophocles (SAHF uh kleez)
(c. 496–406 b.c.): writer of tragedies in ancient Greece.
16. Aegean (ee JEE uhn): sea
between Greece and Turkey.
Analyzing Historical Context Understanding the
social climate of the mid-nineteenth century can
help you appreciate the mood of alienation and
uncertainty in “Dover Beach.” Arnold began writing the poem in 1851, three years after revolutions
in France, central Europe, the Italian peninsula,
Poland, and Brazil. He did not publish the poem, however, for sixteen years. In the meantime, Charles Darwin
explained his theory of evolution in The Origin of Species by
Means of Natural Selection, published in 1859.
As you read, be sure to notice the questions in the
text, which will guide you in using this perspective.
25
30
35
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle° furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles° of the world. C
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling° plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
23. girdle: belt.
28. shingles: here, beaches covered with pebbles.
35. darkling: growing gloomy
or dark.
C Literary Perspectives
Analyzing Historical Context How does Arnold
contrast the religious outlook of an earlier time with that of his own?
Vocabulary melancholy (MEHL uhn KAHL ee) adj.: sad or causing sadness.
certitude (SUR tuh tood) n.: a feeling of sureness.
Pegwell Bay, Kent—A Recollection of October 5,
1858 by William Dyce (1806–1864.)
Tate Gallery, London.
967
Dover Beach
Respond and Think Critically
Quick Check
1. From where is the speaker viewing the scene
(line 6)? To whom do you think he is speaking?
2. How would you paraphrase “the turbid ebb and
flow / Of human misery” (lines 17–18)?
3. How does the image of “the folds of a bright
girdle furled” convey a sense of safety and
certainty?
Read with a Purpose
4. What analogy does Arnold make between the
physical setting that he describes and the crises
of his time?
Reading Skills: Visualizing Setting
5. Look back at the idea map that you drew as you
read the poem. In each circle that describes an
element of the setting, add words that describe
it in greater detail.
Literary Analysis
6. Interpret Explain the image of the “Sea of Faith”
in lines 21–23.
7. Infer What do you think has happened to the
speaker’s faith, according to lines 24–28?
8. Summarize What does the speaker urge in the
last stanza, and why?
10. Literary Perspectives You considered how
Arnold responded to the scientific and political
developments of his time. How does reading the
poem in the context of the mid-nineteenth century affect the way you interpret it?
Literary Skills: Mood
11. Interpret How do the words “Only” (line 7) and
“Listen!” (line 9) affect the mood of the opening?
12. Analyze Notice that Arnold often places commas in the middle of lines. How do these pauses
contribute to the poem’s mood?
13. Draw Conclusions Is the poem’s mood the
same throughout, or does it change? Support
your answer with details from the text.
Literary Skills Review: Elegy
14. Extend An elegy is poem that mourns the
death of a person or laments something lost.
A type of lyric, an elegy is usually formal in language and structure and solemn or even melancholy in tone. In what ways is “Dover Beach” like
an elegy? How is it different?
Use It in Your Writing Review your response to the
QuickWrite, and write a short essay about the particular person, place, or thing to which you turn in difficult times. Determine what kind of mood you want to
set. How can you represent the anxiety of encountering difficulties and the relief of finding support?
9. Compare and Contrast What contrasting
images can you find in the poem? How do these
contrasts contribute to the poem’s meaning?
How does Arnold see appearance as
different from reality?
968
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Analyze
mood; analyze the characteristics of an
elegy; analyze historical context. Reading
Skills Visualize setting. Writing Skills
Write to express a mood. Vocabulary
Skills Analyze figurative language; research
word origins , including Greek, Latin, and
Anglo-Saxon roots.
Vocabulary Development
Your Turn
Match the Vocabulary words with their definitions.
1. turbid
a. made white or pale
2. melancholy b. cloudy; confused
For each of the following uses of figurative language,
complete a graphic organizer like the one on this page.
Identify both the literal meaning of the boldfaced
expression and its figurative use.
3. cadence
c. quivering; wavering
4. blanched
d. a feeling of sureness
5. tremulous
e. sad or causing sadness
1. “[The waves] Begin, and cease, and then again
begin, / With tremulous cadence slow, and bring /
The eternal note of sadness in” (lines 12–15)
6. certitude
f. the beat of a repetitive motion; a
sound that rises and falls
2. “the turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery” (lines
17–18)
3. “And we are here as on a darkling plain” (line 35)
Vocabulary Skills: Figurative Language
If poets used language only in its most literal sense,
there would not be much to poetry! Writers generate
extra meaning by using words in surprising ways.
Figurative language involves bringing together
seemingly unlike things, often to express a subtle or
abstract meaning. Common figurative uses of language include metaphor and personification.
The dominant metaphor in “Dover Beach,” for
example, is the “Sea of Faith.” Matthew Arnold joins the
concrete noun sea to a very abstract one, faith, to conjure up the image of a time when religious belief was
like an all-encompassing ocean that surrounded the
world. That figurative use of language paves the way
for others: If faith was once (figuratively) a sea, it now
has withdrawn from the world like the withdrawing
tide. The following graphic organizer charts one figurative use of language from the poem.
Example
Literal Meaning
the grating roar / Of People usually
pebbles which the
fling objects.
waves draw back, and
fling (lines 9-10)
Figurative Meaning
The waves are personified as if they intended
to fling the pebbles.
Latin and French Roots Below are two Latin
roots, along with related words in Spanish. Choose
the Vocabulary word that is derived from each
root.
Latin certus, “sure,” related to Spanish cierto
Latin cadere, “fall,” related to Spanish cadencia
Use a dictionary to help you find meanings for
other words with Latin and French roots. You will
find this information in the etymology, or word
history, which is usually enclosed in brackets.
Academic Vocabulary
Talk About
With a partner, discuss a complex issue that
causes anxiety for our time. How might we
respond to the problem in a way that could
benefit society?
Applying Your Skills 969
mood. Writing Skills Write brief constructed responses, with specific support;
write poetry. Grammar Skills Classify
sentences by structure.
Dover Beach
Grammar Link
Sentence Structure
As you have already learned, there are four types of
sentence structures: A simple sentence contains one
independent clause and no subordinate clauses (Matthew Arnold was a poet and critic.); a compound sentence contains more than one independent clause and
no subordinate clauses (Matthew Arnold was a poet,
and he also was a critic.); a complex sentence contains
one independent clause and at least one subordinate
clause (After he almost completely stopped writing poetry, he began a career as a critic.); and a compound-complex sentence contains more than one independent
clause and at least one subordinate clause (When he
was about forty, he began a career as a critic, but he still
wrote some poetry.)
Notice that the coordinating conjunctions and and
but are used above to join independent clauses to form
compound sentences. Other compound conjunctions
include or, yet, or, nor, for, and so.
The subordinating conjunctions after and when are
used above in the subordinate clauses of complex and
compound-complex sentences. Other common subordinating conjunctions are as, before, since, until, while,
because, although, and if.
Your Turn
Combine the following sentences as directed.
1. The world has changed. The speaker is in doubt.
(compound)
2. Faith is not as strong. He turns to love. (complex)
3. The speaker offers this hope. He still sees the
world as a dark place. The poem ends on a melancholy note. (compound-complex)
Writing Application Choose a piece of your own writing, and revise it to add a variety of sentence structures.
970
As you respond to the Choices, use these Academic Vocabulary
words as appropriate: benefit, complex, publish, respond, statistics.
REVIEW
Track the Mood of a Poem
The mood of “Dover Beach” pivots between contentment and anxiety, hope and despair. Re-read the
poem, and identify places where the mood shifts
between these extremes. Rank each section on a
scale of 1 to 5, where 1 equals “very doubtful” and
5 equals “very hopeful.” Then, represent the shifting
emotions of the poem visually as a graph by plotting the changing values according to the lines that
express each mood.
CONNECT
Examine Current Events
Arnold wrote his poem in
response to the scientific and political developments
of his day. Think of an event or development in the
world that causes you to feel concerned or worried
and another event or development that gives you
hope. Write an essay explaining the event or development and your reaction to it. Be sure to use specific details in your response.
EXTEND
Write a Poetic Sequel
The speaker of “Dover Beach” presents his thoughts
to his beloved as she stands by him looking out
the window at the ocean scene. Write a poem that
expresses her answer to him. She may agree with
the speaker and share his pessimistic mood. For an
example of a response to a previously written poem,
compare “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”
(page 278) and “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”
(page 279).
SKILLS FOCUS Reading Skills Make generalizations.
The Darkling Thrush / Ah, Are You Digging
on My Grave?
Making Generalizations
When you generalize, you extend the meaning of one
situation to other situations or express something in
general terms on the basis of specifics. For instance,
after reading about several specific battles in a war, you
could generalize that the cost of war, both in human
terms and in economic terms, is always high.
Making generalizations from the experiences we
have each day is a natural process. If the road you take
to school on Monday and Tuesday is congested with
traffic, making you late, you will probably conclude
that it often will be congested on weekdays and that
you should take another route or leave home earlier to
get to school on time.
When we make generalizations about literature,
we use much the same process. Instead of using clues
from our environment, we use evidence from the text
—language and structure—and background knowledge to help us draw conclusions about the author’s
purpose and theme. We combine this information with
our own experience to support generalizations we
then make to relate literature to universal themes and
our own lives.
We can use Thomas Hardy’s poem “The Darkling
Thrush” to practice making generalizations.
The speaker in the poem describes winter with dismal, ghost-like images:
When Frost was specter-gray,
And Winter’s dregs make desolate
The weakening eye of the day
The poet compares the barren, frozen landscape to
the “Century’s corpse” and uses language that extends
the metaphor: “crypt” and “death-lament.” The poem’s
speaker then makes his own generalization from the
clues to conclude:
by Kylene Beers
Knowing that Hardy wrote the poem on December 31,
1900, the last day of the nineteenth century, allows us
to observe that the poem implies a general depression
among the people as they face a new century. The tone
in the first half of the poem is as desolate as the landscape.
Structure also helps us make generalizations about
purpose and theme. The second half of the poem shifts
from winter to focus on “an aged thrush” that provides
a “full-hearted evensong.”
Your Turn
Read the last stanza of “The Darkling Thrush” to
practice making generalizations about the purpose
and theme.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
One caveat: We risk making invalid generalizations if we use faulty reasoning or inadequate
information. Be sure to use sufficient and relevant information in your generalizations and
to note exceptions.
1. How does the language in this last stanza differ
from that of the first two stanzas? What images
suggest a change in Hardy’s tone?
2. How does the structure and language help us
generalize about the way the poem’s speaker
and others will actually greet the new century?
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervorless as I.
Reading Focus
971
MEET THE WRITER
The Darkling
Thrush
Thomas Hardy
(1840–1928)
One of Victorian Britain’s principal novelists, Hardy began and
ended his literary career as a poet.
Ah, Are You
Digging on My
Grave?
How can appearance
be different from
reality?
QuickWrite
How can events change your mood? What might
make you feel more optimistic or pessimistic about
a situation? In your Reader/Writer Notebook, record
a few memories about times when your mood
changed unexpectedly. What caused each change?
From Village to City and Back Again
Thomas Hardy was born in a small village in Dorsetshire, an
area in southwestern England, which was the setting (under
the ancient name of Wessex) of many of his novels and poems.
He attended the village school until he was sixteen, when he
was apprenticed to an architect.
In 1862, Hardy began working as an architect in London,
writing poems and stories in his free time. He tried without
success to publish his poems, but by the time he returned to
Dorset in 1867, he had started to publish fiction. After the
publication of his fourth novel, Far from the Madding Crowd
(1874), Hardy was able to stop working as an architect and
devote himself entirely to writing.
A Dark Vision of the World
The plots and themes of Hardy’s fourteen novels express his
belief in a world governed by chance and natural laws that are
indifferent to what humans want and deserve. In some novels,
the entire course of a character’s life is determined by coincidence. People make matters worse by adding the misery of
war, the cruelty of ingratitude and neglect, and the irrationality
of laws and customs that frustrate talent and desire.
The bleakness, pessimism, and irony of Hardy’s novels
disturbed many readers. After Tess of the D’Urbervilles received
unfavorable reviews in 1892, and Jude the Obscure was
denounced in 1895, Hardy turned away from writing novels.
Hardy published Wessex Poems in 1898, when he was in
his late fifties. The tone and style of his poems reveal a
late-Victorian mood of somberness, with language that has
an informal directness. He frequently uses archaic words or
homely diction as a reaction against the elaborate language of
some late-Victorian verse. Hardy’s verse, though deceptively
simple, resounds with the voice of twentieth-century poetry.
Why might it seem ironic that Hardy
said he believed that humans can
change for the better?
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) by Reginald Grenville Eves (1876–1941). Oil on canvas.
972
Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, East Sussex, England.
The Darkling Thrush
Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Understand characteristics
of the speaker. Reading Skills Make generalizations.
Speaker You might think of every poem as talking to readers with its
own unique voice. The speaker is the imaginary voice assumed by the
author of a poem. In many poems, the speaker is close to the author,
reflecting his or her personality and thoughts. You should not, however,
assume that the speaker of the poem is the same as the author. Poets
may shift the persona for each poem they write. The speaker of one poem
might be a passionate lover; another speaker may be an isolated loner.
Making Generalizations From textual clues, we can make generalizations, or broad assertions. The more evidence we have, the more accurate
our generalization is likely to be. Limited evidence often leads to weak
generalizations. For example, if you read three lines from Hardy and
determine that he is a pessimist, you have generalized too quickly and
with too little evidence. If you read two poems and determine that Hardy
sometimes uses elements of nature to represent various moods, you have
made a generalization from a larger amount of evidence. You must then
prove the accuracy of your generalization by returning to the texts.
Into Action As you read the poems, take notes on the following topics.
Topic
Ah, Are You Digging
desolate (DEHS uh liht) adj.: uninhabited;
barren; dreary. The desolate landscape
includes just one frail tree and nothing else.
ecstatic (ehk STAT ihk) adj.: extremely joyful;
showing great pleasure. Seeing even one ray
of sunshine would make me ecstatic on this
gloomy, rainy day.
prodding (PRAHD ihng) v.: poking; jabbing.
Someone is prodding in the dirt, looking for
something lost there.
fidelity (fy DEHL uh tee) n.: loyalty; faithfulness. Dogs show their fidelity by protecting
and guarding their owners.
Double Letters The verb prod has one
syllable, a short vowel sound, and ends with
a single consonant. When you add –ing to
this verb, you double the d and spell prodding. What other verbs can you think of that
follow this double-letter rule?
The Darkling Thrush
Death
Winter
Find It in Your Reading Hardy chooses adjectives to create vivid
images. As you read these poems, make a list in your Reader/Writer Notebook of adjectives that effectively create vivid mental images.
As you read the poems, think about how the speaker of each
Te
TechFocus
poem might identify him- or herself on a social networking website.
Learn It Online
Listen to these poems online.
go.hrw.com
L12-973
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Preparing to Read
973
POEM
The Darkling Thrush
by Thomas Hardy
Read with a Purpose
Read to discover how a small sign can lead to a surprising change of
mood.
Build Background
“The Darkling Thrush” was written on December 31, 1900, the last day of the nineteenth century. As night falls, the speaker in the poem hears a thrush (a bird) singing
joyfully. His thrush, like the century, is worn out and diminished—but still singing.
974
I leant upon a coppice° gate
When Frost was specter-gray,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems° scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires. A
5
The land’s sharp features seemed to be
The Century’s corpse outleant,°
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ° and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervorless as I. B
10
15
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a fullhearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
20
1. coppice: thicket of small
trees or shrubs.
5. bine-stems: climbing plants.
10. outleant: leaning out. Here,
the word refers to leaning out of
the crypt.
13. germ: seed or bud.
Play Audio
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
25
30
A
Literary Focus Speaker What image do you have of the speaker
after reading the first stanza?
B Reading Focus Making Generalizations What generalization
can you make about why the speaker lacks energy?
Vocabulary desolate (DEHS uh liht) adj.: uninhabited; barren;
dreary.
ecstatic (ehk STAT ihk) adj.: extremely joyful; showing great pleasure.
The Darkling Thrush
975
POEM
Play Audio
Ah, Are You Digging
on My Grave?
by Thomas Hardy
Read with a Purpose
Build Background
Read to discover the identity of an
unusual speaker—and the surprising
answer to her mysterious question.
“Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?” is written in the form of a dialogue. The poem’s
speaker has only limited information about her situation—and she therefore receives
some very unexpected answers to her repeated questions.
5
10
15
“Ah, are you digging on my grave,
My loved one?—planting rue?”° A
—“No: Yesterday he went to wed
One of the brightest wealth has bred.
‘It cannot hurt her now,’ he said,
‘That I should not be true.’ ”
“Then who is digging on my grave?
My nearest dearest kin?”
—“Ah, no: They sit and think, ‘What use!
What good will planting flowers produce?
No tendance of her mound can loose
Her spirit from Death’s gin.’ ”°
“But some one digs upon my grave?
My enemy?—prodding sly?”
—“Nay: When she heard you had passed the
Gate
That shuts on all flesh soon or late,
She thought you no more worth her hate,
And cares not where you lie.” B
20
25
30
35
“Then, who is digging on my grave?
Say—since I have not guessed!”
—“O it is I, my mistress dear,
Your little dog, who still lives near,
And much I hope my movements here
Have not disturbed your rest?”
“Ah, yes! You dig upon my grave . . .
Why flashed it not on me
That one true heart was left behind!
What feeling do we ever find
To equal among human kind
A dog’s fidelity!”
“Mistress, I dug upon your grave
To bury a bone, in case
I should be hungry near this spot
When passing on my daily trot.
I am sorry, but I quite forgot
It was your resting place.” C
2. rue: yellow-flowered herb associated with grief.
12. gin: trap.
A
Literary Focus Speaker Who is the speaker and what is her
situation?
B
Reading Focus Making Generalizations What can you
generalize from this stanza about how we feel about people after they die?
976
C
Literary Focus Speaker Who speaks in the poem’s final
lines? How might the speaker of the poem respond to these lines?
Vocabulary prodding (PRAHD ihng) v.: poking; jabbing.
fidelity (fy DEHL uh tee) n.: loyalty; faithfulness.
Give a Dog a Bone (1888) by William Henry
Hamilton Trood (1860–1899).
Viewing and Interpreting Does this image illustrate “a dog’s fidelity” toward humans, or something else? Explain.
Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave? 977
The Darkling Thrush / Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?
Quick Check
Literary Analysis
1. At what time of day and year does “The Darkling
Thrush” take place?
6. Draw Conclusions Does the speaker’s mood,
or emotion, change significantly in the course of
“The Darkling Thrush”? If so, how?
2. What noise disturbs the speaker’s train of
thought, and how does he respond to it?
7. Interpret What do you think is the significance
of the word darkling in the title? Do you think the
thrush’s song seems hopeful or hopeless?
3. The speaker of “Ah, Are You Digging on My
Grave?” suspects three people of disturbing her
peace. Who are they?
8. Analyze How does the character of the dog
combine animal traits with human qualities?
Read with a Purpose
Literary Skills: Speaker
4. How does the speaker of each poem receive a
surprise? What change does each surprise
create?
9. Compare and Contrast How are the speakers
of these two poems different? Which speaker do
you associate more closely with Hardy? Why?
Reading Skills: Making Generalizations
Literary Skills Review: Tone
5. Review the notes you made while reading the
two poems. Think about the broad generalizations you can make about Thomas Hardy’s
poetry. Write two statements that make valid
generalizations that can be supported with the
evidence in your notes. Choose two of the following sentence stems to help you write the
statements. Be ready to support your generalizations with evidence from the poems.
10. Analyze How would you describe the tone, or
attitude toward the subject, of each poem? How
do you think Hardy feels about sentimental attitudes toward nature and death?
Hardy asserts that
.
Hardy demonstrates that
.
Use It in Your Writing In your Reader/Writer Notebook, write a brief description of a person, place,
or thing that you think creates a strong emotion or
mood. Follow Hardy’s model, and use precise, vivid
adjectives to sharpen your description.
Hardy is optimistic/pessimistic ( choose one)
because
.
978
Which speaker grows more pessimistic
as the poem continues? Which speaker’s
mood improves? Why?
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Understand
speaker; understand tone. Reading
Skills Make generalizations. Writing
Skills Write descriptions; write persuasive
essays. Vocabulary Skills Apply knowledge
of synonyms.
Complete each item. Use the boldfaced Vocabulary
word in your response.
1. List three reasons for prodding the ground.
2. Describe a desolate setting for a movie.
3. Identify one sign of a pet’s fidelity to its owner.
4. Describe what makes you feel ecstatic.
Vocabulary Skills: Synonyms
Synonyms are words with the same or similar meanings. If you replace aword in a sentence and the meaning of the sentence does not change significantly, the
words are synonyms:
Original: Show your fidelity to our team by coming
to the game on Saturday.
Replacements: Show your trust to our team by coming to the game on Saturday. Show your loyalty to our
team by coming to the game on Saturday.
The word trust changes the meaning of the sentence,
so fidelity and trust are not synonyms. The word loyalty
does not greatly change the meaning of the sentence,
so fidelity and loyalty are synonyms.
Your Turn
Write sentences to test whether or not each pair of
words are synonyms. Explain your answers.
REVIEW
Retell What Happens
Review the key events in each poem by writing a
short summary of what happens. For each poem, create a chart to record the basic information to include
in your retellings. In one column include the language of the poem, and then write your own retelling in a second column.
CONNECT
Create a Social Networking Page
TechFocus Choose one of these poems and
Te
create a page as if on a social networking site for the
poem’s speaker. Use clues in the poem to identify the
speaker’s character and possible interests. Based on
the poem, what kind of person is the speaker? How
would he or she want to be presented to the world?
Share your completed page with your class.
EXTEND
Draft a Response
The speaker in “The Darkling
Thrush” seems to feel little hope that the problems of
the world can be solved. Do you agree or disagree?
Are there problems in today’s society that you think
are so complex and overwhelming that they will
never go away? Write an essay in which you respond
to Hardy’s position.
1. desolate; deserted 3. ecstatic; energetic
2. desolate; shadowy
4. ecstatic; thrilled
Double Letters Recall that when you add –ing to
the verb prod, you double the d and spell prodding.
What other verbs in ”Ah, Are You Digging on My
Grave?” follow this pattern?
Learn It Online
Develop your vocabulary with Word Watch online.
go.hrw.com
L12-979
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MEET THE WRITER
To an Athlete Dying
Young
When I Was Oneand-Twenty
How can appearance
be different from
reality?
QuickWrite
What are some of the familiar ideas that people
have about love and death? Brainstorm a list of
images and ideas people commonly associate with
each topic. Which of these ideas do you think are
sometimes—or always—false?
A. E. Housman
(1859–1936)
A. E. Housman said that he was careful not to think of poetry
while he was shaving, for “if a line of poetry strays into my
memory, my skin bristles so that the razor ceases to act.”
Finding Poetry in Self-Control
For Alfred Edward Housman, poetry was all feeling. He said the
source of his poetry was “the pit of the stomach,” but his poetry
is more restrained than this comment suggests. His poems
evoke a narrow range of subdued feelings that are controlled
by simple, tight verse forms and clear language and syntax.
During his lifetime, Housman published only two books of
poetry. His first collection, A Shropshire Lad (1896), became popular because its graceful recollection of youthful pleasures and
their transience fit a late-century mood of disillusionment that
had “much good, but much less good than ill.” In “Terence, This
Is Stupid Stuff,” Housman acknowledged that his poems could
be dismissed as self-indulgent whining. The test of poetry, he
believed, is not what is said but how it is said. In the refined
elegance of his poems, he expressed his pessimistic vision of a
cold, empty world.
Overcoming Early Failure
Born in Worcestershire in western England, Housman was close
to his mother, who died on his twelfth birthday. His father, a
lawyer, allowed his practice to dwindle away. At sixteen, Housman won a scholarship to Oxford, where he studied classical
literature. He attended classes irregularly, though, preferring to
study on his own, and failed his final examination.
In 1882, Housman took a job as a clerk in the patent office,
but remained determined to prove himself as a classical scholar. For the next ten years, he set for himself a rigorous program
and published several papers on Greek and Latin literature. In
1892, he won an appointment as professor of Latin at London
University. He stayed until 1911, when he moved to Cambridge
University. He spent the rest of his life as a formal and rather
aloof teacher and authority in classical scholarship.
How might Housman’s careers as a
clerk and a scholar have influenced
his poetry?
Alfred Edward Housman, English scholar and poet, when he was aged eighteen.
980
To an Athlete Dying Young
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Analyze couplets.
Reading Skills Analyze the relationship of form and meaning.
Couplet “To an Athlete Dying Young” is written entirely in couplets. A
couplet is a pair of lines, one after another, that rhyme. The lines in a couplet usually share the same meter as well. In Housman’s poem, each couplet is joined with another to form a four-line stanza. The strong rhythm
created by this pattern fits the poem’s somber subject matter—death—
and mimics the slow, mournful tempo of a funeral procession.
Analyzing the Relationship of Form and Meaning The form of a
poem is the way it is structured. Most poems arrange ideas in lines and
stanzas, and many poems use meter. In “To an Athlete Dying Young,”
Housman’s form is two-line couplets paired in four-line stanzas. Each line
has four stresses. Thinking about form as you read will help you understand the meaning the writer wants to communicate through poetry. Ask
yourself: Why did the poet choose this form rather than another? How
does this form support the meaning of the poem?
Into Action Use a chart like the one below to paraphrase each stanza as
you read. Paying attention to the meaning of each stanza will help you
understand how the poet structures ideas.
Stanza
Paraphrase
1
When you won the race, we carried you through town, celebrating
your victory.
2
Today we’re once again carrying you on our shoulders, but it’s a
much quieter occasion.
withers (WIHTH uhrz) v.: fades; dries up.
After it blooms, the rose soon withers and
dies.
renown (rih NOWN) n.: fame; celebrity. He
was an athlete of such great renown that
everyone referred to him by his first name
alone.
Pronunciation Remember that poets
choose words for both their meaning and
their sound. Take time to learn how to
pronounce unfamiliar words—it will help
you hear what the poet wants you to hear.
Notice that renown rhymes with town, not
own. How does knowing how to pronounce
renown help you appreciate “To an Athlete
Dying Young”?
3
Find It in Your Reading Housman was a master of understatement.
He expressed deep emotions, but never exaggerated or embellished
them. In his careful language, the world of the dead becomes simply “a
stiller town.” As you read, record in your Reader/Writer Notebook other
examples of understatement that express strong feelings.
Learn It Online
Take your study of this poem further with these
project suggestions online.
go.hrw.com
L12-981
Go
Preparing to Read
981
POEM
Play Audio
by A. E. Housman
Read with a Purpose
Build Background
Read to discover how one speaker views
dying young.
“To an Athlete Dying Young” appeared in 1896 in the first edition of A Shropshire Lad, a
volume Housman himself paid to have published. The poet scarcely made a profit from
this book of sixty-three verses, which often tell stories in the voice of a young soldier or
farm boy. However, Housman lived to see his poems become enormously popular
during the Boer War. Soldiers fighting in South Africa identified with the homesick lad
from Shropshire and heard in his voice the echo of their own melancholy.
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the marketplace; A
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
5
10
15
So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel° up
The still-defended challenge cup.
Today, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Smart lad, to slip betimes° away
From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel° grows
It withers quicker than the rose. B
Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:
A
Literary Focus Couplet Describe the rhythm of the poem’s
first couplet. Do the other couplets follow the same rhythm?
B
Reading Focus Analyzing Form and Meaning What idea
does the speaker introduce in the third stanza?
982
20
Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honors out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.
25
C
And round that early-laureled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl’s.
9. betimes: archaic for “early.”
11. laurel: classical symbol of victory. Victorious Greek
and Roman athletes were crowned with laurel wreaths.
23. lintel: top of a door frame.
C
Literary Focus Couplet How does the rhythm of line 22
differ from that of line 21? What effect does the poet create with this
variation?
Vocabulary withers (WIHTH uhrz) v.: fades; dries up.
renown (rih NOWN) n.: fame; celebrity.
Viewing and Interpreting How does this image reflect the glory to
which the poem’s speaker refers?
Alem Techale of Ethiopia (far right) wins the World Youth title in the 1500 meter race
in 2003. Techale collapsed and died during a routine training run in 2005, when she
was 18.
983
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Understand theme.
When I Was One-and-Twenty
Theme The theme of a poem is its central idea or insight about human
experience. Most themes are implied rather than directly stated, so you
need to piece together clues in order to understand the writer’s message.
Many themes give an insight or perspective on a topic, such as death,
friendship, or family. However, keep in mind that a theme is not the same
as a topic, which is simply a subject that can usually be expressed in a
word or two. A theme is an idea or perspective about the topic.
fancy (FAN see) n.: a liking for something or
someone. The young couple took a fancy to
one another at first sight.
vain (vayn) adj.: of no use; producing no
good result. He made a vain attempt to warn
the young man, but he would not listen.
Into Action You can use a chart like the one below to organize your
thoughts about a poem’s topics and themes. Here are examples of topics
and their related themes.
Topic
Theme
death
It is better to die young than to face the miseries of aging.
education
You can learn more by doing something than by reading
about it.
In the poem, “When I was One-and-Twenty,” Housman presents a theme
about the topic of love. As you read the poem, take notes about what the
speaker experiences and learns about love. Then write a statement of the
the poem’s theme about love.
In Vain The word vain is often preceded by
the preposition in, as in this sentence: “He
gave his heart in vain because she did not
return his love.” Something that is done in
vain is done unsuccessfully or without effect.
When might a student have studied for a
test in vain? Name three other actions that
might be done in vain.
Find It in Your Reading There are two characters in this poem: a wise
man and the speaker. Notice how Housman uses the characters’ words to
reflect their personalities. Jot down examples that show how each character’s words bring his personality to life.
TechFocus As you read this poem, think about how you might use techTe
nology to show that the theme of the poem is still relevant today. Think
about fonts you might choose for the words or an illustration you could
create to help new readers connect with the poem.
Learn It Online
Explore more of Housman’s poetry—and the
inspirations behind it—with these Internet links.
go.hrw.com
984
L12-984
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POEM
When I Was One-and-Twenty
Play Audio
by A. E. Housman
Read with a Purpose
Read to discover how one year changes the speaker’s view of life and love.
Build Background
Like “To an Athlete Dying Young,” the poem “When I Was One-and-Twenty” is from A Shropshire Lad.
Housman described the Shropshire lad as “an imaginary figure, with something of my own temper
and view of life.” This brief lyric is a good example of Housman’s ability to compress much meaning
into a few lines. The poem clearly shows Housman’s characteristic directness, melodic beauty,
simplicity of form, and meticulous expression of emotion.
5
10
15
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
“Give crowns and pounds and guineas°
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free.”
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
“The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
’Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.”° A
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.
3. crowns and pounds and guineas: units of money in Great Britain.
14. rue: sorrow; regret.
A
Literary Focus Theme What idea about love does the wise man express
in his advice?
Vocabulary fancy (FAN see) n.: a liking for something or someone.
vain (vayn) adj.: of no use; producing no good result.
985
To an Athlete Dying Young / When I Was One-and-Twenty
5. Identify What is the effect of Housman’s use of
repetition in the last line of “When I was Oneand-Twenty”? What other kinds of repetition do
you find in the poem?
Read with a Purpose
1. How does the speaker in each poem present a
view that you might not expect?
Reading Skills: Analyzing the Relationship
of Form and Meaning
2. Review the chart you made for “To an Athlete
Dying Young,” and add a column to note and
analyze the meaning of each stanza. Identify
each central image or idea. These key ideas will
help you understand how Housman arranges
his poem to convey his ideas.
Stanza
Paraphrase
Meaning/Analysis
1
When you won the race,
we carried you through
town, celebrating your
victory.
Image of the athlete in
the past, at the height
of his glory.
Today we’re once again
carrying you on our
shoulders, but it’s a
much quieter occasion.
Image of the athlete,
now dead, being carried to his grave. Parallel shows contrast.
2
6. Evaluate How would you respond to the wise
man’s advice in “When I was One-and-Twenty”?
Literary Skills: Couplet / Theme
7. Interpret Poets can use exact rhyme (tune/
moon) or half rhyme (moon/man), also called
approximate rhyme. Look at the end rhymes in
“To an Athlete Dying Young.” What pattern of
rhyming sounds do you hear?
8. Analyze What do you think is the theme, or
message, of “When I Was One-and-Twenty”?
Literary Skills Review: Alliteration and
Assonance
9. Evaluate Housman creates verbal music by
using alliteration, the repetition of consonant
sounds, and assonance, the repetition of vowel
sounds. Where do you hear these sound patterns
in “To an Athlete Dying Young”?
3
Literary Analysis
3. Compare and Contrast What parallel events are
described in the first and second stanzas of “To
an Athlete Dying Young”?
4. Draw Conclusions What scene do you imagine
when you read the last two stanzas of “To an
Athlete Dying Young”?
986
Use It in Your Writing Apply Housman’s uses of
understatement and of characterization as you write
your own description of a dramatic event you experienced or witnessed.
How do these poems present unconventional ideas about the reality of death
and love?
couplets; analyze theme; analyze alliteration
and assonance. Reading Skills Analyzing
the relationship of form and meaning. Vo-
cabulary Skills Apply knowledge of word
meanings to complete analogies. Writing
Skills Write a narrative; use appropriate word
choice; use dialogue effectively; write a poem.
words as appropriate: benefit, complex, respond, publish, statistics.
Match each Vocabulary word to its antonym.
1. fancy
a. obscurity
2. withers
b. successful
3. renown
c. dislike
4. vain
d. thrives
REVIEW
Build a Topic Web
Reflect on how these poems explore the topics of
love and death. Complete a web like the one below
for each poem by adding details from each poem to
support each category. Include your own responses
to the form and theme.
Vocabulary Skills: Analogies
People in
the Poem
An analogy shows a comparison between two pairs of
words. Analogies are shown in this form:
sonnet : poem :: tragedy : drama
What They
Do or Say
Topic:
Love
Form of Poem
Theme
CONNECT
Film Interviews
Here is one way to read this analogy: “Sonnet is related
to poem in the same way that tragedy is related to
drama.” In this analogy, a sonnet is a type of poem, and
a tragedy is a type of drama.
Your Turn
Complete each analogy with a word from the box.
ages
1.
2.
3.
4.
anxious
courage
weakness
VAIN : INEFFECTIVE :: nervous : __________.
CELEBRITY : RENOWN :: hero : __________.
FLOWER : WITHERS :: person : __________.
FANCY : HATRED :: power : __________.
Pronunciation How does knowing how to pronounce words such as renown in poems affect
your understanding of a poem’s rhythm, rhyme,
assonance, and alliteration?
TechFocus In a small group, film a series of interTe
views with the speaker of this poem at age twentyone, twenty-two, and an older age. Members of your
group can act as the speaker or as friends describing
him at various stages of his life. In each interview,
encourage the speaker to explain his point of view
on life and love.
EXTEND
Write an Essay
Housman’s poetry was popular with young soldiers fighting in the Boer War.
In an expository essay, analyze the characteristics
of Housman’s poetry that might have appealed
to young people in his time and those that would
appeal to young people in our time. Use text evidence to support your analysis.
Learn It Online
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INFORMATIONAL TEXT
SKILLS FOCUS Informational Skills Analyze causes
and effects.
When Elements Go Extreme
How can appearance
be different from
reality?
QuickWrite
Suppose you see a varsity football team practicing on a hot and humid day. What
assumptions might you make about the players? Which of your assumptions are
mostly likely to be true? Which ones are probably unfounded?
Analyzing Cause and Effect Many informational texts follow a
cause-and-effect organization. The writer describes one event that leads
to another. The first event is the cause of the second, which is its effect.
The order can also be reversed: The writer first tells you what happened
(effect) and then explains why (cause).
Into Action Use cause-and-effect charts as you read to understand the
reasons behind key events and their impact on other events.
• If you want to know why an event was important, or how it influenced
other events, write it in the Cause box. Then try to identify the effect of
the event as you read.
• If you want to understand why something happened; write the event in
the Effect box. Then, look for the cause as you read on.
Causes
The football player became
dehydrated.
Effects
He cramped up on the field
and was unable to move.
Statistics are numerical data. Like many journalists, this writer uses
statistics to support his statements. As you read, keep a list in your Reader/Writer Notebook of the statistics the writer presents and note why he
includes each piece of information.
Use your RWN to complete the activities for this workshop.
988
rendering (REHN duh rihng) v.: causing to
be or become; making. The extreme heat is
rendering the team helpless.
replenish (rih PLEHN ihsh) v.: to fill again; to
renew. When you exercise, it is important to
replenish the water in your body.
oppressive (uh PREHS ihv) adj.: hard to bear.
The football game was cancelled because the
oppressive heat made play dangerous.
precautions (prih KAW shuhnz) n.: care
taken in advance; safeguards. Stretching
your muscles after you exercise is one of the
precautions you can take to avoid injuries.
supplement (SUHP luh muhnt) n.: something added to make complete or to enrich.
It is always wise to check with a doctor before
you begin to take a dietary supplement.
Prefixes Sometimes prefixes attach to
word parts that are not words by themselves. The prefix re– means “again” and
replenish means “fill again,” but plenish on its
own is not a word. Find words with the prefix re– in the selection. What do they mean?
Can their parts stand alone?
N E W S PA P E R A R T I C L E
This Link to Today looks
at how hot weather can
affect even the strongest
athletes.
Read with a Purpose
Read this article to learn how
athletes can keep playing
safely when the temperature
rises.
When Elements
Go Extreme
Build Background
Heatstroke is a sudden, uncontrolled
increase in body temperature. It
can occur when people are exposed
to high temperature and humidity for several hours. A person
suffering from heatstroke may feel
dizzy, weak, nauseated, restless, or
confused. If not treated promptly,
heatstroke can lead to collapse and
coma. Keeping track of outdoor
temperature is one key to preventing
heatstroke, but it’s also important to
consider the impact of the humidity.
When humidity is high, the air feels
hotter and the threat of heat-related
illnesses such as heatstroke is greater. That’s why many experts refer to
the heat index (HI), which takes into
account both air temperature and
relative humidity. It measures how
hot the air feels. An HI above 105°F is
considered threatening.
by Jason La Canfora
Washington Post, Wednesday, August 2, 2006
S
ometime during the Washington Redskins’ first training camp practice
in the summer of 2006, fullback Mike Sellers felt his lower body lock
up. The cramps leveled him, rendering him suddenly unable to move.
After being carted off the field, three intravenous treatments were required to
replenish his system.
Sellers estimates he drank about a gallon of water that day, but even that
was insufficient to fully hydrate him in the oppressive heat and humidity
that is testing the will of Redskins players, coaches and fans.
A
The next day Sellers was able to return for practices at Redskins Park,
where the heat index reached 108 degrees, but the team’s medical staff—
not to mention his teammates—was watching him closely. Keeping players
healthy and cool is serious business for trainers and coaches, and players are
reminded frequently about the need to drink water and report any signs of
discomfort, such as rapid breathing or weakness.
A
Informational Focus Causes and Effects What cause does the second paragraph identify
for the effects described in the first paragraph? Explain.
Vocabulary rendering (REHN duh rihng) v.: causing to be or become; making.
replenish (rih PLEHN ihsh) v.: to fill again; to renew.
oppressive (uh PREHS ihv) adj.: hard to bear.
When Elements Go Extreme 989
In 2001, Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman
Korey Stringer collapsed and died during training
camp in Mankato, Minn., from complications of
heatstroke. His collapse, which received intense
media attention, came on a day when the heat
index reached 109, and it reinforced the importance of safeguarding against dehydration and
heatstroke for NFL teams.
B
Although the number of deaths from heatstroke in professional, college, high school and
youth football is not high, according to the
University of North Carolina’s National Center for
Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, it says there
is “no excuse for any number of heatstroke deaths
since they are all preventable with the proper
precautions.”
The center reports that 26 football players—
20 high school, 4 college, and 2 professional—
have died from heat stroke over the last 10 years.
Around the time of Mike Sellers’s collapse, a 15year-old high school player in suburban Atlanta
died from heat stroke after collapsing one day earlier following an off-season workout.
Size can play a role, too. Korey Stringer’s
weight at the time of his death was 336 pounds,
and, according to the Vikings’ report on his death,
the now-banned diet supplement ephedrine was
found in his system.
C
“I think it’s always a concern for us,” Redskins
Coach Joe Gibbs said of the severe heat and humidity. “The reality is, you always start in the heat and
you just do the best job you can. We’re going to try
to start as late [in the day] as you can and start as
early as you can, and give them a rest in the middle
of the day.…
“But having said that, it’s one of my biggest
concerns and one of our concerns always, because
you’ve got big guys there in the heat trying to be
competitive and it’s something you really have to
watch.”
B Informational Focus Causes and Effects What
was the cause of Mike Seller’s collapse?
C Informational Focus Causes and Effects How did
multiple causes lead to Korey Stringer’s condition?
990
Baltimore Ravens players cooling off on sidelines with water spray during
training camp at McDaniel College.
“We’ve got a plan of weighing them in [before
practice] and weighing them out, and we monitor
their body weights and make sure they recover,”
said Bubba Tyer, the team’s director of sports
medicine. “And if they don’t recover, we either
pull them out of practice the next day or monitor
them closely during practice. You see us working
out there, and it’s a job to work. We’re icing them
down and watering them down, and they get water
every chance they can get.”
After most practices, large tubs of freezing
water are coveted spots for players, helping them
quickly lower their body temperature. “The guys
like it,” Tyer said of the icy baths. “It’s a mess of a
deal, but it seems to work. It cools them off a little
bit fairly quickly.”
Salt tablets are available, if necessary, and
“common sense” practices are best applied to all
athletes training in these conditions, whether
amateur or professional, Tyer said. He urges
Redskins players to find a cool spot after practice, drink plenty of water and, after a brief rest, to
begin moving around again to prevent cramping.
It is also essential that they eat throughout the day
and stay out of direct sunlight when possible, he
said.
Vocabulary precautions (prih KAW shuhnz) n.: care
taken in advance; safeguards.
supplement (SUHP luh muhnt) n.: something added to make
complete or to enrich.
Informational Text
SKILLS FOCUS Informational Skills
Analyze causes and effects. Vocabulary
Skills Demonstrate knowledge of literal
meanings of words and their usage.
Listening and Speaking Skills Conduct/
respond to an interview. WritingSkills
Write a brief constructed response, with
specific support.
When Elements Go Extreme
Text Analysis
Quick Check
1. How did Korey Stringer die? What factors
contributed to his death?
2. How does Bubba Tyer help players avoid
cramping after a practice?
Read with a Purpose
3. How can a coach help keep players safe
when temperature and humidity rise to
threatening levels?
Informational Skills: Analyzing Cause and
Effect
4. As you review the cause-and-effect charts you
made while reading, think again about why
things happened. Many causes have more than
one effect; many effects have more than one
cause. Add boxes to your charts as needed
to show multiple causes or effects. This chart
shows two effects of one cause.
Causes
Effects
The football player became
dehydrated.
He cramped up on the field
and was unable to move.
He received fluid intravenously.
Match each Vocabulary word with its definition.
5. precautions
a. almost unbearable
6. supplements
b. causing to become
7. rendering
c. safeguards
8. replenish
d. additions
9. oppressive
e. renew
10. Interpret Why do sports medicine experts at the
University of North Carolina say that heatstroke
deaths are “all preventable”?
11. Infer Why is it important to know the heat
index, rather than just the temperature?
12. Apply What items would you put on a checklist
to evaluate a team’s preparations for extreme
heat conditions? Explain.
Listening and Speaking
13. Analyze Using information from this article,
conduct an interview with a classmate about
the dangers of heatstroke and how to avoid
them. Work with a partner to plan the questions.
Decide who will be the interviewer and who will
be the expert. When you present your interview,
ask your audience to listen for inaccurate or
incomplete answers.
Write a paragraph about how statistics in this article
contribute to your understanding of heatstroke.
Be sure to cite specific evidence to support your
response.
Does this article support or challenge the
assumptions you make about athletes in
general, and about football players
in particular.
MEET THE WRITER
Rudyard Kipling
The Mark of the
Beast
How can appearance
be different from
reality?
Think about a time when you and a friend had different explanations for why something occurred.
What caused the differences in opinion? Write down
your ideas in a paragraph.
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1899) by Sir Philip Burne-Jones. Oil on
canvas. National Portrait Gallery, London.
(1865–1936)
Rudyard Kipling’s popularity and public influence during his lifetime can be attributed in part
to his endorsement of the British Empire. Yet his
ideas about “empire” are controversial today.
Unhappy Youth and Early Success
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, where
his father was a professor at the University of Bombay. When
Kipling was six years old, he and his sister were sent home to
England for their education. Left in the care of foster parents,
they lived in a type of boarding house, which Kipling would
later refer to as “the house of desolation.”
At seventeen, Kipling returned to India to work as a journalist. He quickly became popular for his stories, sketches, and
poems that were published in newspapers and then collected
in cheap editions sold at Indian railroad stations. His books
were distributed in England as well, preparing the way for his
return to England as a writer in 1889. By the end of Queen
Victoria’s reign, Kipling had become the most popular British
poet since Tennyson and the most popular prose writer since
Dickens. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907.
Cultural Conflicts
Kipling’s views about the British Empire were complex. He was
fascinated by the conflicts between European civilization and
ancient cultures. This conflict is the theme of many of his Indian
works, beginning with Plain Tales from the Hills (1888) and
continuing in Kim (1901), his novel about an Irish orphan submerged in the mystery of India. Kipling did not always see European culture as superior (though he nearly always presented
it as such), and he knew that empires do fall. He urged readers
not to trust in guns to justify their dominion over large parts of
the earth. The purpose of the British Empire, he argued, was not
to make the imperial nation rich, but rather to extend British
efficiency, decency, and comfort throughout the world. Today,
however, many readers view his argument as a rationalization
of the often brutal practices of British imperialism.
What might Kipling have to say
about the cultural conflicts in the
world today?
992
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Understand internal conflict and external conflict. Reading Skills Identify conflicts
and resolutions.
Conflict A conflict is a struggle or clash between opposing characters,
forces, or emotions. When a conflict is external, a character or group
struggles against an outside force, such as another character or group or a
force of nature. When a conflict is internal, a struggle takes place within a
character between opposing beliefs, responsibilities, desires, or emotions.
As you read this story, be sure to note the conflict suggested by the proverb at the beginning of the story, and consider its thematic significance.
Identifying Conflicts and Resolutions Stories are often built on a
series of conflicts. To identify all the conflicts in a story, look for causeand-effect relationships. Think about how one conflict leads to another
conflict, and consider how external and internal conflicts are interrelated.
Note, too, that the resolution of one conflict may lead to the resolution of
another, but sometimes all the conflicts in a story are not resolved.
genial (JEEN yuhl) adj.: friendly. The genial
men celebrated New Year’s Eve together.
distraught (dihs TRAWT) adj.: extremely
agitated. The beast was distraught as it
struggled to free itself from its bonds.
redress (REE drehs) n.: payment or action
that serves to remedy an injustice or injury.
By offering redress, Strickland tries to right a
wrong committed by his friend.
delusion (dih LOO zhuhn) n.: false belief. The
narrator tries to distinguish between truth
and delusion.
dispassionately (dihs PASH uh niht lee)
adv.: without emotion; impartially. Strickland spoke dispassionately to the doctor who
was in a state of shock.
Into Action As you read, fill in a three-column chart. Write down the
two sides of the conflict, and indicate whether each conflict is external or
internal. Then, record how the conflict is—or is not—resolved.
Conflict
External or Internal?
Providence & Church of
England vs. gods and devils of Asia
external
Resolution
Synonyms Words that have similar—but
not necessarily the same—meanings are
synonyms. They may have different shades
of meaning or be used in different contexts.
For example, note the difference between
genial and amiable, two words that mean
“friendly.” Amiable indicates that a person is
good-natured and likable, while genial suggests that a person is cheerful and sociable.
Find It in Your Reading Like many horror stories, “The Mark of the
Beast” starts normally enough, with three British civil servants drinking
too much at a New Year’s Eve party, but events gradually escalate to a
horrible climax. As you read, record in your Reader/Writer Notebook the
techniques Kipling uses to create suspense in the story.
As you read, think about the similarities and differences
Te
TechFocus
between this story and horror movies you have seen. Consider the
techniques Kipling and the filmmakers use to tell their stories.
Learn It Online
Learn more about Kipling and his world through these
Internet links.
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Preparing to Read
993
Play Audio
“Your Gods and my Gods—do you or I know
which are the stronger?”
—Indian Proverb
SHORT STORY
The Mark of
the Beast
by Rudyard Kipling
Read with a Purpose
Read this story to explore the meaning of its title and
the nature of evil.
Build Background
This story is set in colonial India during the late nineteenth century. As a member of the British ruling class, Kipling witnessed
the conflicts that inevitably occur when two cultures are brought
into contact by force. Although the battle lines between imperial
Britain and colonial India seem clearly drawn in this story, the
identity of the victor (if there is one) is less obvious.
The title of the story is an allusion, or reference, to the final
book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation. According
to chapter 13, great evil will take over the world at some point in
the future. A many-headed monster called “The Beast” will rule,
and the beast’s followers will be branded with its mark.
East of Suez, some hold, the direct control of
Providence ceases; Man being there handed over to
the power of the Gods and Devils of Asia, and the
Church of England Providence only exercising an
occasional and modified supervision in the case of
Englishmen.
This theory accounts for some of the more
unnecessary horrors of life in India; it may be
stretched to explain my story.
My friend Strickland of the Police, who knows as
much of natives of India as is good for any man, can
bear witness to the facts of the case. Dumoise, our
doctor, also saw what Strickland and I saw. The inference which he drew from the evidence was entirely
incorrect. He is dead now; he died in a rather curious
manner, which has been elsewhere described.
When Fleete came to India he owned a little
money and some land in the Himalayas, near a place
called Dharmsala. Both properties had been left him
by an uncle, and he came out to finance them. He
was a big, heavy, genial, and inoffensive man. His
knowledge of natives was, of course, limited, and he
complained of the difficulties of the language.
A
He rode in from his place in the hills to
spend New Year in the station, and he stayed with
Strickland. On New Year’s Eve there was a big dinner at the club, and the night was excusably wet.1
When men foregather from the uttermost ends of the
Empire they have a right to be riotous. The Frontier
had sent down a contingent o’ Catch-’em-AliveO’s2 who had not seen twenty white faces for a year,
and were used to ride fifteen miles to dinner at the
1. the night was excusably wet: In other words, the
men drank a lot.
2. Catch-’em-Alive-O’s: men who were forced into service as soldiers.
A
Literary Focus Conflict What might Fleete’s lack of
knowledge concerning the Indian people and his complaints about their
language suggest about his attitude toward the Indian culture? What
kinds of conflicts might result from this attitude?
Vocabulary genial (JEEN yuhl) adj.: friendly.
994
next Fort at the risk of a
Fleete began the night
3
Khyberee bullet where
with sherry and bitters,
their drinks should lie.
drank champagne steadily
They profited by their new
up to dessert, then raw,
security, for they tried to
rasping Capri with all the
play pool with a curled-up
strength of whiskey, took
hedgehog found in the
benedictine with his coffee,
garden, and one of them
four or five whiskeys and
carried the marker round
sodas to improve his pool
the room in his teeth. Half
strokes, beer and bones6
at half-past two, winda dozen planters had come
ing up with old brandy.
in from the south and
Consequently, when he
were talking “horse” to the
came out, at half-past
Biggest Liar in Asia, who
three in the morning,
was trying to cap all their
into fourteen degrees of
stories at once. Everybody
frost, he was very angry
was there, and there was a
with his horse for coughgeneral closing up of ranks
ing, and tried to leapfrog
and taking stock of our
into the saddle. The horse
losses in dead or disabled
broke away and went to
that had fallen during the
his stables; so Strickland
past year. It was a very wet
and I formed a Guard of
night, and I remember
Dishonor to take Fleete
that we sang “Auld Lang
home.
Syne” with our feet in the
Our road lay through
Polo Championship Cup,
the bazaar, close to a little
and our heads among
temple of Hanuman, the
the stars, and swore
Viewing and Interpreting The narrator of the story describes
Monkey-god, who is a
that we were all dear
Hanuman as “a leading divinity worthy of respect.” How does this
leading divinity worthy
friends. Then some of us
statue convey a sense of respect and reference?
of respect. All gods have
went away and annexed
good points, just as have
Burma, and some tried
Hanuman statue at Durgiana Temple, Amritsar, Punjab, India.
all priests. Personally, I
to open up the Sudan and
attach much importance to Hanuman, and am kind to
were opened up by Fuzzies4 in that cruel scrub outside
Suakim,5 and some found stars and medals, and some
his people—the great gray apes of the hills. One never
were married, which was bad, and some did other
knows when one may want a friend.
things which were worse, and the others of us stayed
There was a light in the temple, and as we passed
in our chains and strove to make money on insuffiwe could hear voices of men chanting hymns. In a
cient experiences.
native temple the priests rise at all hours of the night
to do honor to their god. Before we would stop him,
Fleete dashed up the steps, patted two priests on
3. Khyberee: reference to the people of Khyber, a region
the back, and was gravely grinding the ashes of his
now part of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
cigar butt in to the forehead of the red stone image of
4. Fuzzies: Sudanese natives. British soldiers gave them
Hanuman. Strickland tried to drag him out, but he sat
this name because of their long, frizzy hair. In the poem
down and said solemnly:
“Fuzzy-Wuzzy” (1890), Kipling calls the Sudanese soldier “a first-class fightin’ man.”
5. Suakim: Suakin, Sudan; city on the Red Sea.
6. bones: dice.
The Mark of the Beast
995
“Shee that? Mark of the B—beasht! I made it.
Ishn’t it fine?”
B
In half a minute the temple was alive and noisy,
and Strickland, who knew what came of polluting
gods, said that things might occur. He, by virtue of his
official position, long residence in the country, and
weakness for going among the natives, was known
to the priests and he felt unhappy. Fleete sat on the
ground and refused to move. He said that “good old
Hanuman” made a very soft pillow.
Then, without any warning, a Silver Man came
out of a recess behind the image of the god. He was
perfectly naked in that bitter, bitter cold, and his body
shone like frosted silver, for he was what the Bible calls
“a leper as white as snow.” Also he had no face, because
he was a leper of some years’ standing, and his disease
was heavy upon him. We two stooped to haul Fleete
up, and the temple was filling and filling with folk who
seemed to spring from the earth, when the Silver Man
ran in under our arms, making a noise exactly like the
mewing of an otter, caught Fleete round the body and
dropped his head on Fleete’s breast before we could
wrench him away. Then he retired to a corner and sat
mewing while the crowd blocked all the doors.
The priests were very angry until the Silver Man
touched Fleete. That nuzzling seemed to sober them.
At the end of a few minutes’ silence one of the
priests came to Strickland and said, in perfect English,
“Take your friend away. He has done with Hanuman
but Hanuman has not done with him.” The crowd gave
room and we carried Fleete into the road.
C
Strickland was very angry. He said that we might
all three have been knifed, and that Fleete should
thank his stars that he had escaped without injury.
Fleete thanked no one. He said that he wanted to
go to bed. He was gorgeously drunk.
We moved on, Strickland silent and wrathful, until
Fleete was taken with violent shivering fits and sweating. He said that the smells of the bazaar were overpowering, and he wondered why slaughterhouses were
permitted so near English residences. “Can’t you smell
the blood?” said Fleete.
We put him to bed at last, just as the dawn was
breaking, and Strickland invited me to have another
whiskey and soda. While we were drinking he talked
of the trouble in the temple, and admitted that it baffled him completely. Strickland hates being mystified
by natives, because his business in life is to overmatch
them with their own weapons. He has not yet succeeded in doing this, but in fifteen or twenty years he
will have made some small progress.
“They should have mauled us,” he said, “instead of
mewing at us. I wonder what they meant. I don’t like it
one little bit.”
I said that the Managing Committee of the temple
would in all probability bring a criminal action against
us for insulting their religion. There was a section
of the Indian Penal Code which exactly met Fleete’s
offense. Strickland said he only hoped and prayed that
they would do this. Before I left I looked into Fleete’s
room, and saw him lying on his right side, scratching
his left breast. Then I went to bed cold, depressed, and
unhappy, at seven o’clock in the morning.
At one o’clock I rode over to Strickland’s house to
inquire after Fleete’s head. I imagined that it would be
a sore one. Fleete was breakfasting and seemed unwell.
His temper was gone, for he was abusing the cook for
not supplying him with an underdone chop. A man
who can eat raw meat after a wet night is a curiosity. I
told Fleete this and he laughed.
“You breed queer mosquitoes in these parts,” he
said. “I’ve been bitten to pieces, but only in one place.”
“Let’s have a look at the bite,” said Strickland. “It
may have gone down since this morning.”
While the chops were being cooked, Fleete opened
his shirt and showed us, just over his left breast, a
mark, the perfect double of the black rosettes—the
five or six irregular blotches arranged in a circle—on a
leopard’s hide. Strickland looked and said, “It was only
pink this morning. It’s grown black now.”
Fleete ran to a glass.
“By Jove!” he said, “this is nasty. What is it?”
We could not answer. Here the chops came in, all
red and juicy, and Fleete bolted three in a most offensive manner. He ate on his right grinders only, and
threw his head over his right shoulder as he snapped
B
C
Reading Focus Identifying Conflicts and Resolutions
What conflict is set in motion here?
996
What conflict might the priest’s statement foreshadow?
the meat. When he had finished, it struck him that
he had been behaving strangely, for he said apologetically, “I don’t think I ever felt so hungry in my
life. I’ve bolted like an ostrich.”
After breakfast Strickland said to me, “Don’t go.
Stay here, and stay for the night.”
Seeing that my house was not three miles from
Strickland’s, this request was absurd. But Strickland
insisted, and was going to say something, when
Fleete interrupted him by declaring in a shamefaced
way that he felt hungry again. Strickland sent a man
to my house to fetch over my bedding and a horse,
and we three went down to Strickland’s stables to
pass the hours until it was time to go out for a ride.
The man who has a weakness for horses never wearies of inspecting them; and when two men are killing time in this way they gather knowledge and lies
the one from the other.
There were five horses in the stables, and I shall
never forget the scene as we tried to look them
over. They seemed to have gone mad. They reared
and screamed and nearly tore up their pickets;7
they sweated and shivered and lathered and were
distraught with fear. Strickland’s horses used to
know him as well as his dogs; which made the matter more curious. We left the stable for fear of the
brutes throwing themselves in their panic. Then
Strickland turned back and called me. The horses
were still frightened, but they let us “gentle” and
make much of them, and put their heads in our
bosoms.
“They aren’t afraid of us,” said Strickland.
“D’you know, I’d give three months’ pay if Outrage
here could talk.”
But Outrage was dumb, and could only cuddle
up to his master and blow out his nostrils, as is the
custom of horses when they wish to explain things
but can’t. Fleete came up when we were in the stalls,
and as soon as the horses saw him, their fright broke
out afresh. It was all that we could do to escape from
the place unkicked. Strickland said, “They don’t
seem to love you, Fleete.”
The interior of the Lakshmana Temple was built during the 11th and 12th
centuries. Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India.
It was all we could do
to escape from the place
unkicked.
7. pickets: hitching posts.
Vocabulary distraught (dihs TRAWT) adj.: extremely
agitated.
997
“Nonsense,” said
Fleete; “my mare will
follow me like a dog.”
He went to her; she was
in a loose box;8 but as
he slipped the bars she
plunged, knocked him
down, and broke away
into the garden. I laughed,
but Strickland was not
amused. He took his
moustache in both fists
and pulled at it till it nearly
came out. Fleete, instead
of going off to chase his
property, yawned, saying
that he felt sleepy. He went
to the house to lie down,
which was a foolish way of
spending New Year’s Day.
Strickland sat with me
in the stables and asked
if I had noticed anything
Blue-eyed horse.
peculiar in Fleete’s manner. I said that he ate his food like a beast; but that this
might have been the result of living alone in the hills
out of the reach of society as refined and elevating as
ours for instance. Strickland was not amused. I do
not think that he listened to me, for his next sentence
referred to the mark on Fleete’s breast, and I said that
it might have been caused by blister flies, or that it was
possibly a birthmark newly born and now visible for
the first time. We both agreed that it was unpleasant
to look at, and Strickland found occasion to say that I
was a fool.
“I can’t tell you what I think now,” said he,
“because you would call me a madman; but you must
stay with me for the next few days, if you can. I want
you to watch Fleete, but don’t tell me what you think
till I have made up my mind.”
D
8. loose box: stall in which the horse is free to move about.
D
Literary Focus Conflict What explanation can you offer for
Strickland’s internal conflict concerning the possible cause of the mark on
Fleete’s chest? What larger conflict and theme might his internal conflict
point to?
998
“But I am dining out
tonight,” I said.
“So am I,” said
Strickland, “and so is
Fleete. At least if he
doesn’t change his mind.”
We walked about the
garden smoking, but saying nothing—because we
were friends, and talking
spoils good tobacco—till
our pipes were out. Then
we went to wake up Fleete.
He was wide awake and
fidgeting about his room.
“I say, I want some
more chops,” he said. “Can
I get them?”
We laughed and said,
“Go and change. The
ponies will be round in a
minute.”
All right,” said Fleete.
“I’ll go when I get the
chops—underdone ones, mind.”
He seemed to be quite in earnest. It was four
o’clock, and we had had breakfast at one; still, for a
long time, he demanded those underdone chops. Then
he changed into riding clothes and went out into the
veranda. His pony—the mare had not been caught—
would not let him come near. All three horses were
unmanageable—mad with fear—and finally Fleete said
that he would stay at home and get something to eat.
Strickland and I rode out wondering. As we passed
the Temple of Hanuman the Silver Man came out and
mewed at us.
“He is not one of the regular priests of the temple,”
said Strickland. “I think I should peculiarly like to lay
my hands on him.”
There was no spring in our gallop on the racecourse that evening. The horses were stale, and moved
as though they had been ridden out.
“The fright after breakfast has been too much for
them,” said Strickland.
That was the only remark he made through the
remainder of the ride. Once or twice, I think, he swore
to himself; but that did not count.
We came back in the dark at seven o’clock, and
saw that there was no lights in the bungalow. “Careless
ruffians my servants are!” said Strickland.
My horse reared at something on the carriage
drive, and Fleete stood up under its nose.
“What are you doing, groveling about the garden?” said Strickland.
But both horses bolted and nearly threw us. We
dismounted by the stables and returned to Fleete, who
was on his hands and knees under the orange bushes.
“What the devil’s wrong with you?” said
Strickland.
“Nothing, nothing in the world,” said Fleete,
speaking very quickly and thickly. “I’ve been gardening—botanizing, you know. The smell of the earth is
delightful. I think I’m going for a walk—a long walk—
all night.”
Then I saw that there was something excessively
out of order somewhere, and I said to Strickland, “I
am not dining out.”
E
“Bless you!” said Strickland. “Here, Fleete, get up.
You’ll catch fever there. Come in to dinner and let’s
have the lamps lit. We’ll dine at home.”
Fleete stood up unwillingly, and said, “No lamps—
no lamps. It’s much nicer here. Let’s dine outside and
have some more chops—lots of ’em and underdone—
bloody ones with gristle.”
Now a December evening in Northern India is bitterly cold, and Fleete’s suggestion was that of a maniac.
“Come in,” said Strickland sternly. “Come in at
once.”
Fleete came, and when the lamps were brought,
we saw that he was literally plastered with dirt from
head to foot. He must have been rolling in the garden.
He shrank from the light and went to his room. His
eyes were horrible to look at. There was a green light
behind them, not in them, if you understand, and the
man’s lower lip hung down.
Strickland said, “There is going to be trouble—big
trouble—tonight. Don’t you change your riding
things.”
We waited and waited for Fleete’s reappearance,
and ordered dinner in the meantime. We could hear
him moving about his own room, but there was no
light there. Presently from the room came the longdrawn howl of a wolf.
People write and talk lightly of blood running cold
and hair standing up, and things of that kind. Both
sensations are too horrible to be trifled with. My heart
stopped as though a knife had been driven through it,
and Strickland turned as white as the tablecloth.
The howl was repeated, and was answered by
another howl far across the fields.
That set the gilded roof on the horror. Strickland
dashed into Fleete’s room. I followed, and we saw
Fleete getting out of the window. He made beast noises
in the back of his throat. He could not answer us when
we shouted at him. He spat.
I don’t quite remember what followed, but I think
that Strickland must have stunned him with the long
bootjack,9 or else I should never have been able to sit
on his chest. Fleete could not speak, he could only
snarl, and his snarls were those of a wolf, not of a man.
The human spirit must have been giving way all day
and have died out with the twilight. We were dealing
with a beast that had once been Fleete.
F
The affair was beyond any human and rational
experience. I tried to say “hydrophobia,”10 but the
word wouldn’t come, because I knew that I was lying.
We bound this beast with leather thongs of the
punkah11 rope, and tied its thumbs and big toes
together, and gagged it with a shoehorn, which makes
a very efficient gag if you know how to arrange it. Then
we carried it into the dining room, and sent a man
to Dumoise, the doctor, telling him to come over at
E
F
Literary Focus Conflict What does the narrator’s use of the
phrase “out of order”—instead of a word such as wrong—suggest about
the nature of the conflicts and their effects in the story?
9. bootjack: device for pulling off boots, often made of
cast iron.
10. hydrophobia: rabies. One of the effects of rabies is an
inability to swallow water.
11. punkah: swinging fan suspended from the ceiling. It is
operated by pulling an attached cord or rope.
Explain the internal conflict described in this passage. How is it resolved?
999
once. After we had dispatched the messenger and were
drawing breath, Strickland said, “It’s no good. This
isn’t any doctor’s work.” I, also, knew that he spoke the
truth.
The beast’s head was free, and it threw it about
from side to side. Anyone entering the room would
have believed that we were curing a wolf ’s pelt. That
was the most loathsome accessory of all.
Strickland sat with his chin in the heel of his fist,
watching the beast as it wriggled on the ground, but
saying nothing. The shirt had been torn open in the
scuffle and showed the black rosette mark on the left
breast. It stood out like a blister.
In the silence of the watching we heard something
without mewing like a she-otter. We both rose to
our feet, and, I answer for myself, not Strickland, felt
sick—actually and physically sick. We told each other,
as did the men in Pinafore,12 that it was the cat.
Dumoise arrived, and I never saw a little man
so unprofessionally shocked. He said that it was a
heart-rending case of hydrophobia, and that nothing
could be done. At least any palliative measures would
only prolong the agony. The beast was foaming at the
mouth. Fleete, as we told Dumoise, had been bitten by
dogs once or twice. Any man who keeps half a dozen
terriers must expect a nip now and again. Dumoise
could offer no help. He could only certify that Fleete
was dying of hydrophobia. The beast was then howling, for it had managed to spit out the shoehorn.
Dumoise said that he would be ready to certify to the
cause of death, and that the end was certain. He was a
good little man, and he offered to remain with us; but
Strickland refused the kindness. He did not wish to
poison Dumoise’s New Year. He would only ask him
not to give the real cause of Fleete’s death to the public.
So Dumoise left, deeply agitated; and as soon as
the noise of the cart wheels had died away, Strickland
told me, in a whisper, his suspicions. They were so
wildly improbable that he dared not say them out
aloud; and I, who entertained all Strickland’s beliefs,
was so ashamed of owning to them that I pretended to
disbelieve.
“Even if the Silver Man had bewitched Fleete for
polluting the image of Hanuman, the punishment
could not have fallen so quickly.”
G
As I was whispering this the cry outside the house
rose again, and the beast fell into a fresh paroxysm of
struggling till we were afraid that the thongs that held
it would give way.
“Watch!” said Strickland. “If this happens six
times I shall take the law into my own hands. I order
you to help me.”
He went into his room and came out in a few
minutes with the barrels of an old shotgun, a piece of
fishing line, some thick cord, and his heavy wooden
bedstead. I reported that the convulsions had followed
the cry by two seconds in each case, and the beast
seemed perceptibly weaker.
Strickland muttered, “But he can’t take away the
life! He can’t take away the life!”
I said, though I knew that I was arguing against
myself, “It may be a cat. It must be a cat. If the Silver
Man is responsible, why does he dare to come here?”
Strickland arranged the wood on the hearth, put
the gun barrels into the glow of the fire, spread the
twine on the table, and broke a walking stick in two.
There was one yard of fishing line, gut lapped with
wire, such as is used for mahseer13 fishing, and he tied
the two ends together in a loop.
Then he said, “How can we catch him? He must be
taken alive and unhurt.”
I said that we must trust in Providence, and go out
softly with polo sticks into the shrubbery at the front
of the house. The man or animal that made the cry
was evidently moving round the house as regularly as
a night watchman. We could wait in the bushes till he
came by and knock him over.
H
12. Pinafore: H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), a comic operetta by
W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Lovers in the play
attempt to elope. When they are discovered, the cast
sings, “Why, what was that? . . . It was—it was the cat!”
13. mahseer (MAH suhr): large Indian freshwater fish of
the carp family.
G
H
Explain the narrator’s internal conflict. How is his conflict the result of
external conflicts in the story?
1000 Unit 5 • Collection 10
Literary Focus Conflict To what force is the narrator referring
when he says they must “trust in Providence”? What does this statement
suggest about his attitude toward the conflicts in the story?
C U LT U R E L I N K
Hanuman
The Hindu deity Hanuman, an offspring of the wind
god and a nymph, is usually portrayed as a red-faced
monkey who stands erect like a human. Hanuman
appears in the Indian epics the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata as a brave and loyal aid to the hero-god
Rama. Hanuman is regarded as a helpful guardian
spirit, and his loyalty to Rama is considered the perfect
model of bhakti, or human devotion to a god. Also
called Mahavira, “The Great Hero,” Hanuman is seen
as a sympathetic helper of humans. One of the most
common species of Indian monkeys is named after
him and is considered sacred. Hanuman is worshipped
to this day in temples devoted to him throughout
India. He is often portrayed holding a mace, a symbol
of strength and protection.
Ask Yourself
Of all the Hindu gods, why is it significant that
Fleete is disrespectful to Hanuman in “The Mark
of the Beast”?
Strickland accepted this suggestion, and we
slipped out from a bathroom window into the front
veranda and then across the carriage drive into the
bushes.
In the moonlight we could see the leper coming round the corner of the house. He was perfectly
naked, and from time to time he mewed and stopped
to dance with his shadow. It was an unattractive sight,
and thinking of poor Fleete, brought to such degradation by so foul a creature, I put away all my doubts and
resolved to help Strickland from the heated gun barrels
to the loop of twine—from the loins to the head and
back again—with all tortures that might be needful.
The leper halted in the front porch for a moment
and we jumped out on him with the sticks. He was
wonderfully strong, and we were afraid that he might
escape or be fatally injured before we caught him. We
had an idea that lepers were frail creatures, but this
proved to be incorrect. Strickland knocked his legs
from under him and I put my foot on his neck. He
mewed hideously, and even through my riding boots
(above) Hanuman Revealing Rama and Sita
Enshrined in his Heart (1880) by a member of
the Patua caste, Bengal School. Watercolor on
paper. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
I could feel that his flesh was not the flesh of a clean
man.
He struck at us with his hand- and feet-stumps.
We looped the lash of a dog-whip round him under
the armpits, and dragged him backward into the hall
and so into the dining room where the beast lay. There
we tied him with trunk straps. He made no attempt to
escape, but mewed.
When we confronted him with the beast the scene
was beyond description. The beast doubled backward
into a bow as though he had been poisoned with
strychnine, and moaned in the most pitiable fashion.
Several other things happened also, but they cannot be
put down here.
“I think I was right,” said Strickland. “Now we will
ask him to cure this case.”
But the leper only mewed. Strickland wrapped
a towel round his hand and took the gun barrels out
of the fire. I put the half of the broken walking stick
through the loop of fishing line and buckled the leper
comfortably to Strickland’s bedstead. I understood
1001
then how men and women and little children can
endure to see a witch burnt alive; for the beast was
moaning on the floor, and though the Silver Man
had no face, you could see horrible feelings passing
through the slab that took its place, exactly as waves
of heat play across red-hot iron—gun barrels, for
instance.
Strickland shaded his eyes with his hands for a
moment and we got to work. This part is not to be
printed.
The dawn was beginning to break when the leper
spoke. His mewings had not been satisfactory up to
that point. The beast had fainted from exhaustion and
the house was very still. We unstrapped the leper and
told him to take away the evil spirit. He crawled to the
beast and laid his hand upon the left breast. That was
all. Then he fell face down and whined, drawing in his
breath as he did so.
We watched the face of the beast, and saw the
soul of Fleete coming back into the eyes. Then a sweat
broke out on the forehead and the eyes—they were
human eyes—closed. We waited for an hour, but Fleete
still slept. We carried him to his room and bade the
leper go, giving him the bedstead, and the sheet on
the bedstead to cover his nakedness, the gloves and
the towels with which we had touched him, and the
whip that had been hooked round his body. He put the
sheet about him and went out into the early morning
without speaking or mewing.
I
Strickland wiped his face and sat down. A night
gong, far away in the city, made seven o’clock.
“Exactly four-and-twenty hours!” said Strickland.
“And I’ve done enough to ensure my dismissal from
the service, besides permanent quarters in a lunatic
asylum. Do you believe that we are awake?”
The red-hot gun barrel had fallen on the floor and
was singeing the carpet. The smell was entirely
real.
J
I
Which phrase or phrases in this passage indicate that at least some of the
conflicts in the story have been resolved?
J
Literary Focus Conflict The narrator does not respond when
Strickland asks, “Do you believe that we are awake?” However, the narrator
does tell the reader that the smell of the burned carpet is “entirely real.” If
the narrator were to answer Strickland’s question, what does this detail
suggest he might say?
1002
That morning at eleven we two together went
to wake up Fleete. We looked and saw that the black
leopard rosette on his chest had disappeared. He was
very drowsy and tired, but as soon as he saw us, he
said, “Oh! Confound you fellows. Happy New Year to
you. Never mix your liquors. I’m nearly dead.”
“Thanks for your kindness, but you’re over time,”
said Strickland. “Today is the morning of the second.
You’ve slept the clock round with a vengeance.”
The door opened, and little Dumoise put his head
in. He had come on foot, and fancied that we were laying out Fleete.
“I’ve brought a nurse,” said Dumoise. “I suppose
that she can come in for . . . what is necessary.”
“By all means,” said Fleete cheerily, sitting up in
bed. “Bring on your nurses.”
Dumoise was dumb. Strickland led him out and
explained that there must have been a mistake in the
diagnosis. Dumoise remained dumb and left the house
hastily. He considered that his professional reputation
had been injured, and was inclined to make a personal
matter of the recovery. Strickland went out too. When
he came back, he said that he had been to call on the
Temple of Hanuman to offer redress for the pollution
of the god, and had been solemnly assured that no
white man had ever touched the idol, and that he was
an incarnation of all the virtues laboring under a
delusion. “What do you think?” said Strickland.
I said, “‘There are more things . . .’ ”14
14. “There are more things”: reference to William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5, lines 166–167: “There
are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are
dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Vocabulary redress (REE drehs) n.: payment or action that
serves to remedy an injustice or injury.
delusion (dih LOO zhuhn) n.: false belief.
But Strickland hates that quotation. He says that
I have worn it threadbare.
One other curious thing happened which frightened me as much as anything in all the night’s work.
When Fleete was dressed he came into the dining
room and sniffed. He had a quaint trick of moving
his nose when he sniffed. “Horrid doggy smell, here,”
said he. “You should really keep those terriers of
yours in better order. Try sulfur, Strick.”
But Strickland did not answer. He caught hold
of the back of a chair, and, without warning, went
into an amazing fit of hysterics. It is terrible to see a
strong man overtaken with hysteria. Then it struck
me that we had fought for Fleete’s soul with the Silver
Man in that room, and had disgraced ourselves as
Englishmen forever, and I laughed and gasped and
gurgled just as shamefully as Strickland, while Fleete
thought that we had both gone mad. We never told
him what we had done.
K
Some years later, when Strickland had married
and was a churchgoing member of society for his
wife’s sake, we reviewed the incident dispassionately,
and Strickland suggested that I should put it before
the public.
I cannot myself see that this step is likely to clear
up the mystery; because, in the first place, no one
will believe a rather unpleasant story, and, in the
second, it is well known to every right-minded man
that the gods of the heathen are stone and brass, and
any attempt to deal with them otherwise is justly
condemned.
A Hindu ascetic traditionally regarded as
having magical powers.
K
Literary Focus Conflict How have Strickland and the
narrator “disgraced” themselves “as Englishmen forever” as a result of the
conflicts in the story?
Vocabulary dispassionately (dihs PASH uh niht lee) adv.:
without emotion; impartially.
We had fought For Fleete’s
soul with the Silver Man in
that Room, and had
disgraced ourselves Forever
1003
Quick Check
Literary Analysis
1. After Fleete’s act of disrespect, why do the
priests let the men leave the temple, seemingly
unharmed?
2. What clues reveal that Fleete is becoming something nonhuman?
3. Why does the Silver Man remove the evil spirit
from Fleete?
Read with a Purpose
Reading Skills: Identifying Conflicts and
Resolutions
5. Review the chart you filled in as you read. Then,
add a fourth column to the chart, and use a
check mark to indicate which conflicts in the
story result from cultural misunderstandings.
External or
Internal?
Providence
& Church
of England
vs. gods and
devils of
Asia
external
1004
7. Analyze Do you think there is a clear victor in
the story? Why or why not?
8. Interpret Re-read the Indian proverb at the
beginning of the story. How does the proverb
relate to the story’s theme?
Literary Skills: Conflict
4. The title of the story is an allusion to the Book
of Revelation in the Bible. Find other places in
the story where Kipling alludes to the Book of
Revelation. What do these allusions suggest
about Fleete’s character and actions? Although
the Silver Man bewitches Fleete, in what way
is Fleete’s wolflike behavior symbolic of the
beast—or the evil—inherent in him?
Conflict
6. Evaluate What does this story suggest were the
issues that marked the British presence in India?
Resolution
Cultural Misunderstandings (√)
9. Infer Do Fleete, Strickland, and the narrator
learn anything from the internal and external
conflicts they undergo? Support your response
with evidence from the story.
Literary Skills Review: Narrative Voice
10. Make Judgments A writer’s narrative voice is
created by tone, diction, and distinctive use of
language. Describe the narrator’s voice in this
story. What does his voice suggest about his
character, and how does it affect the telling of
the tale?
Use It in Your Writing Write a scene for a story in
which a conflict leads to a terrible result. Use suspense to create a gripping scene and capture your
reader’s attention.
In the end, why does the narrator consider
the events in the story to be a “mystery”?
To support your answer, consider his
actions, statements, and tone.
internal conflict and external conflict; analyze
narrative voice. Reading Skills Analyze
conflicts and resolutions. Vocabulary
Skills Understand denotation and
connotation. Writing Skills Write fiction.
Your Turn
Write the Vocabulary word that best completes the
meaning of each sentence: genial, distraught,
redress, delusion, dispassionately.
1. Presenting both sides of the issue, the journalist
wrote
about the case.
2. The lost child was frightened and
3. A tour guide should be
4. The victims sought
.
.
for the crime.
To enhance your understanding of connotations,
answer the following questions:
6. The narrator comments, “We were dealing with
a beast that had once been Fleete.” What does
the word beast suggest that animal does not?
7. The narrator says, “Though the Silver Man had
no face, you could see horrible feelings passing through the slab that took its place.” What
images and associations does slab call to mind?
5. The king’s
that he was all powerful
caused him to underestimate his enemies.
Vocabulary Skills: Connotations
To determine which word to use in a passage, writers consider a word’s shades of meaning as well as its
connotations, the emotions and associations evoked
by a word. Consider, for example, why Kipling might
have chosen to use the word dispassionately instead of
objectively in the following passage from “The Mark of
the Beast”:
Some years later,… we reviewed the incident
dispassionately, and Strickland suggested that I
should put it before the public.
Both dispassionately and objectively mean “in a manner
free of bias; impartially.” However, “emotionlessly” and
“passionlessly” are also part of the denotation (the dictionary definition) of dispassionately. While objectively
is a neutral word, dispassionately often connotes an
emotional coldness. Kipling might have chosen to use
dispassionately to create a contrast with the intense,
complex emotions Strickland and the narrator experienced during their struggles years ago.
Keep in mind that although a word’s denotation
is objective, its connotations are subjective. A word
might evoke different emotions and associations for
each reader.
Synonyms You can find synonyms of a word in
a thesaurus, but you should use a dictionary to
check the precise definition of each synonym.
Often a dictionary will include examples that show
the contexts in which a word is used. Sometimes a
dictionary entry will also include a list of synonyms
and an explanation of their shades of meaning.
For each of the following words, distraught,
redress, and delusion, list two synonyms, and
explain the different shades of meaning of each
word and its synonyms. Use a thesaurus and a
dictionary to complete this activity.
Academic Vocabulary
Talk About
In a small group, discuss the benefits of learning
about other cultures and the risks of responding
disrespectfully to cultural differences.
Learn It Online
Learn more about connotations with WordSharp.
go.hrw.com
L12-1005
Go
SKILLS FOCUS Grammar Skills Use modifiers correctly. Writing Skills Analyze a
short story; write fiction.
Grammar Link
Dangling Modifiers
What would you think if you came across the following
sentence in your reading?
Fascinated by British and Indian cultural conflicts,
some of Kipling’s stories are set in India.
Would you wonder who was fascinated by the conflicts? This sentence is confusing because it contains
a dangling modifier—a word, phrase, or clause that
does not sensibly, or reasonably, modify any word or
group of words in a sentence. There are three ways to
correct dangling modifiers:
· Add the word that the modifier describes or qualifies,
and reword the sentence as necessary:
Fascinated by British and Indian cultural conflicts,
Kipling set some of his stories in India.
· Add words to the modifier to make its meaning clear:
Since Kipling was fascinated by British and Indian
cultural conflicts, some of his stories are set in
India.
· Reword the entire sentence:
Kipling was fascinated by British and Indian cultural conflicts, so he set some of his stories in India.
Your Turn
Rewrite to correct the dangling modifiers.
1. Grinding cigar ashes into the image of
Hanuman, it insults the god.
2. Bewitched by the leper, Fleete’s presence
provokes fear in the horses.
3. Transformed into a beast, the narrator and
Strickland have to take action.
Writing Application Correct a dangling modifier in a
paragraph you have already written.
1006
As you respond to the Choices,
use these Academic Vocabulary
REVIEW
Create a Horror Movie
Te
TechFocus
Think about
the techniques Kipling uses
to create a sense of horror
in this story. Then, in a small
group, create a short video
adaptation of a scene from
“The Mark of the Beast.”
Movie poster for The Island of Dr Moreau (1977),
Carefully consider what
based on a novel by H. G. Wells.
techniques you will use to
horrify your audience, and
how these techniques differ from or are the same as
Kipling’s.
CONNECT
Evaluate the Story
Critics have called “The Mark of the Beast” “nasty,”
“poisonous,” and even “sadistic.” What is your evaluation of the story? Do you think it is a well-told,
suspenseful horror story? Is it a complex, insightful
examination of British imperialism? Write an essay
expressing your views of the work. Be sure to support your points with evidence from the text.
EXTEND
Write a Story
In the beginning of “The Mark of the Beast,” the narrator says that Dumoise “died in a rather curious
manner.” Write your own story telling how and why
Dumoise died. Use a first-person narrator, and consider how your choice of narrator will affect the telling of your tale. Make sure the details in your story
are consistent with what you know about Dumoise.
COMPARING TEXTS: WORLD LITERATURE
Realism and the
Short Story
The Stone Breakers (1849) by Gustave Courbet (1819–1877). Oil on canvas.
Destroyed in 1945 . Formerly at Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden, Germany/ Staatliche Kunstammlungen, Dresden.
You have just read “The Mark of the
Beast” by Rudyard Kipling. In this Comparing Texts: World Literature section,
you will read three short stories from
other countries that exemplify the style
known as realism.
CONTENTS
How Much Land Does a Man Need?
by Leo Tolstoy
The Bet
by Anton Chekhov
The Jewels
by Guy de Maupassant
Comparing Texts
1007
MEET THE WRITER
Leo Tolstoy
How Much Land
Does a Man
Need?
How can appearance
be different from
reality?
QuickWrite
Take a few notes in your Reader/Writer Notebook
on the difference between “wants” and “needs.”
Do most people want more than they need?
(1828–1910)
The death of Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy was front-page
news in England and America. At the age of eighty-two, the
great writer had run away from his family, seeking a place
where he could lead a simple, hermit’s life. He became ill in a
remote train station and died of pneumonia in the stationmaster’s office.
An Aristocratic Beginning
Tolstoy was born to wealthy aristocratic parents who died
before Tolstoy was nine. He and his siblings were raised by his
aunts on the family estate. At nineteen, Tolstoy split his
inheritance with his brothers and became the master of his
family’s estate and its three hundred serfs. Within three years,
he had gambled away about one fourth of his inheritance.
Looking for adventure, he joined the Russian army and fought
bravely during the Crimean War. Tolstoy’s contemplative nature
and serious moral outlook emerged in response to the
suffering that he witnessed during the war.
In 1859, Tolstoy opened a school on his estate for his serfs’
children. Soon after, he married Sonya Andreyevna Bers, who,
in addition to bearing thirteen children, laboriously recopied
her husband’s manuscripts. She also took over the management of his estate, which freed Tolstoy to write his greatest
works, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877).
A Spiritual Conversion
After years of moral questioning, Tolstoy underwent a shattering spiritual conversion. Convinced that the purpose of life was
to do good works, he began to emulate Russia’s Christian
peasants. He renounced private ownership, the Orthodox
Church, and the czarist government. Although Tolstoy
repudiated his early works for their focus on aristocracy, his
reputation today rests primarily on those early novels: War and
Peace, a monumental telling of the lives of five aristocratic
families during the Napoleonic Wars, and Anna Karenina, the
tragic story of a woman who gives up her husband and child
for what she thinks is true love.
How would you describe the two
distinct parts of Tolstoy’s life?
1008
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Understand
allegory. Reading Skills Identify theme.
Allegory Tolstoy’s story “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” is an
allegory, a story that operates on both literal and symbolic levels. The
characters, settings, and events of an allegory can therefore be understood both for what they are (the literal meaning) and for the abstract
principles they represent (the symbolic meaning). Characters in allegories
often stand for virtues and vices—pride, for example, or innocence, or
greed. As you read this story, try to determine what the various elements
(such as Pahom, the Devil, and the land itself ) symbolize.
Identifying Theme A theme is the central idea or insight revealed in
a work of literature. Writers rarely state the theme of a story explicitly;
instead, they reveal the theme by letting us see characters in action. By
the end of a story, the characters have often discovered something about
themselves, and, we, the readers, also participate in this discovery. That
discovery about human life is the story’s theme.
Into Action There are several ways to identify theme. You can ask
yourself what the main character has discovered at the story’s conclusion,
or look for key passages that seem especially important. You can also
check the story’s title, which sometimes gives a clue to its theme. As you
read this story, use a chart like the one below to record key details that
might point to the theme.
piqued (peekt) v. used as adj.: provoked;
resentful. The peasant woman was piqued
when her older, wealthier sister boasted of
the benefits of town life.
disparaged (dihs PAR ihjd) v.: belittled;
spoke negatively of. The peasant woman
disparaged her sister’s prosperous life.
aggrieved (uh GREEVD) v. used as adj.:
offended. Pahom felt aggrieved when the
Judges acquitted Simon of any wrongdoing.
arable (AR uh buhl) adj.: fit to be farmed or
cultivated. Much of Pahom’s new land was
arable.
haggled (HAG uhld) v.: argued about a price.
Pahom haggled with the peasant to get a
lower price on the land.
prostrate (PRAHS trayt) adj.: lying flat. In his
dream, Pahom saw himself lying prostrate on
the ground.
Clues to Theme
The peasant sister says “Gain and pain
are brothers twain.”
This statement seems to relate to the
story’s title.
Find It in Your Reading The characters, events, and settings of an
allegory stand for abstract things or ideas. For example, a character
might stand for temptation or a setting might represent despair or
happiness. In your Reader/Writer Notebook, write down your ideas about
how this story could be made into a modern allegory by updating the
characters, events, setting, and title.
Learn It Online
Learn more about Tolstoy on the Writers’ Lives site.
go.hrw.com
L12-1009
Go
Preparing to Read
1009
SHORT STORY
How Much
Land Does a
Man Need?
by Leo Tolstoy
translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude
1010
Read with a Purpose
Read to discover how a man’s greed consumes him.
Build Background
Until Czar Alexander II ordered their emancipation in 1861,
Russian peasants, called serfs, were the virtual slaves of landowners and aristocrats. Serfs could be bought or sold, and were not
allowed to own property. When Tolstoy wrote this story in 1886,
serfs had already experienced twenty-five years of freedom. While
no one (and certainly not Tolstoy the reformer) wished to see
them thrown back into bondage, Tolstoy questions in this parable
whether the peasants’ progress had brought changes they would
come to regret.
A Settler’s Family (circa 1907–1915) by Sergei
Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii. Photograph. Digital color
rendering of original tri-part glass negatives.
Play Audio
A
n elder sister came to visit her younger sister in
the country. The elder was married to a tradesman in town, the younger to a peasant in the
village. As the sisters sat over their tea talking, the elder
began to boast of the advantages of town life: saying how
comfortably they lived there, how well they dressed, what
fine clothes her children wore, what good things they ate
and drank, and how she went to the theater, promenades,
and entertainments.
The younger sister was piqued, and in turn
disparaged the life of a tradesman, and stood up for that
of a peasant.
“I would not change my way of life for yours,” said
she. “We may live roughly, but at least we are free from
anxiety. You live in better style than we do, but though
you often earn more than you need, you are very likely to
lose all you have. You know the proverb, ‘Loss and gain
are brothers twain.’ It often happens that people who are
wealthy one day are begging their bread the next. Our
way is safer. Though a peasant’s life is not a fat one, it is a
long one. We shall never grow rich, but we shall always
have enough to eat.”
A
The elder sister said sneeringly:
“Enough? Yes, if you like to share with the pigs and
the calves! What do you know of elegance or manners!
However much your goodman may slave, you will die as
you are living—on a dung heap—and your children the
same.”
“Well, what of that?” replied the younger. “Of course
our work is rough and coarse. But, on the other hand, it
is sure, and we need not bow to anyone. But you, in your
towns, are surrounded by temptations; today all may be
right, but tomorrow the Evil One may tempt your husband with cards, wine, or women, and all will go to ruin.
Don’t such things happen often enough?”
B
A
Reading Focus Identifying Theme The appearance of proverbs
in a story is usually important. How would you state the proverbin this
paragraph in your own words?
B Literary Focus Allegory The two sisters are described as complete
opposites. Which sister might stand for boastfulness? Which sister might stand
for acceptance of her lot in life?
Vocabulary piqued (peekt) v. used as adj.: provoked; resentful.
disparaged (dihs PAR ihjd) v.: belittled; spoke negatively of.
1011
Pahom, the master of the house, was lying on
the top of the stove1 and he listened to the women’s
chatter.
“It is perfectly true,” thought he. “Busy as we are
from childhood tilling mother earth, we peasants have
no time to let any nonsense settle in our heads. Our
only trouble is that we haven’t land enough. If I had
plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself!”
The women finished their tea, chatted a while
about dress, and then cleared away the tea things and
lay down to sleep.
But the Devil had been sitting behind the stove,
and had heard all that was said. He was pleased that
the peasant’s wife had led her husband into boasting,
and that he had said that if he had plenty of land he
would not fear the Devil himself.
“All right,” thought the Devil. “We will have a
tussle. I’ll give you land enough; and by means of that
land I will get you into my power.”
C
Close to the village there lived a lady, a small landowner who had an estate of about three hundred acres.
She had always lived on good terms with the peasants
until she engaged as her steward an old soldier, who
took to burdening the people with fines. However
careful Pahom tried to be, it happened again and again
that now a horse of his got among the lady’s oats, now
a cow strayed into her garden, now his calves found
their way into her meadows—and he always had to
pay a fine.
Pahom paid up, but grumbled and, going home
in a temper, was rough with his family. All through
that summer, Pahom had much trouble because of this
steward, and he was even glad when winter came and
the cattle had to be stabled. Though he grudged the
fodder when they could no longer graze on the pastureland, at least he was free from anxiety about them.
In the winter the news got about that the lady was
going to sell her land and that the keeper of the inn on
the high road was bargaining for it. When the peasants
heard this they were very much alarmed.
1. lying… stove: In Russian houses, large stoves made of
brick or tile radiated heat to warm a room. Rich people
would not lie on top of their stoves.
C
Reading Focus Identifying Theme What plan does the
Devil form to entrap and control Pahom?
1012
“Well,” thought they, “if the innkeeper gets the
land, he will worry us with fines worse than the lady’s
steward. We all depend on that estate.”
So the peasants went on behalf of their
Commune,2 and asked the lady not to sell the land to
the innkeeper, offering her a better price for it themselves. The lady agreed to let them have it. Then the
peasants tried to arrange for the Commune to buy the
whole estate, so that it might be held by them all in
common. They met twice to discuss it, but could not
settle the matter; the Evil One sowed discord among
them and they could not agree. So they decided to buy
the land individually, each according to his means; and
the lady agreed to this plan as she had to the other. D
Presently Pahom heard that a neighbor of his was
buying fifty acres, and that the lady had consented to
accept one half in cash and to wait a year for the other
half. Pahom felt envious.
“Look at that,” thought he, “the land is all being
sold, and I shall get none of it.” So he spoke to his wife.
“Other people are buying,” said he, “and we must
also buy twenty acres or so. Life is becoming impossible. That steward is simply crushing us with his fines.”
So they put their heads together and considered
how they could manage to buy it. They had one hundred rubles3 laid by. They sold a colt and one half of
their bees, hired out one of their sons as a laborer, and
took his wages in advance; borrowed the rest from a
brother-in-law, and so scraped together half the purchase money.
Having done this, Pahom chose out a farm of
forty acres, some of it wooded, and went to the lady
to bargain for it. They came to an agreement, and he
shook hands with her upon it and paid her a deposit
in advance. Then they went to town and signed the
deeds, he paying half the price down, and undertaking
to pay the remainder within two years.
So now Pahom had land of his own. He borrowed
seed, and sowed it on the land he had bought. The
harvest was a good one, and within a year he had man-
2. Commune: village council.
3. rubles: units of money in Russia
D
Literary Focus Allegory How does the Evil One influence the
outcome of the discussion?
aged to pay off his debts both to the lady and to his
brother-in-law. So he became a landowner, plowing
and sowing his own land, making hay on his own land,
cutting his own trees, and feeding his cattle on his own
pasture. When he went out to plow his fields, or to
look at his growing corn,4 or at his grass meadows, his
heart would fill with joy. The grass that grew and the
flowers that bloomed there seemed to him unlike any
that grew elsewhere. Formerly, when he had passed by
that land, it had appeared the same as any other land,
but now it seemed quite different.
So Pahom was well contented, and everything
would have been right if the neighboring peasants
would only not have trespassed on his cornfields and
meadows. He appealed to them most civilly, but they
still went on: Now the Communal herdsmen would
let the village cows stray into his meadows, then
horses from the night pasture would get among his
corn. Pahom turned them out again and again, and
forgave their owners, and for a long time he forbore
to prosecute anyone. But at last he lost patience and
complained to the District Court. He knew it was the
peasants’ want of land, and no evil intent on their part,
that caused the trouble, but he thought:
“I cannot go on overlooking it or they will destroy
all I have. They must be taught a lesson.”
E
So he had them up, gave them one lesson, and
then another, and two or three of the peasants were
fined. After a time Pahom’s neighbors began to bear
him a grudge for this, and would now and then let
their cattle on to his land on purpose. One peasant
even got into Pahom’s wood at night and cut down
five young lime trees5 for their bark. Pahom passing
through the wood one day noticed something white.
He came nearer and saw the stripped trunks lying on
the ground, and close by stood the stumps where the
trees had been. Pahom was furious.
“If he had only cut one here and there it would
have been bad enough,” thought Pahom, “but the ras-
cal has actually cut down a whole clump. If I could
only find out who did this, I would pay him out.”
He racked his brain as to who it could be. Finally
he decided: “It must be Simon—no one else could have
done it.” So he went to Simon’s homestead to have a
look round, but he found nothing, and only had an
angry scene. However, he now felt more certain than
ever that Simon had done it, and he lodged a complaint. Simon was summoned. The case was tried, and
retried, and at the end of it all Simon was acquitted,
there being no evidence against him. Pahom felt still
more aggrieved, and let his anger loose upon the Elder
and the Judges.
“You let thieves grease your palms,” said he. “If
you were honest folk yourselves you would not let a
thief go free.”
So Pahom quarreled with the Judges and with his
neighbors. Threats to burn his building began to be
uttered. So though Pahom had more land, his place in
the Commune was much worse than before.
F
About this time a rumor got about that many
people were moving to new parts.
“There’s no need for me to leave my land,” thought
Pahom. “But some of the others might leave our village and then there would be more room for us. I
would take over their land myself and make my estate
a bit bigger. I could then live more at ease. As it is, I
am still too cramped to be comfortable.”
G
One day Pahom was sitting at home when a peasant, passing through the village, happened to call in.
He was allowed to stay the night, and supper was given
him. Pahom had a talk with this peasant and asked
him where he came from. The stranger answered that
he came from beyond the Volga,6 where he had been
working. One word led to another, and the man went
on to say that many people were settling in those parts.
He told how some people from his village had settled
there. They had joined the Commune, and had had
4. corn: any plants producing grain, such as wheat or oats.
5. lime trees: linden trees.
6. Volga: river in western Russia flowing into the Caspian
Sea.
E
Reading Focus Identifying Theme How does Pahom
become like the landowner he once resented?
F
Reading Focus Identifying Theme How does land ownership ultimately harm Pahom’s standing in the Commune?
G
Reading Focus Identifying Theme Relate Pahom’s statement to the story’s title. How much land does Pahom think he needs?
Vocabulary aggrieved (uh GREEVD) v. used as adj.: offended.
1013
twenty-five acres per man granted them. The land was
so good, he said, that the rye sown on it grew as high
as a horse, and so thick that five cuts of a sickle made a
sheaf. One peasant, he said, had brought nothing with
him but his bare hands, and now he had six horses and
two cows of his own.
Pahom’s heart kindled with desire. He thought:
“Why should I suffer in this narrow hole, if one
can live so well elsewhere? I will sell my land and my
homestead here, and with the money I will start afresh
over there and get everything new. In this crowded
place one is always having trouble. But I must first go
and find out all about it myself.”
H
Toward summer he got ready and started. He
went down the Volga on a steamer to Samara,7 then
walked another three hundred miles on foot, and at
last reached the place. It was just as the stranger had
said. The peasants had plenty of land: Every man had
twenty-five acres of Communal land given him for his
use, and anyone who had money could buy, besides,
at a ruble an acre as much good freehold land as he
wanted.
Having found out all he wished to know, Pahom
returned home as autumn came on, and began selling
off his belongings. He sold his land at a profit, sold
his homestead and all his cattle, and withdrew from
membership in the Commune. He only waited till the
spring, and then started with his family for the new
settlement.
As soon as Pahom and his family reached
their new abode, he applied for admission into the
Commune of a large village. He stood treat to the
Elders8 and obtained the necessary documents. Five
shares of Communal land were given him for his own
and his sons’ use: that is to say—125 acres (not all
together, but in different fields) besides the use of the
Communal pasture. Pahom put up the buildings he
7. Samara: city on the Volga River in southwestern Russia.
8. stood treat to the Elders: provided the Elders with a
meal.
H
Reading Focus Identifying Theme How have Pahom’s
desires changed?
I
Literary Focus Allegory Events in allegories often occur in
patterns. Notice how Pahom has acquired more and more land. If he follows the pattern of his past actions, what can we predict will happen next?
1014
Viewing and Interpreting Does this painting represent Pahom’s
ideas about land? Is farming romanticized in the painting? Explain.
needed, and bought cattle. Of the Communal land
alone he had three times as much as at his former
home, and the land was good corn land. He was ten
times better off than he had been. He had plenty of
arable land and pasturage, and could keep as many
head of cattle as he liked.
I
At first, in the bustle of building and settling
down, Pahom was pleased with it all, but when he got
used to it he began to think that even here he had not
enough land. The first year, he sowed wheat on his
share of the Communal land and had a good crop. He
wanted to go on sowing wheat, but had not enough
Vocabulary arable (AR uh buhl) adj.: fit to be farmed or
cultivated.
Harvest Time by Grigory Myasoyedov. he State Russian Museum.
Communal land for the purpose, and what he had
already used was not available; for in those parts wheat
is only sown on virgin soil or on fallow land. It is sown
for one or two years, and then the land lies fallow till
it is again overgrown with prairie grass. There were
many who wanted such land and there was not enough
for all; so that people quarreled about it. Those who
were better off wanted it for growing wheat, and those
who were poor wanted it to let to dealers, so that they
might raise money to pay their taxes. Pahom wanted
to sow more wheat, so he rented land from a dealer for
a year. He sowed much wheat and had a fine crop, but
the land was too far from the village—the wheat had
to be carted more than ten miles. After a time Pahom
noticed that some peasant dealers were living on separate farms and were growing wealthy; and he thought:
“If I were to buy some freehold land and have a homestead on it, it would be a different thing altogether.
Then it would all be nice and compact.”
The question of buying freehold land recurred to
him again and again.
He went on in the same way for three years, renting land and sowing wheat. The seasons turned out
well and the crops were good, so that he began to lay
money by. He might have gone on living contentedly,
but he grew tired of having to rent other people’s land
every year, and having to scramble for it. Wherever
there was good land to be had, the peasants would
rush for it and it was taken up at once, so that unless
you were sharp about it you got none. It happened in
the third year that he and a dealer together rented a
piece of pastureland from some peasants; and they had
already plowed it up, when there was some dispute
and the peasants went to law about it, and things fell
out so that the labor was all lost.
“If it were my own land,” thought Pahom, “I
should be independent, and there would not be all this
unpleasantness.”
J
J
Reading Focus Identifying Theme What does Pahom want
even though he “might have gone on living contentedly”?
1015
So Pahom began looking out for land which he
could buy; and he came across a peasant who had
bought thirteen hundred acres, but having got into
difficulties was willing to sell again cheap. Pahom bargained and haggled with him, and at last they settled
the price at 1,500 rubles, part in cash and part to be
paid later. They had all but clinched the matter when a
passing dealer happened to stop at Pahom’s one day to
get a feed for his horses. He drank tea with Pahom and
they had a talk. The dealer said that he was just returning from the land of the Bashkirs,9 far away, where
he had bought thirteen thousand acres of land, all for
1,000 rubles. Pahom questioned him further, and the
tradesman said:
“All one need do is to make friends with the
chiefs. I gave away about one hundred rubles’ worth of
silk robes and carpets, besides a case of tea, and I gave
wine to those who would drink it; and I got the land
for less than a penny an acre.” And he showed Pahom
the title deeds, saying:
“The land lies near a river, and the whole prairie is
virgin soil.”
Pahom plied him with questions, and the tradesman said:
“There is more land there than you could cover if
you walked a year, and it all belongs to the Bashkirs.
They are as simple as sheep, and land can be got
almost for nothing.”
“There now,” thought Pahom, “with my one thousand rubles, why should I get only thirteen hundred
acres, and saddle myself with a debt besides? If I take
it out there, I can get more than ten times as much for
the money.”
K
Pahom inquired how to get to the place, and as
soon as the tradesman had left him, he prepared to
go there himself. He left his wife to look after the
homestead, and started on his journey taking his man
with him. They stopped at a town on their way and
bought a case of tea, some wine, and other presents,
as the tradesman had advised. On and on they went
9. Bashkirs: Turkish-speaking peoples who live on the
Russian steppes, or plains.
K
Reading Focus Identifying Theme Why is Pahom tempted
to go to the Bashkirs?
1016
until they had gone more than three hundred miles,
and on the seventh day they came to a place where the
Bashkirs had pitched their tents. It was all just as the
tradesman had said. The people lived on the steppes,
by a river, in felt-covered tents. They neither tilled the
ground, nor ate bread. Their cattle and horses grazed
in herds on the steppe. The colts were tethered behind
the tents, and the mares were driven to them twice
a day. The mares were milked, and from the milk
kumiss10 was made. It was the women who prepared
kumiss, and they also made cheese. As far as the men
were concerned, drinking kumiss and tea, eating
mutton, and playing on their pipes was all they cared
about. They were all stout and merry, and all the summer long they never thought of doing any work. They
were quite ignorant, and knew no Russian, but were
good natured enough.
As soon as they saw Pahom, they came out of their
tents and gathered round their visitor. An interpreter
was found, and Pahom told them he had come about
some land. The Bashkirs seemed very glad; they took
Pahom and led him into one of the best tents, where
they made him sit on some down cushions placed on a
carpet, while they sat round him. They gave him some
tea and kumiss, and had a sheep killed, and gave him
mutton to eat. Pahom took presents out of his cart and
distributed them among the Bashkirs, and divided the
tea amongst them. The Bashkirs were delighted. They
talked a great deal among themselves, and then told
the interpreter to translate.
“They wish to tell you,” said the interpreter, “that
they like you, and that it is our custom to do all we can
to please a guest and to repay him for his gifts. You
have given us presents, now tell us which of the things
we possess please you best, that we may present them
to you.”
“What pleases me best here,” answered Pahom, “is
your land. Our land is crowded and the soil is exhausted; but you have plenty of land and it is good land. I
never saw the like of it.”
10. kumiss: fermented drink made from mare’s milk.
Vocabulary haggled (HAG uhld) v.: argued about a price.
The interpreter translated. The Bashkirs talked
among themselves for a while. Pahom could not
understand what they were saying, but saw that
they were much amused and that they shouted and
laughed. Then they were silent and looked at Pahom
while the interpreter said:
“They wish me to tell you that in return for your
presents they will gladly give you as much land as you
want. You have only to point it out with your hand and
it is yours.”
The Bashkirs talked again for a while and began
to dispute. Pahom asked what they were disputing
about, and the interpreter told him that some of them
thought they ought to ask their chief about the land
and not act in his absence, while others thought there
was no need to wait for his return.
While the Bashkirs were disputing, a man in
a large fox-fur cap appeared on the scene. They all
became silent and rose to their feet. The interpreter
said, “This is our chief himself.”
L
Pahom immediately fetched the best dressing
gown and five pounds of tea, and offered these to the
chief. The chief accepted them, and seated himself in
the place of honor. The Bashkirs at once began telling
him something. The chief listened for a while, then
made a sign with his head for them to be silent, and
addressing himself to Pahom, said in Russian:
“Well, let it be so. Choose whatever piece of land
you like; we have plenty of it.”
“How can I take as much as I like?” thought
Pahom. “I must get a deed to make it secure, or else
they may say, ‘It is yours,’ and afterward may take it
away again.”
“Thank you for your kind words,” he said aloud.
“You have much land, and I only want a little. But I
should like to be sure which bit is mine. Could it not
be measured and made over to me? Life and death
are in God’s hands. You good people give it to me, but
your children might wish to take it away again.”
M
“You are quite right,” said the chief. “We will make
it over to you.”
“I heard that a dealer had been here,” continued
Pahom, “and that you gave him a little land, too, and
signed title deeds to that effect. I should like to have it
done in the same way.”
The chief understood.
“Yes,” replied he, “that can be done quite easily.
We have a scribe, and we will go to town with you and
have the deed properly sealed.”
“And what will be the price?” asked Pahom.
“Our price is always the same: one thousand
rubles a day.”
Pahom did not understand.
“A day? What measure is that? How many acres
would that be?”
“We do not know how to reckon it out,” said the
chief. “We sell it by the day. As much as you can go
round on your feet in a day is yours, and the price is
one thousand rubles a day.”
Pahom was surprised.
“But in a day you can get round a large tract of
land,” he said.
The chief laughed.
“It will all be yours!” said he. “But there is one
condition: If you don’t return on the same day to the
spot whence you started, your money is lost.”
N
“But how am I to mark the way that I have gone?”
“Why, we shall go to any spot you like, and stay
there. You must start from that spot and make your
round, taking a spade with you. Wherever you think
necessary, make a mark. At every turning, dig a hole
and pile up the turf; then afterward we will go round
with a plow from hole to hole. You may make as large
a circuit as you please, but before the sun sets you
must return to the place you started from. All the land
you cover will be yours.”
Pahom was delighted. It was decided to start early
next morning. They talked a while, and after drink-
L
N
Literary Focus Allegory Foxes are known for their cleverness. Who do you suspect the chief might be?
Literary Focus Allegory In many traditional folk stories,
bargains are made with the Devil. What bargain is struck with the chief?
M
Reading Focus Identifying Theme When proverbs and
wise sayings appear in a story, they often point to the theme. Why might
Pahom’s statement, “Life and death are in God’s hands,” be important in
this story?
1017
ing some more kumiss and eating some more mutton,
they had tea again, and then the night came on. They
gave Pahom a featherbed to sleep on, and the Bashkirs
dispersed for the night, promising to assemble the
next morning at daybreak and ride out before sunrise
to the appointed spot.
Pahom lay on the featherbed, but could not sleep.
He kept thinking about the land.
“What a large tract I will mark off!” thought he.
“I can easily do thirty-five miles in a day. The days are
long now, and within a circuit of thirty-five miles what
a lot of land there will be! I will sell the poorer land, or
let it to peasants, but I’ll pick out the best and farm it.
I will buy two ox teams, and hire two more laborers.
About a hundred and fifty acres shall be plow land,
and I will pasture cattle on the rest.”
Pahom lay awake all night, and dozed off only just
before dawn. Hardly were his eyes closed when he had
a dream. He thought he was lying in that same tent
and heard somebody chuckling outside. He wondered
who it could be, and rose and went out, and he saw
the Bashkir chief sitting in front of the tent holding
his sides and rolling about with laughter. Going nearer
to the chief, Pahom asked: “What are you laughing
at?” But he saw that it was no longer the chief, but the
dealer who had recently stopped at his house and had
told him about the land. Just as Pahom was going to
ask, “Have you been here long?” he saw that it was not
the dealer, but the peasant who had come up from the
Volga, long ago, to Pahom’s old home. Then he saw
that it was not the peasant either, but the Devil himself with hoofs and horns, sitting there and chuckling,
and before him lay a man barefoot, prostrate on the
ground, with only trousers and a shirt on. And Pahom
dreamt that he looked more attentively to see what
sort of a man it was that was lying there, and he saw
that the man was dead, and that it was himself! He
awoke horror-struck.
O
“What things one does dream,” thought he.
Looking round he saw through the open door that
the dawn was breaking.
“It’s time to wake them up,” thought he. “We ought
to be starting.”
He got up, roused his man (who was sleeping
O
Reading Focus Identifying Theme Dreams are often used
in literature to foretell the future. What lesson is found in Pahom’s dream?
1018
Man in the Field by Vladimir Yegorovich Makovsky (1846–1920).
in his cart), bade him harness, and went to call the
Bashkirs.
“It’s time to go to the steppe to measure the land,”
he said.
The Bashkirs rose and assembled, and the chief
came too. Then they began drinking kumiss again, and
offered Pahom some tea, but he would not wait.
“If we are to go, let us go. It is high time,” said he.
The Bashkirs got ready and they all started: some
mounted on horses, and some in carts. Pahom drove
in his own small cart with his servant and took a spade
with him. When they reached the steppe, the morning
red was beginning to kindle. They ascended a hillock
Vocabulary prostrate (PRAHS trayt) adj.: lying flat.
(called by the Bashkirs a shikhan) and dismounting
from their carts and their horses, gathered in one spot.
The chief came up to Pahom and stretching out his
arm toward the plain:
P
“See,” said he, “all this, as far as your eye can reach,
is ours. You may have any part of it you like.”
Pahom’s eyes glistened: It was all virgin soil, as
flat as the palm of your hand, as black as the seed of
a poppy, and in the hollows different kinds of grasses
grew breast high.
The chief took off his fox-fur cap, placed it on the
ground, and said:
“This will be the mark. Start from here, and return
here again. All the land you go round shall be yours.”
Pahom took out his money and put it on the
cap. Then he took off his outer coat, remaining in his
sleeveless undercoat. He unfastened his girdle and tied
it tight below his stomach, put a little bag of bread into
the breast of his coat, and tying a flask of water to his
girdle, he drew up the tops of his boots, took the spade
from his man, and stood ready to start. He considered
for some moments which way he had better go—it was
tempting everywhere.
“No matter,” he concluded, “I will go toward the
rising sun.”
He turned his face to the east, stretched himself,
and waited for the sun to appear above the rim.
“I must lose no time,” he thought, “and it is easier
walking while it is still cool.”
The sun’s rays had hardly flashed above the horizon, before Pahom, carrying the spade over his shoulder, went down into the steppe.
Pahom started walking neither slowly nor quickly.
After having gone a thousand yards he stopped, dug a
hole, and placed pieces of turf one on another to make
it more visible. Then he went on; and now that he had
walked off his stiffness he quickened his pace. After a
while he dug another hole.
Pahom looked back. The hillock could be distinctly seen in the sunlight, with the people on it, and
the glittering tires of the cart wheels. At a rough guess
Pahom concluded that he had walked three miles. It
was growing warmer; he took off his undercoat, flung
it across his shoulder, and went on again. It had grown
quite warm now; he looked at the sun, it was time to
think of breakfast.
“The first shift is done, but there are four in a day,
and it is too soon yet to turn. But I will just take off my
boots,” said he to himself.
He sat down, took off his boots, stuck them into
his girdle, and went on. It was easy walking now.
“I will go on for another three miles,” thought he,
“and then turn to the left. This spot is so fine, that it
would be a pity to lose it. The further one goes, the
better the land seems.”
He went straight on for a while, and when he
looked round, the hillock was scarcely visible and the
people on it looked like black ants, and he could just
see something glistening there in the sun.
“Ah,” thought Pahom, “I have gone far enough in
this direction, it is time to turn. Besides I am in a regular sweat, and very thirsty.”
He stopped, dug a large hole, and heaped up pieces of turf. Next he untied his flask, had a drink, and
then turned sharply to the left. He went on and on; the
grass was high, and it was very hot.
Pahom began to grow tired: He looked at the sun
and saw that it was noon.
“Well,” he thought, “I must have a rest.”
He sat down, and ate some bread and drank some
water; but he did not lie down, thinking that if he
did he might fall asleep. After sitting a little while, he
went on again. At first he walked easily: The food had
strengthened him; but it had become terribly hot and
he felt sleepy, still he went on, thinking: “An hour to
suffer, a lifetime to live.”
He went a long way in this direction also, and
was about to turn to the left again, when he perceived
a damp hollow: “It would be a pity to leave that out,”
he thought. “Flax would do well there.” So he went on
past the hollow, and dug a hole on the other side of
it before he turned the corner. Pahom looked toward
the hillock. The heat made the air hazy: It seemed to
be quivering, and through the haze the people on the
hillock could scarcely be seen.
Q
P
Q
Literary Focus Allegory How have the Bashkir chief, the
dealer, and the peasant all furthered the Devil’s plan?
Reading Focus Identifying Theme How does greed drive
Pahom?
1019
“Ah!” thought Pahom, “I have made the sides too
long; I must make this one shorter.” And he went along
the third side, stepping faster. He looked at the sun: It
was nearly halfway to the horizon, and he had not yet
done two miles of the third side of the square. He was
still ten miles from the goal.
“No,” he thought, “though it will make my land
lopsided, I must hurry back in a straight line now.
I might go too far, and as it is I have a great deal of
land.”
So Pahom hurriedly dug a hole, and turned
straight toward the hillock.
Pahom went straight toward the hillock, but he
now walked with difficulty. He was done up with the
heat, his bare feet were cut and bruised, and his legs
began to fail. He longed to rest, but it was impossible if
he meant to get back before sunset. The sun waits for
no man, and it was sinking lower and lower.
“Oh dear,” he thought, “if only I have not blundered trying for too much! What if I am too late?”
He looked toward the hillock and at the sun. He
was still far from his goal, and the sun was already
near the rim.
Pahom walked on and on; it was very hard walking but he went quicker and quicker. He pressed on,
but was still far from the place. He began running,
threw away his coat, his boots, his flask, and his cap,
and kept only the spade which he used as a support.
“What shall I do,” he thought again. “I have
grasped too much and ruined the whole affair. I can’t
get there before the sun sets.”
R
And this fear made him still more breathless.
Pahom went on running, his soaking shirt and trousers stuck to him, and his mouth was parched. His
breast was working like a blacksmith’s bellows, his
heart was beating like a hammer, and his legs were giving way as if they did not belong to him. Pahom was
seized with terror lest he should die of the strain.
Though afraid of death, he could not stop. “After
having run all that way they will call me a fool if I stop
now,” thought he. And he ran on and on, and drew
near and heard the Bashkirs yelling and shouting to
him, and their cries inflamed his heart still more. He
gathered his last strength and ran on.
The sun was close to the rim, and cloaked in mist
looked large, and red as blood. Now, yes now, it was
about to set! The sun was quite low, but he was also
quite near his aim. Pahom could already see the people
on the hillock waving their arms to hurry him up.
He could see the fox-fur cap on the ground and the
money on it, and the chief sitting on the ground holding his sides. And Pahom remembered his dream. S
“There is plenty of land,” thought he, “but will
God let me live on it? I have lost my life, I have lost my
life! I shall never reach that spot!”
Pahom looked at the sun, which had reached the
earth: One side of it had already disappeared. With
all his remaining strength he rushed on, bending his
body forward so that his legs could hardly follow fast
enough to keep him from falling. Just as he reached
the hillock it suddenly grew dark. He looked up—the
sun had already set! He gave a cry: “All my labor has
been in vain,” thought he, and was about to stop, but
he heard the Bashkirs still shouting, and remembered
that though to him, from below, the sun seemed to
have set, they on the hillock could still see it. He took
a long breath and ran up the hillock. It was still light
there. He reached the top and saw the cap. Before it sat
the chief laughing and holding his sides. Again Pahom
remembered his dream, and he uttered a cry: His legs
gave way beneath him, he fell forward and reached the
cap with his hands.
T
“Ah, that’s a fine fellow!” exclaimed the chief. “He
has gained much land!”
Pahom’s servant came running up and tried to
raise him, but he saw that blood was flowing from his
mouth. Pahom was dead!
The Bashkirs clicked their tongues to show their
pity.
His servant picked up the spade and dug a grave
long enough for Pahom to lie in, and buried him in it.
Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.
R
T
Reading Focus Identifying Theme What words in this paragraph might be significant in summarizing what is happening to Pahom?
S
Reading Focus Identifying Theme What thought here
might be a key to the story’s theme?
1020
Literary Focus Allegory Why might the chief be holding his
sides?
allegory; analyze tone. Reading
Skills Identify theme. Vocabulary
Skills Demonstrate knowledge of literal
meanings of words and their usage. Writing
Skills Write fiction.
Quick Check
Literary Analysis
1. What happens when Pahom buys more land?
2. How does the Devil triumph over Pahom?
Read with a Purpose
3. What does the story reveal about how we come
to confuse what we want with what we need?
Reading Skill: Identifying Theme
4. Review the chart you filled out. Put an asterisk
beside details that most strongly support a
theme. Then, write at least one sentence summarizing what Pahom discovers.
Clues to Theme
The peasant sister says
“Gain and pain are
brothers twain.”
This statement seems to
relate to the story title.
Theme:
11. Analyze Think about the discussion between
the sisters at the story’s beginning. How does
their conversation foreshadow Pahom’s end?
12. Draw Conclusions Based on the story’s events,
how do you think Tolstoy views ambition?
13. Extend Consider the contrast between what
Pahom wants and “all he needs.” How could
Tolstoy’s parable about materialism apply today?
Literary Skills: Allegory
14. Summarize Outline this story as an allegory.
Follow this format: The story is about_____. The
devil stands for_____, while Pahom stands for__
___. Pahom’s attempt to get as much land as he
could cover in a day represents_____. The land
itself stands for_____.
Literary Skills Review: Tone
15. Interpret A writer’s tone is the attitude he or
she takes toward the subject matter or the audience. How would you describe Tolstoy’s tone?
Be sure you can justify your answers to these questions about the Vocabulary words.
5. If you are piqued, are you happy or irritated?
6. Would you feel honored or upset after being
disparaged?
7. If you are aggrieved, do you feel wronged or
flattered?
8. Would arable land be fertile or unproductive?
Think As a Reader/Writer
Use It in Your Writing You wrote in your Reader/
Writer Notebook how this story could be set in today’s
world. Now, use your notes to write your own brief
allegory about materialism today.
9. When two people haggled about something,
would you say they argued or agreed?
10. Pahom found himself prostrate. Was he flat on
the ground or sitting on the ground?
What did Pahom think he was winning as
he gained more and more land?
MEET THE WRITER
Anton Chekhov
The Bet
(1860–1904)
Shortly before his death, Chekhov joked that people would
read his work for only seven more years. A century later, his brilliant short stories and plays show no signs of being forgotten.
How can appearance
be different from
reality?
QuickTalk
What sorts of powerful experiences can totally
change the way someone thinks about life? With
a partner, talk about some possibilities. Record
your ideas in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1898) by Osip Emmanuilovich Braz
(1873–1936). Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
A Doctor and Writer
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in the seaport town of
Taganrog in the south of Russia. When he was sixteen, his father
went bankrupt and fled with the rest of the family to Moscow
to avoid a prison sentence. Left behind as a “hostage” to his
father’s creditors, Chekhov tutored the creditor’s son at a cheap
rate, finished school, and went to Moscow to study medicine on
a scholarship. To support himself and his family, who were living in a slum, Chekhov wrote comic stories to sell to periodicals.
Comic stories soon gave way to more serious pieces, in which,
as Chekhov said, questions were asked but not answered.
Studying medicine greatly benefited the young writer. As a
doctor, Chekhov became acquainted with hundreds of ordinary
people. He continued to write while practicing medicine and
gave up his full-time practice only when it took too much time
away from his writing.
Humanity, Reason, and Generosity
It was not until the last years of his brief life that Chekhov
achieved some affluence. He moved his parents and sister to a
large country estate, where he organized famine relief, fought
cholera epidemics, and treated poor patients free of charge.
Although the theme of many of his works is alienation, Chekhov’s real-life activities demonstrate that humanity, reason, and
generosity were among his highest values.
His finest stories were all written in the 1890s and his four
great plays, The Sea Gull (1896), Uncle Vanya (1897), Three Sisters
(1901), and The Cherry Orchard (1904), were written while he
was fatally ill with tuberculosis. In 1901 he married the actress
who played the lead role in The Sea Gull, but the couple spent
their honeymoon in a sanitarium. Three years later Chekhov
died at the age of forty-four, still at the height of his creativity.
How did Chekhov’s experiences as a
doctor affect his writing?
1022
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Understand theme. Reading Skills Make predictions.
Theme The truth or insight about human life revealed in a story is its
theme. For example, the theme of a story about growing up might be
that disillusionment is inherently part of the maturation process. To identify theme, the reader must consider all of a story’s elements, and then
infer the truths or insights the story reveals. The theme is often illuminated at the end of the story in the main character’s discovery about life.
Identifying themes requires a tolerance for ambiguity, especially in openended stories like “The Bet,” which raises more questions than it answers.
Literary Perspectives Apply the Literary Perspective described on page
1024 as you read this story.
frivolous (FRIHV uh luhs) adj.: light-minded;
lacking seriousness. The frivolous banker
made a large bet without thinking.
compulsory (kuhm PUHL suhr ee) adj.:
required; enforced. The banker argues that
voluntary confinement is more unbearable
than compulsory imprisonment.
caprice (kuh PREES) n.: sudden notion or
desire. The banker realizes that the bet was
the result of unwise caprice.
zealously (ZEHL uhs lee) adv.: fervently;
devotedly. The prisoner spends his time zealously studying books and languages.
Making Predictions A prediction is a special kind of inference, or educated guess, about what will happen next. Some predictions turn out to
be inaccurate, and modifying them is an essential—and enjoyable—part
of active reading. Because Chekhov begins this story with a debate about
capital punishment, you might predict that the story will explore that subject. As you read, see if you have made a correct prediction, or if Chekhov
has surprised you by focusing instead on some larger issue.
Into Action As you read, make predictions based on clues that suggest
or foreshadow what will happen to the characters later in the story. Use a
chart like the one below to record the clues and your predictions.
indiscriminately (ihn dihs KRIHM uh niht
lee) adv.: without making careful distinctions; randomly. The lawyer reads indiscriminately, diving into any book he can get.
ethereal (ih THIHR ee uhl) adj.: light and
delicate; unearthly. After reading the poems,
the lawyer was visited by ethereal visions.
renounce (rih NOWNS) v.: formally give up;
reject. The lawyer decides to renounce his
claim to the money.
Clue
Banker’s memory of
debate at dinner party
Clue
Prediction
The debate might have something
to do with “the bet.”
Debate is over death penalty versus life imprisonment.
Find It in Your Reading This story spans fifteen years, from the time of
the bet’s inception to its conclusion. As you read, record in your Reader/
Writer Notebook how Chekhov marks the passage of time in years, hours,
and minutes.
Roots Knowing a word’s root can help
you figure out the meanings of related
words. For example, the Vocabulary word
indiscriminately comes from the Latin root
discrīmināre, which means “to separate.”
Now that you know this word’s root, can
you figure out the definitions of the words
discriminate and discrimination?
Learn It Online
Explore the vocabulary words inside and out through
Word Watch online.
go.hrw.com
L12-1023
Go
Preparing to Read
1023
SHORT STORY
The Bet
Play Audio
by Anton Chekhov
translated by Constance Garnett
Read with a Purpose
Build Background
Read to discover the stakes and the
surprising outcome of an unusual bet.
Would you give up all human company for years to win an amazing fortune? A character
in this famous Russian story bets that he can do it, and his voluntary solitude raises serious questions for him and for readers.
1
It was a dark autumn night. The old banker was walking up and down his study and remembering how,
fifteen years before, he had given a party one autumn
evening. There had been many clever men there, and
there had been interesting conversations. Among
other things, they had talked of capital punishment.
The majority of the guests, among whom were many
journalists and intellectual men, disapproved of the
death penalty. They considered that form of punishment out of date, immoral, and unsuitable for
Christian states. In the opinion of some of them, the
death penalty ought to be replaced everywhere by
imprisonment for life.
“I don’t agree with you,” said their host, the banker. “I have not tried either the death penalty or imprisonment for life, but if one may judge a priori,1 the
death penalty is more moral and more humane than
imprisonment for life. Capital punishment kills a man
at once, but lifelong imprisonment kills him slowly.
Which executioner is the more humane, he who kills
you in a few minutes or he who drags the life out of
you in the course of many years?”
A
“Both are equally immoral,” observed one of the
guests, “for they both have the same object—to take
1. a priori: Latin for “from the first.” Here, a generalization
based on theory not experience.
A
Reading Focus Making Predictions Based on these first
paragraphs, what do you think will be the main subject of the story?
1024
away life. The state is not God. It has not the right to
take away what it cannot restore when it wants to.”
Among the guests was a young lawyer, a young
man of five-and-twenty. When he was asked his opinion, he said: “The death sentence and the life sentence
are equally immoral, but if I had to choose between
the death penalty and imprisonment for life, I would
Analyzing Credibility in Literature Literature often asks us
to believe in things that don’t seem possible, and there are times
when we are especially aware that a story doesn’t ring true. A situation in a story, such as an improbable bet, might ask us to question our own beliefs, but if it causes us to question the credibility of
the story or storyteller, we often lose interest and trust in the story.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the phrase “suspension of disbelief” to describe “dramatic truth,” or the truth that operates within
the work of art. As a reader, your willingness to accept the “truth”
of the story hinges on the fact that you can temporarily suspend
your judgment of what is possible in order to enjoy the story.
However, you should still take note when you find inconsistencies
within the story, or if you believe that the story is not playing by its
own rules.
As you read, be sure to notice the questions in the text,
which will guide you in using this perspective.
certainly choose the second. To live anyhow is better
than not at all.”
A lively discussion arose. The banker, who was
younger and more nervous in those days, was suddenly carried away by excitement; he struck the table with
his fist and shouted at the young man: “It’s not true! I’ll
bet you two million you wouldn’t stay in solitary confinement for five years.”
“If you mean that in earnest,” said the young man,
“I’ll take the bet, but I would stay not five, but fifteen
years.”
“Fifteen? Done!” cried the banker. “Gentlemen, I
stake two million!”
“Agreed! You stake your millions and I stake my
freedom!” said the young man.
And this wild, senseless bet was carried out! The
banker, spoiled and frivolous, with millions beyond
his reckoning, was delighted at the bet. At supper he
made fun of the young man and said: “Think better
of it, young man, while there is still time. To me two
million is a trifle, but you are losing three or four of
the best years of your life. I say three or four, because
you won’t stay longer. Don’t forget either, you unhappy
man, that voluntary confinement is a great deal harder
to bear than compulsory. The thought that you have
the right to step out in liberty at any moment will
poison your whole existence in prison. I am sorry for
you.”
And now the banker, walking to and fro, remembered all this and asked himself: “What was the object
of that bet? What is the good of that man’s losing
fifteen years of his life and my throwing away two million? Can it prove that the death penalty is better or
worse than imprisonment for life? No, no. It was all
nonsensical and meaningless. On my part it was the
caprice of a pampered man, and on his part simple
greed for money.…”
B
Then he remembered what followed that evening.
It was decided that the young man should spend the
years of his captivity under the strictest supervision in
one of the lodges in the banker’s garden. It was agreed
that for fifteen years he should not be free to cross the
threshold of the lodge, to see human beings, to hear
the human voice, or to receive letters and newspapers.
He was allowed to have a musical instrument and
books and was allowed to write letters, to drink wine,
and to smoke. By the terms of the agreement, the only
relations he could have with the outer world were by
a little window made purposely for that object. He
might have anything he wanted—books, music, wine,
and so on—in any quantity he desired, by writing an
order, but could receive them only through the window. The agreement provided for every detail and
every trifle that would make his imprisonment strictly
B
Reading Focus Making Predictions How has the banker’s
view of the bet changed in fifteen years? What do you predict he will do
next?
Vocabulary frivolous (FRIHV uh luhs) adj.: light-minded;
lacking seriousness.
compulsory (kuhm PUHL suhr ee) adj.: required; enforced.
caprice (kuh PREES) n.: sudden notion or desire.
The Painter Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin (1891) by Valentin Serov (1865–1939).
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
The Bet
1025
solitary, and bound the young man to stay there
exactly fifteen years, beginning from twelve o’clock of
November 14, 1870, and ending at twelve o’clock of
November 14, 1885. The slightest attempt on his part
to break the conditions, if only two minutes before the
end, released the banker from the obligation to pay
him two million.
For the first year of his confinement, as far as one
could judge from his brief notes, the prisoner suffered
severely from loneliness and depression. The sounds
of the piano could be heard continually day and night
from his lodge. He refused wine and tobacco. Wine,
he wrote, excites the desires, and desires are the worst
foes of the prisoner; and besides, nothing could be
more dreary than drinking good wine and seeing no
one. And tobacco spoiled the air of his room. In the
first year the books he sent for were principally of a
light character—novels with a complicated love plot,
sensational and fantastic stories, and so on.
C
In the second year the piano was silent in the
lodge, and the prisoner asked only for the classics. In
the fifth year music was audible again, and the prisoner asked for wine. Those who watched him through
the window said that all that year he spent doing
nothing but eating and drinking and lying on his bed,
frequently yawning and talking angrily to himself. He
did not read books. Sometimes at night he would sit
down to write; he would spend hours writing and in
the morning tear up all that he had written. More than
once he could be heard crying.
In the second half of the sixth year the prisoner
began zealously studying languages, philosophy, and
history. He threw himself eagerly into these studies—so much so that the banker had enough to do to
get him the books he ordered. In the course of four
years, some six hundred volumes were procured at
his request. It was during this period that the banker
received the following letter from his prisoner:
D
“My dear Jailer, I write you these lines in six languages. Show them to people who know the languages.
C
Literary Perspectives Analyzing Credibility in
Literature What makes the story seem believable so far?
D Literary Focus Theme Based on this description of the
prisoner’s activities, what can you infer about the story’s theme?
1026
Let them read them. If they find not one mistake, I
implore you to fire a shot in the garden. That shot will
show me that my efforts have not been thrown away.
The geniuses of all ages and of all lands speak different
languages, but the same flame burns in them all. Oh,
if you only knew what unearthly happiness my soul
feels now from being able to understand them!” The
prisoner’s desire was fulfilled. The banker ordered two
shots to be fired in the garden.
Then, after the tenth year, the prisoner sat immovably at the table and read nothing but the Gospels.
It seemed strange to the banker that a man who in
four years had mastered six hundred learned volumes
should waste nearly a year over one thin book easy of
comprehension. Theology2 and histories of religion
followed the Gospels.
In the last two years of his confinement, the
prisoner read an immense quantity of books quite
indiscriminately. At one time he was busy with the
natural sciences; then he would ask for Byron or
Shakespeare. There were notes in which he demanded
at the same time books on chemistry, and a manual of
medicine, and a novel, and some treatise on philosophy or theology. His reading suggested a man swimming in the sea among the wreckage of his ship and
trying to save his life by greedily clutching first at one
spar3 and then at another.
2
The old banker remembered all this and thought:
“Tomorrow at twelve o’clock he will regain his freedom. By our arrangement I ought to pay him two million. If I do pay him, it is all over with me: I shall be
utterly ruined.”
Fifteen years before, his millions had been beyond
2. theology: study of religious teachings concerning God
and God’s relation to the world.
3. spar: pole that supports or extends a ship’s sail.
Vocabulary zealously (ZEHL uhs lee) adv.: fervently; devotedly.
indiscriminately (ihn dihs KRIHM uh niht lee) adv.: without making careful distinctions; randomly.
his reckoning; now he was afraid to ask himself which
were greater, his debts or his assets. Desperate gambling on the Stock Exchange, wild speculation, and
the excitability which he could not get over even in
advancing years had by degrees led to the decline of
his fortune, and the proud, fearless, self-confident
millionaire had become a banker of middling rank,
trembling at every rise and fall in his investments.
“Cursed bet!” muttered the old man, clutching his
head in despair. “Why didn’t the man die? He is only
forty now. He will take my last penny from me, he will
marry, will enjoy life, will gamble on the Exchange,
while I shall look at him with
envy like a beggar and hear from
him every day the same sentence:
‘I am indebted to you for the
happiness of my life; let me help
you!’ No, it is too much! The one
means of being saved from bankruptcy and disgrace is the death
of that man!”
E
It struck three o’clock. The
banker listened; everyone was
asleep in the house, and nothing could be heard outside but
the rustling of the chilled trees.
Trying to make no noise, he took
from a fireproof safe the key of
the door which had not been
opened for fifteen years, put on
his overcoat, and went out of the
house.
It was dark and cold in the
garden. Rain was falling. A damp,
cutting wind was racing about the
garden, howling and giving the
trees no rest. The banker strained
his eyes but could see neither the
earth nor the white statues, nor
the lodge, nor the trees. Going to
the spot where the lodge stood,
he twice called the watchman. No answer followed.
Evidently the watchman had sought shelter from the
weather and was now asleep somewhere either in the
kitchen or in the greenhouse.
“If I had the pluck to carry out my intention,”
thought the old man, “suspicion would fall first upon
the watchman.”
He felt in the darkness for the steps and the door
and went into the entry of the lodge. Then he groped
his way into a little passage and lighted a match. There
was not a soul there. There was a bedstead with no
bedding on it, and in the corner there was a dark
E
Reading Focus Making
Predictions What new problem arises in this
passage? What could happen next?
Viewing and Interpreting Note how the books and documents
are tightly bound. How is this image a metaphor for the bet?
Still Life with Book Sheets and
Pictures (1783) by Russian
School. Oil on canvas.
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
The Bet
1027
cast-iron stove. The seals on the door leading to the
prisoner’s rooms were intact.
When the match went out, the old man, trembling
with emotion, peeped through the little window. A
candle was burning dimly in the prisoner’s room. He
was sitting at the table. Nothing could be seen but his
back, the hair on his head, and his hands. Open books
were lying on the table, on the two easy chairs, and on
the carpet near the table.
Five minutes passed and the prisoner did not once
stir. Fifteen years’ imprisonment had taught him to sit
still. The banker tapped at the window with his finger,
and the prisoner made no movement whatever in
response. Then the banker cautiously broke the seals
off the door and put the key in the keyhole. The rusty
lock gave a grating sound and the door creaked. The
banker expected to hear at once footsteps and a cry of
astonishment, but three minutes passed and it was as
quiet as ever in the room. He made up his mind to go
in.
F
At the table a man unlike ordinary people was sitting motionless. He was a skeleton with the skin drawn
tight over his bones, with long curls like a woman’s,
and a shaggy beard. His face was yellow with an earthy
tint in it, his cheeks were hollow, his back long and
narrow, and the hand on which his shaggy head was
propped was so thin and delicate that it was dreadful
to look at it. His hair was already streaked with silver,
and seeing his emaciated, aged-looking face, no one
would have believed that he was only forty. He was
asleep. . . . In front of his bowed head there lay on the
table a sheet of paper, on which there was something
written in fine handwriting.
“Poor creature!” thought the banker, “he is asleep
and most likely dreaming of the millions. And I have
only to take this half-dead man, throw him on the bed,
stifle him a little with the pillow, and the most conscientious expert would find no sign of a violent death.
But let us first read what he has written here.…”
The banker took the page from the table and read
as follows:
“Tomorrow at twelve o’clock I regain my freedom
F
Literary Perspectives Analyzing Credibility in Literature Does the banker’s hesitation seem believable here? Why or why not?
1028
and the right to associate with other men, but before
I leave this room and see the sunshine, I think it necessary to say a few words to you. With a clear conscience I tell you, as before God, who beholds me, that
I despise freedom and life and health and all that in
your books is called the good things of the world.
“For fifteen years I have been intently studying
earthly life. It is true I have not seen the earth or men,
but in your books I have drunk fragrant wine, I have
sung songs, I have hunted stags and wild boars in the
forests, I have loved women.… Beauties as ethereal as
clouds, created by the magic of your poets and geniuses, have visited me at night and have whispered in my
ears wonderful tales that have set my brain in a whirl.
In your books I have climbed to the peaks of Elburz
and Mont Blanc,4 and from there I have seen the sun
rise and have watched it at evening flood the sky, the
ocean, and the mountaintops with gold and crimson.
I have watched from there the lightning flashing over
my head and cleaving the storm clouds. I have seen
green forests, fields, rivers, lakes, towns. I have heard
the singing of the sirens,5 and the strains of the shepherds’ pipes; I have touched the wings of comely devils
who flew down to converse with me of God.… In your
books I have flung myself into the bottomless pit, performed miracles, slain, burned towns, preached new
religions, conquered whole kingdoms.…
“Your books have given me wisdom. All that the
unresting thought of man has created in the ages is
compressed into a small compass in my brain. I know
that I am wiser than all of you.
“And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and
the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage. You may be
proud, wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the
face of the earth as though you were no more than
4. Elburz and Mont Blanc: Elburz is a mountain range
in northern Iran; Mont Blanc, in France, is the highest
mountain in the Alps.
5. sirens: in Greek mythology, partly human female creatures who lived on an island and lured sailors to their
death with their beautiful singing.
Vocabulary ethereal (ih THIHR ee uhl) adj.: light and delicate; unearthly.
mice burrowing under the
floor, and your posterity,
your history, your immortal
geniuses will burn or freeze
together with the earthly
globe.
“You have lost your
reason and taken the wrong
path. You have taken lies for
truth and hideousness for
beauty. You would marvel if,
owing to strange events of
some sort, frogs and lizards
suddenly grew on apple and
orange trees instead of fruit
or if roses began to smell
like a sweating horse; so I
marvel at you who exchange
heaven for earth. I don’t
want to understand you.
“To prove to you in
action how I despise all that
you live by, I renounce the
two million of which I once
dreamed as of paradise and
The Veranda at Liselund by Peter
which now I despise. To
Ilsted (Danish,1861–1933).
deprive myself of the right
Adelson Galleries, New York.
Viewing and Interpreting What might this open window symbolto the money, I shall go
ize to both the banker and the lawyer? Who do you think opened the
out from here five minutes
window? Why?
before the time fixed and so
break the compact.…” G
When the banker had
in the lodge climb out of the window into the garden,
read this, he laid the page on the table, kissed the
go to the gate, and disappear. The banker went at once
strange man on the head, and went out of the lodge,
with the servants to the lodge and made sure of the
weeping. At no other time, even when he had lost
flight of his prisoner. To avoid arousing unnecessary
heavily on the Stock Exchange, had he felt so great a
talk, he took from the table the writing in which the
contempt for himself. When he got home, he lay on
millions were renounced and, when he got home,
his bed, but his tears and emotion kept him for hours
locked it up in the fireproof safe.
from sleeping.
H
Next morning the watchmen ran in with pale
faces and told him they had seen the man who lived
G
Literary Focus Theme In one sense, the lawyer spends his
years of imprisonment searching for the meaning of life. What do you think
he discovers by the story’s end?
Vocabulary renounce (rih NOWNS) v.: formally give up;
reject.
H
Reading Focus Making Predictions Are you surprised at the
banker’s actions at the end? What ending to the story did you predict?
The Bet
1029
theme; analyze motivation; analyze credibility in literature. Reading Skills Make
predictions.
The Bet
8. Analyze Like a psychiatrist, Chekhov meticulously describes the effects of the lawyer’s solitary exile. How does isolation affect the prisoner
at different stages over the fifteen-year period?
Quick Check
1. Why do the lawyer and the banker make a bet?
2. At the end of the fifteen years, how has the
banker’s situation changed?
3. Why does the banker go to the lodge on the last
night of the lawyer’s imprisonment?
4. What decision does the lawyer announce in a
letter? Why does he make this decision?
5. Who wins the bet—the banker, the lawyer, or
neither character? Explain your answer.
Reading Skill: Making Predictions
6. Now that you have finished reading, add a box
next to your “Prediction” box. In this box, tell
whether your prediction was right or wrong; if it
was wrong, tell what actually happened.
Clue
Clue
Debate is over
death penalty vs.
life imprisonment
Prediction
The debate
might have
something to do
with ‘the bet.’
Right or
wrong
Literary Analysis
7. Interpret In retrospect, the banker views his bet
as “the caprice of a pampered man.” How does he
feel about himself at the end of the fifteen years?
What does this reveal about Chekhov’s view
about what is important in life?
1030
10. Literary Perspectives Whose actions did you
find more credible: the banker’s or the lawyer’s?
How would you change the story to make it
more believable?
Literary Skills: Theme
Read with a Purpose
Banker’s memory
of debate at
dinner party
9. Evaluate Do you think the lawyer would have
had such a dismal view of the world had he not
been imprisoned? Explain your answer.
11. Interpret State in a full sentence what you think
is the story’s main theme—the insight it provides
about human experience. Do you think this story
has more than one theme? Explain.
Literary Skills Review: Motivation
12. Make Judgments The reason or reasons behind
a character‘s behavior are called motivation. The
banker believes that “greed for money” was the
lawyer’s motivation for betting. Do you agree?
Cite textual evidence that supports your
position.
Use It in Your Writing Chekhov indicates the passage of time with words and phrases. Using similar
phrases, write a story of your own that involve events
that take place over a large period of time.
What did you expect the lawyer to learn
about himself and life after fifteen years
in solitude? Did the reality surprise you?
Explain your responses.
SKILLS FOCUS Vocabulary Skills Identify
and correctly use synonyms. Writing
Skills Write a descriptive essay. Listening
and Speaking Skills Participate in group
discussions; present persuasive arguments and
share opinions.
Answer the questions about the Vocabulary words.
1. Is the lawyer frivolous? Explain.
REVIEW
2. Is attending college compulsory?
Conduct a Panel Discussion
6. If the prisoner’s visions were ethereal, were they
delicate or nightmarish?
Group Activity In this story, the lawyer’s letter to
his “jailer” is specific about the lawyer’s philosophy
of life. In a small group, read the letter and hold a
round-table discussion of the lawyer’s views. Choose
a leader who will make sure that all who speak offer
reasons and examples to support their views. At the
close of the discussion, prepare a summary of the
group’s responses to the lawyer’s philosophy.
7. The lawyer renounced the money. Does that
mean he claimed it, or that he rejected it?
CONNECT
3. Why does the banker consider the bet a caprice?
4. What does it mean that the prisoner zealously
studied books and languages in prison?
5. In the last two years, the lawyer read indiscriminately. What sorts of books did he read?
Vocabulary Skills: Synonyms
A synonym for a word should be of the same part of
speech. Compulsory and obligation, for example, (which
both refer to something mandatory) are not synonyms
since they are different parts of speech. The proper synonym for compulsory (adj.) is obligatory (adj.)
Write About Solitary Confinement
Imagine yourself in the lawyer’s
place. How would solitary confinement affect you?
The rules of your confinement include no human
contact, no exit, no television, no access to technology. You may ask for books, musical instruments, and
exercise equipment. Write a brief essay in which you
tell how you might spend one year alone.
EXTEND
Debate an Issue
Your Turn
Match each Vocabulary word with its synonym.
1. frivolous
a. whim
2. caprice
b. reject
3. zealously
c. enthusiastically
4. renounce
d. silly
The Greek word zêlos means “enthusiasm for a
cause.” For which Vocabulary word is zêlos a root?
What are the related noun forms for this word?
The question of capital punishment versus solitary
confinement is a complex issue that is still debated
today. Form two teams to debate the issue discussed
at the party at the start of the story, one to support
solitary confinement as punishment and one to support capital punishment. Find evidence to support
your position.
Learn It Online
Explore Chekhov’s world through these Internet links.
go.hrw.com
L12-1031
Go
MEET THE WRITER
Guy de Maupassant
The Jewels
(1850–1893)
Maupassant’s terse, realistic stories have informed generations
of American writers, from Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King.
How can appearance
be different from
reality?
QuickWrite
In your Reader/Writer Notebook, write a paragraph
about a time when you had a false impression of
someone or something. What was it like to discover the truth?
Engraved portrait of Guy de Maupassant, an
illustration from Le Monde Illustre (1894).
An Interest in Realism
Guy de Maupassant came from a wealthy family in rural Normandy. His parents separated when he was young, and Maupassant was raised by his mother, a daring woman who once
raised eyebrows because she wore her skirts above her ankles.
Among his mother’s friends was the great realist novelist
Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880), who, along with Maupassant’s
mother, encouraged him to write from an early age.
As a young man, Maupassant served in the army and
studied law. He then took a civil service job in Paris, where he
reconnected with Flaubert, who, now aging and lonely, became
a mentor to the young man. Every week, leading realist writers, such as Émile Zola (1840–1902) and Russian novelist Ivan
Turgenev (1818–1883), met at Flaubert’s house to discuss literature. At that time, Maupassant was writing poems, historical
dramas, and horror stories, but under the influence of his new
friends, he turned to realistic fiction.
Later Maupassant joined a group of younger realists, or
naturalists, who met at Zola’s house. They were less interested
in style and more intent on analyzing social conditions.
Darkly Ironic
By the time he was in his thirties, Maupassant had become one
of France’s best-known artists, and enjoyed the rare benefit
of being able to support himself independently as a writer. In
1883 alone, he turned out two novels and seventy short stories.
Those darkly ironic stories boast a knowledge of life both in
rural Normandy and in seedy and fashionable Paris, and their
characters are often victims of their own greed or vanity.
Few of Maupassant’s friends suspected that the strong
young writer was in constant pain and nearly blind from overwork and syphilis. At the end of 1891, Maupassant suffered a
complete mental breakdown, from which he never recovered.
He died in an asylum before his forty-third birthday.
Where did Maupassant get the
material for his stories?
1032
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Understand irony, including situational and dramatic irony. Reading Skills Draw
inferences.
Irony The discrepancy between appearances and reality is known as
irony. There are three basic types of irony. In verbal irony, a person says
something but means something very different, as when, for example,
someone remarks in the middle of a hurricane, “Nice day we’re having.”
In situational irony, what actually happens is different from what you
would expect to happen. When it rains on the weather forecasters’ picnic
or when the police officer’s son robs the bank, we perceive situational
irony. In dramatic irony, a character believes something to be true, while
the reader knows better. A character might think he is safe in his house,
but the reader knows that a robber is approaching the back window. As
you read “The Jewels,” look for examples of situational and dramatic irony.
Drawing Inferences An inference is an educated guess. As you read
“The Jewels,” pay close attention to what is not said as well as to what is
said. Stay alert, for Maupassant often drops crucial clues in the space of
one or two words. Sometimes you have to make inferences about a character, an event, or even just about the significance of a brief remark.
Into Action Use a graphic organizer like the one below to note details
and then draw inferences based on those details.
Detail
Detail
Girl is charming and pleasing,
maybe too much so.
Mother wants to
marry the girl off.
Inference
The girl may not be as
perfect as she seems.
Find It in Your Reading The dialogue in this story is written mostly in
short sentences that realistically convey information about the characters and their situation. In your Reader/Writer Notebook, write down two
or three sentences you consider realistic. Give reasons for your choices.
unpretentious (uhn prih TEHN shuhs) adj.:
modest. Madame Lantin’s dresses were
simple and unpretentious.
assuage (uh SWAYJ) v.: ease; calm. Lantin
was so grief-stricken that even a great
expanse of time could not assuage his sorrow.
incurred (ihn KURD) v.: brought upon oneself. Monsieur Lantin incurred a number of
debts that thrust him into a bad financial
situation.
surreptitiously (sur uhp TIHSH uhs lee) adv.:
in a secret or sneaky manner. The jewelers
looked at Lantin surreptitiously to hide their
amusement.
contemptuous (kuhn TEHMP chu uhs) adj.:
scornful. He gave the carriages contemptuous looks because the rich would no longer
look down on him.
Prefixes and Suffixes Word parts added
to the fronts of words to change their meaning are called prefixes; word parts added to
the ends of words to change their meaning
or part of speech are called suffixes. Find
two Vocabulary words with prefixes. Find a
word with a suffix that changes the word’s
tense. Find another word with a suffix that
changes the word from noun to adjective.
Learn It Online
Learn more about Maupassant’s life and work at the
Writers’ Lives site.
go.hrw.com
L12-1033
Go
Preparing to Read
1033
SHORT STORY
Play Audio
The Jewels
Th
by Guy de Maupassant
translated by Roger Colet
Read with a Purpose
Read to discover how a woman’s jewelry collection is not
what it seems to be.
Build Background
Guy de Maupassant, like his fellow realists, rejected the Romantic
notion that the world was essentially good. Instead, Maupassant’s
stories reveal surprising and sometimes shocking truths about
M
onsieur Lantin had met the girl at a party
given one evening by his office superior and
love had caught him in its net.
She was the daughter of a country tax collector
who had died a few years before. She had come to
Paris then with her mother, who struck up acquaintance with a few middle-class families in her district
in the hope of marrying her off. They were poor and
decent, quiet and gentle. The girl seemed the perfect
example of the virtuous woman to whom every sensible young man dreams of entrusting his life. Her
simple beauty had a modest, angelic charm and the
imperceptible smile which always hovered about her
lips seemed to be a reflection of her heart.
The Eiffel Tower stands overlooking the promenades
and fairgrounds of the Paris Exposition, 1889.
1034
people’s inner lives. Maupassant’s characters are not members of the
upper classes and nobility; they are ordinary people, such as peasants, minor government officials, even prostitutes.
You may notice that Maupassant uses only a few sentences to
describe major events and characters. This terse style is partly attributed to the fact that many of his stories were originally published in
newspapers, which restricted the length of his material.
Everybody sang her praises and people who knew
her never tired of saying: “Happy the man who marries her. Nobody could find a better wife.”
A
Monsieur Lantin, who was then a senior clerk at
the Ministry of the Interior with a salary of three thousand five hundred francs1 a year, proposed to her and
married her.
He was incredibly happy with her. She ran his
household so skillfully and economically that they
gave the impression of living in luxury. She lavished
attention on her husband, spoiling and coddling him,
1. francs: In the late nineteenth century, a franc was worth
about twenty cents in American currency.
A
Reading Focus Drawing Inferences How many times does
Maupassant use a form of the word seem in his description of the girl?
What inference can you make based on the use of this word?
and the charm of her person was so great that six years
after their first meeting he loved her even more than in
the early days.
He found fault with only two of her tastes: her love
for the theater and her passion for imitation jewelry.
Her friends (she knew the wives of a few petty
officials) often obtained a box at the theater for her
for popular plays, and even for first nights; and she
dragged her husband along willy-nilly to these entertainments, which he found terribly tiring after a day’s
work at the office. He therefore begged her to go to the
theater with some lady of her acquaintance who would
bring her home afterwards. It was a long time before
she gave in, as she thought that this arrangement was
not quite respectable. But finally, just to please him,
she agreed, and he was terribly grateful to her.
Now this love for the theater soon aroused in
her a desire to adorn her person. True, her dresses
remained very simple, always in good taste, but
unpretentious; and her gentle grace, her irresistible,
humble, smiling charm seemed to be enhanced by the
simplicity of her gowns. But she took to wearing two
big rhinestone earrings which sparkled like diamonds,
and she also wore necklaces of fake pearls, bracelets of
imitation gold, and combs set with colored glass cut to
look like real stones.
Her husband, who was rather shocked by this love
of show, often used to say: “My dear, when a woman
can’t afford to buy real jewels, she ought to appear
adorned with her beauty and grace alone: those are
still the rarest of gems.”
But she would smile sweetly and reply: “I can’t
help it. I like imitation jewelry. It’s my only vice.
Vocabulary unpretentious (uhn prih TEHN shuhs) adj.:
modest.
The Jewels
1035
I know you’re right, but people can’t change their
natures. I would have loved to own some real jewels.”
Then she would run the pearl necklaces through
her fingers and make the cut-glass gems flash in the
light, saying: “Look! Aren’t they beautifully made?
Anyone would swear they were real.”
He would smile and say: “You have the taste of a
gypsy.”
Sometimes, in the evening, when they were sitting
together by the fireside, she would place on the tea
table the leather box in which she kept her “trash,” as
Monsieur Lantin called it. Then she would start examining these imitation jewels with passionate attention,
as if she were enjoying some deep and secret pleasure;
and she would insist on hanging a necklace around
her husband’s neck, laughing uproariously and crying:
“How funny you look!” And then she would throw
herself into his arms and kiss him passionately.
B
One night in winter when she had been to the
opera, she came home shivering with cold. The next
morning she had a cough, and a week later she died of
pneumonia.
Lantin very nearly followed her to the grave. His
despair was so terrible that his hair turned white within a month. He wept from morning to night, his heart
ravaged by unbearable grief, haunted by the memory,
the smile, the voice, the every charm of his dead wife.
Time did nothing to assuage his grief. Often during office hours, when his colleagues came along to
chat about the topics of the day, his cheeks would suddenly puff out, his nose wrinkle up, his eyes fill with
tears, and with a terrible grimace he would burst out
sobbing
He had left his wife’s room untouched, and every
day would shut himself in it and think about her. All
the furniture and even her clothes remained exactly
where they had been on the day she had died.
But life soon became a struggle for him. His
income, which in his wife’s hands had covered all
their expenses, was now no longer sufficient for him
on his own; and he wondered in amazement how she
B
Reading Focus Drawing Inferences What inference can you
make about the wife from her words and actions?
C Reading Focus Drawing Inferences What do you think
might account for Madame Lantin’s amazing ability to stretch her
husband’s salary?
1036
had managed to provide him with excellent wines and
rare delicacies which he could no longer afford on his
modest salary.
C
He incurred a few debts and ran after money in
the way people do when they are reduced to desperate
shifts. Finally, one morning, finding himself without
a sou2 a whole week before the end of the month, he
decided to sell something; and immediately the idea
occurred to him of disposing of his wife’s “trash.” He
still harbored a sort of secret grudge against those false
gems which had irritated him in the past, and indeed
the sight of them every day somewhat spoiled the
memory of his beloved.
He rummaged for a long time among the heap of
gaudy trinkets she had left behind, for she had stubbornly gone on buying jewelry until the last days of
her life, bringing home a new piece almost every evening. At last he decided on the large necklace which
she had seemed to like best, and which, he thought,
might well be worth six or seven francs, for it was
beautifully made for a piece of paste.3
He put it in his pocket and set off for his Ministry,
following the boulevards and looking for a jeweler’s
shop which inspired confidence.
At last he spotted one and went in, feeling a little
ashamed of exposing his poverty in this way, and of
trying to sell such a worthless article.
“Monsieur,” he said to the jeweler, “I would like to
know what you think this piece is worth.”
The man took the necklace, examined it, turned it
over, weighed it, inspected it with a magnifying glass,
called his assistant, made a few remarks to him in an
undertone, placed the necklace on the counter and
looked at it from a distance to gauge the effect.
Monsieur Lantin, embarrassed by all this ritual,
was opening his mouth to say: “Oh, I know perfectly
well that it isn’t worth anything,” when the jeweler
2. sou: French coin worth about two cents in American
currency in the late nineteenth century.
3. paste: kind of glass used to make fake gems.
Vocabulary assuage (uh SWAYJ) v.: ease; calm.
incurred (ihn KURD) v.: brought upon oneself.
said: “Monsieur, this necklace is worth between twelve
and fifteen thousand francs; but I couldn’t buy it unless
you told me where it came from.”
D
The widower opened his eyes wide and stood
there gaping, unable to understand what the jeweler
had said. Finally he stammered: “What was that you
said?… Are you sure?”
The other misunderstood his astonishment and
said curtly: “You can go somewhere else and see if
they’ll offer you more. In my opinion it’s worth fifteen
thousand at the most. Come back and see me if you
can’t find a better price.”
Completely dumbfounded, Monsieur Lantin took
back his necklace and left the shop, in obedience to a
vague desire to be alone and to think.
Once outside, however, he felt an impulse to
laugh, and he thought: “The fool! Oh, the fool! But
what if I’d taken him at his word? There’s a jeweler who
can’t tell real diamonds from paste!”
And he went into another jeweler’s shop at the
beginning of the Rue de la Paix. As soon as he saw the
necklace, the jeweler exclaimed: “Why, I know that
necklace well: it was bought here.”
Monsieur Lantin asked in amazement: “How
much is it worth?”
“Monsieur, I sold it for twenty-five thousand. I am
prepared to buy it back for eighteen thousand once
you have told me, in accordance with the legal requirements, how you came to be in possession of it.”
E
This time Monsieur Lantin was dumbfounded. He
sat down and said: “But… but… examine it carefully,
Monsieur. Until now I thought it was paste.”
“Will you give me your name, Monsieur?” said the
jeweler.
“Certainly. My name’s Lantin. I’m an official at the
Ministry of the Interior, and I live at No. 16, Rue des
Martyrs.”
The jeweler opened his books, looked for the
entry, and said: “Yes, this necklace was sent to
Madame Lantin’s address, No. 16, Rue des Martyrs, on
the 20th of July 1876.”
The two men looked into each other’s eyes, the
clerk speechless with astonishment, the jeweler scenting a thief. Finally the latter said: “Will you leave the
necklace with me for twenty-four hours? I’ll give you
a receipt.”
“Why, certainly,” stammered Monsieur Lantin.
And he went out folding the piece of paper, which he
put in his pocket.
Then he crossed the street, walked up it again,
noticed that he was going the wrong way, went back as
far as the Tuileries, crossed the Seine, realized that he
had gone wrong again, and returned to the ChampsÉlysées,4 his mind a complete blank. He tried to think
it out, to understand. His wife couldn’t have afforded
to buy something so valuable—that was certain. But
in that case it was a present! A present! But a present
from whom? And why was it given her?
He halted in his tracks and remained standing in
the middle of the avenue. A horrible doubt crossed his
mind. Her? But in that case all the other jewels were
presents, too! The earth seemed to be trembling under
his feet and a tree in front of him to be falling; he threw
up his arms and fell to the ground unconscious.
F
He came to his senses in a chemist’s shop into
which the passersby had carried him. He took a cab
home and shut himself up.
He wept bitterly until nightfall, biting on a handkerchief so as not to cry out. Then he went to bed
worn out with grief and fatigue and slept like a log.
A ray of sunlight awoke him and he slowly got up
to go to his Ministry. It was hard to think of working
after such a series of shocks. It occurred to him that
he could ask to be excused and he wrote a letter to his
superior. Then he remembered that he had to go back
to the jeweler’s and he blushed with shame. He spent
a long time thinking it over, but decided that he could
not leave the necklace with that man. So he dressed
and went out.
G
D
F
Reading Focus Drawing Inferences Why do you suppose
the jeweler wants to know where the necklace came from?
E Literary Focus Irony What is ironic or unexpected about
Lantin’s discovery of the true value of the jewelry?
4. Champs-Élysées: elegant boulevard in Paris.
Reading Focus Drawing Inferences What can you infer
about the manner in which Madame Lantin came to possess the jewels?
G
Reading Focus Drawing Inferences Why is Lantin feeling
shameful?
The Jewels
1037
Jolie Madame (Pretty Woman) (1973) by Audrey Flack.
National Gallery of Australia.
Viewing and Interpreting How do these objects suggest a person who,
like Madame Lantin, enjoys the theater? How might they be something other
than what they appear to be?
It was a fine day and the city seemed to be smiling
under the clear blue sky. People were strolling about
the streets with their hands in their pockets.
Watching them, Lantin said to himself: “How
lucky rich people are! With money you can forget even
the deepest of sorrows. You can go where you like,
travel, enjoy yourself. Oh, if only I were rich!”
He began to feel hungry, for he had eaten nothing for two days, but his pocket was empty. Then he
remembered the necklace. Eighteen thousand francs!
Eighteen thousand francs! That was a tidy sum, and no
mistake!
When he reached the Rue de la Paix he started
Vocabulary surreptitiously (sur uhp TIHSH uhs lee) adv.: in
a secret or sneaky manner.
1038
walking up and down the pavement opposite the
jeweler’s shop. Eighteen thousand francs! A score of
times he almost went in, but every time shame held
him back.
He was hungry, though, very hungry, and he had
no money at all. He quickly made up his mind, ran
across the street so as not to have any time to think,
and rushed into the shop.
As soon as he saw him the jeweler came forward
and offered him a chair with smiling politeness. His
assistants came into the shop, too, and glanced
surreptitiously at Lantin with laughter in their eyes
and on their lips.
“I have made inquiries, Monsieur,” said the jeweler, “and if you still wish to sell the necklace, I am prepared to pay you the price I offered you.”
“Why, certainly,” stammered the clerk.
The jeweler took eighteen large bank notes out of
a drawer, counted them and handed them to Lantin,
who signed a little receipt and with a trembling hand
put the money in his pocket.
Then, as he was about to leave the shop, he turned
towards the jeweler, who was still smiling, and lowering his eyes said: “I have… I have some other jewels
which have come to me from… from the same legacy.
Would you care to buy them from me, too?”
The jeweler bowed.
“Certainly, Monsieur.”
One of the assistants went out, unable to contain
his laughter; another blew his nose loudly.
H
Lantin, red faced and solemn, remained unmoved.
“I will bring them to you,” he said.
And he took a cab to go and fetch the jewels.
When he returned to the shop an hour later he
still had had nothing to eat. The jeweler and his assistants began examining the jewels one by one, estimating the value of each piece. Almost all of them had
been bought at that shop.
Lantin now began arguing about the valuations,
lost his temper, insisted on seeing the sales registers,
and spoke more and more loudly as the sum increased.
The large diamond earrings were worth twenty
thousand francs, the bracelets thirty-five thousand, the
brooches, rings, and lockets sixteen thousand, a set of
emeralds and sapphires fourteen thousand, and a solitaire pendant on a gold chain forty thousand—making
a total sum of one hundred and ninety-six thousand
francs.
The jeweler remarked jokingly: “These obviously
belonged to a lady who invested all her savings in
jewelry.”
Lantin replied seriously: “It’s as good a way as any
of investing one’s money.”
And he went off after arranging with the jeweler to
have a second expert valuation the next day.
Out in the street he looked at the Vendôme column5 and felt tempted to climb up it as if it were a
greasy pole. He felt light enough to play leapfrog with
the statue of the Emperor perched up there in the
sky.
I
He went to Voisin’s for lunch and ordered wine
with his meal at twenty francs a bottle.
Then he took a cab and went for a drive in the
Bois.6 He looked at the other carriages with a slightly
contemptuous air, longing to call out to the passersby:
“I’m a rich man, too! I’m worth two hundred thousand
francs!”
J
Suddenly he remembered his Ministry. He drove
there at once, strode into his superior’s office, and said:
“Monsieur, I have come to resign my post. I have just
been left three hundred thousand francs.”
He shook hands with his former colleagues and
told them some of his plans for the future; then he
went off to dine at the Café Anglais.
Finding himself next to a distinguished-looking
gentleman, he was unable to refrain from informing
him, with a certain coyness, that he had just inherited
four hundred thousand francs.
For the first time in his life he was not bored at the
theater, and he spent the night with some prostitutes.
Six months later he married again. His second
wife was a very virtuous woman, but extremely badtempered. She made him very unhappy.
K
H
K
Reading Focus Drawing Inferences What do you infer is
the reason the clerks are laughing at Lantin?
I
Reading Focus Drawing Inferences Lantin and the jeweler
both know that Madame Lantin did not save her money to invest in
jewelry. Why does Lantin maintain this pretense?
J Literary Focus Irony How does Lantin change as he becomes
wealthy? What is ironic about the way he feels now?
5. Vendôme column: monument in Paris honoring Napoleon.
6. Bois: Bois de Bologne, a park in Paris.
Literary Focus Irony What is ironic about the description of
Lantin’s second wife? (Would you expect a virtuous woman to make him
unhappy?)
Vocabulary contemptuous (kuhn TEHMP chu uhs) adj.:
scornful.
The Jewels
1039
irony; analyze symbols. Reading
Skills Draw inferences. Vocabulary
Skills Understand and identify
synonyms. Writing Skills Use dialogue
effectively.
The Jewels
Quick Check
Literary Analysis
1. Describe the Lantins’ married life, including how
they feel about each other and their economic
circumstances.
2. How does the death of his wife affect Monsieur
Lantin’s standard of living?
Read with a Purpose
3. What kind of person does Madame Lantin seem
to be? What is she really?
Reading Skills: Drawing Inferences
4. Look back at the inferences you made while
reading the story. Add a circle above each “Inference” circle in your chart. In this circle, revise any
inferences that turned out to be incorrect.
Detail
Detail
Girl is charming
and pleasing, maybe
too much so.
Mother wants to
marry the girl off.
10. Interpret Why do you think Lantin hesitates to
accept the eighteen thousand francs?
11. Extend Maupassant used fiction to examine
social issues. With what particular problem does
“The Jewels” deal?
12. Draw Conclusions What does Maupassant suggest about the connection between virtue and
happiness?
Literary Skills: Irony
13. Analyze Re-read the last two paragraphs of the
story. What is ironic about how Lantin changes
after he sells the jewels?
Literary Skills Review: Symbol
14. Evaluate A symbol is a person, place, or thing
that has meaning in itself and also stands for
something else. What do the jewels symbolize in
this story?
Inference
The girl may not be as
perfect as she seems.
Use It in Your Writing Using the realistic dialogue
from “The Jewels” as a model, write at least six lines of
realistic dialogue on your own.
Match each Vocabulary word with its synonym.
5. unpretentious
a. disapproving
6. assuage
b. humble
7. incurred
c. soothe
8. surreptitiously
d. invited
9. contemptuous
e. secretly
1040
Why might Lantin find it preferable to
assume the jewels are fake? What does his
decision later to sell the jewels suggest
about his values?
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Compare
realist works. Reading Skills Relate literary works to themes of an era. Writing
Skills Write a compare-and-contrast essay.
World Literature: The Rise of Realism
Writing a Comparison-Contrast Essay
In what ways are these three short stories similar and
different? Consider how these works exhibit some of
the characteristics of realism: the use of characters
from ordinary life; an unflinching look at how changes
in society affect ordinary people; an examination of
the motivations of human behavior; a realistic—even
ironic—view of human life. Re-read the selections to
determine specific points of similarity and difference.
Prewriting
Consider the following topics or develop your own:
• Compare and contrast the desires of and lessons
learned by the main characters in the stories.
• Compare the use of irony in the stories.
• Compare and contrast the writers’ views of life.
• Compare and contrast the ways the stories contrast
appearances with reality.
• Compare and contrast themes.
Review the Elements of the Writing Form Once
you have chosen a topic, review the elements of what
makes a successful comparison-contrast essay before
you begin.
An effective comparison / contrast essay
• states the basis of the comparison-contrast in a
thesis
• organizes ideas, using the point-by-point
method
• uses and cites text evidence to support each
point of comparison and contrast
• contains few or no errors in spelling, punctuation, and usage
Gather Ideas Create a trifold chart like the one on
the right to record your thoughts about each story.
Look for patterns of similarities and differences.
“How Much
Land . . .?”
“The Bet”
“The Jewels”
Pahom and
devil—owning
land debt free
lawyer and
banker bet
clerk marries beautiful but poor woman
greed; could not
stop
two million
discovers jewelry was
real; she was not
irony: greed leads
to death
irony: renounces
and disappears
irony: wife deceived
husband
Develop a Thesis Statement Using your notes and
observations, develop a thesis that makes an assertion about the similarities and differences in the
selections. Use a basis of similarity (such as ironic
conclusions), and then focus on the differences in the
three selections. Sample thesis:
The ironic endings of the three stories emphasize
their realism, but the main characters have very
different motives for their actions.
Drafting
Because you are using the point-by-point method of
organization, begin with the strongest comparison
linking the three stories. Develop it in your first body
paragraph. Then, depending on your analysis, your
next body paragraphs will develop either additional
similarities or differences. Your final body paragraph
will focus on the differences.
Revising and Editing
Re-read your draft to determine if you have fully supported your thesis with explanation and text evidence.
Then read for grammatical, mechanics, and usage
errors. Prepare a final copy that is error-free. Publish.
How does reality interfere with our
expectations of how life should be?
Comparing Texts Wrap Up
1041
Fictional Narrative
Write with
a Purpose
Write a fictional narrative with a
plot, setting, and characters of your
creation. Your purpose for writing
is to entertain readers and express
an understanding of the human
condition. Because your audience
includes your teacher and classmates, make sure your narrative
avoids content that is inappropriate for a school setting.
A Good Fictional
Narrative
•
•
•
•
presents realistic, well-rounded
characters who undergo growth
or change
is set in a place and time that
contributes to the tone and plot
has a plot driven by a conflict
that is resolved in the end
expresses a truth about the
human condition
See page 1050 for complete rubric.
In this workshop, you’ll share your
imagination, experience, and insight into the human condition to write a
fictional narrative. Before you begin writing, take a few minutes to read the following excerpt from “Games at Twilight” by Anita Desai (page 1416).
It was still too hot to play outdoors. They had had their tea,
they had been washed and had their hair brushed, and after
the long day of confinement in the house that was not cool but
at least a protection from the sun, the children strained to get
out. Their faces were red and bloated with the effort, but their
mother would not open the door, everything was still curtained
and shuttered in a way that stifled the children, made them feel
that their lungs were stuffed with cotton wool and their noses
with dust and if they didn’t burst out into the light and see the
sun and feel the air, they would choke.
“Please, ma, please,” they begged. “We’ll play on the veranda
and porch—we won’t go a step out of the porch.”
“You will, I know you will, and then—”
“No—we won’t, we won’t,” they wailed so horrendously that
she actually let down the bolt of the front door so that they
burst out like seeds from a crackling, overripe pod into the
veranda, with such wild, maniacal yells that she retreated to her
bath and the shower of talcum powder and the fresh sari that
were to help her face the summer evening.
They faced the afternoon. It was too hot. Too bright. The
white walls of the veranda glared stridently in the sun. The
bougainvillea hung about it, purple and magenta, in livid balloons. The garden outside was like a tray made of beaten brass,
flattened out on the red gravel and the stony soil in all shade of
metal—aluminum, tin, copper, and brass.
Desai introduces
the characters and
begins to describe
the setting.
Dialogue adds
to the plot and
characterization.
She uses the words
horrendously and
maniacal to set the
story’s mood.
She helps readers
visualize the scene
through figurative
language and
descriptive details.
Think About the Professional Model
Reader/Writer
Notebook
Use your RWN to complete the
activities for this workshop.
1042
Unit 5
With a partner, discuss the following questions about the model:
1. Where is the narrative set? What clues tell you about the setting?
2. What problem do the characters in the excerpt face?
SKILLS FOCUS Writing Skills Write short stories; incorporate conflict; incorporate rising action; incorporate climax;
incorporate resolution; develop characters; develop characters
using dialogue; establish and develop setting; include narrator
and narrative devices; establish a consistent point of view;
develop a theme; enhance style for effective writing.
Idea Starters
Prewriting
•
Imagine a Story
Begin creating your narrative by deciding on its basic literary elements. Because
your imagination is the only limit, deciding what to write about may require
some time and thought. Use the following questions to guide your brainstorming. Start with any of the questions, but answer them all before you move on to
consider these elements in detail.
•
•
•
•
•
Who are the characters? Who is the protagonist (main character), and who
is the antagonist (the character who blocks the protagonist)?
Where does the narrative take place? Will you choose a setting that is familiar to you, such as your school, or one that is not, such as outer space?
When does the narrative take place? Will you set your narrative in the past,
the present, or the future?
What problem, or conflict, does the main character face?
What happens in the narrative?
•
•
Base characters on people you
know. Be sure to change their
names and some other details.
Choose a setting based on places
you have visited, read about, or
seen on TV or in movies.
Get plot ideas from real-life incidents (your own, those of people
you know, or ones you have heard
about).
Analyze Your Characters
The main characters in your story—especially the protagonist—should be realistic and well rounded. You should know them inside and out. For each character,
ask yourself, “What is the character’s name, age, and appearance? How does the
character behave? What motivates him or her?” From the short excerpt of “Games
at Twilight” on page 1042, you know a few things about the characters:
Names: unknown
Ages: children
Appearance: washed, hair brushed; faces “red and bloated”
Motivation: to get out of the house to play
Define the Conflict
There are two main types of conflict: internal and external. Use the flowchart
below to decide what kind of conflict will drive your narrative.
Protagonist vs:
His or her opposing needs,
desires, or emotions
Internal Conflict
Other characters,
society, or nature
External Conflict
Your Turn
Get Started Taking notes in your
RWN, answer the questions on this
page to determine the basic elements of your story. Then, analyze
your characters, and define your
narrative’s conflict.
Learn It Online
In the excerpt from “Games at Twilight,” one external conflict is the children’s desires versus their mother’s wishes. Complex stories usually have
more than one conflict, plus a mixture of internal and external conflicts.
To see how one writer completed this assignment, see
the model short story at:
go.hrw.com
L12-1043
Go
Writing Workshop
1043
Fictional Narrative
Writing Tips
•
•
All the events in your narrative
should help move the plot forward. Events not closely related
to the plot may confuse readers
and cause them to lose interest.
Your narrative’s plot should generate suspense—a feeling of
uncertainty and curiosity about
what will happen next.
Plot Your Narrative
Unfold the narrative events in your story chronologically, or in time order. A classic plot structure begins with the exposition, which introduces the characters
and conflict; moves through complications, which arise as characters attempt
to resolve the conflict; builds toward the climax, the moment when the conflict’s
outcome is imminent; and ends with the resolution, or denouement, when the
problems are resolved and the narrative ends. To outline your plot, write a plot
plan like this one, created by the writer of the student model (pages 1047-1048).
Plot Plan
Exposition
Mary attends a school in which new clothes are a status
symbol. She is snubbed each year by her classmates
because she is too poor to afford a new coat.
Complications
Mary sews buttons on her old coat to make it look new and
fashionable. She imagines the next day at school.
Climax
Mary wears her coat to school expecting that her
classmates will admire it.
Resolution/
Denouement
Frustrated and angry because of her classmates’ rejection,
Mary breaks down, screaming, and tears the buttons off
her coat.
Choose a Point of View
Now you must choose the point of view from which your story’s narrator will tell
the story. Use the following chart to choose a point of view:
Omniscient
Narrator
all-knowing and outside the action; can tell readers the thoughts and feelings of
all the characters; uses third-person pronouns, such as he, she, and they.
First-Person
Narrator
witness of or participant in the story; can tell only what he or she knows, thinks,
or feels; uses first-person pronouns such as I and we.
Third-PersonLimited Narrator
outside of the action, but not all knowing; focuses on the thoughts and feelings
of one character; uses third-person pronouns, such as he, she, and they.
Think About Purpose and Audience
Your Turn
Plan Your Narrative Use the
chart on this page to make a plot
plan of your narrative. Share your
chart with a peer, and consider the
feedback he or she provides. Revise
your plot as needed, keeping in
mind your purpose and audience.
1044
Unit 5
As you think about your characters, setting, plot, and point of view, keep your
purpose and audience in mind. Your purpose in writing a fictional narrative is
to entertain your readers with a story that expresses a theme—an insight about
life or the human condition. Your audience is probably your classmates and your
teacher or other individuals who enjoy a good story.
• Will they care about your characters and the conflict they face?
•
•
Will they identify with the events of the plot?
Will the resolution give them a new insight into what it means to be human?
Drafting
Writing Tip
Draft Your Fictional Narrative
Use your prewriting notes, plot plan,
and the Writer’s Framework to the right
to begin writing your fictional narrative.
Use Dialogue
Your characters should speak, using realistic dialogue, for two purposes:
• to advance the action of the plot
• to reveal characters’ personalities
and motivations
Start a new paragraph every time the
speaker changes, and use quotation
marks to enclose each speaker’s words.
Create Mood
Framework for Fictional Narrative
Beginning
• Describe setting.
• Introduce characters and establish point of
view.
• Set the plot in motion with the conflict.
Middle
• Develop characters through actions, dialogue,
description, and sensory details.
• Introduce complications.
End
• Build suspense or plot intensity to the climax.
• Resolve the conflict.
• Reveal the final outcome.
• Make the theme clear to readers.
To make the people, places, and
things in your story come alive for
the reader, use sensory details
that appeal to sight, hearing, smell,
touch, and taste as well as figurative language, such as simile and
metaphor.
Your narrative’s mood, or atmosphere,
is the overall emotion it creates, such
as peaceful, festive, ominous, or playful.
Mood is created through your choice
of words and details. For instance, in the following sentence from the student
model, the words faded, worn thin, and coffin create a sad, bleak mood:
And every year she pulled out the same faded red jacket, worn thin from
years of hand-me-downing and cold, from its cardboard coffin. . . .
Dialogue can help set the mood, by using the natural rhythm of spoken language, including the use of contractions.
Grammar Link Using Contractions with Dialogue
While contractions are not usually acceptible in formal writing, such as a research paper, you can
use contractions in fictional narratives to help with characterization and mood. If you’re wondering
whether to use a contraction, ask yourself whether the separated words sound stilted. If they do,
replace them with a contraction. Look at these examples from “Games at Twilight” (page 1042):
“Please, ma, please,” they begged. “We’ll play on the veranda and porch—we won’t go a
step out of the porch.”
“You will, I know you will, and then—”
“No—we won’t, we won’t,” they wailed. . . . ”
The author, Desai, uses the contraction we’ll instead of we will and won’t instead of will not in order to
replicate authentic speech for the dialogue and create an informal mood in her story.
Your Turn
Write Your Draft Use your plot
plan and the Writer’s Framework
to write a draft of your fictional narrative. As you write, ask yourself,
• Where can I use dialogue to
enhance my narrative?
• Will contractions make the
dialogue more realistic?
• What mood do I want to convey
in my narrative?
Writing Workshop
1045
Fictional Narrative
Peer Review
Ask a peer to read your fictional
narrative, evaluating it by using
the chart to the right. Then, ask the
following questions to find out how
well you communicated your ideas:
• Did the characters seem real?
• Did you care about the conflict?
• Was the resolution satisfying?
Use peer feedback to improve your
narrative.
1046
Unit 5
Evaluating and Revising
Evaluating and revising your draft is an essential step in producing a fictional
narrative. Examine your characterization, descriptions, and plot to make your
narrative the best it can be. The chart below will help you evaluate and revise
your draft. With a partner, begin on the left side of the chart, and work through
each revision question, tip, and suggestion.
Fictional Narrative: Guidelines for Content and Organization
Evaluation Question
Tip
Revision Technique
1. Do the first few paragraphs introduce the
setting, characters, and
conflict?
Circle facts about characters.
Bracket information about
the conflict. Underline facts
about the setting.
Add descriptions of characters
or setting or a hint about the
conflict.
2. Does the narrative
maintain a consistent
point of view?
Highlight all pronouns referring to characters and make
sure they are in the same
person.
Replace pronouns as needed
for consistency.
3. Do all the events move
the plot forward?
Number each event. In the
margin, write a corresponding
note explaining how the event
relates to the plot.
Cut events that are not essential to the plot.
4. Is dialogue used appropriately to advance
the story’s plot and to
reveal character?
Put a star beside any dialogue. Add dialogue that reveals
character or forwards the plot.
Replace unnecessary dialogue
with a paraphrase.
5. Does the narrative create a consistent mood?
Circle words and details that
create mood.
Add language and details that
evoke the mood you are trying
to achieve.
6. Is the conflict resolved
at the end of the narrative?
Underline the sentences in
which the conflict is resolved.
Add sentences that tell how
the conflict is resolved.
Read this student’s draft; note the comments on its structure and suggestions for
how it could be made even stronger.
Student Draft
Buttons
by Tawnee Cunningham, Kane Area Senior High School
It was getting colder; everyone had new coats. Coats appeared with shiny
buttons, gleaming like pebbles in a stream, wool thick and as soft as a cloud.
Everyone but her. It was like that every year. The others in her class wore new
sweaters and mittens, some the latest hat or skirt, showing off what they could
afford and flaunting what she couldn’t. And every year she pulled out the same
faded red jacket, worn thin from years of hand-me-downing and cold, from its
cardboard coffin, wishing immensely that it were a new tweed blazer or the
handsome peacoat she’d seen in the window of a department store uptown. And
every year she endured the snubbing and repulsed looks of her peers, ignoring
the stares at the frayed edges and the too-short sleeves.
This year would be no different. The style of choice this fall was fancy buttons, at the seams, on the lapels; anywhere one could sew a button. Walking
past the variety store, she suddenly had an idea. Into the little shop she went,
searching her pockets for loose change. The bell over the door rang with happy
thoughts of acceptance and contentment.
Tawnee introduces the
protagonist and conflict.
She uses vivid sensory details to
describe the shabby coat.
The main character finds a
possible solution to her problem.
How to Add Interior Monologue
One way to help readers understand characters’ motivation is to use interior
monologue—characters’ unspoken internal flow of thoughts and feelings. In her
draft, Tawnee doesn’t tell what Mary is thinking when she goes into the variety
store. The addition of interior monologue makes her motivation clearer. The revision allows the reader to “hear” her thoughts.
Tawnee’s Revision of Paragraph 2
This year would be no different. The style of choice this fall was fancy buttons, at
the seams, on the lapels; anywhere one could sew a button. Walking past the variety store, she suddenly had an idea. “Buttons cost little. What can it hurt?
Just a few additions to my coat could save me from another season of torture.”
Into the little shop she went, searching her pockets for loose change. The bell over
the door rang with happy thoughts of acceptance and contentment.
Your Turn
Add Interior Monologue Reread your draft to find places where
you could clarify characters’ motivations by adding interior monologue.
Ask yourself:
• Is it clear why the characters do
what they do?
• Can readers tell what the characters think and feel about the
events of the plot?
Writing Workshop
1047
Fictional Narrative
Student Draft continues
Tawnee details the character’s
thoughts as she replaces the old
buttons.
She moves the conflict toward its
resolution.
The denouement, or resolution,
is achieved.
She uses figurative language to
emphasize the loss of the buttons.
Finally at home, she brought out the little cedar box she kept her needlework in. Carefully, she removed the tarnished buttons from their thread bindings.
In each place, she attached a new one, blue and twisted in a little centipede pattern. As she sewed, she heard the compliments she would receive the next day.
They would greet her as she removed her jacket, begging to know where she’d
gotten such a beautiful coat. She would just smile modestly and shrug, she imagined, and accept their invitations to sit with them during lunch. That night, she
could barely sleep for the excitement of it all.
She set off to the school, her head held high. The others crowded around the
door, talking and gossiping, conversations whispered behind hands in expensive
leather gloves. No one noticed her. It didn’t matter, she knew they would.
But there were no shared lunches—only sarcasm and disdain. Mary Green
started screaming and would not stop. When her parents finally came for her,
they asked why her coat was ripped and torn. The answer lay on the sidewalk,
splayed about like dropped pennies, the buttons she’d sewed the night before,
glinting in the sun like round, azure tears.
How to Clarify Transitions
Tawnee’s draft does not always provide sufficient transitions—words, phrases,
and sentences that provide a smooth flow from one idea to the next. Her readers
can get lost when Tawnee abruptly changes setting. Between paragraphs 3 and
4, she decided to add some transitional information to indicate that the events
of paragraph 4 occur the next day. She also adds some imagery that shows the
change in setting and allows the reader insight into the character’s thinking.
Tawnee’s Draft of Paragraphs 3 and 4
That night, she could barely sleep for the excitement of it all.
She set off to the school, her head held high.
Tawnee’s Revision of Paragraph 4
Your Turn
Clarify Transitions Look
through your draft for places
where transitions would be useful.
Pay close attention to transitions
between paragraphs, and make sure
the reader can tell
• where the action is happening.
• when the action is happening.
• and what the characters think
and feel about the actions.
1048
Unit 5
That night, she could barely sleep for the excitement of it all.
She set off to the school, her head held high.
The next morning, the ground sparkled with a layer of white frost, making
the flowers shiver in protest. It was a perfect time to debut her new jacket.
Proofreading and Publishing
Proofread
Errors can distract readers from your story and ruin its effect. Follow these tips to
proofread, or edit, your fictional narrative:
• Consult a style manual to answer questions of grammar, usage, and
mechanics. Review the section on punctuating dialogue.
• Start proofreading at the end of your narrative and work your way back to
the beginning, checking the spelling of each word.
• Look at each sentence to make sure that it contains a subject and a verb
and that it expresses a single, complete thought. If a sentence contains two
or more complete thoughts running together with only a comma between
them, then you have a comman splice, which should be corrected.
Grammar Link Avoiding Comma Splices
In her draft, Tawnee includes a comma splice—a run-on sentence in which only a comma separates
two independent clauses. One quick fix for a comma splice is to replace the comma with a semicolon.
Tawnee’s Revision
It didn’t matter; she knew they would.
You can also correct comma splices by adding a coordinating conjunction (such as and, but, for, nor, or,
so, and yet) after the comma or by turning each independent clause into a separate sentence.
Proofreading Tip
Use your intuition when proofreading. When something in your draft
seems wrong, stop and examine
it carefully before you move on. If
you can’t find the problem, ask your
teacher or a peer to help.
Writing Tip
To find comma splices, highlight
every comma in your draft. For each
one found, ask these questions:
• Does the comma come between
two independent clauses that
could stand on their own as separate sentences?
• If so, is the comma followed by a
coordinating conjunction, such as
and or but?
Reference Note For more on comma splices, see the Language Handbook.
Publishing
You’ve worked hard to write an interesting, insightful fictional narrative. Try these
ideas for sharing your piece with an audience outside your classroom:
• Submit your fictional narrative to a print or online literary magazine.
• Host a fiction reading at which you and your peers can read your work out
loud to an audience.
• Use desktop publishing software to improve your narrative’s presentation—how it actually looks on the page. Print, then bind it in a folder, and
give it to a friend or family member as a gift.
Reflect on the Process Thinking about the process of writing your
fictional narrative will help you with your future writing. Write a short response
to each of these questions in your RWN:
1. What prewriting technique helped you the most?
2. What is the strongest part of your fictional narrative? Why?
Your Turn
Proofread and Publish As you
proofread your draft, check carefully for comma splices and other
sentence flaws. After correcting any
errors, publish your narrative.
Writing Workshop
1049
Fictional Narrative
Scoring Rubric
Use one of the rubrics below to evaluate your fictional narrative from the Writing
Workshop or your response to the on-demand prompt on the next page. Your
teacher will tell you to use either the six- or four-point rubric.
6-Point Scale
4-Point Scale
Score 6 Demonstrates advanced success
Score 4 Demonstrates advanced success
• focuses consistently on narrating a single incident or a unified sequence of incidents
• shows effective narrative sequence throughout, with smooth transitions
• offers a thoughtful, creative approach to the narration
• develops the story thoroughly, using precise and vivid descriptive and narrative details
• exhibits mature control of written language
• focuses consistently on narrating a single incident or
a unified sequence of incidents
• shows effective narrative sequence throughout, with
smooth transitions
• offers a thoughtful, creative approach to the
narration
Score 5 Demonstrates proficient success
• focuses on narrating a single incident or a unified sequence of incidents
• shows effective narrative sequence, with transitions
• offers a thoughtful approach to the narration
• develops the story competently, using descriptive and narrative details
• exhibits sufficient control of written language
• develops the story thoroughly, using precise and
vivid descriptive and narrative details
• exhibits mature control of written language
Score 3 Demonstrates competent success
• focuses on narrating a single incident or a unified
sequence of incidents, with minor distractions
Score 4 Demonstrates competent success
• focuses on narrating a single incident or a unified sequence of incidents, with minor
•
•
•
•
distractions
shows effective narrative sequence, with minor lapses
offers a mostly thoughtful approach to the narration
develops the story adequately, with some descriptive and narrative details
exhibits general control of written language
Score 3 Demonstrates limited success
• includes some loosely related material that distracts from the writer’s narrative focus
• shows some organization, with noticeable flaws in the narrative flow
• offers a routine, predictable approach to the narration
• develops the story with uneven use of descriptive and narrative detail
• exhibits limited control of written language
Score 2 Demonstrates basic success
• includes loosely related material that seriously distracts from the writer’s narrative focus
• shows minimal organization, with major gaps in the narrative flow
• offers a narrative that merely skims the surface
• develops the story with inadequate descriptive and narrative detail
• exhibits significant problems with control of written language
Score 1 Demonstrates emerging effort
• shows little awareness of the topic and the narrative purpose
• lacks organization
• offers an unclear and confusing narrative
• develops the story with little or no detail
• exhibits major problems with control of written language
1050
Unit 5
• shows effective narrative sequence, with minor
lapses
• offers a mostly thoughtful approach to the narration
• develops the story adequately, with some descriptive and narrative details
• exhibits general control of written language
Score 2 Demonstrates limited success
• includes some loosely related material that distracts
from the writer’s narrative focus
• shows some organization, with noticeable flaws in
the narrative flow
• offers a routine, predictable approach to the
narration
• develops the story with uneven use of descriptive
and narrative detail
• exhibits limited control of written language
Score 1 Demonstrates emerging effort
• shows little awareness of the topic and the narrative
purpose
• lacks organization
• offers an unclear and confusing narrative
• develops the story with little or no detail
• exhibits major problems with control of written
language
Fictional Narrative
When responding to a prompt, use what you have learned from reading, writing your fictional narrative, and studying the rubric on page 1050. Use the steps
below to develop a response to the following prompt:
Writing Prompt
Write a fictional narrative about a time when freedom
was won or lost. In your story, create a setting, confict,
and events that illustrate the gain or loss of freedom.
Study the Prompt
Begin by reading the prompt carefully. Read it a second time, circling or underlining words that identify
important information: time, freedom, won, lost, setting,
conflict, and events.
Because this task requires a narrative structure,
you must create characters to respond to the conflict
(for freedom) in a distinct setting (time and place). You
must decide what kind of freedom your characters will
win or lose and how that happens. Tip: Spend about five
minutes studying the prompt.
Plan Your Response
Ask yourself questions about the imaginary situation
suggested by the prompt to help you create the literary elements that will go into your story.
• What kind of freedom is at stake in your story?
personal, physical freedom? freedom of the spirit?
intellectual freedom?
• What is the setting? Where and when will the
struggle for freedom occur?
• What will the major characters be like?
• What minor characters will be in the narrative?
• What point of view will your narrative use?
• How will the plot unfold? What will the complications be that move the narrative action forward?
• How will the conflict in your narrative be
resolved? Will freedom be won or lost?
Answer these questions carefully but quickly, and make
some notes. Tip: Spend about ten minutes planning your response.
Respond to the Prompt
Start writing, even if you are unsure about how to
begin. The most important thing is to get your ideas
on paper. One way to begin is to create a dialogue
between your main character and others which will
reveal the setting and conflict. As you write, remember
the following points:
• Use descriptive details to allow your reader to
“see” the characters and their experience. Be as
specific as you can when you describe the characters and what happens.
• Include a few narrative details to illustrate the
conflict and lead to its resolution.
• Use transitional phrases and sentences to let
your readers know when and where the action is
happening.
• Make the resolution clear. One way to do that is
to have the main character speak to others.
Tip: Spend about twenty minutes writing your fictional narrative.
Improve Your Response
Revising Go back to the key aspects of the prompt.
Does your response include characters, a setting, a
conflict, complications, and a resolution? Have you
used dialogue or description to make the characters
and action clear? Does your narrative have a beginning,
middle, and end? Is the point of view consistent?
Proofreading Take a few minutes to proofread to
correct errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and
capitalization. Make sure that all your edits are neat,
and check that your paper is legible.
Checking Your Final Copy Before you turn in your
narrative, read it one more time to catch any errors you
may have missed. You’ll be glad you took one more
look to present your best writing. Tip: Save five or ten minutes to improve your response.
Preparing for Timed Writing
1051
Telling a Story
Speak with a
Purpose
Adapt your short story
into an oral presentation.
Practice telling your story,
and then present it to your
class.
The processes of speaking and listening are similar to those of writing and reading. Speakers, like writers, attempt to
express ideas in a clear, engaging manner. Listeners, like readers, aim to absorb
and understand the ideas being expressed.
Storytelling is an ancient art form, but it also takes place every day, all
around us. In fact, you probably tell stories all the time. At the dinner table, you
might tell your family an amusing anecdote about something that happened at
school; or in line for concert tickets, you might swap “concert stories” with your
friends. Now, you can share a short story of your own by adapting it as an oral
presentation.
Adapt Your Short Story
Consider Your Listeners
A reader has the luxury of setting his or her own pace, re-reading for clarity or
enjoyment, or pausing to answer the phone, fix a snack, or take a catnap. A listener, on the other hand, has only one chance to register what is being said. As
you adapt your story for an oral presentation, consider doing your listener the
following favors:
• Keep It Simple and Vivid On paper, that extended metaphor comparing
Fido to Beowulf may have worked. In an oral presentation, though, it might
confuse—or exasperate—your listeners. Read through your story, marking images that are simple, strong, and vivid for use in your presentation.
Cut those that are abstract or complicated, or that require elaborate background knowledge.
•
•
Use your RWN to complete the
activities for this workshop.
Streamline Your Organization Remember that listeners do not have
the benefit of seeing a paragraph break on a page, or of flipping back and
forth to see what happened when. To help listeners follow the progression
of events, add verbal cues such as transitional words and phrases, or brief
references to earlier key events. Also consider limiting your use of flashback
and foreshadowing, which can wreak chronological havoc in a listener’s
mind.
Spell Out the Big Idea In a work of literature, an implicit theme can be
a lovely thing. In an oral presentation, however, you may need to guide
your listeners toward your main point in language that is somewhat direct.
Consider having your main character reflect aloud on a lesson learned, or
take an action that clearly shows how he or she has changed.
SKILLS FOCUS Listening and Speaking
Organize and present oral interpretations:
short stories and novel excerpts; use effective
verbal and nonverbal delivery techniques.
Deliver Your Short Story
Use Effective Language
When presenting a short story orally, you probably will not read it word-for-word.
Instead, you may choose words and craft sentences somewhat spontaneously. To
make sure you use appropriate, effective language, keep the following in mind:
· Standard American English should be used for clarity in the bulk of your
narrative.
· Informal language may be used occasionally, for effect.
· Technical language may be used for specificity, but only when no other kind
of language will do.
A Good Oral Presentation
• uses vivid images that the listener can
easily understand
• organizes events so they are easy to
follow
• uses appropriate words and sentences
• uses effective nonverbal techniques
Polish Your Performance
After you have adapted your story for listeners and decided what kinds of
language to use, apply the tips in this checklist to craft and practice your
performance.
Tip for Polishing Your Performance
Done?
Read your story aloud until you are very familiar with it. If you trip over certain
words or phrases, practice them in isolation, or change them altogether.
Practice adjusting your voice. Use a different pitch for each character; vary your
rate to match the story’s action; and change your tone of voice to convey mood.
Speaking Tip
Use gestures and facial expressions to add interest. Practice using movements
that are expressive, but not distracting.
You may have heard that looking
above the heads of your listeners
is an effective public speaking
technique. It is not—especially
in a small space such as a classroom. Try looking at your listeners instead. Friendly eye contact
will connect you to your audience
in a personal way and will keep
your listeners involved in the
story. Avoid extended or intense
eye contact, though, which can
make a listener uncomfortable.
To Note or Not to Note?
Make a set of notecards and put them in order. Then, practice both with and
without them. If they increase your comfort and confidence, use them during
your presentation. If you find them difficult to handle, set them aside and trust
your own storytelling instincts.
Use Nonverbal Techniques
Facial expressions and gestures add meaning to your oral narrative. Use gestures
to emphasize high points of conflict or humor. Keep in mind that your eyes convey emotion—involve your listeners by making frequent eye contact with them.
Be sure to tailor your gestures and tone to your audience. For instance,
exaggerated facial expressions might be appropriate for small children,
Learn It Online
Add music and pictures to your story.
but not for your classmates.
go.hrw.com
L12-1053
Go
Listening and Speaking Workshop
1053
PREPARING FOR STANDARDIZED TESTS
Literary Skills Review
Comparing Literature
Directions: Read the followingpoems Then, read each multiplechoice question that follows, and write the letter of the best response.
The following two nineteenth-century poems are examples of two different literary traditions. Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), an English novelist who became a poet late in life, was a realist and pessimist. Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) was a young French symbolist—one of a group
of poets who reacted against the idealism of Romanticism and sought to express their ironic view
of the world, using rhythmical language and sometimes shocking imagery. “Drummer Hodge”
is set in South Africa during the Boer War (1899–1902) in which the British defeated the Boers,
South Africans of Dutch descent. Hardy uses some words from Afrikaans, the language spoken
by the Boers. “The Sleeper of the Valley” is set in an unspecified time and place.
Drummer Hodge
The Sleeper of
the Valley
by Thomas Hardy
5
10
15
1
They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined—just as found:
His landmark is a kopje°-crest
That breaks the veldt° around;
And foreign constellations west°
Each night above his mound.
2
Young Hodge the Drummer never knew—
Fresh from his Wessex home—
The meaning of the broad Karoo,°
The Bush,° the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
Strange stars amid the gloam.
3
Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge forever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow to some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellations reign
His stars eternally.
3. kopje (KAHP ee): (Afrikaans) small hill.
4. veldt (vehlt): (Afrikaans) prairie.
5. west: move westward.
9. Karoo (kuh ROO): (Hottentot) dry plain.
10. Bush: uncleared, outlying area.
by Arthur Rimbaud
translated by Ludwig Lewisohn
There’s a green hollow where a river sings
Silvering the torn grass in its glittering flight,
And where the sun from the proud mountain
flings
Fire—and the little valley brims with light.
5
10
A soldier young, with open mouth, bare head,
Sleeps with his neck in the dewy watercress,
Under the sky and on the grass his bed,
Pale in the deep green and the light’s excess.
He sleeps amid the iris and his smile
Is like a sick child’s slumbering for a while.
Nature, in thy warm lap his chilled limbs hide!
The perfume does not thrill him from his rest.
He sleeps in sunshine, hand upon his breast,
Tranquil—with two red holes in his right side.
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Compare and contrast
works from different literary periods.
1. Hardy uses the word “throw” (line 1) to describe
the manner in which Drummer Hodge is buried.
What does this word suggest about the feelings
of those burying him?
A relief
B contentment
C indifference
D grief
2. According to “Drummer Hodge,” what will happen to Hodge in the future?
A He will be given a formal burial.
B He will go to heaven.
C He will become a permanent part of the landscape.
D He will be remembered.
3. What word best describes the landscape in which
the soldier lies in “The Sleeper of the Valley”?
A tropical
B pastoral
C urban
D arid
4. In “The Sleeper of the Valley,” the contrast
between the beautiful language and imagery
and the reality of the soldier’s death is an
example of
A irony
B symbolism
C alliteration
D Romanticism
5. Which statement about both poems is incorrect?
A Both are patriotic.
B Both are rhymed.
C Both use irony.
D Both use imagery.
6. In “The Sleeper of the Valley,” what detail most
strongly suggests that the soldier is dead before
we read the last line?
A The grass is torn.
B His limbs are chilled.
C His head is bare.
D His mouth is open.
7. In both “Drummer Hodge” and “The Sleeper of
the Valley,” there is evidence that —
A a dead soldier is deeply mourned
B people are glad that a soldier is dead
C some people are saddened by a soldier’s death
and some people are happy about it
D a particular soldier’s death can go unnoticed
Constructed Response
8. Write a brief essay about the theme of “Drummer
Hodge” and “The Sleeper of the Valley.” Be sure
to support your response with specific evidence
from the poems.
Preparing for Standardized Tests
1055
SKILLS FOCUS Vocabulary Skills Analyze
word analogies.
Vocabulary Skills Review
Analogies
Directions: For each item, choose the lettered pair of words that
expresses a relationship that is most similar to the relationship between the pair
of capitalized words.
1. MELANCHOLY : CHEERFUL ::
A restless : fitful
B punctual : prompt
C report : interpretation
D empty : complete
6. DELUSION : UNCONVINCING ::
A pulchritude : gorgeous
B mountain : altitude
C illness : physician
D soil : seedling
2. CERTITUDE : DOUBT ::
A anger : contentment
B belief : faithful
C obstinate : hostile
D palate : flavorful
7. GENIAL : PERSONABLE ::
A secretive : public
B harsh : bitter
C dime : coin
D allow : permit
3. FIDELITY : UNWAVERING ::
A vile : venomous
B charity : giving
C repudiate : confirmation
D elementary : perplexing
8. OPPRESSIVE : DICTATOR ::
A anticipatory : despair
B obnoxious : hostess
C hatred : dislike
D solitary : hermit
4. OPPRESSIVE : OVERBEARING ::
A hateful: demanding
B libel : lawsuit
C generous : giving
D comedy : funny
5. DISTRAUGHT : CALM ::
A mourner : joyful
B vessel : ocean
C wild : domesticated
D fortitude : strength
Acacemic Vocabulary
9. RESPOND : IGNORE ::
A energetic : animated
B prevent : avert
C puncture : pierce
D retain : lose
10. COMPLEX : INTRICATE ::
A frantic : indifferent
B tense : anxious
C calm : distressed
D languid : invigorating
SKILLS FOCUS Writing Skills Write narratives.
Writing Skills Review
Editing a Short Story
Directions: Read the following excerpt from a draft of a short story
and the questions below it. Choose the best answer to each question, and mark your answers on
your own paper.
(1) Maya glanced again at the grimy scrap of notebook paper: twenty-four, thirty-six, twenty-four.
(2) She stuffed the paper into her pocket and began
to spin the lock’s dial. (3) With a downward tug, the
lock opened. She was in! (4) “Excuse me,” came a
1. To help establish a suspenseful tone, how could
the writer change sentence 2?
A She stuffed the paper into her pocket, carefully adjusted her headband, and began to
spin the lock’s dial.
B She crumpled the paper, tossed it carelessly
aside, and began to spin the lock’s dial.
C She folded the paper, stuck it in her backpack,
and began to spin the lock’s dial.
D She stuffed the paper into her pocket,
glanced up and down the corridor, and began
to spin the lock’s dial.
2. Which verb could replace the word opened in
sentence 3 to improve the precision of the writing?
A clicked
C disengaged
B disconnected
D snapped
3. Which would be the best way to slow down the
pace of the story after the first paragraph?
A present and analyze various school rules
B explain exactly where in the school the locker
is located
C flash back to another incident in which Maya
broke a school rule
D compare and contrast the inside of this locker
with the inside of Maya’s own locker
deep voice from behind. (5) Oh, no, Maya thought.
(6) With a weary sigh, she turned around and began
to explain to the vice principal that her sister was
home sick and needed her math book.
4. To heighten the story’s conflict, which of the following could the writer add after sentence 5?
A I should clean out my locker before I start losing things.
B After two detentions this month, he’ll never
believe me.
C If I close the locker quietly, maybe he won’t
notice me.
D Even though I’m breaking a rule, I have a
good reason for it.
5. To create irony in the story, which of the following could the writer add after sentence 6?
A “There’s no need to explain, Maya,” Mr. Harvey
said. “I just wanted to let you know that Tara
will need her history book, too.”
B “You’ll have to explain later Maya,” Mr. Harvey
said. “I’m late for an important meeting.”
C “There’s no need to explain, Maya,” Mr. Harvey
said. “Just shut the locker and come with me
to the front office.”
D “You’ll have to explain later, Maya,” Mr. Harvey
said. “I’m looking forward to hearing what
your excuse will be this time.”
Preparing for Standardized Tests
1057
FICTION
FICTION
Jane Eyre
David
Copperfield
Meet Jane Eyre, an independent young woman who
defies Victorian England’s
superficial expectations. This
classic romance tells the story
of a governess who captures
the heart of her employer, Mr.
Rochester, despite her plain
appearance. Battling a series of secrets and obstacles, Jane Eyre eventually finds the happiness she
seeks through her steadfast intelligence, strong will,
and moral integrity.
Charles Dickens’s favorite
and most autobiographical
novel contains some of his
most memorable characters,
including the optimistic
Mr. Micawber, the devoted
Clara Pegotty, the brutal Mr.
Creakle, headmaster of Salem House School, and of
course, one of the creepiest of all Dickens’s villains,
the unctuous, hypocritical Uriah Heep. Told in the
first person, the novel depicts David’s up-and-down
relationships with numerous characters and his
gradual realization that his calling is to be a novelist.
FICTION
DRAMA
Silas Marner
The Importance
of Being Earnest
Silas Marner is a recluse and
miser whose gold is stolen,
but then symbolically replaced
by a golden-haired child who
crawls into his cottage on a
freezing winter night. Marner
raises the little girl with the
mysterious origins, and his
life is changed for the better. George Eliot shows
her readers that even a small English village holds
enough secrets about crimes, misunderstandings,
and forbidden relationships to fill a novel.
In his famous play The
Importance of Being Earnest,
Oscar Wilde—no friend of the
British class system— satirizes
the British obsession with
respectability. Jack Worthing,
a respectable man in his community, creates a double life and imaginary identity
as a way to escape the social pressures of money
and success. The result is a witty play that presents
Wilde’s alternative philosophy at every turn: “The
truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
NONFICTION
NONFICTION
What Jane Austen
Ate and Charles
Dickens Knew
Dared and Done:
The Marriage of
Elizabeth Barrett
and Robert
Browning
Welcome to nineteenth-century England! In this entertaining book, Daniel Pool gives
new life to the daily routines
of the Victorian period, covering the era’s nitty-gritty details (How did they keep
clean?) and formal etiquette (How did one address
a duke?). Find out what the Victorians ate, what they
wore, how they traveled, and whom they married.
Julia Markus shows how
the courtship and marriage of the Victorian poets
Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning were the
equivalent of an A-list celebrity romance and marriage today, except that this marriage succeeded.
After Robert read Elizabeth’s poetry, he fell in love
with her, confessing his admiration in an ardent
letter that she answered. When he met her four
months later, he loved her even more, but how could
Elizabeth defy her tyrannical father to marry Robert?
NONFICTION
WEB SITE
Queen Victoria
The Victorian
Web
Victoria reigned longer than
any British monarch (1837–
1901), and as the embodiment of the Victorian Age,
believed that she was capable
of boundless improvement,
a belief instilled in her by her
devoted husband, Albert. In
this brief book, Elizabeth Longford describes, with
anecdotes and carefully researched facts, the events
in Victoria’s life before her marriage to Albert, during
their happy, productive years together, and through
her decades of mourning and seclusion and her
gradual return to public life after Albert’s death.
www.victorianweb.org
This wide-ranging site
includes articles on everything
from political and social history to theosophy and railways. In addition to the
full text of many Victorian poems, stories, plays, and
reviews, the Victorian Web features paintings, sculpture, drawings, photographs, and other Victorian art.
A section on what Victorians wore includes images
of hairstyles, footwear, hats, coats, dresses, and children’s clothing.
Learn It Online
Explore NovelWise.
go.hrw.com
L12-1059
Go
Read On
1059
1060
Unit 6
UNIT
6
The Modern
World
1900 to the Present
COLLECTION 11
The World at War
COLLECTION 12
Modern and Contemporary Poetry
COLLECTION 13
Expectation and Reality
“Life spends itself in the act of
transformation, dissolving, bit by
bit, the world as it appeared.”
Tower Bridge and GLA City Hall. London, England, UK.
—Rainer Maria Rilke
How does experience shape
our view of the world?
Learn It Online
What’s this historical period all about? Watch a short
video introduction online.
go.hrw.com
L12-1061
Go
1061
The Modern World
1 9 0 0 t o t he Pres ent
This time line represents a snapshot of British literary events, British
historical events, and world events from 1900 to the present. During
this period, two world wars, economic depression, the creation of new
nations from old colonial holdings, and revolutionary developments
in technology changed the world significantly.
Peggy Ashcroft in
A Passage to India (1984).
1900
1920
1902 Joseph Conrad publishes
Heart of Darkness
1904 W. B. Yeats and Lady
Gregory found Dublin’s Abbey
Theatre to produce plays by
and about the Irish
1913 G. B. Shaw’s Pygmalion is first
produced; D. H.
Lawrence publishes
Sons and Lovers
1922 Joyce publishes Ulysses; T. S. Eliot publishes The Waste Land
1924 E. M. Forster publishes A Passage to
India
1927 Virginia Woolf
publishes To the Lighthouse
1916 James Joyce
publishes A Portrait
of the Artist as a
Young Man
1900
Sons and Lovers (1960), with Wendy Hiller,
Dean Stockwell, and Trevor Howard.
1920
1901 Queen Victoria dies
and is succeeded by her son
Edward VII
1916 Easter Rebellion fails in
Dublin; uprising’s leaders are
executed by British
1910 Britain loses South
Africa
1918 World War I ends; voting
rights are extended to British
women over age thirty
1914 England declares war on
Germany on August 4, under
a treaty to protect Belgium
1922 Britain divides Ireland
by treaty, with six northern
counties remaining part of
United Kingdom; civil war
begins in Ireland
1939 After Germany invades
Poland, Britain declares war
on Germany
Proclamation of War by British. Mr. W. T.
Boston, Saltbearer and acting town crier.
1900
1920
1910 Union of South Africa
is formed; racial segregation
becomes governing rule
1914 World War I begins with
the assassination of Austrian
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
1062
Unit 6
1915 Czech writer Franz Kafka
publishes The Metamorphosis
1917 United States enters
World War I; Russian Revolution begins
1918 World War I ends with
nearly ten million casualties
1929 United States stock
market crashes, triggering a
worldwide depression
1933 Adolf Hitler appointed
chancellor of Germany; Germans build first concentration
camp at Dachau
1934–1938 Stalinist
purges in Russia force
over ten million people
into labor camps
1939 Germany invades
Poland; World War II
begins
Recruitment poster from World War II
(1939). Color lithography.
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Evaluate and analyze the
philosophical, political, religious, ethical, and social influences of a historical period. Reading Skills Identify and
understand chronological order; use text organizers such
as overviews, headings, and graphic features to locate and
categorize information.
Your Turn
Review the time line, and discuss this question with a partner. What historical events might
have prompted twentieth-century writers to reject forms and subjects of the past?
1940
1960
1945 George Orwell’s
satire on totalitarianism,
Animal Farm, is published
1960 Harold Pinter’s absurdist play The Caretaker is first
produced
1966 Tom Stoppard’s absurdist, humorous play
Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are
Dead is staged
1947 W. H. Auden publishes his long poem The
Age of Anxiety
1953 Samuel Beckett’s
ground-breaking play
Waiting for Godot is first
produced in Paris
2010
Nicholas Rowe and James
Wallace in Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern Are Dead.
1998 Ted Hughes publishes Birthday
Letters, poems about his relationship with
his former wife, Sylvia Plath
2005 Zadie Smith publishes On Beauty
Johnny Murphy and Barry
McGovern in Waiting for Godot.
1940
1960
1940 Battle of Britain; Royal Air Force prevents German
invasion
1960 Britain loses Nigeria
1945 Germany surrenders; World War II ends
1948 London hosts the first Summer Olympics after the
games’ twelve-year hiatus
1949 Twenty-six counties in Ireland achieve full status
as an independent republic; Britain retains control of six
counties in the north
2010
1960s British singing group The
Beatles revolutionizes popular
music
2003 Britain joins the United
States in war against Iraq
2005 Terrorists attack London’s
public transportation system
The Beatles at Abbey Road studios for
Our World TV broadcast (1967).
1940
1960
1941 Japan bombs United States fleet at Pearl Harbor;
United States declares war on Japan, Germany, and Italy
1961 Berlin wall is built to separate East and West Germany
1945 Germany surrenders; United States drops atom
bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the war
with Japan
1991 Soviet Union is dissolved
1947 Mohandas Gandhi is assassinated in India; State of
Israel is created
2003 United States and Britain go to war with Iraq
1948 UN partitions Palestine; Arab-Israeli war results
2010
1975 Fall of Saigon marks end of Vietnam War
2001 Terrorists hijack planes and destroy the World Trade Towers in New York and part of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
2007 Doris Lessing wins the Nobel Prize in Literature
Unit Introduction
1063
The Modern World 1 9 0 0 t o t he P re se nt
“The center cannot hold,” wrote poet William Butler Yeats, and indeed, in the
early twentieth century, the prosperity and stability of the Victorian era dissolved into chaos and conflict. Two world wars and a major economic depression eroded Great Britain’s political and economic power and brought a slow
death to the once-mighty empire.
World War I: The
Great War
World War II and
Its Aftermath
Identity and
Diversity
History of the Times In early
twentieth-century Europe, rising
nationalism, competition for colonies, and growing military capabilities helped create an environment
ripe for conflict. By its terrible end
in 1918, World War I had cost Britain
not only 750,000 lives but also her
confidence and optimism.
History of the Times Poverty
caused by an economic slump in
the 1930s spawned dictatorships
in Germany, Italy, and Russia. The
German dictator Hitler invaded
Poland in 1939, igniting World
War II. The horrors of this war, particularly nuclear devastation and
the Nazi concentration camps,
changed the world forever.
History of the Times After World
War II, most of Britain’s remaining
colonies declared independence.
Many nations in Europe and Latin
America were politically redefined.
Formerly marginalized groups, such
as women and ethnic minorities,
began demanding self-determination. None of these changes were
achieved without conflict.
Literature of the Times Writers
experimented with form and content. Literature reflected the disillusionment and cynicism people felt
after the war.
Literature of the Times Much
of the literature written after
World War II has been a blistering
response to war and the limits set
on freedom.
Literature of the Times Globalization is the word in literature and in
economics. World writers as well as
writers from Britain’s former colonies
explore the political, racial, and gender issues of the time in a bitingly
honest fashion.
Mature students in computer class at adult education centre, Camden, London.
1064
Unit 6
culture, the culture of others, and the common elements
across cultures.
World War I: The Great War
History of the Times
When Germany invaded Belgium in 1914, Europe
was plunged into World War I, the so-called Great
War. Victorian writer Rudyard Kipling was right in
celebrating the British character as essentially patriotic,
for when Britain then declared war on Germany,
young men rushed to enlist. Six months later, many
of the same young men lay slaughtered in the rainsoaked, vermin-infested trenches of France. Over the
course of four years, a generation of young Englishmen
was fed to the insatiable furnace of the war.
With the armistice in 1918, a new cynicism
arose. The old values of national honor and glory
had endorsed a devastating war. Pessimism about the
state and the individual’s relation to society emerged
from feelings of disillusionment. In response to the
“romantic nonsense” of the past, and, in particular, to
the propaganda machine that had led the nation into
war, a new realism began to pervade literary thought.
Literature of the Times
The carnage of war transformed poetry. Poets,
including those who had served on the Western
Front, now questioned or even mocked the values
that had sent so many young men to their deaths.
Novelists focused on introspection. The century’s
most influential writer was the Irishman James Joyce,
whose 1922 novel Ulysses appeared to a storm of
controversy. In a revolutionary manner, Joyce drew
on myth and symbol, Freudian explorations of sexuality, and new conceptions of time and the workings
of human consciousness. Literary critics called this
experimentation with form and content modernism.
UNIT 6 INTRODUCTION
SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Evaluate and analyze
elements of literature from the Modern World. Reading
Skills Read widely to increase knowledge of the student’s
Spring on the Trenches, Ridge Wood (1917), by Paul Nash.
Fast Facts
Historical Highlights
• World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II alter Great
Britain’s position as a world power and dramatically change its
society.
• After World War II, most of Great Britain’s colonies gain
independence.
Literary Highlights
• Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and D. H. Lawrence
Comprehension Check
How did the war change the way people thought about
themselves and society?
experiment with the form and content of the novel.
Writers
from former British colonies and other countries explore
•
the effects of cultural domination, racism, sexism, and war.
Unit Introduction
1065
KEY CONCEPT
World War II and Its Aftermath
World War I, which had been called a war to end all
wars, ironically led to another war, even more savage
than the first. The League of Nations, the idealistic
dream of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, had no
sooner been created than it was abandoned by a
newly isolationist U.S. government. A worldwide
economic depression that began in 1929 fostered the
rise of dictators in German, Italy, and Russia.
In Italy and Germany the form of totalitarianism that developed was fascism, a type of government that is rigidly nationalistic and that relies on
the rule of a single dictator whose power is absolute
and backed by force. Benito Mussolini, who came
to power in Italy in 1922, asserted control through
brutality and manipulation. Adolf Hitler and the
Nazi party capitalized on Germany’s economic woes
to convince many Germans that their problems were
caused by Jews, Communists, and immigrants.
Russia’s totalitarian government, based on the
political theories of the economist Karl Marx, was
Communist. Its founder, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, had
sought in the 1920s to create a society without a class
system, one in which the state would distribute the
country’s wealth equally among the people. In reality,
however, the new government became as repressive
as the rule of the Russian czars. After Lenin’s death
in 1924, Joseph Stalin assumed power. In 1941, he
became premier and continued to rule with an iron
fist. Under Stalin’s rule as many as fifteen million
men and women were sent to the gulag, or system of
forced-labor and detention camps.
By 1939, the Nazis were sweeping through
Europe with their motorized army and superior air
force. Hitler’s plan for the systematic destruction of
the Jews and other minorities, scapegoats on whom
he blamed Germany’s economic woes, resulted in
the deaths of millions of innocent men, women, and
children—including the six million Jews who were
murdered in the Holocaust.
1066
Unit 6
Only twenty years after the “war to end all wars,”
Europe had again plunged into a bloody, brutal conflict. In 1940, Germany occupied France and then
prepared to invade Britain by launching devastating
air attacks against London and other cities. Prime
Minister Winston Churchill declared: “We shall go
on to the end.” The British did persevere, but only
after the Soviet Union and the United States entered
the war did Germany’s defeat become inevitable.
For Japan, which had allied itself with Germany
and Italy, the war ended in a new horror. On August
6, 1945, the entire city of Hiroshima was wiped out
by a single atomic bomb dropped from an American plane. When the Japanese Emperor still did not
surrender, on August 9, a second atom bomb was
dropped on Nagasaki.
While recovering from the war and rebuilding its
own shattered economy, Great Britain was unable to
retain control of its many colonies. Most, including
India, the “jewel in the crown,” became independent
nations.
Much world literature in the twentieth century has
been a direct and bitter response to war and limits on
human freedom. In All Quiet on the Western Front
(1928), the German writer Erich Maria Remarque
describes the horrors of World War I with such
vehemence that the novel was banned in Germany.
Even this harrowing war novel paled in comparison to the haunting personal testaments to suffering
endured during the Holocaust, such as those of the
Italian writer Primo Levi (see page 1194) and the
Romanian writer Elie Wiesel (see page 1104), both
interned in Nazi concentration camps. Writers in the
former Soviet Union—such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Anna Akhmatova (see page 1242)—made
an art of defying governmental attempts to regulate
their writing.
U N I T 060 _I INNTTRROODTUACBT I O N
(above) Crowds gather in Piccadilly Circus, London, to celebrate
V-E Day (May 8th, 1945). (right) People dancing in the streets
of London during celebrations of V-E Day.
British dramatists responded to the fragmentation of the times by experimenting with form and
subject matter. Samuel Beckett even went so far as
to undermine the very idea of logical coherence in
Waiting for Godot (1953), called the most significant
play of the twentieth century. The plays of the prolific
Tom Stoppard combine extensive comic wordplay
with serious questions about philosophical issues.
His recent prizewinning trilogy Coast of Utopia
(2002) deals with the origins of modern radicalism in
Russia.
Much of the work written since World War II
is categorized as postmodern by literary critics and
historians. Directly or indirectly, this body of writing
is concerned with women’s rights, multiculturalism,
and the ever-present question of identity in postmodern society.
Comprehension Check
How did the rise of totalitarianism lead to the violence
and oppression that characterize the modern world?
Unit Introduction
1067
KEY CONCEPT
Identity and Diversity
Prior to World War II, countries such as Australia,
Canada, and South Africa had already separated
from the British Empire. The end of World War II
sealed the empire’s fate, and in the late 1940s and
1950s, most of Britain’s remaining colonies declared
independence.
As a result of the decline of Western imperial
powers after World War II, dozens of independent
states emerged in Africa and Asia, and many older
nations in Europe and Latin America were politically redefined. These nations and others began to
assert their own identities and reclaim territories. For
example, India declared independence from Britain
in 1946, and Nigeria did the same in 1960.
In 1947, the State of Israel was created to provide
a homeland for the millions of Jews who had become
refugees during World War II. The creation and subsequent population of Israel displaced hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians from their homes, and the
fighting over territory in that area continues today.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall that separated Communist East Germany from West Germany was torn
down. Five years later, Nelson Mandela was elected
president in the first South African election open to
all races.
Despite momentous demonstrations of indepdence and progress, injustice, war, and genocide
March outside British fort wall by Troops Out, a group calling for
the removal of British troops from Northern Ireland.
1068
Unit 6
persist. A new world-wide threat has presented itself
in the form of international terrorism, manifested
in the 2001 devastating attacks on the World Trade
Towers in New York City and on the Pentagon in
Washington, D.C. Our human effort to understand
one another has never been more challenging or
more essential.
Innovations in technology and transportation have
linked people in ways our ancestors couldn’t have
imagined. Ideas travel as fast as electronic channels
can carry them, and one writer may influence
another living continents away.
Current world literature frequently focuses on
political and social problems. Literally hundreds of
writers from former British colonies explore issues
of personal identity and the effects of cultural domination and racism. Literary critics call the works of
these writers postcolonial literature. These writers
have seen their local cultures uprooted by colonialism or foreign influence, and they have had to ask
themselves continually whether they are to celebrate
their native traditions, imitate foreign models, or create new modes of expression.
Comprehension Check
To what does the title “Identity and Diversity” refer?
UNIT 6 INTRODUCTION
Wrap Up
The Second Sex
Political concerns in postwar world literature are not the sole domain
of nations and cultures; women’s voices are some of the strongest
to emerge in the postwar world. Many feminist writers work to
expose women’s lack of power in a world controlled by men. In the
influential feminist work The Second Sex (1949), French writer Simone de Beauvoir analyzes women’s secondary status in society and
denounces the male middle class for perceiving women as objects;
she demands an end to the “slavery of half of humanity.” The Nigerian
feminist Buchi Emecheta has informed numerous women writers
from various African countries and uses motherhood (but not marriage) as a symbol for artistic creativity in her fiction. In The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood presents a
grim cautionary tale that warns readers of a possible future world in
which a puritanical dictatorship seeks to repress and control women.
Ask Yourself
Talk About …
What is the value in reading works of literature from
other cultures? Explain. Try to use each Academic
Vocabulary Word listed below at least once in your
discussion.
Write About …
Does art continue to challenge norms, or does it reflect a
new social stability? Answer this question in a brief essay,
considering not only literature but also other modern
technological forms of communication.
Academic Vocabulary for Unit 6
Talking and Writing About Literature
Academic Vocabulary is the language you use to write
and talk about literature. These words will be underlined throughout the unit.
What issues or concerns do feminist writers address today?
perspective (puhr SPEHK tihv) n.: particular way of looking at
something. Many poets changed their perspective on World War I
when they saw the terrible suffering it caused.
British technical aid worker teaching dress-making to woman in Malawi.
inevitable (ihn EHV uh tuh buhl) adj.: unavoidable. When the
United States and the Soviet Union entered World War II, Germany’s defeat became inevitable.
considerably (kuhn SIHD uhr uh blee) adv.: by a large amount.
Great Britain became considerably weaker after World War II.
adapt (uh DAPT) v.: adjust for a new purpose. Russia’s totalitarian
government adapted Karl Marx’s theories to create a new society.
exhibit (ehg ZIHB iht) v.: show, demonstrate. Former British colonies still exhibit the effects of cultural domination.
Your Turn
Copy the words from the Academic Vocabulary list into your Reader/Writer Notebook.
Make a point of trying to use these words as you
discuss the selections in the collections that follow.
Unit Introduction
1069
SONNET
Spacecraft
Voyager 1
Has Boldly
Gone
This Link to Today celebrates
the wonder of space
exploration.
Read with a Purpose
Read this poem to see how the
speaker describes the journey of
Voyager 1 into the outer reaches
of space.
by Alice Oswald
Build Background
Two unpiloted spacecrafts, Voyager 1
and Voyager 2, were launched in 1977
to explore outer space and send scientific information back to NASA. Voyager
1 has traveled farther from Earth than
any object made by humans; in 2006,
its distance from the Earth was 100
times that of the sun. Guided by a tenperson flight team at NASA, Voyager
1 is traveling about one million miles
per day at the outer edge of our solar
system, approaching interstellar space,
which is filled with material from the
explosions of stars.
Author Note
Alice Oswald (1966– ) has
worked as a gardener, and her love
of the natural world permeates her
poetry. It took her three years to complete her poem Dart, which describes
the long journey of the Dart River as it
flows into the sea. The speakers in Dart
include the voices of the many people
who work and live along the river,
along with those of animals, plants,
and insects. Oswald won the T. S. Eliot
Prize for poetry in 2003. She lives in
England with her family.
1070
Unit 6
5
10
Spacecraft Voyager 1 has boldly gone
into Deep Silence carrying a gold-plated disc inscribed with
whale-song
it has bleeped back a last infra-red fragment of language
and floated way way up over the jagged edge
of this almost endless bright and blowy enclosure of weather
to sink through a new texture as tenuous as the soft upward
pressure of an elevator
and go on and on falling up steep flights of blackness with
increasing swiftness
beyond the Crystalline Cloud of the Dead beyond Plato1 beyond
Copernicus2
O meticulous swivel cameras still registering events
among those homeless spaces gathering in that silence
that hasn’t yet had time to speak in that increasing sphere
of tiny runaway stars notched in the year
now you can look closely at massless light
that is said to travel freely but is probably in full flight
1. Plato: Ancient Greek philosopher (around 428 b.c.−around 348
b.c.); the Ancient Greeks constructed the first “model” of the solar
system based on mathematical theories.
2. Copernicus: Polish astronomer (1473−1543) who proposed a controversial idea that the sun was at the center of the universe, and the
planets, including Earth, rotated around it.
Bright rings of Saturn and its northern hemisphere defined by bright features.
UNIT 6 INTRODUCTION
Ask Yourself
1. Read with a Purpose What imagery and vivid verbs does the poet use to
describe the journey of the Voyager. How do her references to everyday objects
help you imagine the journey?
2. The poem’s first line refers to the popular science-fiction series Star Trek, which
tells the story of a spacecraft whose mission is “to boldly go where no man has
gone before.” What does this allusion tell you about the journey of Voyager 1?
3. In what way might pictures and other data sent back from Voyager 1 help the
“Deep Silence” “speak” to people today? What “messages” might it send us?
4. To Plato and Copernicus (mentioned in line 8), the solar system was a mystery
yet to be unraveled. In what way does Voyager 1 go “beyond” them? What mysteries related to science would you like to see explained in your lifetime?
Unit Introduction
1071

SEaudio_g12_c10 - Muscogee County School District

Transcription

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