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1、A Silver Dish,Saul Bellow,Introduction,Saul Bellows story A Silver Dish illustrates the skill of one of the greatest American authors of the twentieth century.The story spans a period from the middle of the Great Depression to the mid-1980s,showing the changes that time renders in both society and i
2、n one mans life.The main character,Woody Selbst,is one of Bellows finest creations.A lonesome,successful businessman,Woody reminisces about the circumstances under which his father,a con man and thief,caused him to lose his scholarship to a seminary school,an act that redirected his entire life.,Aut
3、hor Biography,Saul Bellow is considered one of the greatest writers America has ever produced,having won every major writing award available,including the Nobel Prize for Literature.He was born on June 10,1915,in Lachine,Quebec,Canada.His parents,who had recently emigrated from Russia,moved the fami
4、ly to Chicago in 1924.After high school,Bellow attended the University of Chicago for two years then graduated with honors from Northwestern University in 1937,taking degrees in sociology and anthropology.He went on to do some post-graduate work at the University of Wisconsin,but soon returned to Ch
5、icago,which is the city that he has been most closely associated with throughout his long lifetime.,For most of Bellows life,he was a teacher.His first position was at Pestalozzi-Froebel Teachers College in Chicago,from 1938 to 1942.During World War II,he served with the Merchant Marines.With money
6、from a Guggenheim fellowship,he traveled in Europe after the war.After a stint as an editor at Encyclopedia Britannicas Great Books program from 19431946,he took positions at University of Minnesota(19461949;19541959),and then the University of Chicago,where he became the Grunier Distinguished Profe
7、ssor in the universitys acclaimed Committee on Social Thought,in 1962.Bellows affiliation with the committee lasted for more than three decades,until 1993.He then went to Boston University and became a professor of English,a position that he held until his death in 2005.Saul Bellow died at 89 on Apr
8、il 5,2005,at Brookline,Massachusetts.He had had five wives,three sons,and with his fifth wife,one daughter,born when he was 84.,Author Biography,Summary,After his fathers death,Woody Selbst feels a yawning emptiness in his life.At the age of sixty,he is deeply disturbed by questions about the meanin
9、gs of life and death.In his period of mourning,he recalls a trip to the White Nile,where he had seen a buffalo calf being seized by a crocodile while the parent buffalo looked on without understanding what was happening.Their brute grief now helps him to cope with his own.As Woody reflects on his ow
10、n life,his fathers,and their unusual relationship,the story reveals the contours of Woodys imagination and the travails of his experiences.His present life is full of cares,for he supports his invalid mother and two insane sisters,one of whom he has committed to a mental institution;a wife,from whom
11、 he has been separated for fifteen years;a mistress;and,now,his fathers widow,Halina,and her son,who plays the organ at games in the stadium.Despite the number of dependents whom he has accumulated,Woody lives alone,working as a tile contractor.,As a youth,Woody grew up fast,and his spirit has remai
12、ned independent;at the funeral parlor,he insisted on dressing the corpse for burial,and at the funeral,he rolled up his sleeves and shoveled the dirt himself.There is no harm in Woody,yet his self-respect has not allowed him to live entirely within the law and has led him,over the course of his life
13、,into theft,smuggling,procuring,and adultery.Still,he is moved by honesty,he hates faking,and he has always held in his heart both a belief in love and“a secret certainty that the goal set for this earth was that it should be filled with good,saturated with it.”Woodys memories and reflections probe
14、these elements of his personality.His parents exerted very different influences on him.His mother had been converted to Christianity by Aunt Rebeccas husband,the Reverend Dr.Kovner,himself a converted Jew,whose ministry was financed by a wealthy widow,Mrs.Skoglund.Kovner imparted his fervor to Woody
15、 and“taught him to lift up his eyes,gave him his higher life.”After the boy accepted Jesus as his personal redeemer,he was paid fifty cents to stand up in churches and give his testimony.Though not a very devout Jew,Morris Selbst was increasingly alienated from his converted family.He considered Kov
16、ner a fool and resented the way his wife and daughters were being turned into“welfare.,Characters,Woody SelbstThis story focuses on the life of Woody Selbst,who is now a sixty-year-old tile contractor in Chicago.Woody is the center of his extended family and the means of support for many people arou
17、nd him.He lives alone but has a girlfriend,Helen,whom he sees every Friday night.Every Friday he also shops for groceries for his wife,from whom he has been separated for fifteen years.He goes on Saturdays to visit his mother and his two sisters,who are in their fifties and still live at home with t
18、heir mother.He has supplemented the income of his father,who has recently died,and his fathers mistress,Halina.Woody lives alone in an apartment atop his companys warehouse.He travels internationally by himself once a year.He is generally law-abiding and dependable,but he also has a criminal streak:
19、in the previous year,for instance,he smuggles hashish in from Kampala,just for the excitement of doing so(the hashish is used to stuff the Thanksgiving turkey).He does not like to keep entirely within the limits of the law,considering it a matter of self-respect to do otherwise.When he is in his tee
20、ns during the Great Depression,Woody,by birth a Jew,converts to Catholicism and attends a seminary,which is paid for by a benefactress,Mrs.Skoglund.He takes his father to Mrs.Skoglunds house one day,and his father steals a silver dish from a curio cabinet;as a result of this theft,Woody is forced to
21、 leave school and go to work.,Morris Selbst,Living on the streets of Liverpool,England,from the age of twelve,Morris Selbst comes to the United States at age sixteen,sneaking into the country by jumping a ship in Brooklyn;he never establishes an official identity in the country.He spends his life pu
22、rsuing illegal and semi-legal means of support.In his forties,he leaves his wife and three children to live with one of his employees,Halina,with whom he remains for more than forty years until his death.Morris,or Pop,as Woody often refers to him,is a gambler,cheat,and thief,who feels entirely justi
23、fied in being the way he is.When he comes to Woody and asks for his help on the behalf of his mistress,Halina,Woody suspects that his plea is bogus,as it in fact turns out to be.When Pop takes the silver dish,he promises to put it back if Mrs.Skoglund gives him the money he asks for;when she gives h
24、im the money,he steals the dish anyway and then lectures Woody about how religious people are really taking advantage of him and deserve what they get.,Halina Bujak,Halina Bujak is a Catholic woman who has worked in Morris Selbsts dry cleaning shop.When Woody is fourteen,Morris leaves his family to
25、live with Halina,and Morris and Halina live as husband and wife for over forty years,although Halina remains married to someone else.Of all members of his extended family whom Woody sends to Disney World,Halina enjoys it most,particularly the Hall of Presidents.,Mitosh Bujak,The son of Halina,Morris
26、 Selbsts longtime companion,Mitosh is only mentioned once in the story.He plays the organ at the Stadium for basketball and hockey games.,Helen,Helen is the mistress of Woody Selbst,his wife de facto.In his tight schedule,Woody schedules Friday nights for being with Helen.,Hjordis,Mrs.Skoglunds hous
27、ekeeper,Hjordis,is a tough,suspicious old maid,unwilling to accept the good in anyone,reluctant to allow Morris Selbst into the house,even in terrible weather.When leaving the Skoglund house,Woody requests that Hjordis phone the local YMCA,where her cousin works,to get a room for Morris and himself:
28、she does so,but reluctantly,feeling that she is being taken advantage of by people she does not like.,Aunt Rebecca Kovner,Woodys aunt,Rebecca Kovner,is the sister of his mother.She is married to the Reverend Doctor Kovner,and together they work to convert people to Christianity,including Woody,his m
29、other,and his sisters.When he is at the seminary,Woody works under Aunt Rebecca at a soup kitchen shelter for the poor,and he pilfers food he does not need,just for spite.,Reverend Doctor Kovner,The brother-in-law of Woodys mother,Reverend Doctor Kovner is actively involved in converting people to C
30、hristianity.He despises Morris Selbst,and the feeling is mutual.Morris accuses Kovner of converting Jewish women by making them fall in love with him.,Mother,Woodys mother,who is never mentioned by name,is converted to Christianity by her sister,Aunt Rebecca Kovner,and her sisters husband.She is a s
31、elf-important woman whose stern piousness drives her husband,Morris,to leave her.During the next fifty years,up to the time of this story,she lives with her two daughters.Woody accuses his mother of spoiling her daughters,making them fat and crazy,and being out of touch with the real world.,Joanna S
32、elbst,Woodys sister,Joanna Selbst,is depressed and mentally unstable,Paula Selbst,Woodys sister,Paula Selbst,is cheerful but mentally unstable,Mrs.Aase Skoglund,An old widow who has cooked for the wealthy Skoglund family and married their son,Aase Skoglund uses the money that she inherits to promote
33、 Christian charitable projects,such as paying Woody Selbsts tuition at a seminary.She is deeply religious,praying to God when she has a decision to make.She is charitable enough to give money to Morris Selbst,a man of whom she disapproves.She accepts no excuses when she finds out that Woody and his
34、father have stolen from her.,Background Information:Existentialism,A central proposition of Existentialism is thatexistence precedesessence,which means that the most important consideration for individuals is the fact that they are an individualan independently acting and responsible,conscious being
35、(existence)rather than what labels,roles,stereotypes,definitions,or other preconceived categories the individual fits(essence).,Background Information:Existentialism,There is no harm in Woody,but he didnt like being entirely within the law.It is simply a question of self-respect.(P170)In the course
36、of time,Mother and the girls turned into welfare personalities and lost their individual outlines.Ah,the poor things,they become dependents and cranks.(P185),Background Information,A Silver Cup in the SackJoseph&his brothers(Benjamin,Judah),Point of View:Omniscient&Internal Focalized,This story is m
37、ore concerned with revealing the inward thoughts and feelings of its characters than to present them in a succession of dramatic incidents.Characters reactions to events are as important as the events themselves.The story is based on Woodys memories and mental reflections,but it does not plunge the
38、reader into a stream of consciousness.Thoughts and actions are presented objectively rather than subjectively,through the words of a narrator who refers to Woody in the third person.,Contradiction:He also picked the lock of the storeroom.(P173)“You picked the lock.I couldnt.I dont know how.”(P181)Co
39、njecture:The teller went to call Mrs.Skoglund and was absent along time from the wicket(P183),Point of View:Omniscient&Internal Focalized,Symbol:Bell,The sound of bells is perhaps the most delicately drawn image in the story.Woody believes that their“vibrations and the banging did something for himc
40、leansed his insides,purified his blood.”Connected as they are with churches,bells recall the religious agony at the center of Woodys life.They also symbolize the honesty that Woody and his father valued so highly,for,as the narrator says,“A bell was a one-way throat,had only one thing to tell you an
41、d simply told it.”,Theme:Father&Son,LoveSon-Father:P171 P175 P184Father-Son:P174 P181,Theme:Father&Son,Understanding:P177 P178Learned from Pop:P177=P186Admire:P178 P184,Further Study:Pops Strong Will,He wanted what he wanted when he wanted it.(P178187)He never presented himself as a beggar.There was
42、nt a cringe in him anywhere.(P180)Pop never had those groveling emotions.There was his whole superiority.(P182)Pop wanted to pluck out the intravenous needles.(P186),Further Study:Pops Strong Will,Hard to comprehend that Pop,who was dug in for eighty-three years and had done all he could to stay,sho
43、uld now want nothing but to free himself.(P186)You could never pin down that self-willed man.(P187),Theme:Material V.S.Mental,在我们这个动荡的世界中四处流浪，却一直寻求某种立足点，他们决不放弃自己的信念，即生命的价值在于尊严，而不在于成功-洪堡的礼物,Theme:Jews in America:materialism,But at stealing Bujak might have drawn the line,for money was different,money
44、 was vital substance.If they stole his savings he might have had to take action,out of respect for the substance,for himselfself-respect.(P176)Woody,now sixty,fleshy and big,like a figure for the victory of American materialism.(P176),He wanted me like himself,an American.(177)Not cut out for a spir
45、itual life.Simply not up to it.(P184)Woody had makings of a salesman,a pitchman.He moved his own heart when he spoke up about his faith.(P177)Although pops most Jewish characteristic was that Yiddish(P179),Theme:Jews in America:materialism,Hypocrisy of Christianity lost,Theme:Jews in America:materialism,Theme:Solitude,He lived alone;as did his wife;as did his mistress:everybody in a separated establishment.(P171)Being alone hit Woody hard this morning.He thought:Me and the world;the world and me.(P175),Thank You,For Watching!,
