Unit 10 Love & Resentment

Detailed Study of Paras 1-8 straighten ν.(to cause) to become straight, without a bend or curve

e.g: (1) The road straightens (up/out) after a series of bends.(2) Straighten your back (up). (= Sit up straight.)(3)She straightened her skirt.

mutterings n. things said quietly and indistinctly, but here grumbles of complaints that are privately or not openly expressed

(1) The manager did not hear her mutterings.(2) The boss was surprised at the female employee's mutterings

of grievances against him

. I straightened up from my weeding as the frenzied mutterings of anger reached me from the house. My muscles tightened.

I had been weeding my burgeoning garden one morning. When I stood up, I heard the wild infuriated muffled utterances from the house. My muscles became stiff.

muffle vt. to wrap sth. to stifle sound

e.g.(1) The windows of our house are double-glazed to muffle the noise of traffic on the elevated road nearby.

(2) We could hear the howling of wolves, muffled by forest and mist.

filthy slut: a woman who is slovenly or disgustingly

dirty; a woman who is obscene or sexually immoral e.g. (1)She disguised herself as a filthy slut so as not to be

noticed by the police.

flush v. to clean (esp. a toilet or drain) with a rush of water

e.g. (1) Please flush the toilet after use.

(2) The toilet won't flush properly, for it is blocked.

adjective:

e.g. (1) be flush of [with] money

(2) be flush with one5s money

(3) a blow flush in the face

(4) The streams are flush with the spring runoff.

I moved away quickly, shaken once again by her wild outbursts. Sometimes she frightens me

when she is clearly out of control. But this time I was reassured...

I shrank away instantly,agitated once again by her uncontrollable explosion of infuriated screams. Sometimes she terrifies me when she clearly loses her presence of mind. But this time I was not scared.

impassive adj. showing no sign of feeling;

incapable of feeling emotion; undisturbed by passion

e.g. (1) The accused had an impassive expression as the judge sentenced him to ten years in prison.

(2) He remained impassive when faced with death, which impressed me deeply.

umpteenth adj. of a large but unspecified number

e.g.: (1) For the umpteenth time, I tell you I don't know.

(2) It was postponed for the umpteenth time.

(3) She was the umpteenth person to arrive. ( = She arrived after many others.) Hurl vt. To utter sth. With great violence or vehemence

e.g. (1) Hardly had the speaker ended his speech when the audience began to hurl abuse and insults at him

... she asked as she lighted her umpteenth cigarette of the morning and was shaken by her usual barking cough. :

She had been smoking many cigarettes on that morning. She asked the question as she lighted yet another cigarette. And meanwhile, she coughed so violently, as she usually did, that she was trembling all over.

Yesterday had been rough. She had hurled accusation after accusation at me.

Yesterday was a tough day for me. She accused me repeatedly of one thing after another.

... she settled deeper into the deck chair. : ... she sank deeper into the folding chair.

a paranoid schizophrenic: a person who suffers from a mental disease marked by a breakdown in the relation between thoughts, feelings and actions, frequently accompanied by delusions of persecution and self-importance, and retreat from social life, or by an abnormal tendency to suspect and mistrust other people; a person who suffers from paranoia and schizophrenia

crescendo n. an increase in volume or intensity; [music] a gradual increase in the volume of a passage of music

e.g.: (1) A rising crescendo of violence resulted from the maltreatment of several university students by the police.

(2) The advertising campaign reached a crescendo at Christmas.

... my voice quieter and quieter as hers rose in crescendo ...

... my voice became quieter and quieter as hers grew in volume ...

Detailed Study of Paras 9-24

(1) Why has the writer brought her daughter to the island for three summers?

The writer knows very well that her daughter's life is quite limited. She has brought her daughter to the island to spend two weeks with her, to take good care of her, to cook good meals for her, and to give her some joy. In short, the writer intends to show her love to her daughter and to let her enjoy life there

(2) When and how did the chief character's mental illness start?She showed signs of mental illness when she was in high school at the age of 16. She started a diary when she felt abnormal and terrible. She wrote: "This morning I feel as though someone took a file and sandpaper and scratched off all my epidermis. I feel raw and sore and ugly and dirty and loathsome. I also have a headache and coffee makes it worse. I escape thru dreams and the pressure of returning reality gives me a headache.

(3) How has the chief character been suffering since she came down with her illness? After she broke down, she spent ten years in a huge psychiatric hospital. For more than 20 years, she cannot sleep well. Physically, she always feels unwell. The anti-psychotic medication has many bad side effects. In addition, she has no empathy for her own body, cannot take care of it. She eats badly, drinks coffee constantly, smokes incessantly, and does no exercise. She has perpetual headaches and frequent stomachaches.

For years she suffered from Crohn’s disease, a deep inflammation of the colon, leaving her little or no control of her bowels. She has been plagued and humiliated by accidents in public. People have responded to this affliction by yelling at her, calling her filthy. She has silently accepted the appellation, taken it within her. Furthermore, she changes her temper and

moods easily and quickly. She is liable to scream and yell and shout hy

sterically.

In what ways does the writer show her love for her mentally ill daughter?

When her daughter broke down, the writer made painful efforts to search for a psychiatric solution. During the decade when her daughter stayed in the huge psychiatric hospital, the writer hat to take care of her. Seeing that her daughter couldn't sleep well, the writer discussed the sleeping problem with her psychiatrist so that he could prescribe some medication. In the 24 years of her illness, she has attacked the writer three times. Each time, her adrenaline-induced strength over- whelmed her mother. The writer had to endure it. The writer sleeps lightly when her daughter smokes and mutters at night. She listens to her daughter cough as she smokes and mutters through the long hours. She tries to imagine - out of her own healthy body --- what it is like to be Kathy. At times when her daughter behaves wildly, the writer gets impatient and treats her rudely. But when her daughter acts normally and speaks gently, the writer feels sad and ashamed for her rude treatment of her daughter. Though she is very busy, the writer will give her daughter small chunks of time. For three summers, she has brought her daughter to the island for two weeks where she cooks good meals for her; she stays at home with her daughter at Christmas; and she goes on trips with her daughter to Florida to see her grandparents.

Language Work

burgeon ν . begin to grow rapidly, flourish; put forth young shoots The tulips are burgeoning in my garden.

e.g. (1) New suburbs have burgeoned all around the city.

a burgeoning garden: a garden where plants are growing rapidly

retreat n. an act or instance of moving back; withdrawal into privacy or seclusion; place suitable for withdrawal into privacy or seclusion

e.g. (1) The minister made an undignified retreat from his earlier position.

(2) The army was in full retreat

. harass vt. annoy and trouble sb. continually; make repeated attacks on an enemy

e.g. (1) Political dissidents complained of being harassed by the police.

(2) The guerrillas harassed the enemy almost every day.

This is the fourth year I have had this tiny treasure of a house. It was to be my retreat from the harassing city, the social and political commitments I take on each year, the needs of family and friends. : This is the fourth year that I have had this small house which is as precious as gems to me. It was intended to be the place where I could enjoy privacy and seclusion, where I could avoid the annoyance and troubles of the harassing city, where I could refrain from undertaking the social and political commitments that are my responsibility each year, and where I could escape the needs of family and friends.

primordial adj. existing at or from the beginning of the universe or the world; primeval

e.g. (1) Life's primordial reality is spirit.

(2) The universe was created out of a primordial ball of matter.

(3) These are primordial germ cells.

lurk vi. be or stay hidden esp. when waiting to attack;

wait near a place trying not to attract attention e.g. (1) There is a suspicious man lurking in the shadows.

(2) The soldiers were lurking in the overgrown bushes.

empathy n. an ability to imagine and share another person's feelings, experiences, etc.; ability to identify oneself mentally with sth. like a work of art that one is looking at, so as to understand its meaning

e.g. :(1) There is a strange empathy between the old lady and her grandson.

(2) Having lived in the US for quite a few years, we definitely have some sort of empathy with people who've just arrived.

appellation n. ( fml. ) a name or title; system of naming

e.g. (1) The child was given a rare appellation.

(2) She knows nothing about appellation.

(3) The emperor of Russia Peter I was given the appellation “the Great ”.

agonizing hallucinations: illusions of seeing or hearing things when no such things exist, which cause intense anxiety or worry; things seen or heard in this way which cause terrible anxiety or worry

sear vt. burn or scorch a surface; (fig) affect with strong emotion

e.g. (1) A cold wind sears the leaves.

(2) The heat of the oven seared the nylon socks.

(3) He seared his wound to prevent infection.

in our worst, most searing nightmares:

in our worst, most frightening dreams

"This morning I feel as though someone took a file and sandpaper and scratched off all my epidermis. I feel raw and sore and ugly and dirty and loathsome. … ": “This morning I feel as if somebody took a file and sandpaper and rubbed off the outer layer of my skin. With my epidermis scratched away, I feel that my whole body is aching and hurting. I feel that I am very ugly and dirty. And I feel that people are disgusted or shocked at the sight of me.”

a sense of being at the mercy of some strange force: an awareness of being under the control of some alien force; a consciousness of being in the power of some strange force

mercy n. kindness, forgiveness, restraint, etc. shown to sb. by one who has the right or power to punish

scarecrow n. a figure resembling a human being dressed in old clothes and set up in a field so as to frighten away birds; a badly dressed, grotesque-looking, or very thin person

The trauma of her breakdown there was followed by the deadening travail of the long search for a psychiatric solution.: The trauma of her loss of mental health was followed by the exhausting painful effort of the long search for a cure for her mental illness.

The daughter I would have had --- were it not for this evil illness --- exists in embryo in the daughter I do have.:The daughter I would have had --- if not for this terrible illness ---exists, undeveloped in the daughter I do have.

splatter ν. (cause sth.) to splash, esp. with continuous action or noisy action

e.g. (1)The rain is splattering on the roof.

(2) The overcoat is splattered with paint.

peremptorily ad ν . in a domineering manner; insisting on immediate obedience or submission; not to be disobeyed or questioned

e.g.(1) The boss peremptorily ordered his secretary to do this and that.

Hysteria building up, she shouted: "You drive everyone to the edge of hemophiliac absurdity!": With increasingly wild, uncontrollable emotion, she screamed, "You force everyone to become extremely absurd!"

hemophiliac n. sb. who is a victim of hemophilia, a disorder linked to a recessive gene on the X chromosome and occurring almost exclusively in men and boys, in which the blood clots much more slowly than normally, resulting in extensive bleeding from even minor injuries

Detailed Study of Para 24

(1) We can infer that the writer is busy with important missions. But she will not neglect her daughter. How will she take care of her daughter according to the last paragraph?She will give her daughter small chunks of time. She will continue to take her to the island for two weeks in summer, she will continue to spend Christmas at home with her daughter, and she will continue to take a trip together with her daughter to Florida to see her grandparents.

(2) The writer says that she loves and hates the same person, that she is responsible and irresponsible to her, and that she will do the best she can with the worst she has to live with. Do you think she is a good mother?

Yes, we do. We do think that the writer is a good mother. The reasons are obvious enough. First of all, she has taken good care of her daughter for 24 years. There are many examples in the text that show her profound love for her daughter. Even when her daughter overwhelmed her, she had to endure it. Whenever her daughter goes wild, she has to look after her and live with her outbursts. Whenever she recalls her daughter's sufferings, she feels bitter and miserable. Secondly, though very busy with her work, she devotes small chunks of time to attending her daughter: for three summers, she has brought her daughter to the island for two weeks; she stays at home at Christmas, waiting upon her daughter; she takes a trip together with her daughter to Florida to see her grandparents. Although occasionally she gets impatient with her daughter, snaps at her, and treats her rudely, considering her daughter's terrible mental illness and the additional pressures in the writer's own life, we can understand her impati

ence. This doesn't damage her image as a good mother.

LANGUAGE WORK spin v. to move round and round rapidly; make sth. turn round and round rapidly; form (thread) from wool, cotton, silk, etc. by drawing out and twisting; make (yarn) from wool, etc. in this way

e.g. (1 ) The revolving sign was spinning round and round in the wind.

(2) The collision sent the car spinning across the road.(3)He spun the wheel of his bicycle.(4) They spun a coin to decide who would start the ball rollin

g.

(5) She spins goat's hair into wool.