In My Day Russell Baker. R einforcement einforcement T ext Analysisext Analysis In My Day B ackground ackground W arming uparming up Unit 8

In My DayRussell Baker

R einforcement

T ext Analysis

In My Day

B ackground

W arming up

Unit 8

Questions/Activities

Check-on Preview

Objectives

In My Day Unit 8

Warming up

• What is the meaning of the title? Who tend to use the expression very often? Why do they often say this?

1. The Title

Never trust anyone over thirty!Never trust anyone over thirty!

Warming up Questions/Activities

2. Generation Gap

the 50s the 60s the 70s & 80s the 90s

Rock and roll,

Beatniks PunkCounterculture Hip-hop

Warming up Questions/Activities

• Every generation has its own youth culture, which contributes to the generation gap. Match the following items.

1. Definition: – fierce (para. 10)– advise (para. 18)– lecture (para. 46) – inadequate (para. 46)

2. Paraphrasing:– Life was combat, and victory was not to the lazy, the timid,

the drugstore cowboy, the mush-mouth afraid to tell people exactly what was on his mind. (para.15)

Check-on PreviewWarming up

3. Structure: – Part I: (paras. 1-___) Description of ____________________________– Part II: (paras. ___-15) Russell’s recollection of his mother’s personality– Part III: (paras. 16-____) The doctor’s _______and Russell’s ________ of mother’s illness– Part IV: (paras. ____-45) ________________________________________– Part V: (paras. 46-end) Russell’s consideration of ___________________

Check-on PreviewWarming up

1. Content

– to understand the problem of aging

– to understand the problem of generation and ways to solve it

– to relate the problem to personal and social experience

2. Language

– to appreciate the use of humor

– to draw inferences

– to read between the lines for gist

ObjectivesWarming up

Background

Book

Author

In My Day Unit 8

• A columnist for The New York Times, where he applies his unique brand of humor to social commentary.

• The present text is taken from Russell Baker’s autobiography, Growing Up, which won him the second Pulitzer Prize in 1983.

• With a moving mix of humor and sadness, Baker insightfully recounts the struggles the family endured in depression-era after his father passed away (when Baker was only 5).

Background Author

Russell Baker

• The book’s greatest achievement is Baker’s portrayal of his mother, a driven woman haunted by poverty and dreams of her son’s success. “I would make something of myself,” he wrote, “and if I lacked the grit to do it, well then she would make me make something of myself.”

• The Los Angeles Times Book Review called Growing Up, “a wondrous book, funny, sad, and strong...as funny and touching as Mark Twain’s.”

Background Book

DetailedAnalysis

Structure

Theme

In My Day Unit 8

Text Analysis

unable to understand his own children…

disconnectionbetween parents & children…

generation gap; causes and solutions

unable tounderstandhis mother…

mother’s problems…

Text Analysis Theme

Text Analysis Theme

Text Analysis Structure

DETAILED ANALYSISPart I (paras. 1-9)

Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part I: Discussion

1. Russell says, “At the age of eighty my mother had her last bad fall…” What inferences can you draw from this sentence?

2. What was his mother’s state of mind after her last bad fall?

3. Russell says, “…when I did phone back she was all right, although she wasn’t all right, of course…” He uses the phrase “all right” twice. Do they mean the same?

4. Russell’s mother stayed in a nursing home. What is a nursing home?

5. Do you think it is a good idea for children to send their aged parents to this kind of institutions?


Part I: Words & Expressions (1)

On others she presided over family dinners cooked on Sunday afternoons for children who were now gray with age. (para. 1)

preside over/at: be the chairman (at); sit at the head of the table (at a formal dinner)

with: because of


“I’m being buried today,” she declared briskly, as though announcing an important social event. (para. 8)

– Explain the use of the present continuous tense– Explain the meaning of “social event”– More examples with “social”

brisk• They set off at a brisk pace.• Business is always brisk during the holiday season.• Put on your sweater, it’s brisk out.


Part I: Words & Expressions (2)

DETAILED ANALYSISPart II (paras. 10-15)


1. What kind of woman was Russell’s mother when she wasyoung? Give a profile of her.

appearance

character


Part II: Discussion

2. In what way did Russell’s mother’s ways reflect the values of the time she lived in?


“I tell people exactly what’s on my mind,” she had been fond of boasting… (para. 11)

“If they don’t like it, that’s too bad,” was her customary reply, “because that’s the way I am.” (para. 13)

→Was she apologetic?

Part II: Discussion

3. Point out the humorous touches in this part of the text.

4. Point out the use of a pun in the following sentence:

One Thanksgiving…she tripped on the stairs and tumbled down, ending at the bottom in the debris of giblets, hot gravy, and battered turkey. (para. 15)


Part II: Discussion

Part II: Words & Expressions

She had always been a small woman—short, light-boned, delicately structured…(para. 10)delicate• delicate skin, delicate health• delicate child• delicate situation, delicate operation• delicate perfume


Part II: Words & Expressions

“It’s not always good policy to tell people exactly what’s on your mind,” I used to caution her. (para. 12)

policy• Under the circumstances, silence has always been his policy.


DETAILED ANALYSISPart III (paras. 16-38)


Part III: Discussion

1. As Russell sat by his mother’s bed, seeing her present state, his impulse was to argue her back to reality, why?

2. What was the doctor’s diagnosis of his mother’s illness? Did Russell agree with him? What did he come to see about his mother’s problem?


Part III: Words & Expressions

“Russell’s way out west,” she advised me. (para. 18)• way out west: far out west, a great distance out west• way 1. collocations

• way above/over/under• way ahead/beyond/behind/back/off

2. (infml) very• We were way tired after the hike.• Dad will be way mad if we’re late.


DETAILED ANALYSISPart IV (paras. 39-45)



1. How did the author react to his mother’s senility from a son’s point of view?

Part IV: Discussion

2. Russell recalled a visit to his mother three years earlier. What does this visit show about Russell and his mother? Why couldn’t he understand his mother’s unhappiness? (paras. 39-40)

3. After he realized that his mother could recapture happiness in her past memory, Russell stopped trying to argue her back to reality, what did he do instead? What does that mean?

4. Which period was his mother’s happiest time in her life? Was Russell able to travel along with his mother to the dead decades? Why (not)?


Part IV: Discussion

Three years earlier I…had written her with some banal advice to look for the silver lining, to count her blessings instead of burdening others with her miseries. (para. 33)

silver lining• As the trip’s been cancelled, I’ll be able to go to the match this

Saturday. Every cloud has a silver lining. • The fall of inflation is the silver lining of the prolonged

recession. count your blessings: to think about the good things in your life,

often to stop yourself becoming too unhappy about the bad things


Part IV: Words & Expressions

DETAILED ANALYSISPart V (paras. 46-end)


Part V: Discussion

1. Why can age stir one’s curiosity about parents’ past?

2. Why was Russell’s childhood hard?

The Great Depression


migrant family

living in the tent

Text Analysis Detailed AnalysisThe Great

Depression

mother of seven

children


Depression

unemployed people

looking for jobs


Depression

3. What does the author mean by “a dispute about time”? (para. 47)

parents’ pastparents’ past parents’ futureparents’ future

children’s pastchildren’s past children’s futurechildren’s future


Part V: Discussion

4. What is the author’s view of generation gap?

5. What is the author’s view on how to handle the disconnection between parents and children?


Part V: Discussion

On the part of the parents

On the part of the children

Part V: Words & Expressions

At dinner one evening a son had offended me with an inadequate report card… (para. 46)

inadequate: not enough or not good enough for a particular purpose

• The girl realized that her answers were inadequate. • He makes me feel totally inadequate.• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.


In My Day

Unit 8

Reinforcement

Activity

Summary

Writing Techniques

1. Genre:

– a combination of narration and discussion, with two strands running through it:

one is the account of the changes that occurred to his mother after her last bad fall

the other is his reflection of parent-child disconnection

Reinforcement Summary

3. Figures of speech:– humorous touch– pun– simile– metaphor– parallelism

Find examples in the text.

Reinforcement Summary

Writing Techniques

2. Typical writing technique: – flashbacks

• One important factor contributing to the generation gap is that different generations live in different historical times and may hold different social values, which may lead to the difficulty in understanding each other.

• Please put Russell, his mother and his son back in their respective times by seeking clues in the text and notes, and by resorting to your knowledge of American history.

Reinforcement Activity

Russell’s mother Russell Russell’s children

Time(formative years )

What was America like then?

What were the values and beliefs of the time?

Reinforcement Activity

Documents

In My Day Russell Baker. R einforcement einforcement T ext Analysisext Analysis In My Day B ackground ackground W arming uparming up Unit 8