Warm-up

●Oyster and pearl

1. What do you know about oyster and pearl?

2. Pearls are formed when a pearl oyster coats any hard particle entering it with layers of nacre, a form of calcium carbonate.

3. Have you ever read any literary works in which pearls and oysters are used as symbols? What do they symbolize?

●Enjoy poems

The Deep-sea Pearl

----Edith M. Thomas

The love of my life came not

As love unto others is cast；

For mine was a secret wound—

But the wound grew a pearl, at last

The divers may come and go,

The tides, they arise and fall；

The pearl in its shell lies sealed,

And the Deep Sea covers all．

深海的珍珠

我生命中的爱情已经萠动，

可是它却有些与众不同；

我的爱最终结成一颗珍珠，

他的根源是我隐秘的伤痛。

任采珠的蛙人来去匆匆，

任潮涨潮落波翻浪涌；

这颗珍珠只在封闭的蚌里躲藏，

迷失在茫茫深海无影无踪。

"The Oyster” ----Author unknown

There once was an oyster

Whose story I tell,

Who found that some sand

Had got into his shell.

It was only a grain,

But it gave him great pain.

For oysters have feelings

Although they’re so plain.

Now, did he berate

The harsh working of fate

That had brought him

To such a deplorable state?

Did he curse at the government,

Cry for election,

And claim that the sea should

Have given him protection?

No – he said to himself

As he lay on a shell,

Since I cannot remove it,

I shall try to improve it.

Now the years have rolled around,

As the years always do,

And he came to his ultimate

Destiny – stew.

And the small grain of sand

That had bothered him so

Was a beautiful pearl

All richly aglow.

Now the tale has a moral;

For isn’t it grand

What an oyster can do

With a morsel of sand?

What couldn’t we do

If we’d only begin

With some of the things

That get under our skin

Background Information

●William Saroyan

Author profile:

William Saroyan was an internationally

renowned Armenian-American writer,

playwright and humanitarian.

Born

in Fresno, California, The United States

August 31, 1908

Died

May 18, 1981

Genre

Literature and Fiction, Short Stories, Plays

Childhood

He was born in Fresno, California, on August 31, 1908. He was the 4th child of Armenian immigrants. His father died when he was three years old, after which he was sent to an orphanage for four years. Saroyan left school at 15 and educated himself by reading and writing.

Talent in literature

In 1934, at the age of 26, with the publication of his first book The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, William Saroyan became an overnight literary sensation. His first successful Broadway play was My Heart's in the Highlands, in 1939, and in the same year, Saroyan was the first American writer to win both The Drama Critic's Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for his play, The Time of Your Life. He refused to accept the Pulitzer Prize on the grounds that "it is no more great or good than anything else I have written.”

Talent in literature

Another book, The Human Comedy, published in 1943, was dedicated to his mother and made into an MGM movie which won him an Academy Award Oscar, for Best Writing Original Screen Story.

William Saroyan achieved great popularity through the thirties, forties and fifties. During his lifetime, he published over sixty books. His works have been translated into more than two dozen languages and have sold millions. He was printed on stamps.

Theme of his works

Saroyan writes humanely and powerfully, with restless enthusiasm. His major themes are aspiration, hope and honesty; materialism and success mean nothing. His works show the basic goodness of all people, especially the obscure, naive and the value of life.

Sidelights

Saroyan joined the Army during World War II.35-year-old William Saroyan and 18-year-old New York debutante, Carol Marcus, married in Dayton, Ohio. They were blessed with two children: Aram, born in 1944, and Lucy, born in 1946. Their first marriage ended after six years. Two years later, in 1951, Saroyan's remarriage to the same wife ended in divorce for the second and final time.

Quotes

“The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.”

“In the time of your life, live — so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.”

●Utopian and Dystopian literature

1. Utopia originates from Greek words meaning "no place", and "good place”.

2. Utopia fiction is the creation of an ideal society, as the setting for a novel.

3. Famous utopia fictions: Plato, The Republic; Thomas Moore, Utopia

4. Dystopian fiction is the creation of an utterly horrible or degraded society that is generally headed to an irreversible oblivion.

5. Famous dystopian fictions: George Orwell, 1984; H.G. Wells, The time Machine

●Hollywood

Hollywood is a district in the central region of Los Angeles, California, in the United States.

It is notable for its place as the home of the entertainment industry, including several of its historic studios. Its name has come to represent the motion picture industry of the United States.