analiticheskoe_chtenie

those conditions a field would have burned so slowly that one man could have kept it under control.

Jake knew that earl did not have a chance in the world of being able to check that fire once it had got under·

wayThe white smoke was boiling upward in a column the size of a barrel-head by that time. The wind had shifted again, circling amund earl's back and blowing down across the meadow from a new angle. The grass tops bowed under the force of the wind, and the wind was changing so frequently that it kept the field waving first in one and then in some other direction. earl looked around and overhead as if by that he were doing something that would

cause the wind	to die down into a breeze.	·
J ake crossed	his legs again and waited to see what was

going to happen next. earl Abbott was without doubt the biggest fool he had ever known.

Suddenly the flames shot into the air higher than earl's head and began leaping across the field towards the meadow like a pack of red foxes Jet loose. earl jumped backward, stumbling and overturning one of the buckets of water. The

. flames bent over under the force of the wind until they looked as if they were lying flat on top of the grass. That made the field burn even faster still, the leaping flame setting fire to the grass quicker than the eye could follow. It had been burning no longer than two or three minutes, but in that short time it had spread out into the shape of a quarter cut of pie, and it was growing larg~r and larger each second. earl ran around in circles, his wooden leg sticking into the ground and tripping him with nearly every step: He would have to stop every step or two and take both hands to pull the wooden peg out of the ground.

"Hey there, earl Ab bott!" J ake shouted at him above the roar of the burning grass. "What in hell are you doing out there! Get away from that fire!"

earl heard J ake but he paid no attention to what he said., He was trying to beat out the fire with his wet broom, but his work was not checking the flames in any direction. He was so excited that, instead of beating at the flames, most of the time he was holding the broom in the fire, and hitting the water buckets with his wooden leg. The broom caught on fire, and then he did not know which way to turn. When he did succeed in hitting at the fire with the broom, as fast as he smothered one tuft of grass

170

it caught fire again almost immediately. In the meantime two or three fresh ones blazed up beside it.

. ''Come out of there, you damn fool!'' Jake shouted at him. "You'll be cooked and ready to eat if you don't get out of that fire!"

Carl 's hat had fallen off and had already burned into a handful of gray ashes. His whiskers were singed close to his face, making him appear at a distance as if he had a shave, and his peg leg was charred. If he had stood still all the time he would not have been hurt, because the fire would have burned away from him; but Carl ran right into the hottest part of it, almost out of sight in the smoke and flame. His woolen pants were smoking, his coat was dropping off in smoking pieces, and a big black circle was spreading on his shirt where a spark had ignited the blue cotton cloth.

Jake jumped out of his buggy and ran into the hay

field calling Carl.	He could not sit there and see a
man burn himself	alive, even if the man was Carl Ab-

bott.

He grabbed Carl and dragged him away from the flame and threw him down on the ground where the grass had already burned over. Carl's wooden leg was burned completely through, and as he fell to the ground it broke off in half. All that was left of it was a charred pointed stub about six br.. eight inches long. Carl had made the peg himself, and, instead of using oak as J ake had advised him to do, he had made it out of white pine because, he said, it would be lighter to carry around. J ake dragged him by the collar to the gap in the stonewall and crumped him in the road. Carl tried to stand up, forgetting the burned-off peg, and he tumbled over into the drain ditch and lay there helplessly.

"You would go ahead and act like a damn fool, after all, wouldn't you?" Jake said. "It's a pity I didn't let you stay out there and make ashes. They would have been worth more than you are alive. Meat ashesmake the finest kind of dressing for any kind of crop."

Carl sat up and looked through the gap in the stonewall at the smoking hay field. The fire line had already reached the woodlot, and flame was beginning to shoot from the top of the pines and hemlocks. Two hundred yards farther away were Carl's buildings. He had a team of horses in ·the barn, and a cow. There would be no way in the world

171

to save them once the fire had reached the barn and caught the dry hay.

J ake tossed Carl a stick and watched him hobble. the best he could down the road towards his house and buildings.

"What are we going to do?" he begged Jake. "We can't let my stock and buildings burn up, too."

"What we?" J ake said. "You and who else? You're not talking to me, because I'm having nothing to do with all this mess. I told you what not todo when you came up here a little while ago, but you were so damn smart I· couldn't get anything through your head. That's why I'm having nothing at all to do with all this mess."

Car! protested feebly. He tried to get up and run down the road, but he fe!l each time he attempted to stand up.

"Why! do you think I'd have people saying that they passed your place and saw me helping you put out a grass fire when nobody with any sense at all would ever have started one in this kind of weather? People in this town know I don't associate with crazy men. They know me better than that. That's why I don't want them to think I've lost my mind andgone plumb crazy with you."

Car! opened his mouth, but Jake had not finished. "I wouldn't even spit on a blade of witch-grass now if I thought it would help check that fire you started.

Why!	the townspeople would think I had a hand in start-
ing it,	if I went and helped yeu check it. Nobody would

believe me if I tried to tell them I begged you not to jire your field in the beginning and then went right out and helped you fight it. The townspeople have got better sense than to believe a tale like that. They know I wouldn't do a fool thing like you went and did. They know that I have better sense than to go out and start a fire in a hay field when it hasn't rained yet this spring. I'm no fool, Carl Abbott, even if it does appear that I'm associating with one now."

. "But you can't let my stock and ouildings burn up," Carl said. "You wouldn't do that, would you, Jake? I've been a fair and honest friend of yours all my life, haven't I, J ake? And didn't I cast my vqte for you when you wanted to be road commissioner?" ·

"So I can't, can't I? Well, you just stand there and watch me try to save your stock and buildings! And this is not time to be talking politics, either. Wquldn't help you, anyway, not after the way you did there in that hay field.

172

I told you not to go and	fire that field, and you	went right
ahead like a damn fool	and struck a match to	it, just as
if I had been talking to myself away over in another part
of town. No! I'm not going to do anything about it -
except talk. When the townspeople ask me how your farm

and buildings came to catch on ·fire and	burn up your
stock and woodlot, I'll tell them you fired	it".

Carl found a heavier stick and hobbled down the road towards his house and buildings. The fire had already run through the woodlot by that time, and, as they came around the bend in the road, flame was licking at the house and barn.

J ake walked behind Carl, coming down the road, and

led his horse instead of	riding in the buggy. He watched
Carl try to run, and he	thought once of putting him into
the buggy, but he did	not like the idea of doing that.
Townspeople would say he was riding Carl around in his
horse and buggy while the stock and buildings burned up.
When they got closer to the house, the roof was ablaze,
and the barn was smoking. The hay in there was dry, and
it looked as if it would burst into flame any second. Carl

hobbled faster when he saw his buildings burning.

"Help me get my stock out, J ake," he begged. "You won't let my stock burn up.. will you, Jake?"

Jake tied his horse to a tree beside the road and ran across the yard to the barn. He could not stand there and see a team of horses and a cow burn alive, even if they did belong to Carl Abbott. He ran to the barn and jetked open the stall doors.

An explosion of smoke, dust, and flame burst into his face,. but the two horses and the cow bounded out the mo- + ment the stall doors were thrown open. The horses and cows ran across the yard and leaped over .the brush by the roadside and disapreared into the field on the other side.

Jake knew it was a stroke of chance that enabled him to save the stock, because if the horses and cow had been farther in the barn, nothing could have induced them to leave it. The only way they could have been saved would have been to blindfold them and lead them out, and there would have been no time for that. The flame had already begun to reach the stalls. Carl realized by that time that there was no chance of saving anything else. He saw the smoke and flame leap through the roof of the barn the

173

moment that J ake had opened the stall doors. He felt terribly sick all over.

J ake went over to the tree and untied his horse. He climbed into the buggy and sat down. Car! stood looking at his burning buildings, and he was trying to lean on the big stick he had found up the backroad.

J ake whipped up his horse and started home. Carl turned around and saw him leave, but he had nothing to say.

"Whoa!" J ake said to his horse, pulling on the reins. He turned around in the buggy seat and called to Car!, "Well, I guess you'll have better sense than to do a thing like that again, won't you? Next time maybe you will be anxious to take some advice."

Carl glared at J ake, and turned with nothing to say to stand and watch the fire. Then sudden! y he shouted at J ake.

"By God, the hay field is burned over, ain't it?" he said, hobbling away. "Well, that's what I set out to do at the start."

Jake whipped up his horse and started for home. When he looked back for the last time, he saw Car! whittling on a pole. Carl had cut down a young pine and he was trimming it to replace the peg that had burned off in the hay field. He wished to make the new one out of oak, but oak was the kind of wood that J ake had told him to use in the first place.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Caldwell, Erskine (born 1903)

An American writer, born in the South of the USA. His novels and short stories tell of ordinary men and women of America, the Negro and the white. With a peculiar blend of comedy and tragedy he writes about their misery, rightlessness, degradation ("Tobacco Road" (1932); "God's Little Acre" (1933); "We are the Living" (1933); "Georgia Boy" (1943) and others).

Coppard, Alfred (1878-1957)

An English short story writer and poet. Had tried many ways of earning a living when yet a boy. The early years of his life were later described in such stories as "The Presser", "Pomona's Babe",

"The	Cherry Tree".	Followed the Dickens-Hardy tradition depict-
ing	the common man with impassioned concern and warm humour.
Was	a staunch fighter for peace. Collections of short stories: "Adam
and	Eve and Pinch	me" (1921), "Clorinda Walks in Heaven" (1922),

"Fishmonger's Fiddle" (1925), "Silver Circus" (1928) and others. Faulkner, William (1897-1962)

An American novelist and short story writer, a Nobel Prize winner. Himself a Southerner wrote almost exclusively .about the South: the hard and hostile world of Southern aristocrats, Negroes and poor whites. His works mirror the decline and degradation of old families ("The Sound and the Fury", 1929) and the emergence in the South of hateful new men with their capitalistic morals and ways ("The Hamlet", 1940; "The Town", 1957; "The Manson", 1959).

The contradictions of W. F aulkner's outlook expressed in his intricately involved writing have given him the reputation of a difficult writer.

His other works include: "As I Lay Dying" (1930); "Sanctuary"

(1931);	"Go Down, Moses, and Other Stories" (1942); "Intruder in
the Dust" (1948).
Greene,	Graham (born 1904)

An English writer keenly concerned with the burning ethical, moral and political issues of the day. His novels and short stories always based on an entertaining intrigue are remarkable for the social

impact they carry.	_
His better-known works	include: "The Heart of the Matter"

(1948), "England Made Me" (1935), "The Quiet American" (1955), "Burnt-out Case" (1961), "Comedians" (1964).

175

Hemingway, .Ernest (1899-1961)

An American writer who h'as exercised a most profound influence on many writers and readers the world over. His name is associated with the so called "lost generation" of the twenties, the war in Spain and the antifascist movement. He has created the "Hemingway hero", a character of complete honesty, virility and great sensitiveness. His style, known as the "Hemingway style", is marked by simplicity, terseness and intense objectivity.

E. Hemingway has written a number of novels and-short story collections, among them such as: "In Our time" (1924), "A Farewell to Arms" (1929), "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1940), "The Old Man and the Sea" (1952), the latter has occasioned his receiving the Nobel Prize.

Lewis, Sinclair (1885-!951)

An American writer, satirist. Bitterly criticized the American way of life, its standardization of cultural values, its money-worship. In 1930 was awarded the Nobel Prize for the novel "Babbitt" (1922). Its main character (of the same name) personifies the typical American businessman, ignorant, loud-mouthed, self-satisfied and moneygrabbing.

Wrote numerous novels and short stories. Some of the betterknown novels are: "Main Street" (1920); "Arrowsmith" (1925); "Elmer Gantry" (1927); "It Can't Happen Here" (1935); "Kingsblood Royal"

(1947).

O'Casey, Sean (1884-1964)

An Irish writer, dramatist. Actively participated in Irish public life, was an ardent fighter for peace and a staunch communist. His plays are dedicated, as a rule, to burning social issues. In them he often resorts to symbolism and generalization. Has written a six-

volume autobiography	("I Knock	at the Door", 1939, "Pictures in
the Hallway", 1942, "Drums under		the Windows",	1945, "Inishfallen
Fare Thee Weii", 1949,	"Rose and	Crown", 1952,	"Sunset and the

Evening Star", 1954). The general title of all the six volumes is "Mir-

ror in My House". Warm lyricism gives a peculiar tint	to the work.
- Some of his plays: "J uno and the Peacock" (1924),	"The Silver

Tassie" (1928), "The Star Turns Red" (1940), "Red Roses for Me" (llt42), "The Bishop's Bonfire" (1955), "Behind the Green Curtains"

(1961).

Snow, Charles (born 1905)

An English writer and a prominent public figure. His principal theme is the man of science and his responsibilities in the contemporary world. He has written a series of novels under the general title of

"Strangers and Brothers". All these novels are united by	the image of_
Lewis Eliot, the narrator.	-

INDEX OF TERMS

aesthetic (art) function 3, 9
aesthetic information 7 • 28
alliteration			62
allusion 57
anadipl03is			59
analogy 3!,			32,	38,	41,	50,	51,
53,	56,	57
anaphora 59
anticlimax			(bathos)		61
antithesis		63, 64
antonomasia 54
aposiopesis			67,	68
apostrophe 53

archaic (word, meaning) 10, 13, 23 asyndeton 60

barbarism 13
character			(literary)				8,	22,	23,
29, 30, 31,34, 35,39, 45,48
climax		(gradation)				61
climax		39, 40
cohesion			26,	27
colloquialism				13
comedy 48, 49
composition 25, 45, 47, 49
connotation				(connotative mean-
ing,		effect) 11,					14,	15,	16,
17,	18,		19,	21,	22,		24

content (poetic) 3, 4, 25, 27, 36,

39,	41,	42,		45,	47,	49
contrast 31, 32, 50, 62, 63, 64
denotation			(denotative				meaning)
10,	11,		12,	14,	15,		16,	17,	64

denouement				39,	40,	43
description			47
detail (poetic) 29, 30, 33
dialectism			14
dialogue 46
digressive			address 53
drama 48,			49
dram,atic monologue						46
ellipsis		68
emotive		component				of	meaning
(emotive charge) 11, 12, 14
epic 47
epiphora 59
epithet		55,	56
epoch characterization 23
exposition			39
figure of speech 50, 58
framing		(ring repetition)					60
functional			style		12
genre 5,		29,		40
idea	(poetic)			37,	38
image		6,		7,	25,	26,		27,
28,	30
imagery		(tropes)			49,	50
imitation style 21
implication (implied idea,								mean-
ing, undercurrent meaning) 17,
19,	41		.
incomplete				representation				(gap-
ping) 28, 29, 50, 58
interior		monologue 46
jargonism			14

177

leit-motif 33, 34 Jinguo-stylistics 3

literary (poetic) time 41, 42 litotes 66

local colour 24

lyric (genre, poetry) 47 metaphor (metaphoric) 37, 38,

50, 51' 52, 53, 54, 57 metonymy 53, 54

narration (narrative) 44, 45, 46

narrative prose 19, 42, 47, 60

narrator 43, 46 novel 5, 43, 44, 45 obsolete 10, 13, 23

overstatement (hyperbole) 66

oxymoron 64
paradox 65
parallelism		58,	59
periphrasis		56,	57
personification			53
plot 8,	17,	25,	37,	38,.39,	41
plot structure 40,				41
poem (poetry) 5, 61, 63
poeticism 13

poetic structure 25, 26, 27, 32, 34, 36, 37

polysyndeton 60 professionalism 13

pun (paranomasia, a play on words) 65, 66

recurrence 32, 33, 34, 50 repetition 59, 60

reported (represented) speech 23 rhythm 34, 49

short story 5, 40, 41, 49 simile 36, 51

slangism (slangy word) 13, 22 sonnet 47

speech characterization 22, 23 story 37, 38, 39

style 34, 69-74

stylistic norm (neutrality) 70 stylistic reference 12 stylistically marked 12 supraverbal (layer) 25

surface (plot) layer 37 suspense {retardation) 61, 62 s.ymbolic (layer) 37, 38 synechdoche 54

theme 17, 37 tragedy 48, 49

trope 32, 50, 51, 56, 58 understatement 66 verbal art 3, 5, 10 verbal layer 25, 32

vulgarism (vulgar) 14, 22 word -choice 24

zeugma 62

			CONTENTS
Foreword • . • .... • ..					3
			Part One
A Reader's Guide to Imaginative Literature
INTRODUCTION ...... •					5
C h a p t er	I. LANGUAGE,			THE MEDIUM OF LITE-
RATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .					9
The Preliminary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .					9
Meanings of Linguistic			Units . . . . • • . . . .		10
a) Denotative Meaning of the Word . . . .					10
b) Connotative Meaning of				the Word . . .	11
Connotation· in the Word's Dictionary Meaning .					11
An Emotive Component of Meaning .					11
Stylistic		Reference	. • . . . . . . . . . . .		12
Words	of	Literary	Stylistic	Layer . . . . .	13
Words	of	Non-Literary Stylistic Layer . . . . . . . . . .			13
Denotation and Connotation in Verbal Communication Other
Than Imaginative Literature . . • . . . • . . . . . . . .					14
Denotation and Connotation in Imaginative Literature . .					16
Connotative Function of Speech-Soun'd Clusters . . .					18
Connotative Function of Grammar Categories . . . .					19
Connotative Function of Word Stylistic Reference . . .					22
C h a p t er 11. LITERARY				TEXT AS POETIC STRUC·
TURE • .... • ............. ·. . • • . .					25
Verbal and Supraverbal Layers of the Literary Text .					25
Principles of Poetic Structure Cohesion . . . . .					27
Principle of Incomplete Representation . .					28
Principle of Analogy and Contrast					. 31
Principle of Recurrence . . • . • • . • . . .					32
COMPONENTS OF POETIC STRUCTURE • , •••••• , •					34

179