Text Appreciation

Ⅰ. Text Analysis：Introduction

It is about a law student who tries to date the beautiful girl Polly after certain periods of re-education: teaching her logical fallacy, but he fails bitterly.

The narrator, Dobie Gillis, a freshman in a law school, is the protagonist.

This text is a piece of narrative writing.

The whole story is a piece of light, humorous satire. The writer, Max Shulman, is satirizing or making fun of a smug, self-conceited freshman in a law school.

The title of the story is humorous and well chosen. It has two meanings. When “fallacy” is taken in its ordinary sense, the title means: “there is a deceptive or delusive quality about love.”；When taken as a specific term in logic the title means: “love cannot be deduced from a set of given premises.”

Ⅰ. Text Analysis：Theme

1. There is a deceptive or delusive quality about love.

2. Love is an error, a deception that does not follow the principle of logic

Ⅰ. Text Analysis：Text Organization

Part 1: The author's idea about the purpose of this story. Part 2 (Paras. 1-60): The bargain between the law student and his roommate over the exchange of the girl. Part 3 (Paras. 61-122): The teaching of 8 logical fallacies. Part 4 (Paras. 123-151) Backfiring of all the arguments. It ironically represents the seemingly Pygmalion effect, which turns out to be a Frankenstein tragedy & forms the climax of the story.

Aids to Comprehension （重点解读）

This text is a piece of narrative writing, a story. The narrator of the story, Dobie Gillis, a freshman in a law school, is the hero or protagonist. He struggles against two antagonists: Petey Burch, his roommate whose girl friend he plans to steal; and Polly Espy, the girl he intends to marry after suitable re-education. The climax of the story is reached in paras147-150 when Polly refuses to go steady with the narrator because she had already promised to go steady with Petey Burch. The denouement follows rapidly and ends on a very ironic note. The raccoon coat which he gave to Petey Burch for the privilege of dating his girl, the raccoon coat which the narrator disliked and abhorred, was the instrument of his undoing. Polly Espy promised to go steady with Petey Burch because he owned a raccoon coat, a coat that all fashionable people on campus were wearing. The main theme of the story, however, is stated by the writer in the title of the story: “Love is a fallacy”.

The whole story is a piece of light, humorous satire. The writer, Max Shulman, is satirizing or making fun of a smug, self-conceited freshman in a law school. The freshman is made the narrator of the story who goes on smugly boasting and singing praises of himself at every conceivable opportunity. From the very beginning, in paragraph 1, he begins to heap on himself all the beautiful words of praise he can think of -- cool, logical, keen, calculating, perspicacious, acute, astute, powerful, precise and penetrating. This exaggerated self-praise and the profuse use of similes and metaphors help to make the satire humorous. At the same time the narrator takes every opportunity to downgrade Petey Burch. For example, he calls him: dumb, nothing upstairs, unstable, impressionable and a faddist. And as for Polly Espy, she is “a beautiful dumb girl”, who would smarten up under his guidance. In order to smarten her up, the narrator decides to give her a course in logic. He teaches her how to recognize the common fallacies of logic. He succeeds too well because the whole thing backfires on him when Polly refutes all his arguments as logical fallacies before finally rejecting him. In desperation the narrator argues that “the things you learn in school don’t have anything to do in life.” The appeal does not move Polly because she does not reject him on logical grounds. She rejects him because he does not own a raccoon coat as Petey Burch does. At the end of the story, the reader feels the narrator has got what he deserved. He has been too clever for his own good.

The title of the story is humorous and well chosen. It has two meanings. When “fallacy” is taken in its ordinary sense, the title means: “there is a deceptive or delusive quality about love.” When taken as a specific term in logic the title means: “love cannot be deduced from a set of given premises.” Perhaps Max Shulman wants the reader, after reading the story, to conclude that “love” is an error, a deception and an emotion that does not follow the principles of logic. But the writer, through this story has succeeded perhaps unwittingly in revealing what love may sometimes mean in the affluent society. Girls do not want brilliant, gifted or educated husbands, but want husbands who are rich and wealthy enough to provide all the things necessary for keeping up with the Joneses- home, clothes, cars, etc.

Max Shulman has a style quite his own. The story goes forward at a very fast pace with a racy dialogue full of American colloquialism and slang. He employs a whole variety of writing techniques to make his story vivid, dramatic and colorful. The lexical spectrum is colorful -- from the ultra learned terms used by the conceited narrator to the infra clipped vulgar forms of Polly Espy. He uses figurative language profusely and also grammatical inversion for special emphasis. The speed of the narration is maintained by the use of short sentences, elliptical sentences and dashes throughout the story. This mix adds to the realism of the story. One would expect a freshman to talk like this.

Ⅰ. Text Analysis：Further Understanding

1.The writer wants to tell us that ______.

  A. Love is a mistake, a deception and an emotion that follows the principles in logic

  B. Love is an error and it has deceptive quality that does not follow the principles of logic

  C. Love is not a dry branch of learning and it is like a human being full of beauty and passion.

  D. Love is a dry and learned discipline and girls do want brilliant, gifted or educated husbands.

2.The narrator believes that his essay is _____ the essays written by Charles Lamb.

  A. as good as

  B. not as good as

  C. better than

  D. not of the same quality

3.The narrator claimed that his brain is just like ______.

  A. a dynamo

  B. a scale

  C. a scalpel

  D. all the above

4.According to the law student, ______.

  A. you would achieve success if you could find a girl who is so agreeable like Polly.

  B. you would not achieve success if you could find a girl like Polly who is so agreeable.

  C. it would be easy for you to find another girl like Polly who is so agreeable.

  D. it would be difficult for you to find another girl like Polly who is so agreeable.

5. The narrator finally found out that he was not Pygmalion but Frankenstein because the monster had caught him by the throat. It means_____.

  A. He was defeated by his own logical fallacy

  B. He was defeated by his lover Polly

  C. He was defeated by his rival Petey Burch.

  D. He was defeated by his weakness