Unit 6. The Square Root of Wonderful (by McCullers)

I1.Study the words. Check up the pronunciation.

squat – сидеть на корточках bayonet – штык holler – кричать, вопить jab – толкать slobber - пускать слюни blarney - сладкие речи

downbeat - мрачный wiggle - раскачивать howl - выть baloney - чепуха, вздор goblet - бокал, кубок creepy - страшный, пугающий

II1.Read the stage directions. Does the author give any clue about what is going to happen?

ACT THREE

SCENE ONE

Time: Just before dawn the following day.

At Rise: There is no sound. Phillip descends the staircase, slowly, and stands looking at Paris, who is asleep on the sofa. The following scene is oblique. Neither Phi11ip nor Paris knows fully what is happening and the intentions of both father and son are veiled, obscure, until Paris is aware of life and the threat to life.

2.Read the whole text.

Phi11ip. Butch -

Paris. What?

Phi11ip. Wake up, Butch.

Paris. What time is it?

Phi11ip. Just before dawn. And your mother has packed during the night. She thinks she can leave us.

Paris. Leave us?

Phi11ip. Yes. Leave me and you.

Paris. I don’t believe you. Why did you wake me?

Phi11ip. Because I need you.

Paris. How?

Phi11ip. When I was big and you were little you needed me. Don’t you remember?

Paris. I guess so. When I was a baby I would come in and sleep between you and mother. Scared maybe, or I just wanted to. There was a swing somewhere in the neighborhood.

Phi11ip. Where was that?

Paris. On Cranberry Street. That’s as far back as I can remember. How far back can you remember, Daddy?

Phi11ip. I can remember sleeping between my mother and father too.

Paris. Is that as far back as your memory goes?

Phi11ip. Before that there was only darkness.

Paris. Darkness?

Phi11ip. Then, years later, there were blazing Georgia afternoons. Like burning glass, they were.

Paris. Georgia’s hot.

Phi11ip. Hot. Blazing and cruel. July was hot and August longer.

Paris. Granny has an air-conditioner in her bedroom.

Phi11ip. In those days there were no air-conditioners.

Paris. What did you do?

Phi11ip. We stewed in the heat

Paris. Stewed?

Phi11ip. We squatted in the back yard poking in those doodle-bug holes. Although I poked at those holes, year in, year out, I never once saw a doodle bug. Paris: What’s in those holes?

Phi11ip. That’s the mystery. You can squat with a broomstraw all summer long and never find out.

Paris. That’s no fun.

Phi11ip. I remember as a child picking Spanish bayonets. Remember that bush down South that has sharp spikes, like swords at the end?

Paris. I had a great time chasing girls with those Spanish bayonets. The girls run and holler. The boys run and chase. Not that you ever jab a girl. They’re sharp.

Phi11ip. I jabbed a girl once. Not a hard jab – just a light touch on the behind to make her know I meant business.

Paris. What did you do after that?

Phi11ip. It was the end of the game.

Paris. What time is it?

Phi11ip. Time for us to leave.

Paris. But Mother?

Phi11ip. I told you she’s been packing in the night. Silk stockings, brassieres, and all that crap.

Paris. I hate you when you talk like that about Mother.

Phi11ip. What did I say wrong? I love her. I can’t live without her. I have done everything to bring her back to us. I crawled on the floor like Dostoyevski.

Paris. Crawled? You didn’t care when Mother cried when you left her.

Phi11ip. I never left her. I did everything and what ever happens to me it’s her fault, and she’ll know it. But now we are going to be at peace. Where I go you and your mother will follow.

Paris. But where are you going?

Phi11ip. To zones and latitudes you never imagined.

Paris. In the Arctic Zone the sun shines at midnight. But tell me, Daddy, where you are going!

Phi11ip. To a place more remote than Kilimanjaro, more vacant than the moonlight in the Sahara.

Paris. Africa?

Phi11ip. Not specially.

Paris. I always wanted to go to Africa. I adore travel and adventure.

Phi11ip. Do you, Butch?

Paris. When we went to Yellowstone Park I thought it would be an adventure, but the grizzly bears ate out of your hand and slobbered. It was tame. Without your blarney, Daddy, where are you going?

Phi11ip. Do you want me to tell you a story?

Paris. I feel half asleep and still dreaming.

Phi11ip. In the Kingdom of Heaven...

Paris. What kind of a story is that?

Phi11ip. A Bible story. In the Kingdom of Heaven a man was going to travel to a far-off country. And so he called his two servants –

Paris. It’s funny. The Bible always talks about servants. Mother says to me, “Never say servants, say housekeeper, cleaning maid, or anything – but never servant. Otherwise they quit!”

Phillip. The master delivered to the servants his goods –

Paris. Why did he do that?

Phillip. Because he would be gone a long time.

Paris. What goods did he give them?

Phillip. All of his money – his talents.

Paris. I never thought of talents as money. To me talents mean singing and dancing.

Phillip. In the Bible talents are money. It was a way of exchange. Anyway, the master gave five talents to the first servant and to the other just one. And straightway the master left for his journey. Straightway – I love that word. And the one who received five talents traded them with judgment and made ten.

Paris. On the stock exchange?

Phillip. Something like that. For a long time the master stayed away, and when he returned he went to the man who had five talents and the man brought forth five more. “Well done,” the master said. “You have used your talents. Enter into the joy of the Lord.”

Paris. You always spend your money. Granny says that if you had bought stock you would have made a fortune by now. Stocks have gone up.

Phi11ip. Have they, Butch?

Paris. And you have so many talents, Daddy.

Phi11ip. Then the master went to the servant who had received one talent and the one-talent guy said, “Master, I have hid my talent under the earth - it is still there.”

Paris. Hid it under the earth? Why did he do that?

Phi11ip. Because the master was a hard master and the servant was afraid.

Paris. What did the master say?

Phi11i p. The master said, “I will take your one talent and give it to the servant who has ten, for to everyone that has, shall be given. But from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he has.”

Paris. That’s not fair. To me the Bible is nine times out of ten unfair. In fact the Bible is awfully downbeat.

Phi11ip. You’re right, Butch. It’s not fair.

Paris. Hattie Brown thinks I have talent. She claims that when I play the guitar I’m as cool as Elvis Presley. When she says that, I wiggle my hips like him – it’s nice to have talent.

Phi1lip. It’s better to develop it.

Paris. When I sing like that, Hattie howls.

Phi11ip. Does she, Butch?

Paris. Why did you wake me up, at this unearthly hour?

Phi11ip. For company.

Paris. Do you have a hangover, Daddy?

Phi11ip. No.

Paris. You look white as death.

Phi11ip. I’ll be all right, Butch. Once I’m on the road.

Paris. You should not be going anywhere alone. (Paris starts to dress.)

Phi11ip. What are you doing?

Paris. Getting dressed. I ought to go with you.

Phi11ip. It would be company.

Paris. But where are we going and why are you going? First you said it was Africa. Then you said not. Is it Mexico?

Phi1lip. No.

Paris. Is it Europe?

Phi11ip. No, Butch.

Paris. Mother doesn’t like Europe. They don’t have screens on the windows and you always get the trots.

Phi11ip. It is not Africa, not Mexico, not Europe. No place your mother has been or me or you. She thought she could leave us but she can’t.

Paris. Without your baloney, Daddy, what’s this all about? Where are you going?

Phillip. You’ll know when we get there.

Paris. But Mother?

Phi11ip. I told you forty times she’s packing...

Paris. Packing? Tomorrow is the day I was going to try that reel and tackle. Try it out in the pond. Tomorrow – that is, today.

Phi11ip. Suppose there are no tomorrows – that is today?

Paris. What are you doing?

Phi11ip. Getting my books.

Paris. Why?

Phillip. The ancient savage kings gathered their slave, their ship, their goblet for the voyage.

Paris. What voyage?

Phi11ip. The last one.

Paris. You talk so creepy. Strange and downbeat, I’m scared.

Phi11ip. Why are you scared?

Paris. If I knew why, I would not be so scared.

Phi11ip. It’s almost daybreak.

Paris. I’m wide awake now.

Phi11ip. It’s time to get started.

Paris. I can’t go anywhere like this. (Indicating his socks.) The socks don’t mate. I have on one white sock and one red.

Phi11ip. Is that the only reason you don’t want to come?

Paris. Not only that.

Phi11ip. I remember the October moons of my childhood. The hound dog would be baying. When there was a ring around the moon it was a sign of coming frost. Have you ever seen frost flowers, Butch? With its cold and delicate designs that come on window-panes – they are rose-colored and gold.

Paris. I never saw that.

Phi11ip. I’m not blaming you, Son.

Paris. Blaming me?

Phi11ip. No. It operates like this. In our cold house where there was no central heating, Uncle Willie used to light the kitchen stove first thing in the morning and put on the grits for breakfast – old people get up very early in the morning And as the room would warm with the glowing kitchen stove, outside there would still be cold and wintertime. Then the frost flowers would come on the windowpanes. Jack Frost had painted them we always said.

Paris. This is just the time to dig for angleworms. You find them better just at dawn.

Phi11ip. Or late twilight. I, too, have dug for angleworms.

Paris. Hattie and I are going to start early. Go to the pond. And if the fish aren’t biting there, we’ll go to Rockland Lake.

Phi11ip. You won’t come with me?

Paris. My day is important and already planned. Some other time, Daddy.

Phi11ip. I, too, remember sleeping between my mother and my father and having chased girls with Spanish bayonets. I have known both frost flowers and angleworms. And I have known that time when a song on the street and a voice from childhood all fitted and I was a writer and writing every day. And I was not alone then. There was love. I could love and did not struggle against being loved. It was company, anyhow. I remember everything - and at that instant will every moment be a reflection of every moment that has gone before? (Almost whispers.) I can’t stand it.

Paris (shouts). Mother!

Phi11ip (whispers). Now I prefer only darkness. (He exits. Mo11ie enters.)

Mo11ie. What on earth, Lambie – ?

Paris. My daddy.

(We hear the sound of the car.)

Mo11ie. What about Daddy? Where is he going – at this hour?

Paris. I don’t know, Mother. I just don’t know.

Mo11ie (goes to window, looking after the car). Lambie, please, put down that guitar.

THE CURTAIN FALLS

3.Answer the questions.

1)What is Phillip going to do? What gives away his intentions?

2)Do father and son understand each other well? Give examples of such “misunderstandings”.

3)At some points of their conversation Phillip and Paris switch over to a different topic unexpectedly. Why? Find such sentences.

4)In some cases Phillip doesn’t give logical answers to the questions Paris asks. E.g. “What time is it?” “Time for us to leave”. Find some examples of such “illogical” answers. Are they as illogical as they seem?

4.Identify the speaker of the following phrases. Recall the situations and comment on them.

1)Before that there was only darkness.

2)I adore travel and adventure.

3)It would be company.

4)Stocks have gone up.

5)It was company, anyhow.

6)That’s not fair.

7)My day is important and already planned.

8)Scared maybe, or I just wanted to.

9)Straightway – I love that word.

5.Judging by the episode you have read, what are the relations between Phillip, Mollie and Paris?

6.Is Phillip really going to kill himself? What proves it?

7.Some of the words in Ex. I1. are informal. Give their neutral and formal equivalents.

8.Comment on the following grammar phenomena.

1)When I was a baby I would come in and sleep between you and mother.

2)Then, years later, there were blazing Georgia afternoons. Like burning glass, they were.

3)Then the master went to the servant who had received one talent and the one-talent guy said…

4)You should not be going anywhere alone.

5)The ancient savage kings gathered their slave, their ship, their goblet for the voyage.

6)Uncle Willie used to light the kitchen stove first thing in the morning and put on the grits for breakfast…

7)And if the fish aren’t biting there, we’ll go to Rockland Lake.

III 1.Put down five phrases to express your attitude to the extract from the play you have read. Compare them with those of your groupmates.

2.Act out an episode from the play. Justify your choice of intonation patterns and comment on the behaviour of the characters.

3.How far back can you remember? Describe the most striking events of your childhood.

4.Read the additional texts and say what you think.

a)Every people has a quite definite image of what a child is at birth. Russians, for example, see the newborn as so strong that they swaddle it firmly to protect it from harming itself. The French, in contrast, see the baby as fragile and vulnerable to anything harmful in the environment – and they softly swaddle the infant to keep it quietly safe.

In Bali a baby is not given a human name at birth. Until it seems clear it will live, the Balinese refer to it as a caterpillar or a mouse. At three months, when it is given a name, it becomes a participating human being whose mother, speaking for it, says the words of polite social response. But if the baby dies before this, people reproach it, saying “You didn’t stay long enough. Next time stay and eat rice with us”. For the Balinese believe in reincarnation. They believe the “soul”, without any specific personality, is reborn every fourth generation within the same family.

Margaret Mead

A New Understanding of Childhood

b)Parents today appear to have much uncertainty about their roles as moral guides. Part of this uncertainty is a reaction against the fear techniques that were employed in moral teaching in former generations. Since today’s parent does not wish to teach his child moral attitudes through threats or exaggerated horror or fearful warnings he seems afraid to show any moral reactions to his child as if he might then create excessive guilt feelings in the child. This means that many parents who have firm moral beliefs about lying, stealing, murder and destruction fail to transmit them to their children in a profound and meaningful way. Parents tolerate the moral lapses or even the absence of moral principles in their children way beyond the period when we can expect a child to have incorporated moral values in his own personality.

Selma Freiberg

The Magic Years

c)Every culture, in every time throughout history, has commemorated the transition of a human being from one state in life to another. Birth, the emergence into manhood, graduation from school at various levels, birthdays, marriage, death – each of these outstanding steps is acknowledged by a ceremony of some sort, always public, the guests in effect becoming witnesses to the statement of life’s ongoingness, of the natural order of history. To insure the special significance of the rite of passage, its apartness from any other event of the day, these rituals usually require pageantry, costumed adornment, and are accompanied by gift-bearing and feasting. We wear black to funerals, bring presents to christenings and birthday parties, get loaded at wakes, eat ourselves sick at bar mitzvahs. Birth, marriage, and death, to be sure, are the most elemental and major steps, and as there is only one of those ritual commemorations for which we are actually, fully present, the wedding becomes, for mankind, its most vital rite of passage. And for this reason it is anchored at the very core of civilization.

Marcia Seligson

The Eternal Bliss Macnine: America’s Way of Wedding

5.What problems can arise in a family? How can they be solved?

6.Speak about family customs and traditions (in our country and abroad).