“The American Man”

1. “The American Man” ----by Robert Bly

2. 罗伯特·勃莱(Robert Bly, 1926～) • ，当代美国著名诗人、“新超现实主义诗派”（又称“深度意象诗派”）领袖人物之一。他早年在哈佛大学学习，1958年与詹姆斯·赖特等人创办了旨在反对学院派诗歌的诗刊《五十年代》（后依次改为《六十年代》、《七十年代》、《八十年代》……），成为聚集反学院派诗人的阵地，后来逐渐形成松散型的“新超现实主义诗派”。

3. 罗伯特·勃莱(Robert Bly, 1926～) • 他自五十年代末、六十年代初开始发表诗作，迄今已出版了《雪地里的宁静》(1962)、《身体周围的光》(1967)、《跳出床外》(1972)、《睡者手握着手》(1973)、《牵牛花》(1975)、《这个躯体由樟木和香槐制成》((1977)、《穿黑衣的人转身》(1981)、《从两个世界爱一个女人》(1985)、《在耕耘中找到的苹果》(1989)等多卷，其中《身体周围的光》于1968年获得美国全国图书奖；另外，他著有诗论《谈了一早晨》等多部，译有特拉克尔、里尔克、西门尼斯、聂鲁达以及几位中国古代诗人的作品。目前，他主要靠写作、翻译和朗诵为生。

4. General understanding :Organization of the text • Part 1: Introduction • Part 2: The change of American man • Part 3: The reason for the change • Part 4: Personal experience • Part 5: Concluding remark

5. Details: Features of different types of American men • Old-man-minded farmer • Southern cavalier • Railroad entrepreneur • Settlers of the West • The fifties male • Men of the sixties • Men of the seventies

6. Massachussetts • During the religious upheavals of the 16th century, a body of men and women called Puritans sought to reform the Established Church of England from within. Essentially, they demanded that the rituals and structures associated with Roman Catholicism be replaced by simpler Protestant forms of faith and worship. Their reformist ideas, by destroying the unity of the state church, threatened to divide the people and to undermine royal authority.

7. Massachussetts • In 1607 a small group of Separatists —— a radical sect of Puritans who did not believe the Established Church could ever be reformed —— departed for Leyden, Holland, where the Dutch granted them asylum. However, the Calvinist Dutch restricted them mainly to low-paid laboring jobs. Some members of the congregation grew dissatisfied with this discrimination and resolved to emigrate to the New World.

8. Massachussetts • In 1620, a group of Leyden Puritans secured a land patent from the Virginia Company, and a group of 101 men, women and children set out for Virginia on board the Mayflower. A storm sent them far north and they landed in New England on Cape Cod. Believing themselves outside the jurisdiction of any organized government, the men drafted a formal agreement to abide by "just and equal laws" drafted by leaders of their own choosing. This was the Mayflower Compact.

9. Massachussetts • In December the Mayflower reached Plymouth harbor; the Pilgrims began to build their settlement during the winter. Nearly half the colonists died of exposure and disease, but neighboring Wampanoag Indians provided information that would sustain them: how to grow maize. By the next fall, the Pilgrims had a plentiful crop of corn, and a growing trade based on furs and lumber.

10. Massachussetts • A new wave of immigrants arrived on the shores of Massachusetts Bay in 1630 bearing a grant from King Charles I to establish a colony. Many of them were Puritans whose religious practices were increasingly prohibited in England. Their leader, John Winthrop, openly set out to create a "city upon a hill" in the New World. By this he meant a place where Puritans would live in strict accordance with their religious beliefs.

11. Massachussetts • The Massachusetts Bay Colony was to play a significant role in the development of the entire New England region, in part because Winthrop and his Puritan colleagues were able to bring their charter with them. Thus the authority for the colony's government resided in Massachusetts, not in England.

12. Massachussetts • Under the charter's provisions, power rested with the General Court, which was made up of "freemen" required to be members of the Puritan Church. This guaranteed that the Puritans would be the dominant political as well as religious force in the colony. It was the General Court which elected the governor. For most of the next generation, this would be John Winthrop.

13. Massachussetts • The rigid orthodoxy of the Puritan rule was not to everyone's liking. One of the first to challenge the General Court openly was a young clergyman named Roger Williams, who objected to the colony's seizure of Indian lands and its relations with the Church of England. • Banished from Massachusetts Bay, he purchased land from the Narragansett Indians in what is now Providence, Rhode Island, in 1636. There he set up the first American colony where complete separation of church and state as well as freedom of religion was practiced.

14. Massachussetts • So-called heretics like Williams were not the only ones who left Massachusetts. Orthodox Puritans, seeking better lands and opportunities, soon began leaving Massachusetts Bay Colony. News of the fertility of the Connecticut River Valley, for instance, attracted the interest of farmers having a difficult time with poor land. By the early 1630s, many were ready to brave the danger of Indian attack to obtain level ground and deep, rich soil. These new communities often eliminated church membership as a prerequisite for voting, thereby extending the franchise to ever larger numbers of men.

15. Massachussetts • At the same time, other settlements began cropping up along the New Hampshire and Maine coasts, as more and more immigrants sought the land and liberty the New World seemed to offer.

16. Paras.2: Questions for understanding • What was the first American man like? • Can you tell the history of American man’s change?

17. Paras. 3-6: Questions • What was the features of the Fifties male? • What was lacking in the Fifties male? • What example does the author cite to illustrate that ?

18. El Salvador • “萨尔瓦多式方案”是根据里根政府曾实行过的敢死队战略而命名。 • 上个世纪80年代，在与萨尔瓦多左翼反政府游击队的斗争中，美军一直未能取得突破性进展。当时的里根政府便出资支持萨尔瓦多“民族军”。这支军队旗下一支敢死队，专门用来抓捕或杀害反政府武装领导人及其支持者。萨尔瓦多反政府武装最终被歼灭，美保守派人士认为这是萨尔瓦多敢死队战略大获成功的结果。

19. Paras. 7-8: Questions • What was the change in the sixties? • How did the change begin? • How does the author feel about the change?

20. Paras. 9-11: Questions • What was the Seventies male like? • Why were they unhappy? • What was their weakness?

21. Paras. 12-15: Questions • What role did women play in men’s change? • How do you interpret Line 73? • How does it related to the main idea of this part?

22. Paras.16-19: • When did the author learn the men’s grief? • Why were the younger men grievous? • Were the men able to say what they want? • What metaphor do the sword and the lifting of the sword carry? Does it mean fighting?

23. Para. 20 • What do you infer from the last paragraph?

24. Homework • Read Text 4 twice and think about the organization of the text • Net quiz • Four presentations---Suggested topics --background knowledge for the Civil Rights Movement -- Martin Luther King --Alabama protest --The author