(Hearing the footsteps, the narrator quickly went to the door to stop Donovan from coming in. He knew the officer might be bearing the bad news, and blocked the entrance. Unconsciously, he stood on the side of the English, and acted as if he were their protector.)
(3) …she didn't stop advising them until Jeremiah Donovan lost his temper and turned on her. He had a nasty temper, I noticed.
(Donovan had a bad temper that day. Why? The bad temper might be caused by the nasty job ahead of executing the two English youngsters. This probably had very much saddened him.)
(4) Belcher sounded as though whatever unforeseen thing he'd always been waiting for had come at last.
(Belcher was a person with few words, but he was observing and thinking all the time. He seemed to know and anticipate that something bad might happen to them.)
(5) Noble, just as if he couldn't bear any more of it, raised his fist at Donovan, and in a flash Donovan raised his gun and fired.
(Raising his fist is a signal. The unspoken words might sound like this: ―Why don’t you shoot?!‖ Noble noticed that Donovan was suffering from intense mental pain by talking and talking, and he wanted Donovan to end that pain immediately.)
(6) "What did ye do with them?" she asked in a whisper, and Noble started so that the match went out in his hand.
(The old lady had only whispered the question, but it so frightened noble that the match went out in his hand. Noble must have had a terrible sense of guilt and felt as if he himself had killed his ―guests‖ and had done something enormously wrong. )
英语短篇小说教程 虞建华 高等教育出版社 课后答案
Unit Ten
Jack London: The Law of Life
2) Questions for Discussion:
(Suggested answers for reference)
(1) What do you think of the Indian tradition of abandoning their sickly elders? Was it the writer’s intention to reveal and condemn the inhumane and inhuman practice?
(From our perspective, such practice is of course cruel and inhuman, but the writer’s central concern is to provide an illustration and to explain one idea: that human beings are ―determined‖ by ―the law of nature‖ – the larger forces of the universe as well as their own biological nature. The idea expressed in the short story is typical in naturalistic literature.)
(2) What has the setting to do with the theme of the short story?
(Naturalist writers have special preference to certain settings that can provide ―laboratory conditions,‖ so that the stories can convey their understanding of the relationship of man and the natural or social forces. The arctic region within which the story of ―The Law of Life‖ occurs, intensifies the human struggle with the Nature, and thus is ideal in bringing out the basic conception of Naturalism in literature.)
(3) What is ―the law of life‖? Can you underline some of the words in the story that explain what the ―law‖ is?
The ideas about ―the law of life‖ is mostly expressed in the reflection of Old Koskoosh:
1. He did not complain. It was the way of life, and it was just. He had been born close to the earth, close to the earth had he lived, and the law thereof was not new to him. It was the law of all flesh. Nature was not kindly to the flesh. She had no concern for that concrete thing called the individual. Her interest lay in the species, the race. (lines 68-72)
2. The rise of the sap, the bursting greenness of the willow bud, the fall of the yellow leaf—in this alone was told the whole history. But one task did nature set the individual. Did he not perform it, he died. Did he perform it, it was all the same, he died. Nature did not care… . (lines 73-78)
3. Therefore it was true that the tribe lived, that it stood for the obedience of all its members, way down into the forgotten past, whose very resting places were unremembered. They did not
英语短篇小说教程 虞建华 高等教育出版社 课后答案
count; they were episodes. They had passed away like clouds from a summer sky. He also was an episode, and would pass away. (lines 80-83)
4. Nature did not care. To life she set one task, gave one law. To perpetuate was the task of life, its law was death. (lines 83-85)
5. (Determined to give up his cling to life) Koskoosh dropped his head wearily upon his knees. What did it matter after all? Was it not the law of life? (202-203)
(4) On what basis can we categorize this short story as a piece of Naturalistic writing?
1. The setting highlights the conflict between man and Nature.
2. The natural force seems to be overwhelming while the human efforts are rather futile. Man can only adapt to Nature rather than change it.
3. The story reveals the pessimistic attitude on the part of the writer.
4. There is a prevailing sense of determinism and amoralism.
3) Explanation and interpretation:
(Explain the implied meaning of the following sentences, and point out their significance in the context of the story.)