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语思(2017
年3
月刊）
Literatureof
MyHeart
目录Catalogue
【己见珠玑】Rethinking the American Dream 1
【东说西话】春 Spring 8
【他山之石】瓦尔登湖 Walden 10
己见珠玑
1
12级英语系 汪 颖 Amanda
“On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness
and the gift of privacy. It is this largess that accounts for the presence within the city's walls of
a considerable section of the population; for the residents of Manhattan are to a large extent
strangers who have pulled up stakes somewhere and come to town, seeking sanctuary or
fulfillment or some greater or lesser grail. The capacity to make such dubious gifts is a
mysterious quality of New York. It can destroy an individual, or it can fulfill him,
depending a good deal on luck. No one should come to New York to live unless he is
willing to be lucky.”
--E. B. White, Here is New York
What is America? This is the very
question that every immigrant would
ponder when they set their first step on
this wild, mysterious land of the United
States. For some, it meant coming to
American penniless, yet winding up sitting
in the skyscraper in Upper East Side,
making billions of dollars like George
Soros. Stories like that abound, even
though they are less prevalent today than
in the past. For others, the American
dream echoes with the words on the Statue
己见珠玑
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of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free.” Those words summarize the allure
of American freedom and deliverance
from discrimination and oppression. They
represent the sacred freedom from a life of
servitude and fear, especially to those
immigrants who just escaped from brutal
dictatorships. Immigrants keep flooding
into this sacred land of freedom, like Amir
and his father from Afghanistan in e
ultimate charm of the idea of American
life strikes great contrast with the life they
used to live: they could „make it‟ by hard
working, they could share political
opinions freely…it injects people with
motivation to keep on adopting oneself
into the American idea, whether in
democratic idea or personal issues, even if
something, deep down somewhere starts to
blur. The ornate, opulent bubbles of
American dream become a giant piece of
golden magnet, glowing and glittering, no
one could ever resist its attraction. Is it a
quote?
American Dream, this single phrase
lingers around every American‟s ear, like a
surge of overwhelming patriotism rooted
in each person breathing in this nation,
regardless of their own identities as
African-Americans or Asian-Americans.
Ask any pedestrian rushing on the Fifth
Avenue and he would answer with an
absolute confidence that the most
ambitious dream could only be achieved
here and only in America. When being
asked about dream of the life, any kid of
an American family, even when he is very
young, would immediately respond “I
want to be the President of the United
States!” You could be flooded with
criticism and scolding if you ever tried to
break it into these naïve kids that the
dream is actually far away from being
realized someday.
It seems Americans are unique in
having such a thing, a more or less Official
National Dream. (There is no
correspondingly stirring Canadian Dream
or Slovakian Dream.) “It is part of
American‟s character—as articulated in
the second sentence of the Declaration of
Independence, in the famous bit about
“certain unalienable Rights” that include
“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness”—and it is what makes our
country and our way of life attractive and
magnetic to people in other lands.” (Vanity
Fair, 2009) But does American Dream still
exist, or has it already deteriorated into
己见珠玑
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American Nightmare?
In recent decades, the term has often
been interpreted to mean “making it big”
or “striking it rich.” Even if the phrase
isn‟t being used to describe the
accumulation of great wealth and fortune,
it‟s frequently deployed to denote extreme
success of some kind or other. If you go
surfing on the Internet, you can even find
commentators declaring that “Barack
Obama achieved the American Dream by
getting elected president”, and that
“Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie
Manuel achieved the American Dream by
leading his team to its first World Series
title since 1980.” Nevertheless, American
Dream has suffered from several tough
times, during which the safe routines of
lives have fallen into pieces. So has the
characteristic optimism, the belief that the
future is full of limitless possibility, the
faith that things will eventually be in exact
positions, which they were in before the
recession hit. There is even some worry
that the dream may be over—that
currently living Americans are the
unfortunate generation who shall bear
witness to that deflating moment in history
when the promise of this country began to
wither. This is the “sapping of confidence”
that President Obama alluded to in his
inaugural address, the “nagging fear that
America‟s decline is inevitable, and that
the next generation must lower its sights.”
Looking back into the history,
literatures and drama plays suggest that we
are certainly not the first generation to
pondering upon this question. Early in
1920s, the time Fitzgerald‟s novel, The
Great Gatsby came out, he had already
given a vivid depiction that era, which he
dubbed “the Jazz Age”, a time when all
gods had been declared dead, all wars
were fought, and all faiths in men had
been shaken. Despite the glittering
appearances and material ostentation, the
word “Great” still seems extremely ironic
the moment Gatsby‟s funeral was only
attended by two people: even Daisy didn‟t
care to show up. In the last paragraph, Fitz
wrote, ““Gatsby believed in the green
light, the orgiastic future that year by year
recedes before us. It eluded us then, but
己见珠玑
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that‟s no matter—tomorrow we will run
faster, stretch out our arms farther…and
one fine morning---so we beat on, boats
against the current, borne back ceaselessly
into the past.” This ghostly haunting
green light, represents the twisted love
Gatsby holds for Daisy, and also the
failure of the American dream. These
words conclude the novel by returning to
the theme of the significance of the past to
dreams of the future. He focuses on the
struggle of human beings to achieve their
goals by both transcending and re-creating
the past. Yet humans prove themselves
unable to move beyond the past: in the
metaphoric language used here, the current
draws them backward as they row forward
toward the green light. While they never
lose theirs, they expend all of their energy
in pursuit of a goal that moves ever farther
away. This apt metaphor characterizes
both Gatsby‟s struggle and the American
dream itself. As Goethe says, "A confusion
of the real with the ideal never goes
unpunished." Gatsby trades his life with an
unattainable goal, ends up with a pathetic
funeral which is only attended by two
people. The end of the novel shows one
can't go back and rewrite history, a
contradiction to Gatsby's belief, a
contradiction like saying that Gatsby didn't
pay too high a price for his dream when in
actuality he did. Patterns arise later on in
life and it is impossible to manipulate
them for the benefit of changing the past
because, time changes all.
Adams, the author of The Epic of
America, describes the crux of American
Dream as following: “that life in the
United States offered personal liberties
and opportunities to a degree unmatched
by any other country in history—a
circumstance that remains true today,
some ill-considered clampdowns in the
name of Homeland Security
notwithstanding. This invigorating sense
of possibility, though it is too often taken
for granted, is the great gift of
己见珠玑
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Americans.”
However, he was also extremely
careful with the use of words in case he
would overstate the power of the dream. In
one of his final iterations of the “American
Dream” trope, he described it as “that
dream of a land in which life should be
better and richer and fuller for every man,
with opportunity for each according to his
ability or achievement.” The last term,
“according to his ability or
achievement”—is the subtle bait, a shrewd
bit of expectations management. A “better
and richer life” is promised, but for most
people this won‟t be a rich person‟s life.
“Opportunity for each” is promised, but
within the bounds of each person‟s ability;
the reality is, some people will realize the
American Dream more stupendously and
significantly than others. Nevertheless, the
American Dream is within reach for all
those who aspire to it and are willing to
put in the hours; Adams was articulating it
as an attainable outcome, not as a pipe
dream. The crucial reason for American
Dream to collapse, despite all these
inspiring words you would frequently hear
from TV shows or read from the
newspaper, is that a large group of beaten
people, who marched on their career with
full but blind ambition, gradually and
inevitably, lose faith in it.
The American Dream is now almost
unattainable by its definition, a constantly
moving target that eluded people‟s grasp;
nothing was ever enough. It compelled
Americans to set unavailable goals or even
illusion for themselves (like Gatsby‟s
attempt to dial back the time), and then
consider themselves as failures when these
goals, inevitably, went in vain. And what
about the outmoded proposition that each
successive generation in the United States
must live better than the one that preceded
it? While this idea is still crucial to
families struggling in poverty and to
immigrants who‟ve arrived here in search
of a better life than that they left behind,
it‟s no longer applicable to an American
middle class that lives more comfortably
than any version that came before it. In
examining why people were thinking this
way, Easterbrook raised an important point.
“For at least a century,” he wrote,
“Western life has been dominated by a
revolution of rising expectations: Each
generation expected more than its
antecedent. Now most Americans and
Europeans already have what they need, in
addition to considerable piles of stuff they
己见珠玑
6
don‟t need.”
But still, the American Dream is
now far away from being degenerated into
a haunting nightmare, nor is it an
unrealistic fantasy. There is no need of any
generation to “lower its sights,” to use
President Obama‟s words, and no denial
that some children of lower- and
middle-class parents could, through talent
and/or good fortune, strike it rich and
bound precipitously into the upper class.
But it does provide lectures in self-control
and self-evaluation. Above all, the
American Dream should be “embraced as
the unique sense of possibility that this
country gives its citizens—the decent
chance”, in Moss Hart‟s words, “to scale
the walls and achieve what you wish.”
Reference
1. David Kamp, THE WAY WE
WERE—The American Dream, Vanity Fair,
April 04
2. Moss Hart, Act One, An Autobiography.
New York: St. Martin's Press. 1989
3. E. B. White, Here is New York, Yiwen
Press, 1977
4. James Truslow Adams, the Epic of
America, Simon Publications, 2001
5. Barack Obama, President Barack
Obama's Inaugural Address, the White
House, 2009
6. Sklar, Robert. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The
Last Laocoon. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1967.
7. Spindler, Michael. American Literature
and Social Change. Bloomington: Indiana
UP, 1983.
8. Trilling, Lionel. "F. Scott Fitzgerald."
Critical Essays on Scott Fitzgerald's
"Great Gatsby." Ed. Scott Donaldson.
Boston: Hall, 1984. 13-20.
9.Magill, Frank N. "Fitzgerald, F. Scott."
Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Ed.
Frank
10. N. Magill. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Salem Press, 1983. 953-967
己见珠玑
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Comments from the teacher:
The American Dream is a dream that has played the role of self-motivation for thousands of
people coming to the country from all over the world. In this sense, it inspires, encourages
and helps people to achieve whatever it is embedded in their mind. The American Dream is a
dream that has mutated to become a demand on everyone in the country, a demand that
defines you how to be an American. In this sense, it not only asks you but also presses you to
achieve this dream no matter who you are, where you are and what you do. As a result, more
often than not, it changes to be a nightmare, in which many Americans were and have been
and will be snared. These two parts of the so-called American Dream has already turned out
to be an inescapable element of the lifestyle for Americans, which find a way to roll into
novels, poems and plays at different stages. The essay discerns this point, making a wonderful
case for the effort to delimit the special quality of the Dream with both literary evidences and
social facts.
Questions for you to consider:
1. For those who lost faith in American Dream, have they awakened from the dream?
2. How is this issue dealt with in contemporary American literature such as The Kite
Runner?
东说西话
8
Spring (Excerpt)By James J. Kilpatrick
prings are not always the same. In some
years, April bursts upon our Virginia hills in one
prodigious leap --and all the stage in filled at once,
whole choruses of tulips, arabesques of forsythia,
cadenzas of flowering plum. The trees grow leaves
overnight.
In other years, spring tiptoes in. It pauses,
overcome by shyness, like my grandchild at the
door, peeping in, ducking out of sight, giggling in
the hallway. "I know you're out there," I cry.
"Come in!" And April slips into our arms.
The dogwood bud, pale green, is inlaid with
russet markings. Within the perfect cup a score of
clustered seeds are nestled. One examines the bud
in awe: Where were those seeds a month ago? The
apples display their milliner's scraps of ivory silk,
rose-tinged. All the sleeping things wake
up--primrose, baby iris, blue phlox. The earth
warms--you can smell it, feel it, crumble April in
春（节选）
宋德利 译
春天并非总是一模一样。四月，有时不知
怎地一跃，就来到了弗吉尼亚的山坡上――自
然的大舞台上转眼到处生机勃勃。郁金香组成
了大合唱，连翘展示出优美的舞姿，洋李奏起
了华彩乐段。一夜之间，林木着装，绿叶瑟瑟。
四月有时又蹑手蹑脚，像我的小孙女一样，
羞羞答答地倚在门外，向里探探头，一闪又不
见了，只是在门厅里咯咯地笑。“我知道你就
在那儿藏着呢。”我喊道。“进来！”春天这
才悄然跑进了我的怀抱。
山茱萸的蓓蕾，淡绿清雅，表面点缀着褐色斑
痕，活像一只完美无缺的小杯，一撮撮种子，
半隐半现地藏在里面。我敬畏地观察这些蓓蕾，
暗自发问：一个月之前，这些种子在什么地方
呢？苹果花开，展示出一片片染了玫瑰红的象
牙色薄绸。一切冬眠的东西都在苏醒――美丽
的樱草花，纤细的蝴蝶花，还有蓝色的草夹竹
桃。大地开始变暖――这，你既可以嗅到，也
可以触到――抓起一把泥土，四月 便揉碎在你
的手心里了。
S
东说西话
9
your hands.
The dark Blue Ridge Mountains in which I
dwell, great-hipped, big-breasted, slumber on the
western sky. And then they stretch and gradually
awaken. A warm wind, soft as a girl's hair, moves
sailboat clouds in gentle skies. The rains come--
good rains to sleep by--and fields that were dun as
oatmeal turn to pale green, then to kelly green.
黛色的蓝岭山，那是我居住的地方，它像臀丰乳高的女郎，依然安睡在浩瀚的天幕之下。
后来，她终于伸腰舒臂，慢慢醒来。一阵阵和煦的风，像少女的柔发，将帆船似的云朵吹送到温和的
天空。下雨了——催人入睡的喜雨—像燕麦片粥一样的微暗的原野，起初淡绿素雅，继而翠绿欲滴。
他山之石
10
Excerpt from Chapter 6: Visitors （Walden）
Henry David Thoreau
He interestedme because he
was so quiet and solitary and so
happy withal; a well of good
humor and contentment which
overflowed at his eyes. His mirth
was without alloy. Sometimes I
sawhimathisworkinthewoods,
felling trees, and he would greet
me with a laugh of inexpressible
satisfaction, and a salutation in
CanadianFrench,thoughhespoke
English as well. When I
approachedhimhewouldsuspend
his work, and with
half-suppressed mirth lie along
the trunk of a pinewhich he had
felled, and, peeling off the inner
bark,rollitupintoaballandchew
it while he laughed and talked.
Such an exuberance of animal
spirits had he that he sometimes
tumbled down and rolled on the
ground with laughter at anything
whichmadehimthinkandtickled
him.Lookingrounduponthetrees
hewould exclaim— "By George!
I can enjoy myself well enough
here chopping; I want no better
sport."Sometimes,whenatleisure,
he amused himself all day in the
他山之石
11
woodswith a pocket pistol, firing
salutes to himself at regular
intervals as he walked. In the
winter he had a fire by which at
noon he warmed his coffee in a
kettle;andashesatonalogtoeat
his dinner the chickadees would
sometimescomeroundandalight
onhisarmandpeckatthepotato
inhis fingers; andhe said thathe
"liked to have the little fellers
abouthim."
In him the animal man
chieflywasdeveloped. Inphysical
endurance and contentment he
was cousin to the pine and the
rock. I asked him once if he was
notsometimestiredatnight,after
workingallday;andheanswered,
with a sincere and serious look,
"Gorrappit,Ineverwastiredinmy
life."But the intellectualandwhat
iscalledspiritualmaninhimwere
slumberingasinaninfant.Hehad
been instructed only in that
innocent and ineffectual way in
which the Catholic priests teach
theaborigines,bywhichthepupil
isnevereducatedtothedegreeof
consciousness, but only to the
degreeoftrustandreverence,and
achildisnotmadeaman,butkept
a child. When Nature made him,
she gave him a strong body and
contentment for his portion, and
propped him on every side with
reverence and reliance, that he
mightliveouthisthreescoreyears
andtenachild.Hewassogenuine
and unsophisticated that no
introduction would serve to
introduce him, more than if you
introduced a woodchuck to your
neighbor. He had got to find him
outasyoudid.Hewouldnotplay
anypart.Menpaidhimwages for
work, and so helped to feed and
clothe him; but he never
exchangedopinionswiththem.He
was so simply and naturally
humble — if he can be called
humble who never aspires —
that humility was no distinct
quality in him, nor could he
conceive of it. Wiser men were
demigods to him. If you told him
thatsuchaonewascoming,hedid
as if he thought that anything so
grand would expect nothing of
himself, but take all the
responsibilityonitself,andlethim
be forgotten still. He never heard
the sound of praise. He
particularly reverenced thewriter
and the preacher. Their
performances were miracles.
When I told him that I wrote
considerably,hethoughtforalong
time that it was merely the
handwritingwhichImeant,forhe
could write a remarkably good
hand himself. I sometimes found
the name of his native parish
handsomely written in the snow
by the highway, with the proper
French accent, and knew that he
hadpassed. Iaskedhimifheever
他山之石
12
wished to write his thoughts. He
said thathehad readandwritten
letters for those who could not,
but he never tried to write
thoughts— no, he could not, he
could not tell what to put first, it
wouldkillhim,andthentherewas
spelling to be attended to at the
same time!
I heard that a distinguished
wisemanandreformeraskedhim
ifhedidnotwanttheworldtobe
changed; but he answered with a
chuckleofsurpriseinhisCanadian
accent, not knowing that the
question had ever been
entertained before, "No, I like it
well enough." It would have
suggested many things to a
philosopher tohavedealingswith
him.Toastrangerheappearedto
knownothingofthingsingeneral;
yetIsometimessawinhimaman
whomIhadnotseenbefore,andI
did not know whether he was as
wiseasShakespeareorassimply
ignorant as a child, whether to
suspect him of a fine poetic
consciousness or of stupidity. A
townsman told me that when he
met him sauntering through the
villageinhissmallclose-fittingcap,
and whistling to himself, he
reminded him of a prince in
disguise.
赏析：全篇着眼于一个“农夫”，
他安居于瓦尔登湖一隅，悠然自得，
自给自足，尽享田园之趣。不为外
物所累，眼中只有乡间简单的一草
一木。作者用了不少笔墨描绘其神
态和动作，使一个纯真自然的“农
夫”形象跃然于纸上。既传达出农
夫在乡间生活的自得之感，亦能体
现作者本人对乡野生活的热爱之
心。
