DORIS LESSING & FLIGHT

(1919-2013)

GROUP 6

GROUP 6 MEMBERS:1. VÕ THANH HIỂN

2. LƯƠNG THỊ THU AN

3. NGUYỄN THỊ THU HÀ

4. ĐẶNG PHƯƠNG KHANH

- 1901: Death of Queen Victoria

- 1914-1918: The 1st World War

- 1939-1945: The 2nd World War

- 1956: Suez Canal Crisis: Britain-France vs. Egypt

- 1991: Gulf War

- 1997-2007: Tony Blair – The Rise of New Labor

- 2011: US declared Global War on Terrorism.

- 2007-2010: Gordon Brown replaced Tony Blair.

- 2010-present: David Cameron became Prime

Minister.

I.HISTORICAL BACKGROUND(THE 20TH – 21ST CENTURY)

A.MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE

*Awarded annually to a long novels which was voted best be written in English

*Started in 1969

*Awarded partly in translaton

*£50,000 prize for the winning title

II.MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE & NOBEL PRIZE

B.NOBEL PRIZE

*The prizes are warded annually to an author from any country by the Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel

*Alfred Nobel was born on 21 October 1833 (10 Dec 1896) in Stockholm, Sweden.

Synopsis:

*Was born in Persia (present-day Iran), on October 22, 1919

*Left house and started living her independent life when she was 15

*Married for the first time at the age of 18

*Became the oldest recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007

*Passed away at the age of 94

Writing Career:

*1949 published her first novel “The Grass Is Singing”, began a professional writer

*Got remarkable in science fiction novels—such as the series Canopus in Argos.

*Left a legacy of more than 55 works

*Wrote Alfred and Emily for the last time

III.BIOGRAPHY OF DORIS LESSING

Awards and Honors:

*Somerset Maugham Award (1954)

*France's Prix Médicis (1976).

*Being shortlisted multiple times for the Man Booker Prize.

*In 1999, she was recognized by the British government as a Companion of Honour.

*Most notably, Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007.

IV.FLIGHTA.SUMMARY

In the short story "Flight" by Lessing, it's the story of an old man who raises homing pigeons for a hobby and who constantly worries about his last granddaughter, Alice, leaving and getting married to the postmaster's son, Steven.

The old man is very overprotective and also possessive of his daughter. In a way, the grandfather is also jealous of Alice's fiancé, Steven. The Old man argues with Alice about her behaviour when Steven is with her and he complains to his daughter, Alice's mother, Lucy

DORIS’S POINT OF VIEW IN FLIGHT

enables us to see into the minds of all characters and helps us to understand their feelings and attitudes.

The story is told in an omniscient third person point of view

THE SETTING- TIME AND PLACE

• The place: in South Africa - FRANGIPANI TREE which is repeatedly mentioned throughout the story

• The time: hard to figure out

*The old man is Alice's grandfather. He always feels possessive towards her.

*Alice is the old man's granddaughter. She is a young woman. mostly she has a serious and grown up wish to marry her boyfriend.

*Lucy is the old man's daughter and Alice's mother. She is depicted as a grown up in her appearance her actions). Her husband is absent. She knows that Lucy will marry soon at “and never regret it”. She tries to reassure the old man about Alice.

*Steven is Alice's boyfriend. In the story we see him through the old man's eyes. The old man didn’t like him. He is thoughtful enough to give the old man a present of a pigeon in the end of the story.

CHARACTERS IN FLIGHT

ACCORDING TO YOU, WHO IS THE PROTAGONIST?

B o d y l a n g u a g e - a c t i o n s a n d g e s t u r e s

* Attitudes usually appear in actions “They hung about him, affectionate, concerned. They took

his arms and directed him….enclosing him, petting him...”“wide-eyed” while tears run down Alice’s face

She is also sad at the end of her childhood.

Dia logueA lot of sentences are in the form of conversation

“Hey” - “Waiting for Steven, hey?”and “Think you're old enough to go courting, hey?” (The old man askes Alice)

DORIS LESSING'S TECHNIQUE

Language

Repetition used in the story

Compar isonsAlice's long legs are likened to the frangipani stems -

"shining-brown" and fragrantThe old man's fingers curl like clawsLater Alice and Steven tumble like puppies

SymbolismAlice = the old man’s favorite pigeonPigeon releasing -> shutting it in cage is not right -> the old

man still feels the sadness of his loss.

  reinforce details of the scene (sunlight, the frangipani tree, the

veranda, Lucy's sewing)identify people (“the

postmaster's son” and “his daughter” or the

“woman”).

THEME OF THE STORY

Leaving home and becoming independent are things which most people face sooner or later. Everyone can be alarming, but they are natural and almost inevitable.

Sometimes this kind of story is described in the phrase “rites of passage”.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR WATCHING