Lesson 12

The Loons

Margaret Laurence

Teaching Contents
1. Background Knowledge
2. Important Language points
3. Text Analysis
4. Language Appreciation
5. Check on Understanding

1. Background information
1. Loon and Canada

2. Margaret Laurence

3. Manawaka

4. The Loons

5. the Governor General's Award ?

6. study about The Loons ?


1.

loon: distinctive Canadian bird, the

bird of the lakes

one-dollar coin with a loon engraved
on it. So, one dollar is slangily called
a loony.

A. A kind of fish-eating, diving bird in

North American
B. One who is crazy or deranged.
loony: (from lunatic) (person who is)
crazy or eccentric; lunatic

He does have some pretty loony
ideas.


Thinking

why

the author chooses such a title

for her novel?

What

kind of article it is?

2. Margaret Laurence

Margaret Laurence (1926(1926-1987)

One of the great Canadian fiction writers,
best known for her Manawaka novels---The
Stone Angel; A Jest of God; The Fire
Dwellers; The diviners---all are considered
classics of Canadian literature.

Born in Neepawa, Manitoba in 1926,
Educated at the University of Manitoba, died
at Lakefield, Ontario in 1987, raised by her
aunt

moved with her husband to Africa where he
worked as a civil engineer

her early work deals with her travels in
Africa while later works are often set in the
Canadian West

3. Manawaka is a fictional town in the Canadian

province of Manitoba,
frequently used as a setting in novels and short stories
by Margaret Laurence. The town was based on
Laurence's real-life hometown of Neepawa, and
should not be confused with the real-life town of
Maniwaki, Quebec.

Novels:
This Side of Jordan (1960)
The Stone Angel (1964)
A Jest of God (1966) won the Governor
General's Award (), filmed as Rachel,
Rachel (1968)
The Fire Dwellers (1969)
A Bird in the House (1970)
Jason's Quest (1970)
The Diviners (1974) won the Governor
General's Award (), filmed in 1993

Short Stories: The Tomorrow-Tamer (1963)

Essays: Heart of a Stranger (1976)

Travel: The Prophet's Camel Bell
(1963)

Biographies

Margaret Laurence (1981) by Patricia Morley,

Margaret Laurence (1969) by Clara Thomas,
The Manawaka World of Margaret Laurence

(1975) by Clara Thomas

The Loons (1970)

First published in 1970 as one story in a book called A Bird in
the House

1. The Sound of the Singing;

2. To Set Our House in Order;

3. The Mask of the Bear;

4. A Bird in the House;

5. The Loons;

6. Horses of the Night;

7. The Half-Husky;

8. Jericho's Brick Battlements
(narrator: Vanessa MacLeod )

The loons is included in the Norton Anthology of Short Fiction
(1980).



""

,,
,
,
,
,
,

,
,
,

Metis:

18691885

2. Important Language points

Effective Writing Skills:

1. making effective use of specific
words (adjectives and verbs).

2. using many elliptical and short
sentences to achieve certain effect

3. Scenery description as a transitional
device

4. Rhetorical Devices (students job)

3. Text Analysis
Ways of developing a piece of objective
description:


---to begin with a brief general picture,
divide the object into parts and organize the
detailed description in order of space

Organization of the text:

Part I ( Para. 1-2): An introduction to Piquettes

family
Part II (Para. 3-48 2 para.on p.214): Piqette at school and
days on Diamond Lake with the MacLeods
Part III (Para.49-the end): Piquettes adult life and
her suffering / miserable life
nd

1. Vanessas meeting with Piquette again at the age of 17 ( Para.4963 2nd para.on page 217)
2. The death of Piquette (Para.63-71 on page 218)
3. Vanessas coming to the Diamond Lake again and seeing the great
changes and disappearance of loons brought by the modern
civilization made her really understand Piquette.

Life experience
At school, Piquette felt out of place
and ill at ease with the white children.

When she had grown up she didn't
have any chance to improve her life.

In fact her situation became more and
more messed up. In the end she was
killed in a fire.

Can you find any change of Vanessas

feeling for Piquette from the very beginning
to the end of the story?
(At school, the days at Diamond Lake,
their meeting four years later, the time she
heard of Piquettes death from her mother
and she came to the lake again )
indifferent pitiful / curious /mysterious 
tiresome / disliking sympathetic
understanding

3. Text Analysis
Para. 1 ran brown and noisy over

adj. used as adverbials, e.g.

a. Young in years, he is old in experience.
b. He, sad and tired, slept all day.
basis: the basis of sth. is the starting point or an
important part of it from which it can be further
developed.
Chink: n. a very narrow crack or opening in the surface
of sth.
v. when objects chink, or you chink them,
they touch each other.
text: close the narrow openings with mud.

Riel: Canadian insurrectionist (; )

who organized the mtis settlers in a
rebellion over their land rights (1869). After
leading the second uprising in
Saskatchewan (1884-1885), he was
captured and executed by Canadian
authorities.

Lean-to

lean-tos

Lean-to

Lean-to

lean-to

1. a simple outdoor building or shelter

that uses the side of another building as
one of its walls and has a sloping roof:

a lean-to hut

a lean-to greenhouse

2. a simple outdoor shelter that stands alone

and has a sloping roof.
 They keep hens in a lean-to at the end of the

garden.

strand: a single piece or thread

Many strands are twisted together to

form a rope.

barb: the sharp point of a fish hook,

arrow, etc, with a curved shape
which prevents it from being easily
pulled out

barbed wire
 Her

hair got
 all tangled up
 in the barbed
 wire fence.
tangle: (cause

sth to) become

twisted into a confused mass

As the Tonnerre had increased,Krusty tin cans.

Para. 2 belong among

to feel happy and comfortable in a place or

situation, because you have the same
interests and ideas as other people

eg. I felt I did not belong among these

people.

Belong to / belong among

The money does not belong to himHe

borrowed it from a friend

The second generation of immigrants are stiIl

marginalizedbelonging neither among the
white societynor among the Chinese
American community

section hand/gang

Section: a portion of railroad track

maintained by a single crew.

A crew of persons who do the maintenance

work in a railroad section.

1. with a faceunfamiliar with laughter.

who looked deadly serious, never laughed.

bruise: to injure the surface or the outside of
sth so that there is spoilage, abrasion, denting.
E.g. bruised peaches.
Get mixed up: mix it (up) with: to argue or
threaten to fight with someone.
Do not mix it with him; he is mad.
Hit out: hit out at/against: to express strong
disapproval of sth/sb to try to hit sb
, e.g.
He hit out at the governments policy on the
poor.

2. Sometimes old Jules,in a

Saturday-night brawl.

Sometimes old Jules, or his son Lazarus

would get involved in a rough, noisy quarrel
or fight on a Saturday night after much
drinking of liquor.

put/take sb up for the night

The American couple put him up on the

sofa in the living room for the night

fail several grades

fail my father

p.214: to disappoint the hopes or

trust of

His friends failed him when he needed them most.

relief

Youre safe. What a relief!

a drug for the relief of pain

Relief supplies were rushed into the flooded area.

He receives tax relief because he supports his old mother.

In the picture, dark green trees stand out in bold relief against
the white snow.

relief map
relief valve = safety valve

Para. 3.
3. Her attendance schoolwork negligible.

She often missed her classes and had

little interest in schoolwork.

4. She existed for

meembarrassing presence.
I only knew her as a person who would make other people feel ill at
ease.
As far as I am concerned, her presence would only make other
people feel ill at ease / uncomfortable.

Otherwisemiles too long.

5. She dwelt within my scope

of vision.

She lived and moved somewhere within my

range of sight (Although I saw her, I paid
little attention to her.)


peculiar:

peculiar

odd or strange, eccentric,

strange in a troubling or displeasing
way

unusual and strange, sometimes in an
unpleasant way:
a peculiar taste, smell, noise, etc
a peculiar feeling that one has been
here before.
My keys have disappeared; it's most
peculiar!
 He's a bit peculiar!

Para. 4 flare up
flare up: burn suddenly more intensely
The fire flared up as I put more logs on it.
to suddenly become worse, very angry, or violent:

Violence has flared up again in the region



My back trouble has flared up again.

Fighting flared up after a two-week lull ().

like the dickens

like the dickens

like the devil
like the deuce

Where the dickens is it?

?
Who the dickens is this guy?

Para. 6 She took off a few years

back
To suddenly start being successful.
I hear the business is really taking off.
To leave somewhere suddenly without
telling anyone. He just took off with
saying goodbye.

Para. 8 What about

?

What about cycling to the Fragrant Hills?

cross

Adj. angry or annoyed.

 She

gave me a cross look.

Get cross: The teacher will get cross if you

fail again.

I was cross with him for being late.

Para. 11 For Petes sake

A mild exclamation of surprise, annoyance, also for heavens

sake, for gods sake.
for Peters sake: for God's / goodness' / Heaven's / goshs /
pity's, etc. sake: used as an interjection before or after a
command or request, or to express irritation
 For God's sake, stop that whining!
 For goodness' sake! How can you be so stupid?
For Christs sake is rather a strong expression and should be
used with care.

Para. 12. Rigid

rigid: stiff; not bending or yielding; strict;

firm; unchanging
Her face was rigid with terror.
He is a man of very rigid principles
practise rigid economy

KK

vein,

artery,

blood capillary

Para. 14. Win hands down

win

(sth) hands down (ALSO beat sb

hands down)

to win something/beat someone very
easily:

She won the debate hands down.

The last time we played squash he
beat me hands down.

If it comes tonits or not.

If my mother had to make a choice between

Grandmother Macleod and Piquette, she
would certainly choose the latter without
hesitation, no matter whether the latter had
nits or not.

Para. 15. at that

... at that INFORMAL

in addition to that:
It was quite an expensive hotel, and not
particularly comfortable at that.

We might have done still better at that.

It's too expensive, and probably out-of-date at that.

Para. 16. practice

work of a doctor or lawyer :

* a doctor working in general practice, ie as a family
doctor
* She has retired from practice/is no longer in practice.
[].
(b) [C] (place of) business of a doctor or lawyer
; ; :
* a medical/legal practice []
* a group practice, ie a partnership of several doctors

* His practice is in the centre of the city.

.
* She has just bought (into) a very profitable practice.
.

bear
bear our name

bear fruit

bear no expression

bear the streak of amber

Para. 17. You could look out the window

the sun caught it.

meticulously : overcarefully, pay too

much attention to details

finicky:

a meticulous worker, researcher, etc
meticulous painting and free sketch
painting /


Only after a meticulous examination
did he finally conclude the relic was a
genuine.

carefully


Your paper should be based on
careful readings of the original sources.

Para. 22. Unlikely as it may seem:

although it may seem not likely to

happen,...

as near as makes no difference

the wilds: areas that are very far from

towns and cities, where very few people
live

the wilds of Tibet

in the wild: in an area outside a farm or

a ZOO, where animals can live freely
and naturally:


animals that live in the wild (

whippoorwill

coyote

Para. 37. give

give: used in the idiom:

sb. doesn't/couldn't give a damn, a hoot
(cry of an owl), etc (about sb/sth) (infml):

sb does not care at all (about sb/sth)
He couldn't give a damn whether he
passes the exam or not.



I don't give a damn what she does.

Para. 39. Amber with male winged

ant

At night the lakeand flew out onto the dark still

surface of the water.

Para. 47. If you are ill at ease, you feel rather

uncomfortable, worried or anxious.

be ill at ease, ,
to be anxious and not relaxed:
He seemed ill at ease and not his usual self.
He appeared embarrassed and ill at ease with the sustained applause
that greeted him.

I always feel ill at ease in a strange environment.

at (your) ease
relaxed:
He felt completely at ease.
She soon put/set me at ease (= made me relaxed) .
at ease (ALSO standing at ease)
If someone, especially a soldier is at ease, they are standing with their
feet apart and their hands behind their back.
stand at ease []()

Reach
to understand and communicate with
someone:

He's a strange child and his teachers find it
difficult to reach him.

Para. 48. be immersed in

1. to put something completely in a liquid

The shells should be immersed in boiling water for
two minutes.
2. be immersed in/immerse yourself in : to be
completely involved in something:
Grant is completely immersed in his work.

The whole city was immersed in a festival

atmosphere.

be immersed in difficulties
immersion noun [U]

jukebox

jukebox

rainbow glass

Her facewas animated now with a gaiety that was

almost violent.

Her face was made lively and spirited by a

kind of gaiety that was extremely intense
and almost uncontrollable.

carmine, scarlet, cardinal, crimson

to advantage: so as to result in a good

effect; so as to produce a favorable
impression or effect; in a way that shows its
good points or merits ;
; in a flattering
way; favorably();
wishing to be seen to advantage
the dress brought out her figure to advantage.
The painting is seen to better advantage from a
distance.

The roses were displayed to advantage in a blue

feature

[C usually plural] one of the parts of someone's face that

you notice when you look at them:
He has wonderful strong features.
regular (= even and attractive) features
Her eyes are her best feature.

a man with heavy features

pleasing features

Her nose is her worst feature.

heavy

(especially of something unpleasant) of very or

unusually great force, amount or degree:
a heavy blow to the head
heavy fighting
heavy traffic
heavy rain/snow
a heavy smoker/drinker
a heavy sleeper
with a heavy heart feeling very sad
heavy day/schedule/timetable (one that is very
busy and full of activities)
heavy seas sea which is rough with large waves

7. Her defiant face,terrifying

hope.

Normally, she was a defensive person, and

her face was guarded as if it was wearing a
mask. But when she was saying this, there
was an expression of challenge on her face,
which, for a brief moment, became
unguarded and unmasked. And in her eyes
there was a kind of hope which was so
intense that it filled people with terror.

Topics

a. What was her terrifying hope?

b. What were the very things she had been
forced to seek?



any
old
how
:
anyhow (WITHOUT CARE) adverb (INFORMAL any old
how)
without care or interest; in an untidy way:
He looked a complete mess - dressed anyhow with hair
sticking up on end.
anyhowold
1. (in no particular order); ,

2. in any way
e.g.

They have dropped things just any old how.

feel any old how

/

Just pack them any old how.

8. she looked like a messany

old how.

She looked a mess, to tell you the truth; she

was a dirty, untidy woman, dressed in a very
careless way.

Disorderly

1 untidy:
clothes left in a disorderly heap
2 noisy or violent, especially in a public place:
(Law) Disturbing the public peace or decorum.

Jerry was charged with being drunk and disorderly.
disorderliness noun [U]

9. She was upof course.

She was brought in court several times,

because she was drunk and disturbing the
public peace , as one could expect.

Die out

die away
if a sound, wind, or light dies away, it becomes
weaker and stops:
The footsteps died away.
die down
to become less strong or violent:
The wind finally died down this morning.
die out
to disappear completely or no longer exist:
The last wolves in this area died out 100 years
ago.

loons

Piquette

Live in Diamond Lake

Lives in a clearing at the

centre of the thicket
Seldom speak Rarely
respond or went out
Try to change her
situation by marrying a
white man
Cannot escape the white
invaders
died

Sound at night
Ululating & plaintive
sound with a touch of
chilling mockery
Cannot escape the
human invaders
Disappeared

Perhaps they had been unable to find

such a place ...having ceased to care
any longer whether they lived or not.

This obviously is an analogy (), in which

the loons are compared to Piquette, who
had been unable to find a place to live, and
had simply died out, having ceased to care
any longer whether SHE lived or not.

Analogy: The comparison of two things,

which are alike in several respects, for the
purpose of explaining or clarifying some
unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by
showing how the idea or object is similar to
some familiar one.

4. Rhetorical Devices
Hyperbole
Kdresses that were always miles too long.
Kthose voices belonged to a world separated by
aeons
from
our
neat
world

A.Exaggeration
by
using
numerals:
1.
Thanks
a
million.
2. The middle eastern bazaar takes you back
hundreds
even
thousands
of
years.
3. I see the ten thousand villages of Russia where the
means of existence is wrung so hardly from the soil.

B. Exaggeration by using comparative and superlative

degrees of adjectives
1. Sherlock Holmes is considered by many people as
the greatest detective in fictional literature.
2. There was never a child who loved her father more
than I do.
3. I never saw a prettier sight.
4. You write ten times better than any man in the class.
C. Exaggeration by using extravagant adjectives:
1. K where goods of every conceivable kind are sold.
2. The burnished copper containers catches the light
of innumerable lamps and braziers.
3. The apprentices were incredibly young.

D. Exaggeration by using noun or verb phrases:

1. It is a vast cavern of a room, so thick with the dust
of centuries that the mud-brick walls and vaulted roof
are only dimly visible.
2. I am already in debt again, and moving heaven and
earth to save myself from exposure and destruction.

(
3. The sister cried her eyes out at the loss of the
necklace.
4. They beat him into all the colors of rainbow.

5. Her dress was always miles too long.

6. I was scared to death.
7. I sat there for a while, frozen with horror.
8. She was so beautiful--- her beauty made the bright
world dim.



1. Analogy
dresses that were always miles too
long.
those voices belonged to a world
separated by aeons from our neat world
2. Hyperbole
the filigree of the spruce trees
daughter of the forest
I tried another line
3. Metaphor

The two grey squirrels were still there, gossiping

The news that somehow had not found its way into letters.
4. Personification
All around, the spruce trees grew tall and close-set,
branches blackly sharp against the sky which was lightened
by a cold flickering of stars.
I was ashamed, ashamed of my own timidity, the frightened
tendency to look the other way.
My brother, Roderick, who had not been born when we were
here last summer, sat on the car rug in the sunshine and
examined a brown spruce core, meticulously turning it round
and round in his small and curious hands.
and in here eyes there was a terrifying hope.
5. Transferred epithet
Those voices belonged to a world separated by aeons from
our neat world of summer cottages and the lighted lamps of
home. (our modern civilization)
6. Metonymy
the damn bones flared up again
7. Synecdoche



TEXT APPRECIATION
A. Cultural stereotypes:
1.Piquette's speech, mannerisms, where she lives,
how she dies; changing of name of lake -- ethnic
other/loss of identity;
2. Vanessa imposes her own on Piquette, a "noble
savage" in touch with nature; but Piquette "a dead
loss" as an Indian;
3. mother's motivation for Piquette coming that
summer is false; grandmother: stubborn, close-minded,
opposite of father
4. town sees Piquette and family as half breeds;
satisfies expectations when she dies; her family:
outcasts, outsiders, "half-breeds"; drunk, get into
brawls;
5. Piquette's change: chooses another stereotype by
marrying



B. Cultural conflict:
1. issues of belonging: Tonnerres were neither Cree
nor French;
2. Vannessa's discomfort with Piquette; shows how
Piquette cannot belong in this world;
3. symbolism: Piquette/loon metaphor, i.e., parallel of
loons and Piquette; inability to change themselves and
their environment; loons unable to adapt to modern
human invasion; Piquette unable to escape the
cultural stereotypes imposed on her;
4. note race and gender issues, here a deadly
combination: i.e., how Piquette can define her life only
in terms of gender and racial stereotypes laid out for
her; long shadow of colonialism here (as in other work
by Laurence)

C. Parallelism between the loons and Piquette

1. deprived of their habitat/home

2. no sense of belonging

3. neglect and silence

Topics for discussion and reflection

Is the loon a symbol? What does it symbolize,

something or someone?
How is the disappearance of the loons related to the
theme of the story?
What are the different attitudes of Vanessas family
(the white people) towards Piquette (the native
Indians) respectively?
Can you find any change of Vanessas feeling for
Piquette from the very beginning to the end?
There are many natural scenery descriptions in the
text. Why?
Is there prejudice in our society today? Whats your
opinion upon prejudice?



Writing style:
This short story is a realistic depiction which renders an
objective rather than an idealized view of the marginalized
ethnics. Lyricism of language is employed when it comes to the
description of the setting; and colloquialism and idioms are
employed in the dialogues between characters in an attempt to
invite readers to become involved in the inner lives of the
characters
The most prominent feature of this novel is its symbolism,
namely the parallel of the loons and Piquette. Like the loons,
which sing only at night, so does Piquette who hides her
feelings and wishes for from others. And the humans
destroying the loons natural habitat symbolizes the invasion
the white people made on the Indians territory. As the birds
become familiar with a new environment near their invaders
and have the chance to adapt to it, Piquette marries a white
man and has the chance to start a new life. Both the birds
chance and Piquettes attempt fail. Their old way has been
destroyede by the new comers. The loons disappear as nature
is ruined by civilization and Oiquette can not succeeded in
finding her position in this white-dominating society and dies.

5. Check on Understanding

1. who is the author of the text The loons:

A. Margaret Laurence
B. John F. Kennedy
C. George Orwell
D. William James
2. which of the following is the typical rhetorical devices adopted in the text
The loons:
A. exaggeration
B. antithsis
C. symbolism
D. parallelism
3. What is the meaning fo the phrase the dickens in the sentence but I
hate like the dickens to send her home again:
A. devil
B. the Dickens family
C. a group of people
D. the transport
4. Which of the following rhetorical devices is applied in the sentence
meticulously turning it round and round in his small and curious hands:
A. simile
B. transferred epithet
C. personification
D. hyperbole
5 Which of the following is NOT Americal slang:
A. by Jesus
B. You nuts
C. crossly
D. biddy



6. What is the meaning of the phrase some handle in the

sentence Alvin Gerald Cummings--- some handle, eh?:
A. some people can call
B. some special
C. a proper name
D. a nickname
7. Which of the following statements is not TRUE according to
the text The loons:
A. Piquette might have been the only one who had heard the
crying of the loons;
B. The author made an anology
between the loons and Piquette;
C. The loons are symbolic of the indians, driven away or to
death by the Europeans;
D. Unlike Piquette, I had
never heard the crying of the loons.
8. Which of the following is not the character of Piquette:
A. French halfbreed
B. once suffered from the bone
tuberculosis
C. well-educated
D. marginalized