Unit 2
Marrakech
George Owell
Teaching Contents
Ⅰ. Additional background knowledge
Ⅱ. Introduction to the passage
Ⅲ. Detailed study of the text
Ⅰ . Additional Background
Knowledge
1. George Orwell
2. Morocco
3. Marrakech
George Orwell
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George Orwell (pen name)
Eric Arthur Blair (1903 – 1950)
British novelist and essayist,born in India.
Orwell was famous for his political satires.
He was an uncompromising individualist and
political idealist.
• Orwell argued that writers have an
obligation of fighting social injustice,
oppression, and the power of totalitarian
regimes
• Orwell is famous for his terse lucid prose
style and good at the appropriate use of
simple but forceful words to describe
objectively the scenes before his eyes.
His works:
• Animal Farm (1945)
• Down and Out in Paris and London
• Burmese Days
• Coming up for Air
• A Clergyman’s Daughter
• Keep the Aspidistra Flying
His well-known essays:
• Shooting an elephant
• A Hanging
• Marrakech
• Politics and the English Language
Morocco
• In North Africa, on the Mediterranean
Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, Morocco is
the farthest west of all the Arab
countries.
• Location:
• Capital: Rabat
• Population: about 18,000.000
• Brief history: Morocoo was inhabited in
• the stone age by cave dwellers; about
2000B.C. it was settled by Berber tribes,
who had formed the basis of the
population ever since; The Arabs invaded
Morocco in the 7th century,bringing with
Islam; from the end of the 17th century
until the early 19th century Morocco was
almost entirely free from foreign
influence.
But in 1912, a Franco-Spanish agreement
divided Morocco into 4 administrative
zones. Morocco gained independence in
1956 and became a constitutional
monarchy in 1957. Morocco is a member of
the United Nations, the League of Arab
States, and the Organization of African
Unity. most of the people of Morocco are
Muslims,Islamis the state religion and
Arabic is the official language, but French
and Spanish are also spoken.
Marrakech in Morocco
• Location:
• In west central Morocco, at the Northern
foot of the high Atlas. 130 miles south of
Casablanca, the chief seaport.
• It is the principal commercial centers of
Morocco.
• It has extremely hot summers but mild
winters.
• It was captured by the French in 1912.
The city was formerly also called Morocco.
Ⅱ
. Introduction to the Passage
1. Type of literature:
--- a piece of exposition
2. The purpose of a piece of exposition:
--- to inform or explain
3. Ways of developing the thesis of a piece
of exposition:
--- comparison
--- contrast
--- analogy
--- identification
--- illustration
--- analysis, definition, etc.
4. The thesis:
• Orwell denounces the evils of colonialism
or imperialism.
• “ All colonial empires are in reality
founded upon that fact.” (P.3)
• Purposes of colonization
• a) a desire for material gain
• b) desire to spread religion
• c) a desire to expand territory
Ⅲ. Detailed
Study of the Text
▲ organization of the text
▲main idea of each part
▲ questions to discuss
▲ Key words, phrases and difficult
sentences
• Organization of the text:
• Questions to discuss:
1. In order to show the poverty of the
city, the writer chooses some typical
scenes and pictures. What are they?
2.It seems that this essay consists of
several separative pictures, then what
gives the essay coherence?
Part 1: The burial of the poor inhabitants
(Para 1-3)
The idea: Life is cheap. People are so poor
that they can not afford proper burials.
Part 2: An employee’s begging for a piece
of bread (Para 4-7)
The idea: Life is poor. People can’t afford
proper food.
Part 3: Life of the Jews (Para 8-15)
The idea: Jews live in great poverty and
under prejudice.
Part 4: Cultivation of soil (Para 16-18)
The idea: Hard way of making a living.
Part 5: Life of old women (Para 19-21)
The idea: Misery of old women, no better
than a donkey
Part 6: the soldiers (Para 22-26)
The idea: The negro’s attitude towards
the whites
Part 1 (Para1-3): The burial of the poor
inhabitants in Marrakech
▲Para 1:
A dramatic one sentence opening
paragraph. Orwell is the master of a terse
lucid prose style. In this opening sentence
he uses very simple words to describe
objectively the scene before his eyes.
Yet the choice of this scene and the words
he uses implies much more than what
appears on the surface. The people are
very poor so the corpses are wrapped in a
piece of rag and carried on a rough wooden
bier. The cloud of flies flying to the
corpse and then coming back to the
restaurant table shows the unsanitary
conditions of the city. “went past” is more
vivid than “was carried past”
Para 2:
This paragraph tells us how people are
buried in marrakech. It gives a vivid
picture of the poverty of the place. He
does this with a few strokes of his
masterpen—the crows of mourners wailing
a chant, corpses wrapped in a piece of rag,
carried on a rough wooden bier, friends
hacking a shallow hole, dumping the body in
it, flinging some dried-up earth over it, no
grave stone…
Questions to think:
1.Among the mourners—all men and boys, no
women. Why?
2. How is the dead buried ?(use some
adjectives to describe) simply, carelessly,
unceremoniously
Notice Orwell’s choice of words:
• Hack, dump and fling
Para 3:
In this paragraph Orwell exposes the evils
of imperialism(colonialism). He does this in
a cool objective manner and avoids a
preachy and propagandistic style.
Nevertheless the reader can see that
Orwell is outraged at the spectacle of
misery and suffering. This technique is
employed by Orwell throughout the essay.
Question:
In this paragraph there is a sentence
showing the thesis of the essay, what is it?
Sentences to appreciate:
1. …at least twenty thousand own literally
nothing except the rags they stand up in-
• When you see how the people live…
2. Are they really the same flesh as your
self?... Or are they merely a kind of
undifferentiated brown stuff, about as
individual as bees or coral insects?
Rhetorical questions for much strong
effect
flesh: synecdoche
• 3. They rise out of the earth, they sweat
and starve for a few years, and then they
sink back into the nameless mounds of the
graveyard and nobody notices that they
are gone.
• alliteration, showing the monotonous life.
They are born. Then for a few years they
work, toil and starve. Finally they die and
are buried in graves without a name.
• Part 2 (Para 4-7): An Arab navy, an
employee of municipality, begging for a
piece of bread.
• Questions:
1. How do you know the Arab navy was
begging a piece of bread shyly?
2. What’s the function of the last
sentence in paragraph 7?
Words & Expressions:
1.nibble: to eat (food) with quick bites,
taking only a small amount at at time, as a
mouse does.
The fish were nibbling at the bait
2.butt: to strike or push with the head or
horns; ran with the head
3.navvy: (BrE) an unskilled laborer
4.sidle: to move sideways, esp. in a shy,
fearful or stealthily manner
5.stow: to pack or store away, esp. to pack
in an orderly, compact manner
6.municipality: a city, town, etc. having its
own incorporated government 自治市
Part 3 (Para 8-15): The miserable lives of
the Jews in the ghettoes.
Question:
From what aspects does the writer describe
the misery of the Jews?
Para 8: the miserable living condition of the
Jews. (restricted living areas, narrow&
dirty streets, windowless houses, )
• Para 9: poor working condition (dark flyinfested cave-like booths, prehistoric
lathe, traditional way of work)
• Para 10: workers’ pityful but strong desire
for a cigarette.
• Para 11-15: Accusation of Jews.
Words and Expressions
1.ghetto: n. (in certain European cities) a
section to which Jews were formerly
restricted;
2.cluster: to gather or grow in a cluster or
clusters
3.skull-cap: n. a light, closefitting, brimless
cap, usually worn indoors.
4.infest: to overrun or inhabit in large
numbers, usu. so as to be harmful or
bothersome; swarm in or over. Flyinfested
5.warp: to become bent or twisted out of
shape
6.frenzied: adj. full of uncontrolled
excitement
7.clamour: v. n. (to) make a loud confused
noise or shout; cry out
8.self-contained: adj. having within oneself
or itself all that is necessary; selfsufficient, as a community
9.impossible--hard to deal with, sth. That
cannot happen
e.g. It was not an impossible scheme.
His bad temper makes life impossible
for all the family.
He is an impossible person to work with.
10.grope: to feel or search about blindly
e.g. In the darkness, I groped for the door
handle.
The lecturer paused, groping for the
most effective word to express his
meaning.
• Sentences:
1.Sore-eyed children cluster …, like clouds of
flies.
A simile, comparing clusters of children to
clouds of flies. The repeated use of flies
shows the unsanitary conditions and the
prevalence of diseases in colonial countries
2. whichever way you look… a good job
Hitler wasn’t here.
It was lucky for the Jews that Hilter had
not come to this place. If he had, the
Jews would have been exterminated as
they were in Poland and other Europeans
countries.
3.In just the same way, a couple of hundred
years ago, poor old women used to be
burned for witchcraft when they could not
even work enough magic to get themselves
a square meal.(para15)
a square meal: a decent substantial meal
Analogy is used here. It means that these
people’s accusation of the Jews was as
absurd and irrational as the accusation of
the witchcraft.
Part 4 (Para16-18): cultivation of soil—hard
way of making a living
Para 16-17: the invisibility of the people
and their miserable life in colonial
countries
Words & Expressions
conspicuous: adj. attracting attention by
being unexpected, unusual, outstanding
Chances are that : (oral) it is possible
Chances are that he has heard the
news.
ones’ eyes take in: see, look at
I was too busy taking in the beautiful
furniture to notice who was in the room.
Her eyes were taking in nothing but the
expensive hats.
It was amusing to see his surprise as he
took in the new car.
wring: v. to get or extract by force, threats,
persistence, etc; extort
wring money from sb. 勒索某人
back-breaking: requiring great physical
exertion; very tiring; nerve-racking
• Sentences:
1. (Para 16) a white skin is always fairly
conspicuous.
synecdoche: a white-skinned European is
always fairly conspicuous.
2. (Para 17)It is only because of
this…tourist resorts.
“This” here stands for the fact that people
always miss the peasants laboring in the
fields because they have the color of the
earth and are a lot less interesting to look
at.
3. (Para 17) What does Morocco mean to a
Frenchman?... Or to an Englishman?
Question and answer both elliptical. This
paragraph means that this colonial country
arouses people’s interest for various
reasons except true concern for the
people living in poverty
Question:
What kind of people ,according to Orwell,
are partly invisible? Why does he stress
this point? What’s the tone of this two
paragraphs?
• Instead of openly blaming the white
colonialists who don’t pay the least
attention to the people who suffer from
poverty and hunger, he pretends that they
have a sound reason to ignore such people
just because they have the color of the
earth. Orwell is very cleverly revealing the
real inner working of the colonialists’
mentality. The author is extremely bitter
and ironical.
• Para 18: the Primitive way of farming in
marrakech—another picture of poverty
and backwardness of the place
• Question:
How does the writer show the poverty of
this place through the description of the
primitive way of farming?
• Poor resources
• Poor farming tool & traditional way of
ploughing
Difficult sentence:
(Para 18) This is as much as the strength of
the animals is equal to.
The animals yoked to the plough had just
enough strength to plough the soil to a
depth of about four inches.
• Part 5 (Para 19-21):Life of old women
Misery of old women, no better than a donkey
The comparison of fate between the
women and the donkey
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Donkey
no bigger than a St. Bernard dog
Overloaded
A willing creature
When dead, tipped into a
ditch, thrown to dogs
People feel enraged at
Women
tiny, mummified
vast of load of wood
accepted status as a
beast of burden
buried simply, dumped in
into a hole, no name, no graveyard
nobody feels sympathetic
for them, unnoticed
By describing the fate of donkey the
author’s purpose is to arouse the sympathy
and anger of the readers for “people”,
People are also cruelly treated but they
are not noticed, simply invisible
Difficult sentences:
1. (Para 19)All of them are mummified with
age and the sun, and all of them are tiny.
Years of hard work and heat of the sun
have dried up the old women. They look
like mummies.
2.She accepted her status as an old woman,
that is to say as a beast of burden.
She took it for granted that as an old
woman she was the lowest in the
community, she was only fit for doing
heavy work like an animal.
3.(para 20) though they had registered
themselves on my eyeballs I cannot truly
say that I had seen them.
His eyes must have recorded the scene but
he did not consciously observe what was
happening (for he did not see the old
woman carrying the heavy load of firewood)
4.It carries a load which…too much for a
fifteen-hands mule.
fifteen-hands mule: a mule about 60 inches
or f feet high.
5.(para 21) This kind of things makes one’s
blood boil.
metonymy. The cruel treatment of the
donkey makes one very angry.
6.People with brown skin are next door to
invisible.
People with brown skins are almost
invisible.
7.It is generally owing to some kind of
accident…
If people ever notices the old women, it is
a sheer chance
• Some effective words and expressions:
mummify, crept, hobble, reduce to bones,
crushing weight, tip into
Part 6 (Para22-26): the soldiers
The Negroes’ attitude towards the whites
There are some comparisons in this part:
1)between the storks and the Negro
soldiers
the storks are flying in the sky freely
while the Negroes are marching in hot
weather quite uncomfortably
2)between the Negroes and the whites
the whites’ worry Vs the Negroes’
insensitivity
• Words & Expressions
1.reach-me down: adj. colloq. secondhand or ready made
2. reverence: n. feeling or attitude of
deep respect, love and awe, as for sth.
sacred;
3.Squash –vt. 压坏,捏坏，
e.g. She sat on his hat and squashed it.
He squashed the insect with his finger.
This package was squashed in the mail.
• Squash – vi.
e.g. This hat squashes easily.
• e.g. She squashed into the crowded train.
• Squash – vi. vt (使劲)挤
Don’t all try to squash into the lift
together.
He squashed his clothes into a box.
• Squash –vt. (使不说话/谈)
e.g. When I tried to speak, he
squashed me.
He is trying to squash the story of
the defeat.
4.Slump –vi. 沉重地倒下[践踏]
e.g. He slumped in his chair asleep.
Tired from his walk, he slumped into a
chair.
The boy’s feet slumped repeatedly
through the corridor.
• Slump –vi. (质量,价格等)下降, (买卖)清淡起
来
e.g. The company’s shares slumped last
month.
• Slump—n.
e.g. The economy went into a severe slump.
Comment:
Soldiers are to serve the government.
The Senegalese soldiers are supporting the
colonial masters who are cruelly exploiting
the country. It sounds ironical. Yet the
young man, instead of hating the white men,
actually holds a deep respect for them. The
whole situation gives a depressing future of
the country.
Summary:
The text is a piece of objective exposition
of the poverty, misery and degradation of
the inhabitants in Marrakech. The ordinary
local funeral, which treats the dead as
animals, is merely one episode of the
miserable lives of native people. However,
this fact is the basis upon which all the
imperialists build up their empires. The
author illustrates the following facts to
show the plight of the inhabitants.
An Arab navvy, an employee of the
municipality, begs for a piece of bread
which is formerly the food of the gazelles.
In the unsanitary ghettoes which are
crowded with Jews, people overwork in a
wretched situation, but they cannot
possibly afford a piece of cigarette. The
brown laborers working in the barren
fields in a backward way are partly
invisible to the white colonists who are
insensitive to the suffering all around
them. The old women carrying firework
are more invisible for their skinny and
distorted figures. Ironically, oblivious to
the miseries of the human beings, the
white express more sympathy to the
damnable fate of the donkeys. However,
the colonized , such as one of the
Senagalese soldiers, bear blind deep
respect for the white masters. This
provokes the white to reexamine
themselves as well as their ways of
treating the colonized people.
Stylistic features
• Generally speaking, Orwell describes
objectively the suffering and misery of
the colonial people in Marrakech, yet he
manages to show that he is outraged at
the spectacle of misery. He succeeds in
imparting this feeling to his readers:
a) through the clever choice of the scenes
he describes
b) through the appropriate use of words:
concrete
c) through the tone in which he describes
these scenes: objective, matter-of-factly,
yet readers can see his anger beneath.
d) by contrasting the indignation at the cruel
handling of the donkey with the unconcern
towards the fate of the human beings.
e) figures of speech used: simile, metaphor,
parallelism, repetition, rhetorical question,
synecdoche, analogy, transferred-epithet