The Rite of Spring
Arthur Miller
The Rite of Spring
Unit 3
W arming up
B ackground
T ext Analysis
R einforcement
The Rite of Spring
Unit 3
Questions / Activities
Check-on Preview
Objectives
Warming up
Warming up
Questions / Activities
Will you be a good gardener? A quick quiz!
1. Where is the best location to plant tall or climbing plants?
A. North side of the garden
B. East side of the garden
C. South side of the garden
D. West side of the garden
2. Tomato plants that are “determinate” are more bushy plants, and tomato
plants that are 'indeterminate' are more viny plants
True
False
3. Potatoes are in what family?
A. Carrot Family (Umbelliferae)
C. Pea Family (Leguminosae)
B. Tomato Family (Solanaceae)
D. Morning Glory Family (Convolvulaceae)
4. What is the best level of soil ph for MOST plants?
A. 3.5 - 5.5
B. 5.5 - 7.5
C. 8.0 - 9.0
D. 2.5 - 3.5
Warming up
Questions / Activities
Will you be a good gardener? A quick quiz!
5. Pine needle mulch lowers the ph level of soil while peat moss
raises the ph level.
True
False
6. When a plant has beautiful lush foliage, but almost no fruit, the
plant has an overdose of:
(Ans: One 8-letter word)
7. Tomato leaves that are purple and thin is a pretty good sign that
they are lacking Potassium.
True
False
8. Potato plants want lots of organic matter in the soil for the
potatoes to grow better.
True
False
Warming up
Questions / Activities
Now Check Your Answer!
1. North side of the garden.
When the tall plants are planted on the north side, they don't block the sun
from other smaller plants and also keep down the north winds.
2. True.
If you don't want to stake, you will want determinate. If not, go with
indeterminate.
3. Tomato Family (Solanaceae).
Eggplant, Tomato, Tomatillo, Potato, and Pepper are all in the tomato family.
4. 5.5 - 7.5.
Most plants require ph levels of 6-7, but a few can tolerate 5.5 like corn,
carrots, and potatoes. Others can grow well in soil ph of 7.5 like cabbage and
cauliflower.
Warming up
Questions / Activities
Now Check Your Answer!
5. False.
Pine needle mulch and peat moss are good for alkaline soils because they
lower the ph level.
6. Nitrogen.
Nitrogen will help produce lush foliage, but too much will make the plant
concentrate on the leaves instead of the fruit.
7. False.
They lack phosphorus when the plants look like that.
8. False.
Too much organic matter will cause scabbing on the potatoes.
Warming up
Check-on Preview
See the Preview Quiz on P67-70.
Warming up
Objectives
• Know something about the author
• Understand the genre of essay
• Learn how to interpret and appreciate literary
essay
The Rite of Spring
Author
Background
Genre
Unit 3
Background
Arthur Miller
1915-2005
His Life
A Harlem-born Polish-Jewish
boy
Majored in journalism at
University of Michigan
Wrote first play in 1936
Received BA in English in
1938
Background
His Career
First successful play: All My Sons, 1946
 Huge success: Death of a Salesman, 1949
The Crucible, 1953
About Salem Witchhunt in 1692
HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee), anticommunist McCarthyism
Attended a HUAC hearing in 1956, refusing to give names;
sentenced to a $500 fine or thirty days in prison, blacklisted,
and disallowed a US passport
Conviction overturned in 1958
Return to theatrical success: The Price, 1968
Experimental drama in 1970s, unsuccessful
Kept writing until 2004
Background
His Influence
One of the greatest dramatists of
the twentieth century
Politically engaged, commercially
successful, social plays
Numourous awards and honors:
Three Tony Awards, Pulitzer Prize for
Death of the Salesman in 1949
1965, Elected the first American
president of International Pen
1993, awarded the National Medal of
Arts
 2001, selected for the Jefferson Lecture,
the U.S government's highest honor
for achievement in the humanities
Background
His Works
Death of a Salesman 1949;
1984 movie starring Dustin
Hoffman)
The Crucible, 1953,
1996 movie starring
Daniel Day-Lewis
Background
His Marriage
 Mary Slattery, college
sweetheart, 1940
 Marilyn Monroe, 1956
 Brief affair in 1951
 Accompanied Miller to his 1956
trial
Made The Misfits with Miller as the
scriptwriter
Divorced in 1961
 Inge Morath, 1962
Son Daniel born with Down
Syndrome; institutionalized at Miller’s
insistence
Son-in-law, English actor Daniel
Day-Lewis
Background
Genre
Essay
A
short piece of prose often written from the author’s personal point
of view
 Vague
definition, great variety: literary, political, academic, journalistic,
argumentative, expository, etc.
 Aldous
Huxley: a literary device for saying almost everything about
almost anything
Personal and the
autobiographical: these use "fragments of reflective
autobiography" to "look at the world through the keyhole of anecdote and
description ".
Objective and factual:
in these essays, the authors "do not speak directly
of themselves, but turn their attention outward to some literary or
scientific or political theme".
Abstract-universal: these
essays "make the best ... of all the three
worlds in which it is possible for the essay to exist".
Background

Types of essay
Genre
Literary Essay
Formal & Informal, Impersonal & Familiar
Post-Montaigne,
the essay split into two distinct modalities: one remained
informal, personal, intimate, relaxed, conversational, and often humorous; the
other dogmatic, impersonal, systematic, and expository
 Structure: rather loose, shapeless
Samuel
Johnson: "an irregular, indigested piece, not a regular and orderly
performance."
 Voice: usually “I”
 Reader’s role:
The
reader generally believes what the essayist says is true; he
has been called on to join in the making of meaning
Background
Genre
Literary Essay

Famous essayist
 Michel de Montaigne, first to use the term in Essais, 1580
 Francis Bacon ,
“Of Studies”
 William Hazlitt
 Charles Lamb
 Ralph Waldo
Emerson
Text Analysis

Theme
“The Rite of Spring”
 rite: a solemn
ceremony or act; a set of fixed words or acts
 The
Rite of Spring by Stranvinsky: a sacred pagan ritual where
the wise elders are seated in a circle and are observing the
dance before death of the girl whom they are offering as a
sacrifice to the god of Spring in order to gain his benevolence
 What does “The Rite of spring” refer to
 How
in this text?
is gardening a rite? Does gardening carry any symbolic
meaning?
Is gardening a
celebration of spring?
The Rite of Spring
Unit 3
Theme
Text Analysis
Structure
Detailed
Analysis
Text Analysis

Theme
How do you understand the title “The Rite of Spring”?
 What about
the timing of writing? Does it carry any
significance?
 Does the author
enjoy gardening? Find textual
evidence.
What does the author
What is
say about gardening?
the author’s attitude towards gardening?
Text Analysis

Structure
I. Gardening as a celebration of the coming spring (1-2).
 II. Why
gardening? (3-10)
 Gardening involves conflict and choice-making.

Gardening teaches you about nature.

Gardening is neurotic and moral.

Gardening helps character building.
III. Gardening enables people to stay hopeful for the future.
(11-12)

Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part I: Main Idea
 What

do you know about the facts of the author’s gardening?
Why did they keep the garden?
What do you make of the comparison between root crops
and hot dogs?

Why can’t he resist the temptation to plant despite the
seeming unwillingness? Why “inevitably”?


What do you think is the tone of para. 1?
What
do you think of the last few descriptive sentences in
para. 2?
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part I: Sentence Paraphrase
There is a human instinct at work here, a kind of back-breaking
make-believe that has no reality. (para.1)
Back-breaking: physically hard and tiring
Make-believe: believing in things that you want to believe because
they are easy or exciting, but are not real
At work: (lit.) to be having an effect, usually an obvious or bad effect
Paraphrasing: Perhaps gardening is human nature. We like to
exert ourselves year after year working in the garden, believing
. year’s harvest will be better, just like we can always revive
this
hope after repeated failures.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part I: Sentence Paraphrase
As it is, though, I cannot deny that when April comes I find
myself going out to lean on the fence and look at that
miserable plot of land, resolving with all my rational powers
not to plant it again. (para.2)
Analyze the grammatical structure of the sentence.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part I: Sentence Paraphrase
And the sun means business…(para.2)
Mean business: (infml) to want very much to achieve
something, even if other people disagree with you; be serious
about sth. you have to do
Paraphrasing: The sun shines more brightly and it’s
getting warmer.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part I: Words & Expressions
Words
patch/plot; relatively; back-breaking; makebelieve; waft; worm
Phrases
a bunch of; tell apart (from); at work; mean
business; as it is/ though
Sentence
Pattern
Grammar
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part I: Exercise
1. A bunch of ______/______/_____/_____/…
2. ______/______/_____/_____ … one’s way
3. 尽管意识形态上仍有不同，近年来两国间的合
作不断加强。
4. 他这次似乎是认真的，还制定了一个详细的五
年计划。
5. 一个难民小心地、慢慢地从铁丝网的下面钻了
过去。
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part I: Keys to Exercise
1. A bunch of people/flowers/vegetables/fruits/keys, etc.
2. work/make/shoulder/inch/bow/beg, etc. one’s way
3. 尽管意识形态上仍有不同，近年来两国间的合作不断加强。
Despite the ideological differences at work, the two countries
have strengthened their cooperation in recent years.
4. 他这次似乎是认真的，还制定了一个详细的五年计划。
He seems to mean business this time; he has even made a
detailed five-year plan.
5. 一个难民小心地、慢慢地从铁丝网的下面钻了过去。
A refugee carefully wormed his/her way through under the
wire fence.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part II: Main Idea
 What does
the author mean by saying that “conflict” sends him back
to garden?
 What’s
the difference between black plastic and hay mulch? Why
does such difference matter? What does this say about gardening?
Why does the author use fertilizers sparingly? Why does he say “I’m
not sure”?

 How do
you understand his claim that gardening is “neurotic” and
“moral”? Do you agree?
 What do
you make of the parent-children metaphor in para. 6?
 What do you
think of the mother-in-law story? Why such a story?
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part II: Main Idea
Why
does the author say “I garden because I must”?
 How do you understand “A garden is an extension of oneself”?

Where did gardening get Adam? What does this indicate?
What is the general tone in this part? Does Arthur Miller love
gardening or not?

Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part II: Sentence Paraphrase
I’m not sure why I do this beyond the saving in
fertilizer and my unwillingness to aid the weeds.
(para.5)
Beyond: except (in negative sentences)
Eg. He has no idea of the current situation beyond what little
he is told.
Paraphrase: I don’t know why I only use very little
fertilizer; maybe I don’t want to spend too much on
fertilizer, or maybe I don’t want the weeds to thrive
on fertilizer. But certainly there are more reasons.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part II: Sentence Paraphrase
She is an outspoken, truthful woman, or she was
until she learned better. (para.8)
Learn better: learn that it is not wise or moral to do sth.
Cf. know better (than to do sth.): to be wise or moral enough
not to do sth.
Paraphrasing: She used to be a woman who spoke
her mind and who was always straightforward in her
.
speech,
but now she has learned from experiences
that it is not wise to do so.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part II: Sentence Paraphrase
In some pocket of the mind there might even be the
tendency to change this vision into a personal assurance
that all this healthy growth, this orderliness and thrusting
life must somehow reflect movements in one’s own spirit.
(para.9)
Paraphrasing: In some small corner of the mind, I am even
inclined to believe that such beautiful view of the garden can be
transformed into a spiritual certainty; I feel certain that just like
this well-organized and arranged garden and the life and vitality
of everything growing in it, my spirit is equally active as well as
in order.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part II: Sentence Paraphrase
A garden in an extension of oneself – or selves –
and so it has to be an arena where striving does
not cease, but continues by other means. (para.
10)
Paraphrasing: A garden is like your second self, or a
projection of yourself in nature; whatever you do in real
life continues in your garden. So a garden must be a state
.where your effort for achievements never stops, but
carries on in different ways.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part II: Words & Expressions
Words
weed-free; broadcast; beyond; neurotic; thin (v.;
unthinned); pocket; glisten/glitter; shade/color
Phrases
go for; come into play; turn upon; cast
aside/away; as it were; learn better; stand on
one’s dignity
Sentence
Pattern
.
Grammar
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part II: Exercise
•
1.
All that ________ is not gold.
2.
The grass _________ in the early morning dew.
3.
Shakespeare’s literary legacy is ________ compare.
4.
She dyed her hair a very unusual ________ of red.
5.
任何适用于本地学生的校规也适用于留学生。
6.
在朝鲜发射导弹问题上有多方力量参与。
7.
他们是最好的朋友，却在利益面前像死敌一样互相攻击。
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part II: Exercise
1.
All that glitters is not gold.
2.
The grass glistened in the early morning dew.
3.
Shakespeare’s literary legacy is beyond compare.
4.
She dyed her hair a very unusual shade of red.
5.
All school rules for local students also go for overseas
students.
6.
Many forces came into play on the issue of North Korea’s
missile launch.
7.
They were best friends, but turned upon each other like
deadly foes for profit.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part III: Main Idea
According to the author, why is gardener a proper
occupation for the father of mankind? What do you
think?

Do you agree that mankind is a creature of selfdelusion? Why do you think Arthur Miller say this?
What does “self-delusion” actually mean here?

Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part III: Sentence Paraphrase
Only the gardener is capable of reviving so much
hope that this year, regardless of drought, flood,
typhoon, or his own stupidity, this year he is
going to do it right! (para.11)
Paraphrasing: Only the gardener can become hopeful
after repeated failures and believe that this year he is
going to have a good harvest, even though there might
be disasters like drought, flood, typhoon, and even
though he himself is foolish.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part III: Sentence Paraphrase
Leave it to God to have picked the proper
occupation for the only creature capable of such
self-delusion. (para. 11)
Leave it to sb. to do sth.: to allow someone to make a
choice or decision about something, or to make someone
responsible for something
Paraphrasing: God has done His job properly and chosen
the right occupation for mankind, because only man can
“deceive” themselves willingly, only man can regain hope
after repeated failures, believing in new and better
possibilities.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part III: Words & Expressions
Words
Phrases
Sentence
Pattern
Grammar
be capable of ; revive hope; self-delusion; for
honesty’s sake;
Leave it to sb. to do sth.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part III: Exercise
管理层决定把这个合同交给约翰去谈，因为他
们知道他绝不会打没有准备的战。

The
management decided to leave it to John to
negotiate for the contract, as they knew he would
never leave it to chance.
The Rite of Spring
Unit 3
Discussion
Reinforcement
Retelling
Reinforcement

Discussion
Summarize what Miller says about gardening .
Compare what he says with the metaphors of
gardening in “Mandela’s Garden”. What are the
differences and similarities?

Have you ever had any experience in gardening? What
do you think of gardening?

Do you think what Miller says
still holds in the
contemporary world?
Now what do you think of Miller’s attitude towards
gardening? What do you think of the way he expresses
himself?

Reinforcement
Discussion
Irony

Definition:
the
surface meaning and the underlying meaning of
what is said are not the same
Irony
Types
consists in stating the contrary of what is meant
of irony
 Verbal
irony is a disparity of expression and intention
 Dramatic
irony is a disparity of awareness between
actor and observer
 Situational
result
irony is the disparity of intention and
Reinforcement
Discussion
Irony
Can you find where the irony is in “The Rite of
Spring”?


Title

Time of writing

Verbal irony
Reinforcement

Further Reading
“Of Gardens”, by Francis Bacon