1、A Mild Attack of Locusts,Doris Lessing,The Structure of the Text,Part 1: The life before the coming of locusts. Part 2: The coming of locusts and the fight against them. Part 3: The fight over, peoples responses to the disaster, and their attitude to life.,Para 1: A bumper harvest was in sight and f
2、armers lived a comfortable life. Para 2: Introduction of the farm and different responses to the coming of locusts. Para 3: The coming of locusts.,Part 1: Para.13: The life before the coming of locusts.,Part 2: Para.419: The coming of locusts and the fight against them.,Para 4: Margaret and the serv
3、ants went out to watch locusts. Para 5: Her husband and her father-in-law gave orders. Para 6: Everyone tried hard to fight against the plague. Para 7-8: Margaret did not know what to do, and she was asked to boil some water. Locusts were everywhere in great numbers.,Part 2: Para.419: The coming of
4、locusts and the fight against them.,Para 9 15: The talk between her and Stephen, and her suggestion of leaving the farm. Para 16 19 : She behaved passively and humbly in front of her husband, and she cried because misfortunes never come alone.,Part 3: Para.20the end: The fight over, peoples response
5、s to the disaster and their attitude to life.,Para 20 27: After the fight, people came back, and they discussed what they would do after the locusts had gone. Para 28 29: The night was quiet, but Margaret slept badly. The next morning, she came out and was fascinated with the scenery outside. Para 3
6、0 37: She joined Stephen and they talked about the locusts. The locusts went away, and the whole place was stark and bare with nothing in green. Para 38 40: The farmers began to work, with hope, strong will and continuous efforts.,The stylistic features of the story: 1. She makes use of specific, co
7、ncrete details sounds, light, movements, and color to render the scene realistic and vivid. sound: yell, ring, shout, clamour, thud, bang. Clang, sharpcrack, light: distorted, blazing, thick hot orange, red-tinged gold, blue and clear, color: rust-colour, ox-blood, pink, dense black, reddish, red-br
8、own, perverted blackness, .movement: rise, pour, hoist, fall like hail, cling, crawl, onrush, swell, walk: jog off, crawl, march bravely, wade through, plunge into, ,2. She employs exaggeration and a range of imagery in describing the locusts to create a vivid picture:1). a long low cloud advancing,
9、 swelling forward2). the smoke was rising from myriads of fires3). the air gets thick with smoke4). Behind the reddish veils in front which were theadvance guards of the swarm, 5). These beggars can eat 6). looking at her with their beady old-mens eyes, 7). crunching locusts underfoot with every ste
10、p,8). The trees were ragged mounds of glistening brown.9). They were like small aircraft, manoeuvring for the take-off, trying their wings to see if they ere dry enough.,3. She deliberately refers to the locust in different forms to avoid monotony: 1). a streak of rustcoloured air 2). a long low clo
11、ud advancing 3). the reddish veils the advancing guards, 4). heavy red-brown creatures, 5). clotted with insects, 6). The main swarm isnt settling. 7). If we can stop the main body settling, 8). A reddish brown steam was rising off, 9). By midday the reddish cloud had gone.,4. She varies the length
12、and complexity of sentences to avoid monotony. 5. She changes the sentence order by using a lot of inverted sentences to create a vividness of the movements and actions. 6. She employs similes to help us to picture sth through comparison. 7. The end remark is forceful and meaningful though the words are plain and the tone is mild. 8. Her language is like daily speech, simple and plain, and the tone is smooth. 9. Several voices are speaking to us in the text.,
