Kana

【Young – adult Fiction】

《week 12》

《D. H. Lawrence》

D. H. Lawrence: D. H. Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter.

《The Rocking Horse Winner》

The Rocking Horse Winner: The Rocking Horse Winner is a short story by D. H. Lawrence. It was first published in July 1926, in Harper's Bazaar and subsequently appeared in the first volume of Lawrence's collected short stories.

l   Characters

• Ø   Paul: A young boy who notices that his mother doesn’t love him and his sisters, even though she “adores” them. When he receives a rocking horse for Christmas, he rides it often and comes to find that he can predict what horse is going to win the next big horse race.
• Ø   Hester: Paul's mother. She becomes “dissatisfied with her marriage” when she finds that her husband is not lucky and doesn't make enough money.
• Ø   Bassett: The family gardener and friend. Is the one who gets Paul into horse racing, and later becomes “betting partners”.
• Ø   Oscar Creswell: Paul's uncle and his mother's brother. Provided the money that Paul used to make his first win at the horse race. Signed the lawyer papers in order for Paul's mother to receive “one thousand pounds at a time, on the mother's birthday, for the next five years”. Oscar becomes partners with Paul and Bassett.

《Nathaniel Hawthorne》

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.

《The Scarlet Letter》

The Scarlet Letter: The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered to be his magnum opus.

•  PLOT

In a Puritan settlement in Boston in the mid 1600’s, a woman named Hester Prynne committed adultery and had a child. The townspeople are outraged and they make her wear a scarlet “A” on her clothes for everyone to see. It is supposed to be a mark of shame, but since Hester is a master at needlework, she makes her “A” beautiful. Her husband, who was going to follow her after he had settled some affairs, sent her to Boston, but at least two years passed and he had still not shown up. While Hester is receiving some of her punishment by standing on a scaffold, she spots her husband in the crowd. They later speak while she is in the jail, and he reveals that he is now using the alias Roger Chillingworth so that he is not associated with Hester. Everyone wants to know who Pearl’s father is, but Hester refuses to tell; not even Pearl knows. Chillingworth begins a quest to get revenge on Pearl’s father, whom the reader later finds out is Reverend Dimmesdale.

YouTube →https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uen92KjCSsg