Wealth [welθ]—богатство

crisis l'kraisis]—кризис

misery ['mizeri] — нищета

logic— логика

besides— кроме

mention—упоминать

I. Find and read aloud sentences from Part I to prove that the following state­ments are true:

1. Martin had very little education and reading books was dif­ficult for him.

2. Martin read books without any system.

3. Ruth helped Martin to educate himself.

4. Martin made grammar mistakes when be spoke.

II. Find answers to the following questions in Part II:

1. How did reading Shakespeare help Martin to educate himself?

2. How did he come to the idea of becoming a writer?

3. What did he want to write?

4. When did he start writing?

III. Add two or three sentences for each point in the outline using Part III.

1. Martin's room was small and poor.

2. Martin studied very much, never losing a moment.

3. Martin's story "The Ring of Bells" was published.

4. Martin went to the editor to get the five dollars promised for the story.

5. The editors tried to lead Martin away from the question of money.

6. Martin got angry and made them give him the money.

Theodore dreiser1 (1871-1945)

Theodore Dreiser was born in a small town in the State of In­diana, USA, in a poor family. After his school years he had to sup­port himself by doing different jobs, lie worked at a laundry, then for several years he was a newspaper reporter in Chicago, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Later he moved to New York, where he found work as a magazine editor.

In his first two novels, "Sister Carrie"(1900) and "Jennie Gerhardt"⁴ (1911), Dreiser described the life of two young women in the capita­list world.

In 1927 Dreiser was a guest of the Soviet Government. He de­scribed his visit to the USSR in "Dreiser Looks at Russia" (1928). Dreiser began to take an active part in the struggle of the pro­gressive people in America, and supported the working-class move­ment. He became a member of the Communist Party of the USA in August, 1945. This was the "logic ⁷ of my life", as he expressed it in his letter to the leader of the Communist Party of the USA.

Dreiser's literary work occupies an important place in American critical realism. His novels and short stories give a true picture of American bourgeois society and its influence upon the life of the people.

Theodore Dreiser— Теодор Драйзер

idealize— идеализировать

truth [tru: θ]—правда

"Jennie Gerhardt"—«Дженни Герхардт»

I. Speak about Theodore Dreiser.

1. Say a few words about Theodore Dreiser's family and his way to literature.

2. Why didn't the publishers want to publish his books?

3. Name some of the novels by Th. Dreiser and say what they are about.

4. What was Th. Dreiser's opinion of the Soviet Union and where did the writer express it?

5. What was the "logic" of Th. Dreiser's life?

II. Read the names that you will meet In the text,

Clyde Griffiths I'klaid 'grifiθs]

Squires ['skwaiez]

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY

[This novel is Dreiser's masterpiece. It was published in 1925. It is the life story of a young American, Clyde Griffiths from the days of his childhood till his tragic end on the electric chair . Clyde came a Poor family and his life's dream was to become a rich and important man in capitalist society.

The extracts given below ¹ tell how Clyde looked for a job, and how he started working at a big hotel in Kansa City.]

Part I

Clyde began to think harder than ever about himself. And the result of his thinking' was that must do something for himself and soon. Up to this time the best he had been able to do was to work at such jobs as all bays between their twelfth and fifteenth years take up: selling newspapers during the summer months of one year, working in a poor little shop all one summer long, and on Sat­urdays, for a period during the winter, opening boxes and unpacking ² goods, for which he received the great sum of live dollars a week, a sum which at the time seemed almost a fortune.⁴ He felt himself rich and could sometimes go to the theatre or to the cinema though his parents were against it. But Clyde felt that he had a right to go with his own money, also to take his younger brother Frank, who was glad enough to go with him and say nothing.

Later in the same year, wishing to get out of school and start a regular ⁵- job, he got a place as an assistant to a soda-water ⁰ clerk in one of the cheaper drugstores ⁷ of the city which was near a theatre. A sign "Boy Wanted", ⁸ which was directly on his way to school, first interested him. Later, in conversation with the young man whose assistant he would be and from whom he would learn the trade, he found out that he might make as much as fifteen and even eighteen dollars a week.

But to learn the trade, as he was told, needed time and the friendly help of an expert. If he wished to come here and work for five or six dollars to begin with, he might soon know enough about the art of making sweet drinks, like lemonades, coca-colas and so on. While he was learning, he would have to wash and rub all the machin­ery of the soda-water counter and also to sweep out and dust the store at so early an hour as seven-thirty and then deliver such orders as the owner would send out by him.

Yet this interesting job he decided to take after a talk with his mother. For one thing, ho could drink as many ice-cream sodas as he wanted free. In the next place, as he thought, it was an open door to a trade. In the third place, he would have to work there sometimes at night, as late as twelve o'clock. And this took him out of his home where his father and mother held religious ¹ meeting. They could not ask him to attend any meetings, not even on Sundays, because he would work Sunday afternoons and evenings.

Clyde soon found out to his pleasure,² that the place was much visited by girls, who sat at the tables and laughed and talked. For the first time in his life, while Clyde was busy washing glasses and making drinks, he studied these girls with great interest. How well- dressed they were, and what interesting things they discussed- parties, dances, the shows they had seen, the places in or near Kan­sas City to which they were soon going, the different actors or ac­tresses—mostly actors—who were now playing or soon coming to the city. And to this day, in his own home he had heard nothing of all this.

But very soon Clyde understood that this job was not quite what he had expected. For Albert Sieberling, whose assistant he was_t kept his knowledge about the trade to himself and did all the more pleasant tasks. Clyde had very little money and he did not make any friends.

Clyde was already sixteen and old enough to make his own way in life. And yet ho ¹ p earning almost nothing—not enough to live on, if he were alone .0 he decided to find something better.

Part II

Looking here and there, Clyde thought one day that he would speak to the manager of the soda-water counter, that was connected^ with the drugstore in the biggest hotel in Kansas City, the Green- Davidson Hotel. One day he entered the drugstore. He came up to a short well-dressed man of about thirty-five. "Well!" the man asked when he saw the boy.

"You don't happen to need a soda-counter assistant, do you?" Clyde said, looking at the man with hope.

"No, no, no," answered the man quickly and turned away. But seeing the look of disappointment ³ in Clyde's face, he turned his head and added:

"Did you ever work in a place like this before?"

"No place as fine as this. No, sir," answered Clyde, looking around. "I'm working now at Mr. Klinkle's store at 7th and Brooklyn Street but it isn't anything like this one and I would like to get something better if 1 could."

"Ah," said the man, rather pleased ¹ by Clyde's words about his store. "Well, you are quite right. But there isn't anything here that I could offer you. But if you'd like to be a bell-boy,² I can tell you where you might get a place. They're looking for an extra³ boy in the hotel inside ⁴ there now. The captain of the boys was telling me he was in need of one. I should think that would be as good as help­ing about a soda counter."

Then he quickly added: "But you mustn't say that I sent you, because I don't know you. Just ask for Mr. Squires inside there and he can tell you all about it."

Part III

Thanking his advisor for his kindness," Clyde went to a green door which opened from the back of this drugstore into the lobby" of the hotel. When he entered the lobby, he stood looking around. Under his feel was a black and-white marble ⁷ floor. There were a great many black marble columns,⁸ and between the columns were lamps, chairs and sofas»'

As Clyde stood, looking about the lobby, he saw a large number of people—some women and children, and a great many men as he could see—either walking or standing about and talking or sitting in chairs.

Suddenly Clyde remembered the name of Squires and began to look for him in his office. He saw that not far from the door through which he had come, was a desk, at which stood a young man of about his own age in a brown uniform bright with many buttons.⁹ And on his head was a small cap. He was busy writing in a big book which lay open before him. Other boys about his own age, and uniformed as he was, were seated upon a long bench near him or were seen run­ning here and there, sometimes returning to the desk with a slip ¹⁰ of paper or a key or note of some kind, and then seating themselves upon the bench to wait for another call, which came quickly enough. A telephone upon the small desk at which stood the uniformed youth was ringing all the time, and after learning what was wanted, this youth rang a small bell before him, or called "front", to which the first boy on the bench jumped up and would run either to one of the entrances or to the elevators.¹¹ The boys would carry the bags and suitcases of the arrivals, show them the way to their rooms, bring them drinks or cigarettes from the stores.

Clyde stood, looking at all this, and hoped that he might get a job hero. But would he? And where was Mr. Squires? He came to the youth at the small desk. "Do you know where I will find Mr. Squires?" he asked.

"Here he comes now," answered the youth, looking up.

Clyde turned round and saw a man of twenty-nine or thirty years of age. His nose was long and thin, his eyes sharp,¹ his lips thin. He was well dressed. He paid no attention ² to Clyde. His assistant at the desk said:

"That young fellow * there is waiting to see you."

"You want to see me?" asked the captain of the bell-boys, turn­ing to Clyde and noticing his not-very-good clothes.

"The owner of the store here," began Clyde, who wanted to make a good impression on this man, but did not quite know how to do it,_: "said that I might ask you if there was any work for me here as a ball-boy. I'm working now at Klinkle's drugstore at 7th and Brook­lyn Street as an assistant, but I would like to get out of it."

Clyde was so nervous ⁴ that he could not find the right words to say what he wanted. He only know that he had to say something to make that man like him and he added "If you would take me, I would try very hard and bo very willing.''^

The man before him looked at him coldly,; but he liked Clyde's diplomatic words.

"But you haven't had any training in this work?"

"No, sir, but couldn't I pick it up ⁸ quickly, if I tried hard?"

"Well, I don't know," said the head of the bell-boys. "I haven't any time to talk to you now. Come here Monday afternoon. I'll see you then." He turned and walked away.

below—ниже

unpack — распаковывать

almost — почти

fortune—богатство, состояние

regular—постоянный

soda-water — газированная вода

drugstore— амер. аптека-закусочная

Boy Wanted—Требуется мальчик

religious]—религиозный

pleasure |'р1езэ| — удовольствие

disappointment—разочарование

pleased [pli:zd]—довольный

bell-boy — посыльный (в гостинице)

extra—лишний

inside—внутри; внутрь

kindness ['kaindnis]—доброта

lobby—. холл

marble f'ma:bl] — мраморный

column ['kalom]—колонна

" button—пуговица

slip — кусочек (бумаги)

elevator—лифт.

sharp — острый

attention -⁵внимание

2. be nervous -нервничать

¹¹ willing—старательный

I. Find and read aloud sentences from Part I connected with the following facts:

1. Clyde did different small jobs in his boyhood.

2. Clyde earned five dollars a week and thought himself rich.

3. Clyde got a regular job and wanted to learn the trade of making drinks.

4. At the beginning Clyde liked his new job.

5. Nobody helped Clyde to learn the trade.

II. Ask your classmates:

1. where Clyde wanted to get a job;

2. if he was offered any job there;

3. where lie was advised to go;

4. whom he had to ask for a job.

III. Speak about Clyde's visit to the hotel. Use the key-words:

1. The lobby of the hotel, (marble floor; columns; chairs)

2. The bell-boys at the hotel, (uniform; age)

3. The duties of a bell-boy. (wait for a call; run here and there; carry the bags; show the way; bring drinks)

4. Clyde's talk with the captain of the bell-boys, (was nervous; wanted to make a good impression; promised to try hard; liked Clyde's diplomatic words; to come Monday afternoon)

Why was the novel so popular?

1. Hemingway's struggle against fascism.

What did Hemingway do to help the revolution in Spain?

Where did he express his sympathy with the Spanish people?

How did he fight against fascism in World War II?

How did he express his solidarity with the Soviet people?

What was Hemingway's last work?

LANGSTON HUGHES¹

(1902-1967)

Langston Hughes is the most out­standing representative of Negro proletarian writers in the United States. He was born in 1902 in a small town in the State of Missouri. After finishing school Hughes entered Columbia University in New York, but soon ho had to leave it because he had no money to pay for his studies there. So he went in search of a job. He tried different kinds of work, lie worked on a farm as a driver, then he sold flowers, in the end he became a sailor on a ship that was going to Africa.

For several years Hughes stayed abroad: in Africa, France and Italy. His life there was very hard. His had no special trade or pro­fession and could not find a good job. Very often he had no place to sleep and nothing to eat.

In 1924 Hughes returned to the USA. His mother lived in Wash­ington and Hughes got a job at a laundry there. They lived in the Negro slums and Hughes saw the hard life of the Negroes in the Amer­ican capital.

At this period Hughes began to write poems. Later Hughes published several collections of poems, many short stories and articles, some plays, as well as a novel "Not Without Laughter" ⁴ (1930) which is partly autobiographical. It gives the life story of a poor Negro boy, Sandy Rogers, who lives in a small American town. His childhood and youth are typical of the life of thousands of American Negro boys.

One of his best collections of short stories is named "The Ways of White Folks"⁶ (1934). Here the writer shows the relations⁶ between the white people and the Negroes in the South of the United States. The story "Home" also belongs to this collection.

HOME

[This is a story about a young Negro musician,¹ who returns to the USA after the years that he had spent abroad learning to play the violin ² and giving concerts in different European cities. The action of the story takes place in 1932 in the USA. This was the time of the world economic crisis.]

Roy Williams had come home from abroad to visit his mother and sister and brothers who still remained in his native town, Hopkinsville. Roy had been away seven or eight years, travelling all over the world. He came back very well dressed, but very thin. He wasn't well.

It was this illness that made Roy come home. He had a feeling that he was going to die, and he wanted to see his mother again. This feeling about death started in Vienna, where so many people wore hungry, while other people spent so much money in the night­clubs whore Roy's orchestra played.

In Vienna Roy had a room to himself because he wanted to study music, to study under one of the best violin teachers.

"It's bad in Europe," Roy thought. "I never saw people as hungry as this."

But it was even worse when the orchestra went back to Berlin. Hunger and misery were terrible there. And the police were beating people who protested, or stole, or begged.¹

It was in Berlin that Roy began to cough. When he got to Paris his friend took care of him, and he got better. But all the time he had the feeling that he was going to die. So he came home to see his mother.

He landed in New York and stayed two or three days in Harlem. Most of his old friends there, musicians and actors, were hungry and out of work. W⁷hen they saw Roy dressed so well, they asked him for money.

"It's bad everywhere," Roy thought. "I want to go home."

That last night in Harlem he could not sleep. He thought of his mother. In the morning he sent her a telegram that he was coming home to Hopkinsville, Missouri.

* * *

"Look at that nigger,"² said the white boys, when they saw him standing on the station platform in the September sunlight, sur­rounded by his bags with the bright foreign labels.³ Roy had got off a Pullman—something unusual for a Negro in that part of the coun­try.

"God damn!" ⁴ said one of the white boys. Suddenly Roy recog­nized one of them. It was Charlie Mumford, an old playmate⁶— a tall red-headed boy. Roy took off his glove and held out his hand. The white boy took it but did not shake it long. Boy had forgotten lie wasn't in Europe, wearing gloves and shaking hands with a white man!

"Where have you been, boy?" Charlie asked. "In Paris," said Roy.

"Why have you come back?" someone asked. "I wanted to come and see my mother."

"I hope she is happier to see you than we are," another while boy said.

Roy picked up his bags, there were no porters on the platform, and carried them to an old Ford car that looked like a taxi. He felt weak ⁶ and frightened.⁷ The eyes of the white men at the station were not kind. He heard someone say behind him: "Nigger." His skin was very hot. For the first time in the last seven or eight years ho felt his colour. He was home.

***

Roy's home-coming concert at the Negro church ¹ was a success. The Negroes sold a lot of tickets to the white people for whom they worked. The front rows cost fifty cents and were filled with white people. The rest of the seats cost twenty-five cents and were filled with Negroes. There was much noise as the little old church filled. People walked up and down, looking for their seats.

While he was playing Brahms on a violin from Vienna in a Negro church in Hopkinsville, Missouri, for listeners who were poor white people and even poorer Negroes, the sick young man thought of his old dream. This dream could not come true ² now. It was a dream of a great stage in a large concert hall where thousands of people looked up at him as they listened to his music.

Now he was giving his first concert in America for his mother in the Negro church, for his white and black listeners. And they were looking at him. They were all looking at him. The white people in the front rows and the Negroes in the back.

He was thinking of the past, of his childhood. He remembered the old Kreisler ³ record they had at home. Nobody liked it but Hoy, and lie played it again and again. Then his mother got a violin for him, but half the time she didn't have the money to pay old man Miller for his violin lessons every week. Roy remembered how his mother had cried when he went away with a group of Negro mu­sicians, who played Negro songs all over the South. Then he had a job with a night-club jazz-band in Chicago. After that, he got a contract to go to Berlin and play in an orchestra there*/

Suddenly he noticed a thin white woman in a cheap coat and red hat, who was looking at him from the first row.

"What does the music give you? What do you want from me?" Roy thought about her.

He looked at all those dark girls back there in the crowd.¹ Most of them had never heard goad classical music. Now for the first time in their life they saw a Negro, who had come home from abroad, playing a violin. They were looking proudly at him over the heads of the white people in the first rows'; over the head of the white woman in the cheap coat and red hat... .

"Who are you, lady?" he thought.

When the concert, was over, even some of the white people shook hands with Roy and said it was wonderful. The Negroes said, "Boy, you really can play!" Roy was trembling ² a little and his eyes burnt and he wanted very much to cough. But he smiled and he held out his hot hand to everybody. The woman in the red hat waited at the end of the room.

After many of the people had gone away, she came up to Roy and shook hands with him. She spoke of symphony concerts in other cities of Missouri; she said she was a teacher of music, of piano and violin, but she had no pupils like Boy, that never in the town of Hopkinsville had anyone else played so beautifully. Boy looked into her thin, white face and was glad that she loved music.

"That's Miss Reese," his mother told him after she had gone. "An old music teacher at the white high school."

"Yes, Mother," said Boy. "She understands music."

***

Next time he saw Miss Reese at the white high school. One morn­ing a note came asking him if he would play for her music class some day. She would accompany ⁸ him if he brought his music. She had told her students about Bach and Mozart, and she would be very grateful if Roy visited the school and played those two great masters for her young people. She wrote him a nice note on clean white paper.

"That Miss Reese is a very nice woman," Mrs. Williams said to her boy. "She sends for you to play at the school. I have never heard of a Negro who was invited there for anything but cleaning up, and I have been in Hopkinsville a long time. Go and play for them son."

Roy played. But it was one of those clays when his throat was hot and dry and his eyes burnt. He had been coughing all morning and as he played he breathed with great difficulty. He played badly. But Miss Reese was more than kind to him. She accompanied him on the piano. And when he had finished, she turned to the class of white children and said, "This is art, my dear young people, this is true art!"

The pupils went home that afternoon and told their parents that a dressed-up¹ nigger had come to school with a violin and played a lot of funny ² music which nobody but Miss Reese liked. They also said that Miss Reese had smiled and said, "Wonderful!" and had even shaken hands with the nigger, when he went out.

Roy went home. He was very ill these days, getting thinner and thinner all the time, weaker and weaker. Sometimes he did not play at all. Often he did not eat the food his mother cooked for him, or that his sister brought from the place where she worked. Sometimes he was so restless ³ and hot in the night that he got up and dressed and then walked the streets of the little town at ten and eleven o'clock after nearly every one else had gone to bed. Midnight ⁴ was late in Hopkinsville. But for years Roy had worked at night. It was hard for him to sleep before midnight now.

But one night ho walked out of the house for the last time. The moon had risen and Roy did not need to light the oil-lamp i when he got up. The moon shone into his little room across his white bed, down onto the bags with the coloured foreign labels standing near the wall. But still Roy lighted the lamp in order to see himself in the old looking-glass on the table. His face, that had once been dark, now was quite pale. His cheeks were thin. Trembling, he put on his clothes and his overcoat. He took a cane ⁰ that he carried lately from weakness, and went out into the autumn moonlight.

Walking quietly through the front room, he heard his mother snoring ⁷ on the sofa there (she had given up her room to him). The front door was still unlocked.⁸ His brothers, Roy thought, were out with their friends. His sister had gone to bed.

In the street it was very quiet. The trees stood silent in the moon­light. Roy walked under the dry falling leaves towards the centre of the town, breathing in the night air and swinging ⁹ his cane. Night and the streets always made him feel better. He remembered the streets of Paris and Berlin. He remembered Vienna. Now like a dream that he had ever been in Europe at all, he thought. Ma never had any money. With the greatest difficulty her children were able to finish I ho grade school There WM no high school for Negroes in Hopkinsville. In order to get furl her education he had to run away from home with a Negro show. Then that chance of going to Berlin with a jazz- hand. And his violin had been Ills best friend all the time. Jazz at night and the classics in the morning at his lessons with the best limbers that his earnings could pay. It, was hard work and hard prac­tice. Music, real music! Then he began to cough in Berlin.

I toy was passing lots of people now in the bright lights of Main Street, but he saw none of thorn. Ho saw only dreams and memories, and heard music. Some of the people slopped to look at the European coat on his thin dark body. A little while boy or two cried, "Hey, nigger!" But everything might have been ² all right, people might have only laughed or cursed, if a thin woman in a cheap coat and red hat, a white woman, stepping out of a store just as Roy passed, had not said pleasantly to him, "Good evening."

Hoy stopped, also said, "Good evening, Miss Reese," and was glad to see her. Forgetting he wasn't in Europe, he took off his hat and gloves, and held out his hand to this lady who understood music. They smiled at each other, the sick young Negro and the middle- aged music teacher in the light of Main Street. Then she asked him if he was still working on the Sarasate.

"Yes," Roy said. "It's beautiful."

"And have you heard that wonderful Heifitz record of it?" Miss Reese asked.

Roy opened his mouth to answer when he saw the woman's face suddenly grow pale with horror. Before he could turn round to see what her eyes bail seen, he fell a heavy fist strike his face. There was a flash of lightning⁴ in his head as he fell down. Miss Reese screamed. The street near them filled with white young men with ted necks, open shirts and first ready Io strike. They had seen a No­rm talking to it while woman insulting " a White Woman—attack­ing a White Woman! They bud seen Roy take off his gloves and when Miss Reese screamed when Hoy was struck, they were sure he had Instilled her. Yes, he had. Yes, sir!

Ho I hey knocked Hoy down. They trampled ⁷ on his hat and cane and gloves, and all of them tried In pick him up -so that someone else could have the pleasure of knocking him down again. They strug­gled over the privilege of knocking him down.

Roy looked up from the ground at the white men around him. His mouth was full of blood and his eyes burnt. His clothes were dirty. He was wondering why Miss Reese had stopped him to ask about the Sarasate. He knew he would never get home to his mother now.

Someone pulled him to his feet. Someone spat ¹ in his face. It looked like his old playmate Charlie Mumford. Someone shouted at him, "Dirty nigger," and another struck him from behind. And all the men and boys in the lighted street began to scream and shout, dragging ² the young Negro in his elegant clothes through the town towards the woods.

The young Negro whose name was Roy Williams began to choke ³ from the blood in his mouth. He didn't hear the sound of their voices or the trampling of their feet any longer. He saw only the moonlight, and his ears were filled with a thousand notes, like a Beethoven so­nata... .

Sarasate [,saer3'sati] Heifitz ['heifits]

musician—музыкант

violin]—скрипка

beg—просить подаяния nigger — амер. препебр. черномазый label ['leibl]—ярлык God damn! [daem] —Черт возьми! playmate ['pleimeit] —товарищ детских игр weak—слабый

frightened ['fraitnd] — исиугашшй

church— церковь

come true—осуществиться

Kreisler—Кройслер—выдающийся австрийский скрипач (1S75—1962)

crowd [kraud] — толпа

tremble—дрожать

6. accompany — сопровождать; аккомпанировать

7. dressed-u p — расфранченный

8. funny—смешной

9. " restless—беспокойный

10. midnight — полночь

11. ⁶ oil-lamp — ai). керосиновая лампа

12. ⁴ cane—трость

13. ' snore — храпеть

14. unlocked — по заперта

15. • swing—размахивать

16. spit (spat, spat)—плевать

17. drag—тащить

18. choke — захлебываться

I. Find and read aloud sentences describing:

1. Hoy's life in Vienna and Berlin;

2. the scene on the station platform;

3. Roy's home-coming concert at the Negro church;

4. Roy's memories of his childhood;

5. Roy's jobs as a musician;

6. Roy's listeners at the concert;

7. the pupils of the music class at the white high school.

II. Find and read aloud sentences to prove that the following statements are true:

1. The Negro people were proud of Roy.

2. It was impossible for a Negro to get a good education in Hopkinsville.

3. Miss Reese could defend Roy but she didn't.

4. The white people beat Roy only because he was a Negro.

III. Say a few words about:

1. Roy's illness;

2. Roy's dreams;

3. Roy's family;

4. Hopkinsville at night.