Unit 9

The Discus Thrower

Learning Objectives

To grasp the main idea and understand the structure of the text

To appreciate the style and structure of the passage

To have a understanding about the agony the dying people are suffering from

Teaching Procedures

Pre-reading QuestionsText I. The Monster● Passage● Main idea of the passage● Structural analysis● Comprehension questions● ● Text explanation ● sentence studies ● vocabulary studiesText II. Simple Habits, Deep Thoughts Exercises

Pre-reading questions

1. What do you think this text is about?

Sports?

Game?

2. How do you think a dying man will most probably behave?

painful, agony, struggle, wish to live longer, remember his life, the will, wish to be together with the family

Main idea of the text

In this narrative story, the author describes his meeting with the particular patient dubbed the discus thrower. From the miserable condition of the patient, we can understand the implied reason for the patient’s discus throwing.

Structural analysis

This text can be divided into three parts.

Part I (paragraph 1)This part serves as an introduction to the

background of the story. The narrator tells about one of his unique habits and justifies himself for it.

Part II (paragraph 2-13)This part talks about the narrator's contact

with "the discus thrower". The miserable condition of the patient is described and the reason for his discus throwing is implied.

Part III (paragraph 14-15)This part tells about how the man is found

dead and what secrets the doctor discovers about him.

Comprehension question

I. Decide which of the following best states the author’s purpose of writing.—See textbook P136.

II. Judge, according to the text, whether the following statements are true or false.—See textbook P136.

Text Explanation

I spy on my patients. Ought not a doctor to observe his patients by any means and from any stance, that he might the more fully assemble evidence? So I stand in the doorways of hospital rooms and gaze. Oh, it is not all that furtive an act. Those in bed need only look up to discover me. But they never do.

What is unique about the narrator

as a doctor?

Why?

From the doorway of Room 542 the man in the bed seems deeply tanned. Blue eyes and close-cropped white hair give him the appearance of vigor and good health. But I know that his skin is not brown from the sun. It is rusted, rather, in the last stage of containing the vile repose within. And the blue eyes are frosted, looking inward like the windows of a snowbound cottage. This man is blind. This man is also legless — the right leg missing from midthigh down, the left from just below the knee. It gives him the look of a bonsai, roots and branches pruned into the dwarfed facsimile of a great tree.

Why?

Propped on pillows, he cups his right thigh in both hands. Now and then he shakes his head as though acknowledging the intensity of his suffering. In all of this he makes no sound. Is he mute as well as blinds?

The room in which he dwells is empty of all possessions — no get-well cards, small, private caches of food, day-old flowers, slippers, all the usual kickshaws of the sickroom. There is only the bed, a chair, a nightstand, and a tray on wheels that can be swung across his lap for meals.

Why?

"What time is it?" he asks. "Three o'clock." "Morning or afternoon?“ "Afternoon."  He is silent. There is nothing else he wants to

know. "How are you?" I say. "Who are you?" he asks. "It's the doctor. How do you feel?"

He does not answer right away."Feel?" he says."I hope you feel better," I say.I press the button at the side of the bed."Down you go," I say."Yes, down," he says.

Why?

He falls back upon the bed awkwardly. His stumps, unweighted by legs and feet, rise in the air, presenting themselves. I unwrap the bandages from the stumps, and begin to cut away the black scabs and the dead, glazed fat with scissors and forceps. A shard of white bone comes loose. I pick it away. I wash the wounds with disinfectant and redress the stumps. All this while, he does not speak. What is he thinking behind those lids that do not blink? Is he remembering a time when he was whole? Does he dream of feet? Or when his body was not a rotting log?

He lies solid and inert. In spite of everything, he remains impressive, as though he were a sailor standing athwart a slanting deck.

"Anything more I can do for you?" I ask.For a long moment he is silent."Yes," he says at last and without the least iron

y. "You can bring me a pair of shoes."In the corridor, the head nurse is waiting for me.

Why?

Question?

"We have to do something about him," she says. "Every morning he orders scrambled eggs for bre

akfast, and, instead of eating them, he picks up the plate and throws it against the wall."

  "Throws his plate?"  "Nasty. That's what he is. No wonder his family d

oesn't come to visit. They probably can't stand him any more than we can."

  She is waiting for me to do something.  "Well?"  "We'll see," I say.

The next morning I am waiting in the corridor when the kitchen delivers his breakfast. I watch the aide place the tray on the stand and swing it across his lap. She presses the button to raise the head of the bed. Then she leaves.

In time the man reaches to find the rim of the tray, then on to find the dome of the covered dish. He lifts off the cover and places it on the stand. He fingers across the plate until he probes the eggs. He lifts the plate in both hands, sets it on the palm of his right hand, centers it, balances it. He hefts it up and down slightly, getting the feel on it. Abruptly, he draws back his right arm as far as he can.

There is the crack of the plate breaking against the wall at the foot of his bed and the small wet sound of the scrambled eggs dropping to the floor.

And then he laughs. It is a sound you have never heard. It is something new under the sun. It could cure cancer.

Why?

question

Out in the corridor, the eyes of the head nurse narrow.

"Laughed, did he?"

She writes something down on her clipboard.

A second aide arrives, brings a second breakfast tray, puts it on the night-stand, out of his reach. She looks over at me shaking her head and making her mouth go. I see that we are to be accomplices.

Why?

"I've got to feed you," she says to the man."Oh, no you don't," the man says."Oh, yes I do," the aide says, "after the way you

just did. Nurse says so.""Get me my shoes," the man says."Here's the oatmeal," the aide says. "Open." And

she touches the spoon to his lower lip."I ordered scrambled eggs," says the man."That's right," the aide says.

I step forward.

"Is there anything I can do?" I say.

"Who are you?" the man asks.

In the evening I go once more to that ward to make my rounds. The head nurse reports to me that Room 542 is deceased. She has discovered this by accident, she says. No, there had been no sound. Nothing. It's a blessing, she says.

question

How?

I go into his room, a spy looking for secrets. He is still there in his bed. His face is relaxed, grave, dignified. After a while, I turn to leave. My gaze sweeps the wall at the foot of the bed, and I see the place where it has been repeatedly washed, where the wall looks very clean and white.

question

How did he die?

Language points

.., he might the more fully assemble evidence?:

... he might gather evidence more fully than without spying?

The structure "the more fully" is the elliptical form of "all the more fully". In English the structure" all / so much / none + the + the comparative degree of adjectives or adverbs" is used without “than..,” following it to express emphasis. Sometimes all can be omitted.

e.g. She was waiting for the spring. She felt the younger for it.

I walked around for two hours yesterday, and the doctor said I was none the worse for it.

I know there's danger ahead, but I'm all the more set on driving forward.

What does the narrator mean by asking the question "Ought not a doctor... assemble evidence?"

The sentence is not a real question. The narrator poses this pseudo-question to argue that he believes a doctor is entitled to spy on his patients for the sake of medical treatment.

furtive attempting to avoid notice or attention; secretiv

e

I saw him cast a furtive glance at the woman at the table to his right.

There was something furtive about his behaviour and I immediately felt suspicious.

Why does the man seem deeply tanned?

His skin is brown not because of the suntan but because of his approaching death, i. e. he was in the last stage of his life.

It is rusted, rather, in the last stage of containing the vile repose within:

Rather, his skin gets dark brown because he was approaching the last stage of his life, that is, he was dying.

The “vile repose” metaphorically means “ death”.

And the blue eyes are frosted, looking inward like the windows of a snowbound cottage.:

And (under scrutiny) the blue eyes are not clear but covered with a gray frost-like layer, without looking outside at the external world like the windows of a snow-surrounded cottage.

frosted: covered with frost or something like frost a frosted window; frosted blue eyes

Why does the narrator compare the patient to a bonsai?

A bonsai is an ornamental tree or shrub grown in a pot and artificially prevented from reaching its normal size. The patient resembles a bonsai in several ways. His confinement caused by blindness is like the restricted growth domain of a bonsai: the domain permitted by a pot. He is legless in the way the roots and branches of the miniature tree are pruned.

prune 1 trim the shape of (a tree, bush, etc) by cutting away some of the branches, etc, esp to encourage new growth:

These straggly stems should be pruned off the bush. 这些灌木的蔓生枝条该剪了 .

2 ~ sth of sth; ~ sth down, reduce the extent of sth by cutting unnecessary parts 精简某事物 ; 除去某事物的多余部分 :

She's pruning down the novel at the publisher's request.

prop v 1 (a) support (sth) or keep (sth) in position with a prop 用支撑物固定（某物） :

The invalid lay propped on the pillows. She propped her bicycle against the wall. 2 prop sth up, use a prop or props to raise sth and prev

ent it from falling; (often derog) support sth that would otherwise fail

The roof will have to be propped up while repairs are carried out.

The government refuses to prop up inefficient industries.

... he cups his right thigh in both hands.: ... he holds his right thigh with his hands curved

like a dish.cup: support or hold something with the hands

that are curved like a dish He cupped her chin in the palm of his hand. David knelt, cupped his hands and splashed

river water onto his face.

Why is the patient's ward empty of all possessions?

Because there is none of the usual possessions like get-well cards, private caches of food, flowers, and so on, which shows that he is forsaken by his friends and family. As stated in the following part, he is intolerable. And there aren't possessions such as shoes, either, for he is legless and blind, and thus is confined to bed.

swing:

move something from one side to the other

A large pendulum 钟摆 swung back and forth inside the grandfather clock.

His mood swings between elation and despair.

When the doctor asks how he feels, he responds with a question .. Feel?" What does this show?

This shows he is numb in emotion. His plight throws him into despair and he hopes for nothing, waiting for death. This is also confirmed by the fact that he wants to know nothing but time.

What does the patient mean when he says “Yes, down"?

This is his response to the doctor's remark, "Down you go.” What the doctor means is that the man is going down with the bed, yet the patient means that he is going down towards death.

inert 1 without power to move or act

She lay there inert; I thought she must be dead. (physics) inert matter 惰性物质 . 2 (derog) heavy and slow in action, thought, et

c; without vigour 迟钝的 ; 迟缓的 ; 呆滞的 : an inert management team 死气沉沉的管理阶层 .

inert gas 惰性气体 . inertia n

Why does the man ask for a pair of shoes?

The man knows he is legless and has no need for a pair of shoes. Yet he still asks for a pair of shoes when the doctor offers him help. This shows that at the bottom of his heart the man aspires after freedom: only a pair of shoes can give him freedom.

Why is the head nurse waiting for the doctor?

Because she is waiting for the doctor to suggest measures to deal with the patient, who throws the food plate against the wall every time it is brought to him.

What is the head nurse's attitude toward the patient?

Irritated by his behavior, she is impatient and disgusted with him.

What is the doctor's attitude?The doctor does not agree to take immediate

measures. He wants first to make sure of the fact described by the nurse.

finger v touch or feel (sth) with the fingers 触摸（某物） :

She fingered the silk to feel its quality.

I don't like eating food that's been fingered by someone else. 我不愿意吃别人摸过的食物 .

probe: physically explore or examine (something) with

the hands or an instrument; investigate They probed in/into the mud with a special

drill, looking for a long-buried shipwreck. Detectives questioned him for hours,

probing for any inconsistencies in his story. The official enquiry will probe into alleged

corruption within the Defense Ministry.

heft:

lift or hold (something) in order to test its weight

I hefted a suitcase.

Why does the patient lift the cover and probe the eggs before throwing the plate?

This seems to show that what is important to him is not the crack of the plate against the wall. Otherwise he would have thrown the plate with the lid, or thrown the lid before the plate. What he is interested in seems to be the scrambled eggs. This is confirmed by the fact that he orders the scrambled eggs every day and that it is after hearing the wet sound of the scrambled eggs that he starts to laugh.

Why does he laugh?For one thing, the laughter suggests his vision of hope of

his ultimate emancipation. Probably the scrambled eggs are his favorite food. Yet he is determined not to eat them because he feels hopeless in this world. He wants to put an end to his life but he desires to die a dignified death. Thus going fasting may be the best way. The discus throwing just strengthens his resolve. In the sound of the scrambled eggs dropping to the floor he visions in his mind the hope of being liberated in the other world. For another, his laughter is also a sign of defiance of the unfair fate and the unfriendly hospital workers.

The wild, relaxed laughter is a totally new sound in the world that nobody has ever heard. The joyful laughter could even give a promising future to a cancer patient.

I see that we are to be accomplices. :

I see that I have to help the aide feed the patient.

Does it mean that the patient cannot recognize the doctor's voice when he asks, “who are you?"

It does not mean that the man cannot recognize the doctor's voice, for the doctor is not new to him. His question only shows that he distrusts the doctor: he does not believe that the doctor can help him anyway. It is, rather, a signal of dismissal.

roundregular series, succession, route, etc 有规律的系列、

路线等 : the postman‘s round 邮递员的投递路线 a doctor's rounds, ie his series of daily visits to

patients or wards 医生的巡回出诊或查房 . make one's `rounds, make one's usual visits, esp

of inspection 例行巡视 ; （尤指）巡查 : the production manager making his rounds 正

在进行巡查的生产部经理 .

How is the man found dead?He is found dead accidentally by the head

nurse, who reports it to the doctor.

decease n [U] (law or fml) death (of a person)

deceased adj dead:

a deceased father, uncle, spouse, etc 已故的父亲、 叔父、 配偶等 Both her parents are deceased. 她的双亲均已辞世 .

dignified: having or showing a composed or serious man

ner that is worthy of respect He has maintained a dignified silence about

the rumours. The defeated candidate in the election gave

a dignified speech in which he congratulated his rival.

sweep:

glide swiftly; speed along

A 1970s fashion revival is sweeping Europe.

Her gaze swept across the assembled crowd.

The National Party swept into power with a majority of almost 200.

What death is it?It can be said that the patient died a dignified

death.

How did he die?The man starved himself to death as is

suggested at the end of the text by the doctor's attention to the repeatedly washed place where the scrambled eggs dropped to the floor.