The Oyster and the Pearl

William Saroyan
The Oyster and the Pearl Unit 16

W arming up
B ackground
T ext Analysis
R einforcement
The Oyster and the Pearl Unit 16

Questions / Activities

Check-on Preview Warming up

Objectives
Warming up Questions / Activities

 What do you know about oysters and pearls? What

do they usually symbolize?

Have you read other literary works where the oyster

and/or the pearl is used as a symbol?

What do you expect to read when you see the title?

Warming up Check-on Preview

• Explain the meaning of the colloquial expressions in

the following sentences.

1. On the walls, on the shelves, are odds and ends.

2. He sold me the shop for seventy-five, and threw in the
haircut.
3. Let bygones be bygones.
4. On top of that, almost all of them are unruly.
5. I can’t kick.
6. They had one too many fights.
Warming up Objectives

• Understand the structure and the general

idea of the play
• Think about how to interpret the play
• Know something about utopia and dystopia
literature
• Act out the play
The Oyster and the Pearl Unit 16

Author

Background

Genre
 Background Author

William Saroyan
1908-1981
 Born in California to Armenian immigrants
His Life

 Spent five years (3-8) in an orphanage after

father’s death
 Began writing short stories in 1930s
 His works celebrated optimism in the midst of
trials and tribulations
 A prolific writer: short stories, plays, memoirs,
etc.
 Background
His Works Author

My Name is Aram (1940), The Time of Your Life, 1939

collection of short stories
 Background Author

 Many of Saroyan's stories were based on his childhood

experiences among the Armenian-American fruit growers in
California or dealt with the rootlessness of the immigrants.
His Influence

 The short story collection My Name is Aram (1940), an

international bestseller, was about a young boy and the
colorful characters of his immigrant family.
 Saroyan's plays were drawn from deep personal sources, and
often disregarded the convention that conflict was essential
to drama.
 The most famous play The Time of Your Life (1939) won a
Pulitzer Prize, which Saroyan refused on the grounds that
commerce should not judge the arts.
Background Genre

A Utopia Play
Play
Setting, character, plot development, dramatic
conflict, dramatic conversation
Can you locate the dramatic conflict(s) in the play?
Language: easy and everyday colloquialism
Rich symbolisms
Background Genre
A Utopia Play
Utopia play
Utopia resembles both the Greek words "no place", "outopos",
and "good place", "eutopos".
Utopia is often created in literature as an non-existent, ideal
world.
Famous utopia fiction includes Plato’s The Republic and Thomas
Moore’s Utopia.
Dystopia, the opposite of utopia, is defined as a society
characterized by poverty, squalor, or oppression, and usually
extrapolates elements of contemporary society. Of the most
famous is George Orwell’s 1984.
In what ways can this play be seen as utopia literature?
The Oyster and the Pearl Unit 16

Theme

Text Analysis
Structure
Detailed
Analysis
Text Analysis Theme

Symbolism
 The oyster: obstacles and difficulties in life
 The pearl: hope and faith
 O.K.-by-the-Sea: take-it-easy way of life
Theme
 Take it easy and relax and you will live a happier
life.
 Always have hope in life / Always be optimistic.
Text Analysis Structure

Part I: Para. 1-165

• introduction of the setting, character,
and conflicts

Part II: Para. 166-328

• resolution of conflicts
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part I: Main Idea

 What is the setting of the play? Does the setting have
any significance?
 Who are the protagonists of the play? Do a character
analysis.
 What are the major conflicts of the play?
 What is Harry’s role in the conflicts? What makes him
the protagonist?
 Text Analysis Detailed Analysis
 Setting
 O.K.-by-the-Sea: not a perfect place, but one where you can be happy as long
as you relax and take it easy
 Characters
 Harry the barber, full of “take-it-easy” philosophy
 Miss McCutcheon, new teacher from California, uptight and struggling to fit in
 Conflicts
 Clark Larrabee & his wife
 Clay’s wish to find a pearl and the faint possibility
 Miss McCutcheon’s choice between stay and leave
 Miss McCutheon’s wish to help the children and the way she does it
 Harry
 embodiment of human goodness and simple virtue of common working
people
 A character where all conflicts converge and who serves as catalyst to all their
solutions
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part I: Sentence Paraphrase

• Clark Larrabee, come home. Your fishing tackle’s in the
closet safe and sound. The fishing’s good, plenty of perch,
and bass. Let bygones be bygones. We miss you. (para.53)

Intact, healthy Let’s forget the unpleasant

things in the past.

Paraphrasing: This does not read like an advertisement. It’s more like
a boy talking to his father from the bottom of his heart, trying to get
him home by recounting the things they enjoyed together. Simple but
touching.
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part I: Sentence Paraphrase

• Miss America, I presume. … You’d be new anywhere. (para.
57 & 63)

Presume: believe to be true because new: fresh and

it is very likely pretty

Paraphrasing: You are just like Miss America, I believe. … You are so
pretty and fresh you’d be welcome anywhere.
Harry here is paying Miss McCutcheon a compliment; maybe also
because few women in the small seaside town wear swimming suits in
public. Note the subtle sexist tone here.
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part I: Sentence Paraphrase

• Cooking? … I must see I expected to see a much older man.
• Well. Thanks. (para. 84-85)

Note the euphemism / humorous undertone here.

Miss McCutcheon is saying that cooking is rather an old-fashioned
educational program, and a man that comes up with such an idea
should be much older than Harry.
Harry is taking this up in a teasing way by pretending to take this as
a compliment rather than a criticism that she thinks he looks much
younger for his age.
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part I: Words & Expressions

Words kick; presume

Words Phrases
fair and square; safe and sound; get sth straight;
get st out of the way; odds and ends; turn out;
Phrases take it easy; throw in; free of charge; pick up;
go off; live off sth./sb.; have to one’s name; on
top of
Sentence
I’m no barber.
Pattern
Grammar elliptical sentences; rhetorical questions
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part I: Exercise
I. Translate the following phrases into Chinese.
1. safe and sound 安全，完整
2. fair and square 正大光明地
3. hale and hearty 硬朗，矍铄
4. by hook and by crook 无论如何
5. null and void 无效
6. 5. heart and soul 全心全意
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part I: Exercise
II. Translate the following sentences into English.
1. 大家都想在暑假来临之前完成手头的工作。
Everybody wants to get whatever they have on hand out of the way
before summer vacation begins.
2. 店主把衣服打折卖给我，还送了条腰带。
The shop owner sold me the dress at a discount and threw in a belt.
3. 相当多的大学毕业生认为啃老是理所当然的。
Quite a number of college graduates take it for granted to live off
their parents.
4. 当他从乡村来到城市时，仅有的是身上的衣服和心头的壮志。
When he came from the countryside to the city, all he had to his
name was the clothes on his back and the ambition in his heart.
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part II: Main Idea

 How are the conflicts resolved?
 Clark returns home after reading Clay’s ad on the local
paper
 Clay realizes there may be no pearl in the oyster
 The writer buys the oyster and lends hope to Clay
 Miss McCutcheon decides to stay
 Miss McCutcheon loosens up and learns from Harry how to
deal with troubled children
 What do you think of the way these conflicts are resolved?
 Do you see any present significance in the play?
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part II: Sentence Paraphrase

• It’s never too soon for any of us to face the truth. (para. 176)

It couldn’t be soon enough; the sooner the

better

Paraphrasing: Any of us should face the truth; the earlier, the better.
Cf. It’s never too old to learn.
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part II: Sentence Paraphrase

• …in as much as only one oyster in a million has a pearl in it,
truth favors the probability that this is not the millionth
oyster… (para. 178)

(formal) used to introduce a phrase

which explains why or how much Support or prefer one
another part of the sentence is true possibility

Paraphrasing: Because only one oyster out of a million has a pearl

in it, it is not likely that this oyster will be just that one. The
chances of finding a pearl in an oyster are vey slim.
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part II: Sentence Paraphrase

A few people find jobs a couple of months every year North or South,
come back half dead of homesickness, and live on next to nothing the
rest of the year. (para. 215)

Subject complement,
Almost nothing
feeling awful because
they are homesick
Depend on, be supported by

Paraphrasing: A few people work away from home just for a couple
of months because they are terribly homesick. For the rest of the
year, they practically have no income whatever and have to depend
on what little money they have saved during the working months.
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part II: Sentence Paraphrase

Clay believes there’s a pearl in this oyster for the same reason you and I
believe whatever we believe to keep us going. (para. 215)

Keep sb. going: encourage,

cheer up the reason + that/why + relative
clause; here the relative pronoun is
omitted

Paraphrasing: We have the courage to face the world with all its
obstacles and difficulties because we have our faith/belief/hope. It’s
the same with Clay. He believes there’s a pearl in the oyster because
it gives him hope that his father will come home.
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part II: Sentence Paraphrase

• As far as I’m concerned, the whole thing is a pearl. (para.
295)

In my opinion A precious
Clay’s belief that there is a experience, a new
pearl in the oyster, and attitude towards life
Harry’s way of helping him

Paraphrasing: What I’ve witnessed here today is a precious

experience to me. Through Clay’s belief that there is a pearl in the
oyster, and Harry’s way of trying to protect his belief, I have learned
a new way of life, to take it easy and never to lose hope.
Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part II: Words & Expressions

Words assortment; swine; afford; favor

Words Phrases
do sb. the courtesy of doing sth.; check up; next
to nothing; be ashamed of; one too many; get
Phrases around; out of one’s mind; come to life; put sb.
out of business;
come by
Sentence there is sth. to be said for doing; (it is) no use
Pattern doing; it’s never too soon to do

Grammar I’d rather he open the oyster. (subjunctive)

Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part II: Exercise

Translate the following sentences into English:
1. 他为了兼职放弃几门选修课不是没有道理的，毕竟他要养活自己。
There is something to be said for his giving up some selective courses for a
part-time job; after all, he has to support himself.
2. 香港的夜生活很有名。每当华灯初上，整个城市就生动了起来。
Hong Kong is famous for its night life. The whole city comes to life when
twilight comes.
3. 越早认识到自己的错误并做出弥补越好。
It’s never too soon to realize one’s mistakes and try to make amends.
4. 网上购书的发展让众多传统书店被迫停业。
Online book shopping has put a lot of traditional bookstores out of business.
5. 我希望他在去暑期学校前可以完成学期论文。
I’d rather he finish his term paper before going for summer school.
The Oyster and the Pearl Unit 16

Discussion

Reinforcement

Retelling
Reinforcement Discussion

Work in groups of four:

• The play’s symbolism is very straightforward,

characters are somewhat stock and there are
traces of sexism in it. How would you account for
these? Would you take into consideration the
historical background (1953)?
• If you were to write a play with the same theme set
in contemporary society, what changes would you
like to make?
Reinforcement Acting

Act out the play!

• Work in three groups of eight. Each group will act
out the whole play. Make necessary changes if you
want.

• You will be the judge for you classmates’

performance, and awards will be given to the best
play, best actor, and best actress.
Reinforcement Further Reading

Suggested further reading:

• Utopia literature:
 A Modern Utopia, H. G. Wells
 Lost Horizon, James Hilton
• Dystopia literature:
 1984, George Orwell
 The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins