A Drink in the Passage

Alan Paton

I have a dream

• Cay you say something about the picture?

• How do you understand racial segregation?

• Segregation is the official practice of keeping people apart, usually people of different sexes, races, or religions.

• The story is set against the background of Apartheid South Africa.

• Apartheid is an official policy of racial segregation practiced in the Republic of South Africa, involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites (from 1948 to 1994) .

• South Africa was colonized by the British and Dutch in the 17th century. British domination of the Dutch descendants (known as Boers or Afrikaners) resulted in the Dutch establishing the new colonies of Orange Free State and Transvaal. The discovery of diamonds in these lands around 1900 led to a British invasion which resulted in the Boer War(布尔战争 ). Following independence from British, there was a period of uneasy power-sharing between the two groups until the 1940s, when the Afrikaner National Party was able to gain a strong majority. Strategists in the National Party invented apartheid as a means to strengthen their control over the economic and social system. The aim, in reality, was to maintain white domination while extending racial separation.

• 《不道德法》• 制定于 1950 年，

法律禁止白人和非白人的性关系。是种族隔离的基本法律，目的是为了保持白人的纯正血统，防止科洛德人即混血人种的增加。

• 《通行证法》• 16 岁以上的黑人进

入白人居住区时必须携带身份证的法律。如果没有携带身份证，擅自离开自己的居住区，会被人身拘留。

• 班图斯坦 “黑人家园”• 从 1913 年原居民土地法制定以来，黑人被禁

闭于被叫做保留地的居住区内。进入 20 世纪50 年代后，政府改变了这种黑人隔离政策，认为黑人和白人应该分别发展政策， 1959 年制定了班图自治区促进法。根据这一法律，黑人根据文化、语言的不同分为十个地域。加以班图斯坦的名称，其实只是赋予他们名义上的一种假自治、假独立。 1970 年制定了班图家园市民权益法，至此班图斯坦被又称作黑人家园。 1976 年以后，南非政府又给予了德兰士肯等 4 个家园以独立。

• In 1994 the country's constitution was rewritten and free general elections were held for the first time in its history, and with Nelson Mandela's election as South Africa's first black president, the last vestiges of the apartheid system were finally outlawed.

• The writer of the story, Alan Paton, was an important South African novelist and political activist, whose novel Cry, the Beloved Country(1948) brought worldwide attention to the tragedy of apartheid and has become an international classic since. Born in 1903, Paton attended the University of Natal and, afterwards, became a schoolteacher. In the 1930s, he found himself interested in delinquent youths and in 1935 became the principal of a model reformatory.

• The success of his first book Cry, the Beloved Country led him to choose to become a professional writer. Meanwhile he was actively involved in politics. From its founding in 1953 until it was outlawed by the government in 1968, Paton was president of the Liberal Party of South Africa, which advocated the establishment of a multiracial democracy through constitutional, nonviolent procedures.

Detailed Study of the Text

• renounce • 1. If you renounce a belief or a way of behaving,

you decide and declare publicly that you no longer have that belief or will no longer behave in that way.

• 2. If you renounce a claim, rank, or title, you officially give it up.

• He renounced his claim to the French throne.• = give up

• avert • 1. If you avert something unpleasant, you

prevent it from happening.• Talks with the teachers' union over the

weekend have averted a strike.• 2. If you avert your eyes or gaze from someone

or something, you look away from them.• He avoids any eye contact, quickly averting

his gaze when anyone approaches.• He kept his eyes averted.

• abreast • 1. If people or things walk or move abreast, they

are next to each other, side by side, and facing in the same direction.

• The steep pavement was too narrow for them to walk abreast.

• ...a group of youths riding their motorbikes four abreast.

• ADV: ADV after v, num ADV • 2. If you are abreast of someone or something, you

are level with them or in line with them.• 3. If you keep abreast of a subject, you know all the

most recent facts about it.• He will be keeping abreast of the news.• We'll keep you abreast of developments.

• expel • 1. If someone is expelled from a school or organiza

tion, they are officially told to leave because they have behaved badly.

• VB: usu passive • 2. If people are expelled from a place, they are mad

e to leave it, often by force.• 3. To expel something means to force it out from a c

ontainer or from your body.• Daily brushing of the skin helps the skin expel toxi

ns.

• impersonal • 1. If you describe a place, organization, or activity as

impersonal, you mean that it is not very friendly and makes you feel unimportant because it involves or is used by a large number of people.

• The health service has been criticized for being too impersonal.

• 2. If you describe someone's behavior as impersonal, you mean that they do not show any emotion about the person they are dealing with.

• I gave Coe an impersonal stare.• = objective, dispassionate impersonally • The doctor treated Ted gently but impersonally.• 3.An impersonal room or statistic does not give any

information about the character of the person to whom it belongs or relates.

• strain • 1 If strain is put on an organization or system, it has

to do more than it is able to do.• The vast expansion in secondary education is

putting an enormous strain on the system.• = pressure • 2. To strain something means to make it do more than

it is able to do.• Resources will be further strained by new demands

for housing. • = stretch • 3. Strain is a state of worry and tension caused by a

difficult situation.• She was tired and under great strain.• = stress •

• 4. If you say that a situation is a strain, you mean that it makes you worried and tense.

• 5. Strain is a force that pushes, pulls, or stretches something in a way that may damage it.

• 6. If you strain a muscle, you injure it by using it too much or twisting it.

• 7. If you strain to do something, you make a great effort to do it when it is difficult to do.

• strained • 1. If someone's appearance, voice, or behaviour is str

ained, they seem worried and nervous.• 2. If relations between people are strained, those peo

ple do not like or trust each other.•

A Drink in the Passage• In his writing, Paton explores the relationship

between whites and blacks in his country. In this story, a well-educated black finds himself cordially invited to split a bottle with a white man in the latter’s apartment building. The black man is admired and praised by a group of friendly white people, but he has to drink in the passage. Throughout the story one can see that the two sides are both anxious to reach out to each other, but they do not know how. obviously there exists an invisible wall between them which hampers their free communication and full understanding, not just a wall imposed by apartheid laws, but a wall deep in their hearts.

• There are problems that we have all had. Racism has been a serious problem throughout human history. In fact, it is still the case today. Racism of course is based on prejudice, and prejudice can lead to tremendous human suffering, be it racial, religious or political. Moreover, racism or any other form of prejudice does not only involve government and politicians. It exists on a personal level.

Discuss:• Has racism been a serious problem in human

history? Is the problem resolved?• Is it easy to detect the existence of racism?

Why or why not? Does racism only involve governments and politicians?

• Can we divide the world neatly into the victims and the victimizers of racism? Is it possible for them to change places?

Writing• Write a composition about 200 words on the fo

llowing topic.

• Racism Will/Will Not Die Out• In the first paragraph, give your opinion about this top

ic. • In the second paragraph, argue for/against this topic

with at least two reasons.• In the last paragraph, bring what you have said to a n

atural conclusion.