现代大学英语（第三版）精读6 Unit 5 The Museum 、Unit 6 Housewifely Arts.ppt

* The Story Background “Housewifely Arts” describes a single mother and her son who drive nine hours to track down an African gray parrot that can mimic her deceased mother’s voice. The story first appeared in the journal One Story. It was then selected for The Best American Short Stories 2011 edited by Geraldine Brooks and featured in the anthology New Stories from the South. It was also one of twelve stories by the author that appeared in her debut collection Birds of a Lesser Paradise. It appears here in a slightly abridged version. * Background What is this story about? One answer is simply that it is about love. Because of the protagonist’s strong maternal love for her son, Ike, she worries about genetic weaknesses she might have passed on to him—“cancer genes, hay fever, high blood pressure”, plus being undersized for his age making him an easy target for bullies. Being a single parent, she knows that she is all her son has. She takes care to shelter him from bad examples and possible harm. The desire to be a good mother, to help her child grow up happy, healthy, and productive is so intense that she is sometimes haunted by nightmares. * Background The experience of parenting her child gradually makes the protagonist more aware of her relationship with her mother. Loving her son, she finally realizes how much her parents also loved her. Her father’s love was easier to understand. He tried his best to give her opportunities in life, but when she failed in the year at a private college, which he had funded for her with considerable difficulty, he did not judge or reproach her. She loved her father, but she regarded her mother as cold and harsh and fought constantly with her, reacting like her former self, the rebellious teenager, being neither mature nor com-passionate in looking after her mother in old age, under-standing her, forgiving her weaknesses, and loving her. * But now that her mother is dead, she begins increasingly to miss her, and the decision to