Summary of Love is a Fallacy.doc

Summary of the Text This essay surpasses the very informal writing style of Charles Lamb, who was extraordinarily imaginative and enterprising, and indeed demonstrates the fun and beauty of logic. It is told by the main character whose name is never revealed. Though only 18 years old, I was the elite of my peers. One Friday afternoon I found my stupid roommate Petey Burch lying in bed in great distress. At first I thought he was ill but then I discovered he was desperate for a raccoon coat, the fad at that time, declaring he would give anything for it. It occurred to me that I could get an old raccoon coat from my father and exchange it for something I had been coveting for some time-his girlfriend Polly Espy. The next Monday morning, I returned to school and showed him the hairy coat. He went crazy. However, he was not so happy when I told him my request. After long thought he gave in and allowed me to date the beautiful Polly. My first date with Polly on Tuesday evening disappointed me so much that I almost returned her to Petey, for she seemed too foolish to be my wife. However, her physical charms were irresistible so I decided to teach her to think and to learn logic. The next time, at the campus trysting place I taught her the fallacies called Dicto Simpliciter, Hasty Generalization, Post Hoc, and Contradictory Premises, but her head was logic-proof. Again I wanted to give her back to Petey. Yet, in for a penny, in for a pound. I decided to teach her Ad Misericordiam, False Analogy, Hypothesis Contrary to Fact, and Poisoning the Well. At this final fallacy, a glimmer of intelligence sparked in her eyes. I enthusiastically followed it up with a review of all I had taught her. My five grueling nights paid well: I had finally made a logician out of Polly. When next we sat under our oak tree, I tried to change our relationship from academic to romantic, only to find each of my romantic phrases and proposals refuted by her as fallacies, finally rejecting me in favor of Petey! At my question for the reason of her not going out with me, she said that that very afternoon she had promised to go steady with Petey. I was furious, and asked her for the logical reason for her preference of Petey over me. Pollys answer was that Percy had got a raccoon coat! The raccoon coat that I disliked and abhorred and had given to Petey for the privilege of dating Polly was now the very instrument of my undoing! Love is delusive and logically unpredictable!Style & Appreciation The title of the story, humorous and well chosen, has two meanings: when fallacy is taken literally, the title means: Love is deceptive and delusive. When taken with its logical meaning, the title means: Love cannot be deduced from a set of given premises. The story is satirizing a self-conceited freshman in a law school- the narrator of the story. He goes around smugly boasting and praising himself at every chance he gets. From Para. 4, he begins to employ all the beautiful words he can think of, like cool, powerful, precise and penetrating to describe himself. Meanwhile, he takes every opportunity to run down Petey Burch, calling him dumb, nothing upstairs, unstable, impressionable and a faddist, and Polly Espy as a beautiful dumb girl, who might smarten up under his guidance. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that logic is a living, breathing thing, full of beauty, passion, and trauma, far from being a dry, pedantic subject. Humorously, the writer exaggerates every situation, with the result that logic becomes an interesting subject. The logical link of passage ideas is logic- a living thing - exchange of a raccoon coat for a pretty but foolish girl-teaching her to be logical and clever”-a Pygmalion becomes a Frankenstein, thus the theme Logic is fun; love is not for loves sake but for fashions sake, for wealth s sake. To achieve his purpose, the writer employs a variety of writing techniques and a lexical spectrum-from the ultra-learned terms used by the conceited narrator to the infra-clipped vulgar forms of Polly Espy-to make his story valid, dramatic and colorful. His figurative language, grammatical inversion for special emphasis, short sentences, elliptical sentences and dashes throughout the story add to the immediacy of the story. For instance, Polly Espys exclamatory words like Gee, Oo, Wow-dow and clipped vulgar forms like delish, marvy, sensaysh, etc. create the impression of a simple and rather stupid girl, contrasting strongly with the boasting of the narrator, and thus increasing the force of satire and irony. Again, every man has a fool up his sleeve. In Para. 145, the narrator argues that the things you learn in school dont have anything to do with life, committing a fallacy of Dicto Simpliciter himself in his final desperate attempt to make Polly Espy forget the fallacies he has taught her and convince her that he loves her and that she should go steady with him. Topic-centered paragraph writing is also one of the features. Take Para.50 for example. Its topic sentence is the second sentenceHe was a torn man. The writer develops the paragraph by describing the behavior of the man, using illustrative examples to develop the theme stated in his topic sentence. Also, his allusions are aptly chosen. The narrator refers to Pygmalion and Frankenstein because he courts Polly and Polly refuses him. He gets the same result as Frankenstein did. He is destroyed by the monster he has created, whereas Pygmalion was loved by the statue of Galatea. The conclusion is ironic in that the whole thing backfires on the narrator when Polly refutes all his arguments as logical fallacies before finally rejecting him. He has become the victim of his own cleverness; he is too clever for his own good. Affluence has replaced love, thus there is no question of taking brilliance, talent, or education into consideration when choosing a boyfriend and a husband. It has reduced the search to a matter of seeking wealth and keeping up with the Joneses. Indeed, this kind of love is a fallacy!An introduction to the text: Love is a FallacyThe purpose of the essay, according to the writer, is to demonstrate that logic, far from being a dry, pedantic subject, is a living, breathing thing, full of beauty, passion, and trauma. The story is set in a law school at the university of Minnesota, U.S.A. The protagonist, a self-conceited freshman in a law school, is made the narrator of the story, who goes on smugly boasting and singing praises of himself at every conceivable opportunity. From the very beginning, he starts to heap on himself all the beautiful words of praise he can think of - cool, logical, keen, calculating, perspicacious, acute, astute, powerful, precise and penetrating. At the same time, the narrator takes every opportunity to downgrade Petey Burch. He considers him dumb, nothing upstairs, emotional, unstable, impressionable, and a faddist. What is more, he regards Polly Espy as a beautiful dumb girl, who would smarten up under his guidance. In order to smarten her up, the narrator decides to give her a course in logic. Unfortunately, he succeeds too well because the whole thing backfires on him when Polly refutes all his arguments as logical fallacies before finally rejecting him. In desperation the narrator argues that the things you learn in school dont have anything to do in life.(para.145)This appeal does not move Polly because she does not reject him on logical grounds. She rejects him because he does not own a raccoon coat as Petey Burch does. At the end of the story, the reader feels the narrator has got what he deserves: love cannot be deduced from a set of given premises.The writer employs a whole variety of techniques to make his story vivid, dramatic, and colorful. This can be shown by having a closer examination of the original text from the following four aspects -lexical devices, syntactic devices, figures of speech, and discourse analysis.General idea of the text:全文概述This text is a piece of narrative writingThe narrator of the story，Dobie Gillis，a self-conceited freshman in a law school，is the protagonistHe struggles against two antagonists：Petey Burch，his stupid roommate whose girl friend he plans to steal，and Polly Espy，the beautiful dumb girl he intends to marry after suitable re-educationPetey，a faddist，is eager for a raccoon coat，and he decides to exchange his girl friend Petey for it with DobieDobie has affection for Polly for long out of practical considerations.Dumb as Polly is，she has the makings to become a suitable wife of a lawyerIn order to smarten her up，Dobie decides to give her a course in logicHe teaches her how to recognize the common fallacies of logicHe succeeds too well because the whole thing backfires(造成相反結(jié)果) on him when Polly refutes all his arguments as logical fallacies before finally rejecting himIn desperation Dobie argues that“the things you learn in school dont have anything to do in life”The appeal does not move Polly because Dobie does not own a raccoon coat as Petey Burch doesIronically，the raccoon coat which Dobie gives to Petey for the privilege of dating his girl，the raccoon coat which Dobie dislikes and abhors，is the instrument of his own undoing(毀滅)美文欣賞及寫作特點The whole story is a piece of narration of light，humorous satireIts theme is stated in the title：“Love is a fallacy”，which can be understood in two waysWhen“fallacy”is taken literally，the title means：“Love is deceptive or delusi