Текст для анализа для 3 курса ФО

I’M GOING TO ASIA

by J. Cheever

It was a Sunday evening and the Towle family sat in the terrace admiring the familiar scenery. There were Mr. and Mrs. Towle, Mr. Towle’s mother, Bill and Freddy, their two sons, and Carol, Bill’s fiancée. Old Mrs. Towle sat a little apart from the group. Freddy was sprawled on the floor, nursing a drink. They were listening to a news broadcast from a portable radio. The announcer was sobbing with emotion.

When the news broadcast ended and a band began to play dance music Freddy turned off the radio.

“The news makes me sick,” Freddy said quietly. He put a hand to his stomach.

“You know when I get old,” Carol said. “I’m going to overdress. I think old age is such a good excuse for overdressing.”

“We’ll spend the rest of our lives in uniform,” Freddy said.

The light was going off the water. The changes of light on the water held their interest. They were people with the city in their blood and for them the country was like some reassuring and ingenuous imitation of the past.

“I’m going to Asia,” Carol broke in, “and I’m going to take a bathtub.”

“I’m  going to Asia,” Bill said, “and I’m going to take an anesthetic.”

“Oh, is it my turn?” Mrs. Towle asked. She was knitting on a large gray sock. “I never can understand this game. Let me see. Well, I’m going to Asia and I’m going to take an icebox.”

“You can’t go to Asia, Mother,” Carole said.

“I’m going to Asia and I’m going to take a trunk,” Mr. Towle said.

“Antwerp, Liege, Amiens, Beauvais,” Freddy said, “I’ve been to all of them. They’re all ruins now. When I took the bicycle trip I went to all of those places.”

“Oh, Charles, I forgot to tell you,” Mrs. Towle said to her husband, “I sent that check you gave me for the bill to the English Speaking Union to buy yarn for socks.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Louise. I don’t mind giving a small contribution but we can’t give away that kind of money now.”

“Want to go for a dip?” Bill whispered to Carole. She agreed, and they got up and walked down toward the boathouse…

“They don’t have coffee,” Freddy said. “They don’t have butter. They don’t have whiskey, they don’t have homes. At one meal we eat more meat than anybody in Europe in six months.”

“I hope this sock isn’t going to be too big,” Mrs. Towle said, holding up the sock. “I always imagine soldiers as having big feet, although I suppose some of them have small feet just like everybody else.”

They heard voices of Carole and Bill. “It makes me so happy to see them together. They are so happy. The only thing I want is to see my sons happily married and to have a few grandchildren. If only you were married, Freddy, I wouldn’t ask for anything more,” Mrs. Towle said.

Freddy laughed unpleasantly, “This is a fine time to get married. This is a swell year to get married. Maybe I’ll have to go to war. I’ll be in the first draft. Maybe I’ll be killed. This is a swell time to get married. No, thank you.”

“You take it too hard, Freddy.

“The thing that kills me is the surprise you people have coming. You just sit around here as if nothing had happened. Well, something has happened. Our world has ended. It’s the end of our world. In every way. It’s all over.”

“Don’t talk to your mother like that, Freddy,” Mr. Towle said.

“I’m not telling her anything that will hurt her. I’m telling her something she ought to know. It isn’t going to be like this anymore. It’s ended, it’s all over, it’s dead. She ought to know it. She ought to realize it.”

He turned his back on them and took his head in his hands.

From below they heard the sound of running footsteps on the pier. “It is freezing?” they heard Carol shout.

“No, not very,” Bill shouted.

They could still hear their voices when Carol and Bill left the water for the boathouse.

“When we get married,” Bill said. “I’ll build you a big glassed-in swimming pool in our house in Winchester, our big house in Winchester.”

Mr. Towle slapped a mosquito on his ankle.

“I’d like to remodel the barn,” said Mrs. Towle, “so that when Carole and Bill come up here after they’re married they can be near us and still have a house of their own. After we’ve gone Freddy and his wife can have the house and Carole and Bill can have the barn.” She dropped her knitting tiredly. “I’d like to go to Asia,” she said. “There isn’t any war in Asia, is there. Or is there?”

Commentary.

1.                I’m going to Asia is a game where participants must repeat the phrase “I’m going to Asia and I’m going take…” and complete it with a certain noun. The choice of a noun is determined by the first word: each next word has to begin with one of the letters of first word in the order they occur in it. E.g. b-a-t-h-t-u-b.

2.                Antwerp, Liege, Amiens, Beauvais – first two are towns in Belgium, the latter two – in France.

3.                the English Speaking Union – a charity fund.