summaryofloveisafallacy

1、Summa r y of Love i sa Fa I lacy-CAL-FENGHAI-(2020YEAR-YICAI)INGBIANSummary of the TextThis essay surpasses the very informal writing style of Charles Lamb, who was extraordinarily imagi native and en terprisi ng, and in deed demonstrates the fun and beauty of logic. It is told by the main character

2、 whose name is never revealedThough only 18 years old, I was the elite of my peers One Friday after noon 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

3、would give anything for it. It occurred to me that I could get an old raccoon coat from my father and exchange it for "something11 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 w

4、as not so happy when I told him my request After long thought he gave in and allowed me to date the beaut訐ul PollyMy 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 w訐e. However, her physical charms were irresi

5、stible 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 wan ted to give her back to Pete y. Yet, in

6、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 intelligenee sparked in her eyes. I enthusiastically followed it up with a review of all I had taught her. My five grueling nig

7、hts paid well: I had finally made a logician out of Polly. Whe n next we sat under our oak tree, I tried to cha nge our relati on ship 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

8、 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 pref ere nee of Petey over me.Polly's answer was that Percy had got a raccoon coat! The raccoon coat that I dislik

9、ed 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 & AppreciationThe title of the story, humorous and well chosen, has two meanings: when fallacy is taken literally, the title mean

10、s:11 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 h

11、imself at every chanee he gets From Para 4, he begins to employ all the beaut訐ul words he can think of, like "cool, powerful, precise" and "penetrating1' to describe himself. Meanwhile, he takes every opportunity to run down Petey Burch, calling him "dumb", "nothing

12、 upstairs", "unstable", uimpressi on able" and "a faddist", and Polly Espy as na beaut 訐 ul dumb girT： who might "smarten up11 under his guidanceThe purpose of this essay is to dem on strate that logic is a living, breathing thing, full of beauty, passion, and trau

13、ma, 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" 一 ”exchange of a raccoon coat for a pretty but foolish girl"一"te

14、aching her to be logical and clever7""a Pygmalion becomes a Frankenstein舄 thus the theme "Logic is fun; love is not for love's sake but for fashion's sake, for wealth1 s sake."To achieve his purpose, the writer employs a variety of writing techniques and a lexical spectru

15、m-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

16、 to the immediacy of the storyFor instanee, Polly Espy's exclamatory words like "Gee, Oo, Wow-dow and clipped vulgar forms like "delish, marvy, sensaysh/1 etc. create the impression of a simple and rather stupid girl, contrasting strongly with the boasting of the narrator, and thus inc

17、reasing 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 don*t have anything to do with I訐e舄 committing a fallacy of Dicto Simpliciter himself in his final desperate attempt to make Polly Espy forget th

18、e fallacies he has taught her and convince her that he loves her and that she should go steady with himTopic-centered paragraph writing is also one of the features. Take Para.50 for example .Its topic sen tence is the sec ond sen tenceHe was a torn man.” The writer develops the paragraph by describi

19、ng the behavior of the man, using illustrative examples to develop the theme stated in his topic sentenceAlso, 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

20、 by the monster he has created, whereas Pygmalion was loved by the statue of GalateaThe 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

21、 too clever for his own good Affluenee has replaced love, thus there is no questi on of taking brilliance, tale nt, or education into con sideration when choosi ng a boyfriend and a husba nd. It has reduced the search to a matter of seeking wealth and keepi ng up with the Jon eses In deed, this kind

22、 of love is a fallacy!An introduction to the text: Love is a FallacyThe purpose of the essay, according to the writer, is nto 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 t

23、he 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 beaut訐ul words o

24、f praise he can think of 一"cool舄"logical", "keen舄"calculating11, "perspicacious11, "acute", "astute", "powerfur； "precise11 and npenetrating.” At the same time, the narrator takes every opportunity to downgrade Petey Burch He considers him

25、"dumb11, “nothing upstairs", "emotional舄"unstable", "impressionable", and "a faddist". What is more, he regards Polly Espy as "a beaut訐ul dumb girl", who would smarten up under his guidanee. In order to smarten her up, the narrator decides to gi

26、ve 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 nthe things you learn in school don't have any thing to do in lif

27、e（para145）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 can not be deduced from a set of given premis

28、esThe 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 一lexical devices, syntactic devices, figures of speech, and discourse analysis.General idea of the

29、 taxt:全文概述This text is a piece of narrative writing The narrator of the story, Dobie Gillis, a self-conceited freshman in a law school, is the protagonist. He struggles against two antagonists： Petey Burch, his stupid roommate whose girl friend he plans to steak and Polly Espy, the beaut訐ul dumb gir

30、l he intends to marry after suitable re- education. Petey, a faddist, is eager for a raccoon coat, and he decides to exchange his girl friend Petey for it with Dobie Dobie has affection for Polly for long out of practical considerations.Dumb as Polly is, she has the makings to become a suitable w訐e

31、of a lawyer In order to smarten her up, Dobie decides to give her a course in logic. He teaches her how to recognize the common fallacies of logic. He succeeds too well because the whole thing backfires（造成相反結(jié)果）on him when Polly refutes all his argume nts as logical fallacies before fin ally rejectin

32、g him. In desperation Dobie argues that "the things you learn in school don't have anything to do in I訐e"The appeal does not move Polly because Dobie does not own a raccoon coat as Petey Burch does Ironically, the raccoon coat which Dobie gives to Petey for the privilege of dating his

33、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 satire Its theme is stated in the title： "Love is a fallacyM , which can be understood in two ways When u fallacy " is takenliterally, the title means： Love is decep