Unit TwelveTEXT IGRANT AND LEE: A STUDY IN CONTRASTSBruce CattonObjectives: to make a table of all the contrasts and similarities between Grant and Lee and explain them;to analyse the organization of this essay and learn the ways of comparison and contrast;Pre-class work1. Find some brief information about the following persons and events.--- American Civil War--- Ulysses S. Grant--- Robert E. Lee2. Try to answer the questions in Org. & Devl. , and Analysis.3. Identify in the text as many contrasts and similarities between Grant and Lee as you can, and make a table of your own to show all these.Contrasts in family background, in personality, in opinions on privilege, equality, past and future, what to fight for, etc.Similarities as shown in LW 4, but try to explain.Pre-reading Questions1. Tell what you know about American Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant, and Robert E. Lee.(Refer to the attachment copied from Encyclopedia Britanica.)In-reading DiscussionStep 1The usual ways or the basic patterns to organize the comparison and contrast (Analysis)1. Subject-by-subject pattern: A1, A2, A3,...... B1, B2, B3, ......2. Point-by-point pattern: A1, B1; A2, B2; A3, B3; ......3. Subject-by-subject plus point-by-point pattern: combination of 1 & 2. Step 2 Part division (Org.& Devl.)--- Paras. 1-3: Introduction The purpose is to present the two generals for comparison and to put forth the significance of their meeting at Appomattox.--- Paras. 4-12: Contrasts between Grant and Lee.Subject-by-subject comparison (categories compared: background,personality, notions of equality, privilege, past and future, what to fight for, etc.) Paras. 4-6: Lee; 7-8: Grant; 9, 11: Grant; 10: Lee; 12: Summary of the contrasts--- Para. 13: Transition to link the section about the contrasts to the section about the similarities. The transitional word ‘yet’ and the concessional clause prepare the readers for the turn of direction. Their similarities are briefly mentioned in the last two sentences.--- Paras. 14- 16: Similarities between Grant and Lee.Point-by-point comparison (categories compared: tenacity and fidelity, daring and resourcefulness, ability to make peace)Step 3 Contrasts between Grant and Lee in background, in personality, in underlying aspiration (para. 13) including opinions on / notions of privilege, equality, social structure, past and future, what to fight for, etc.(Ask individuals to talk about the contrasts one by one while the teacher makes some necessary explanations of the difficult sentences in the text.)1. tidewater Virginia:(Note 3) a state in the South of America, known at that time for its large plantations and its slaveholding tidewater aristocracy.2. Ohio: (note 8) a part of the Western frontier for those oppressed,discontented, ambitious, and restive people who sought adventures and made fortunes in the West.1. What does the word ‘chivalry’ suggest? (3-1) Or, what are the personality of chivalry, knight, the English country squire?the qualities that knights in the Western countries in the Middle Ages were expected to have, such as courage, honour, courtesy, loyalty, generosity, devotion to the weak and helpless, to the service of women1. pronounced: definite2. There should be a leisured class ... as the chief source of wealth and influence.Society is in need of a class of people who are not job-holders butland-owners, for their land may well help make society rich and powerful.3. Why should the leisured class enjoy privilege? (ll. 25-31)It was this leisured class of wealthy people that supported the society and made the nation powerful. They had a strong obligation to save or help the community instead of gaining advantage for themselves. It was this privileged class that should gain the leadership, decide social values - of thought, of conduct, of personal deportment.4. No man was born to ... how far he could rise.Nobody was born into this world with any rights or privileges; what he might do is to fully utilize every single opportunity with his reach and strive to achieve success.1. What do the words ‘steel and machinery’, ‘crowded cities’ symbolize?And what do the words ‘restless burgeoning vitality’ connote? (3-4) Mechanization, industrialization, and urbanizationDynamism, life, potential of growth and development1. Through him, the landed nobility justified itself.2.He had passed into legend before Appomattox.3. What was Lee’s ideal?a leisured class that had the ownership of wealth, that had all the privileges, that had the obligation to support the nation, to lead the nation in its development, to decide everything including social values.4. What did his men fight for? Why? (ll. 34-41)They fought for the ideals Lee stood for, for him himself. They fought heroically and desperately because they thought they were carrying on a holy cause. They were even willing to die for him because they considered him the Confederacy, the symbol of everything.Their faith in Lee was nearly fanatical, don’t you think so? (3-2)5. Why did Lee fight for his own community / locality?to defend his locality, i.e., all the wealth, the privileges, the power, which are the things that made his life meaningful. (ll. 70-71) So he treasured them and would do everything to preserve them.6. Why did Grant fight for the national community?He believed people could prosper only when their community prospered. He saw his fate in terms of the n ation’s own destiny. (= He had linked his own future with that of his country.) He would become wealthy if his country grew and developed well. (He had an acute dollars-and-cents stake in the continued growth and development of his country.) (para. 9)His living was closely connected with the growth, expansion, and development. He would survive as his country survived; he would fall if his country fell. Therefore, he would take some actions to defend his country when it was in danger. He would fight for his country against the danger with all his might because he thought this danger would bring forth the destruction of the country in which he lived. (He would combat it ... from under his feet.) (para. 11)7. What does ‘it’ in para. 11 refer to? (3-3)An attempt to destroy the nation.Summary:1. Each man was the perfect champion of his cause, drawing both his strengths and his weaknesses from the people he led. (= Each of the two men was the leading figure of his cause, defending his own faith, and each of them was the representative of his class, possessing all the characteristics and qualities - strengths and weaknesses - of his own class.)2. What is the most striking contrast between Grant and Lee according to Catton? What, in your opinion, makes him think so? (3-11)Grant was a nationalist and a democrat while Lee was a regionalist, an aristocrat, and a conservative.Of all their differences, this perhaps was the most essential one, which determined their different notions of the kind of nation America was to be built into.Step 4 Similarities between Grant and Lee1. Refer to LW4, and try to explain by giving synonyms in right column for the words in the left column.2. What is the most important similarity between Grant and Lee? Do you agree with Catton on this? Why? (3-10)to turn quickly from war to peace once the fighting was over. (16)This was the most important similarity because it made possible the reconciliation at Appomattox, which led to the reunification of the North and the South and the creation of the American nation, a most significant event in American history.3. Is the last para. the conclusion? Why did the author conclude the essay in this way? (Org. & Devl. - 3)There is not a separate para. that concludes the essay, but it is properly concluded in the last para., which is supposed to present the last, and also the most important similarity. This has such great significance for the outcome of the encounter at Appomatox that it is hardly possible for Catton to start another para. to restate the historic meaning of this event.Post-reading Activities1. Comp. 1, 22. In this comparison between two historical figures, no mention is made of their physical appearance. Is this a weakness of the essay or is there some justification for avoiding such details? Explain your answer. (3-12) Normally it would be considered a defect. But C. is writing about the two soldiers as large-than-life exeplars of social trends. Also he is writing about their beliefs and deeds rather than about their personal appearance.3. How is the beginning of the essay echoed by the ending? (3-13)What is said in the 1st para. ‘... a great chapter in American life came to a close, and a great new chapter began’ is restated in the last sentence ‘... one ofUnit 12Organization and Development Paras. 1-3IntroductionParas. 4-11Paras. 12Summary of the contrasts Para. 13TransitionParas. 14-16Similarities between Grant and Le (Language Work IV)。