1. Warming up with Socratic ticket musical chairs
2. Enjoying our first real Socratic seminar: Chapters 4-8 in East of Eden
3. Wrapping up with final take-aways, questions, and kudos
HW:
1. For Monday: Read Chapters 9 and 10 and create your next reading ticket for Monday's Socratic (click here for some reading ticket ideas).
2. In general:
- If you're struggling to keep up with the reading during the week, use the weekend to read ahead (see bookmark for this week's chapter assignments).
- If you haven't posted your Big Question Blog(s)--one paragraph or so to unpack the question; one paragraph or so to use Oedipus Rex to explore your question--please take care of that over the weekend.
- Work on your college essay (due September 20).
Scribe: :)
ReplyDelete*light chatter*
Q: Passage about time on page 54.
Reminds students of high school and how you forget things even though at that particular time it was a big deal. So this passage is just reminding us that life goes on.
Pg 55---”They were all kinds of men...all have restlessness in common” connects to Bible verse--You’ll be a restless wanderer. Also connects to Mumford and Sons song. So this quote was just showing you’ll be restless through time moving on.
So after the time passage, he rambles a bit. Maybe taking humanity away from Adam with this time passage showing that sometime things don’t matter as much as we want.
The author seems to take value out of a lot of characters and ideas we initially feel are significant: when Alice dies it is only a sentence. Its surprising.
Time goes fast when you are having a good time but time feels slow when you struggle. The author plays off of this too by describing things more or less to replicate the time in the book with his “ramblings.”
A lot of people fill their lives with false ideas to make reality less real.
Q: Does an unreliable narrorator take away from the story or make it more valid/human?
One student felt it took away from the story because you’re not sure if the source is credible.
Another thinks it adds to the story because it allows you to imagine your own world for the characters because they have more humanity.
Adam and Alice relationship
Alice’s death didn’t resonate as much to Adam because in some ways she was already dead to him.
On pg 64, Charles is mad at Adam for not loving his father as much as he did. So a love square actually exists. Adam loves Alice, Alice loves Charles, Charles loves Cyrus, and Cyrus loves Adam. But it doesn’t go the other way.
Charles and Adam Relationship & Cain and Abel
What would have been different if Cain and Abel would have lived and reconciled? Is this story the author’s theory?
Maybe the author is questioning whether or not its our choice to be evil or good? Did Charles choose to be mean or was he destined to be this way?
Adam is exiled from home. Charles is exiled too his home, away from humanity. To what extent are they exiling themselves and to what extent are they being exiled?
Charles wants to clean the house so that Adam knows he can trust him again. Or maybe Charles cleaned the house to impress Adam and show that he is better than him. When Charles and Adam were separate they write letters to each other and they were close. Even when they were kids they were close. Charles attacked Adam just because he wanted to be loved. So maybe he cleaned the house as an act to reach out to Adam for love.
If you look at the end of the letter between Charles and Adam (pg 36), is this referencing Cain and Abel but in this Charles didn’t get to complete that task. Maybe that caused his restlessness because he didn’t fulfill his fate.
In that letter he stops writing in pen and starts writing in pencil. So, yes, its this idea that its unfinished, that he can’t escape the unfinished feeling.
Does Charles have a mental disorder?
Paradox of loving vs trusting---Q: how can you love someone but not trust them?
It might actually be easier to trust someone when you don’t love them. You don’t have to take accountability for someone if you don’t love them. Its easier to trust them because it doesn’t hold as much weight.
Deaths
Cyrus-- when he died the relationship between Adam and Charles shifted because there was nothing left for Charles to be jealous of.
To what extent is grief controlling Charles and Adam’s actions? Adam is running away from home because of grief and Charles is clinging to home.
Did Cathy have something to do with the suicide? Was she the cause? There’s a subtle description and perhaps blame here in Steinbeck’s description of the door slightly closing. Also Cathy smiled talking about this. Steinbeck really uses small details to hint to the reader that something is off.
Part 2 of scribe: :)
ReplyDeleteCathy
Pg 72, description of Cathy. Her description reminds students of a snake. Perhaps she is the snake from the garden of Eden.
You can’t talk about Cathy without talking about gender in this book. She is such a strong female figure, secure in her sexuality. This is not an idea typically talked about in the 50s. Steinbeck emphasizes the soft presence of Samuel and this identity stands in stark contrast with Cathy.
Both characters are very loved but in a twisted dark way. The author is suspicious of them.
The author describes Cathy twice. She is described physically but we don’t really know anything about her personality or emotions. We feel like we are missing so much about her. The description is sort of overwhelming and we cannot fully create a mental picture of her.
Her feet are described as hooves connecting to the Devil or connecting to a centaur goes back to Greek mythology and vampires. FOSTER
Q: How does Cathy symbolize the Greek monsters? Why does Steinbeck use a young girl to symbolize them?
*A bunch of people talk at once, clearly excited about this idea*
There are a lot of stories in Greek mythology where young girls are monsters: Sirens, etc
*A pencil flies across the room, someone was really excited*
*Laughter, every composes themselves*
Cathy is portrayed as innocent. The serpent, being unknown as an evil figure, really connects to Cathy because both don’t seem evil at first.
Cathy’s character is so unique that maybe Steinbeck knew someone like this in real life and she is based off of someone.
Is there any good in Cathy?
Well you do feel bad for her. Her character is so complex and young.
Another student feels that Cathy is purely bad and doesn’t feel anything but in contrast Charles and Adam can feel and have the ability to change. Cathy does not experience love. It will be interesting to see Charles and Adam interact with Cathy. It will show their true character because they are so different.
NO wrap up (ran out of time)