Choices: October 5, 2018

Focus: What can we learn through Steinbeck's choices?

1. Warming up with a close reading the end of Chapter 49 together:

• Which authorial choices stand out to you?
• Why might Steinbeck have made these choices?

2. Giving you a spoiler alert for Chapter 50 and offering you the choice to skip it

3. Reading the ending of East of Eden OR freewriting on the following quotation about the human soul:

“But I have a new love for that glittering instrument,
the human soul.
It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe.
It is always attacked and never destroyed -
because 'Thou mayest.”

― John Steinbeck, East of Eden

HW:
1. For MONDAY: Finish East of Eden and your final reading ticket (if you can) for our final Socratic on Monday. Remember that you can skip Chapter 50 if it's too much for you right now. If you're in need of a little focus for the final reading ticket, try this:

• Select one motif (water, apples, the color gray, Cain & Abel, etc.).

• Describe where the motif has shown up previously, and address where/how it comes into play in the final chapters (include quotations/page numbers).

• What has this motif contributed to the meaning of the work as a whole. In other words, why do you think Steinbeck developed this particular motif?

2. For TUESDAY: Bring your computer to class to compose your Big Question Blog on East of Eden.

3. THURSDAY we will have our Tuesday writing on East of Eden.