Summer Reading Discussion

Part II

Go ahead and continue our discussion here. Today in class we focused primarily on “The Infant Prodigy,” but we also began discussing “Hedda Gabler.” Feel free to comment on any of the stories or on The Diary of a Young Girl. A couple of key points to remember about “The Infant Prodigy,” Bibi, is that Thomas Mann was a German writer who fled Germany as soon as he began realizing how drastically his country was changing. He lived from 1875-1955, which means he was alive during all of World War II. The sense of arrogance Bibi portrays is something most readers pick up on, yet the audience members in the story flock to him and treat him like royalty.

Although we’ve only begun talking about Hedda, the important thing to remember about Ibsen, the author, is that he was criticized during his own lifetime for being a feminist writer. This seems a little ironic when thinking about Hedda Gabler, a female character who tries convincing one person to kill himself and then takes her own life. However, when we examine Hedda’s life, we see that she is a woman trapped. She is trapped in a marriage she does not want, trapped in a station of life that forces her to look pretty and entertain guests when she’d much rather be out hunting with the guys, trapped in a society that denies women of her status any real freedoms or rights. To compensate for her feelings of isolation, she tries to control others from the sidelines. But does she succeed?

Part I

Below is a list of “starter questions.” You do not need to answer all of them–or any of them specifically. Your discussion must relate to the summer reading selections, and they must be appropriate in order to receive full credit. Remember that the “live” portion will occur from 7:45-8:15. It is not mandatory that you participate in that portion, but you are responsible for posting one thoughtful comment.

Did you feel today’s in-class discussion helped your understanding? How so? What surprised you about the story? What else did it make you think of?
Now that you may have a better understanding of “The Hunger Artist,” how does it differ from those attitudes we see in “An Infant Prodigy?”

Word Choice and Figurative Language

Post answers to today’s reading here.

Seven Stages of Man

What similes and/or metaphors do you notice in the poem? Please comment and respond to others about what the similes and metaphors are comparing.

Summer is near an end . . .

You are doing a wonderful job on the questions. This is tough reading material, but I’m really proud of the way you’re all tackling it. We will talk about all of the stories in more detail the first week of school. Meanwhile, remember that I would like you to choose one selection and write a five paragraph essay on some aspect of the reading. One person has asked about writing on concentration camps–this would be a great topic. This would be a historical essay and is certainly appropriate to The Diary of a Young Girl. Make sure whichever topic you choose links somehow back to the reading selection. Here are some more possibilities:

Hedda Gabler

You might explore the feminist aspects of the play. What kind of a life did Hedda lead? What power did she have?

On the other hand, how about the way in which the men in the play demonstrated a lack of confidence?

A Hunger Artist

How about the symbolism of religion? How long did they allow him to fast? Why was the the image of a caged panther more appealing to the audience?

Infant Prodigy

What does this story imply about the nature of people? What do we seek and how does our idolatry of sports figures or movie stars actually affect the livelihood of those individuals?

Diary of a Young Girl

Historical–concentration camps, the timeline of Nazi invasions, the factual information of the Annex

Psychological–how is Anne a regular teenage girl? How does guilt about living affect her? What do you think about her relationship with her parents?

Marxist–It’s hard for the modern day reader to understand the thinking that leads to such intense prejudice, and yet it is vitally important for contemporary audiences to look back and try to find the causes of such thinking in order to prevent atrocities such as the Holocaust from reoccurring. Marxist theory is a fancy way of saying look at the ideas of inequality that lead to such horrific results. What was happening in Germany prior to World War II that made these sentiments possible?

If you have questions, please ask them on the blog so that everyone may benefit from the answers.

See you soon!