Lit Circles Journal Entry 5

Heading into our fifth journal entry, our group has begun reading a new book; "Of Mice, and Men" by John Steinbeck. In John Steinbeck's book, we are told the story of a pair of unlike travelers, on an expedition for work in a promising farm to "build a stake". George, a small guy, with an edgy attitude, and a quick tongue, and Lennie; a giant with a big heart, but a child's mind. As the story progresses, we then meet a few more interesting characters from within the farm, upon their employment; such as Curley, Curley's wife, and Slim. Curley, being the bosses' son, instantly sets himself up, as an antagonist in the story, by manner of introduction, and first impression, going as far as picking a fight with Lennie. Curley's wife, only known as "Curley's wife" is described as a pretty girl who's got the "eye" for people, and a dangerous flirt. Lastly, Slim: described as a man of the world, who has an inner charm and wisdom beyond his years. This story reminds me very much of a little brother-big brother type of partnership like "Freak the Mighty" in how they both profit and have a sort of "Mutualistic" relationship going on.

So far in our group, we have been doing well in terms of organizing, and handling work efficiently within class time. We have also started to open up more about our personal opinions and thoughts about the things we read and learn about within the stories and tasks we are assigned. All in all, I think that I have made much progress from the start in terms of my cohesion within the group too, and I think it can only run more smoothly from here.

Lit Circles Journal Entry 3

In this past week we have read up to pg. 80 of the book "Night" by Elie Wiesel. So far in the story, we see Elie and his father yet again moving from camp to camp, and as the story further goes along, it seems that we see more and more suffering and oppression. A notable part of the story so far is the concept of "selection" (P. 71), which as the book explains, is how the German Nazis weeded out the people not fit to work anymore, and got rid of them: permanently. As a group, we have discussed if we are implicated in injustice and whether or not we can do anything about it. In my opinion, I think it is true that in the world we live in, people everywhere are implicated by injustice; and it is just an ongoing cycle which we, as individuals can't do much about, due to things that we can't control. Although I think as human beings, we help feed the fire that burns us: in a way that we further oppress ourselves than what is already necessary. Based on our group's progression I would say, we have further grown in trust of each other: That is to say, we are now more comfortable talking loosely about things within the book, and we have built a stronger respect for one another. We now try to built upon each other's ideas and try to go deeper within the EQ questions. Such as how we further asked each other: "What are the things that further implicate humanity into injustice?" Overall, I think our group is heading towards the right way, and much progression has been made since the beginning