J&J's+reading


 * The Old Man And The Sea** by Ernest Hemingway

I believe this book should be considered because it seems like the kind of book that we would read in school. Also, you recommended it to us. This novel, written in 1951 and published in 1952, received the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1954. This novel is perceived as the revival of Ernest Hemingway's career. Apparently, it was his first good book in a while. In 1953 he also received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Many critics compared it to the classic works of "The Bear" by William Faulkner and //Moby Dick// by Herman Melville. Although it has a little more than 100 pages, it's filled with details and the story is great.

I hope this passage has given you reasons why "The Old Man And The Sea" would be an ideal novel for our independent reading.

Discussions

This book is pretty easy to read and isn't so overflowed with detail that you don't care what's going on anymore. It's written in modern English, if not really close to it, although he does not use slang. Because of this, it's easy to follow what he's trying to say, although some terms used to describe the book may be unfamiliar to the reader. It has a tendency to move on to a smaller, less important event or detail from half a page to a page and then get back to the actual story. The conversations and dialogue can feel a little weird to read because Ernest Hemingway does not use contractions. Because of this, the dialogue can seem almost unreal, like a robot is talking to another robot. We believe that this book is would be an ideal book for students in middle school to high school.

__**Week 2 - Language

A/D -Jesy B/C -Jeff

Discussion Questions:

1. Why kind of bond does the boy and Santiago show? 2. How big do you think the fish is that Santiago caught? 3. What do you believe will happen to Santiago and the fish?

Summary:**__ Jesy brought in a pizza pie and Mountain Dew for the group members. We talked about the language of the book and the questions associated with it. We talked a little more in depth about the questions, answering the ones we both knew and talking about the ones we didn't know. We talked about what else we have to read. (What we have to read for next Friday.) We also talked about what we had read so far. We discussed a summary for the book. We also talked about the story. We talked about how easy it is to follow and the events. We talked about how we felt about the book. (Language, story, events, etc...)

Week 3-Mood/Tone

A/D-Jeff B/C-Jesy

Discussion Questions

1. Why do you think Santiago talks to the fish as if he were his friend? 2. Why do you think he talks to himself out loud? 3. Santiago reveals that he is not religious, but he says that if he catches the fish, then he will recite Our Fathers and Hail Marys. He also says that he will make a pilgrimage to the Virgin of Cobre. Why do you think this is? 4. Do you think that Santiago will out-endure the fish?

Summary: Jeff and I talk about the book for a couple of minuets. No one really did anything since Mr. Morone was not here and the sub was just as young as he was so we gave her not that much respect. Either way we talked about the book and did our jobs. Jeff brought in chocolate drinks and brownies and I was group leader and summary person. After talking about the book for about 5min, we got off subject. Everyone started talking about grades and how we never get our quiz and tests back so we don't know where our average is. Jeff and I talked about college, not much to mention. As group leader I kept us on track, by making Jeff become a gamer. We played a game on my laptop and I lost, badly. After that we had 5min, which gave me enough time to write this summary. Either way, I learned one thing. I am not a good group leader.

Week 4-Themes/Images

A/D-Jesy B/C-Jeff

Summary: This week Jesy brought in 12 Munchkins, a box of Pocky, Zoo Land animal crackers, and Kool-Aid Bursts. We sat down and commenced with our feast. After about 5 minutes of hard working Mr. Morone came and claimed that he did not see us work hard. We talked about the imagery of the book, as well as any themes that we noticed. Jesy said that an image that she noticed was when the Marlin jumped out of the water. We talked about that particular passage and attempted to interpret it. We agreed on the idea that the Marlin, to the man, was his "spiritual brother" and companion. He was also the whole reason he was out that far. We also talked about potential themes to the story. We agreed that one theme could be a man's greatest journey and pride. It could also be how hard a man can work to get something he really wants.

Discussion Questions:

1. The old man starts talking to himself more and more, is this because he could be lonely? crazy? or something else? 2. Why won't the old man just give up the fish? Why was it so important to catch this fish? 3. Why does the part when the fish jumps out of the water play such an important part?