The key ideas that came up in the seminar were that we, as a group, were unable to discuss race because we were white kids from a very white community. We also discussed things such as whether or not books should be banned in school, and if we lived in a post racial society. The true key idea was that we didn't have much perspective to truly discuss the topics in the book. We also discussed how Mexican Whiteboy related to Mockingbird, and how it contrasted.
The most interesting idea was the discussion on banned books. Garrett said that books like To Kill a Mockingbird should not be banned because they have value while books like mein kampf should be banned. I countered by saying even a book like mein kampf has value because it gives perspective and shows indicators of people like Hitler. All the discussion directly about the book was garbage, because the book was simply not enough to have much meaningful, deep conversation about.
I had finished the book before the seminar, and did annotations for 15 chapters. The annotations didn’t do me anything because they were just not my style of reading. The difficult part for me was being willing to shut up so other people could say their opinion. I enjoyed talking back and forth with the other people. My goal will be to get even deeper than I got today, because I didn’t really get deep and use my experiences. I will also try to have the text to quote from, but I still doubt that truly has enough value.
This book matters but not as much as we were told. In the end, everyone can view the world through a narrow windows. One's experiences and actions form a windows, as do novels. To Kill a Mockingbird is merely another, small, window into the world. The book does not have enough value to be held as the only thing to cite and discuss in a conversation. Its value is there, but in small amounts.
The most interesting idea was the discussion on banned books. Garrett said that books like To Kill a Mockingbird should not be banned because they have value while books like mein kampf should be banned. I countered by saying even a book like mein kampf has value because it gives perspective and shows indicators of people like Hitler. All the discussion directly about the book was garbage, because the book was simply not enough to have much meaningful, deep conversation about.
I had finished the book before the seminar, and did annotations for 15 chapters. The annotations didn’t do me anything because they were just not my style of reading. The difficult part for me was being willing to shut up so other people could say their opinion. I enjoyed talking back and forth with the other people. My goal will be to get even deeper than I got today, because I didn’t really get deep and use my experiences. I will also try to have the text to quote from, but I still doubt that truly has enough value.
This book matters but not as much as we were told. In the end, everyone can view the world through a narrow windows. One's experiences and actions form a windows, as do novels. To Kill a Mockingbird is merely another, small, window into the world. The book does not have enough value to be held as the only thing to cite and discuss in a conversation. Its value is there, but in small amounts.
