WLC+TaeYoon

" 'I am no longer who I was, I am no longer an ascetic, I am no longer a priest, I am no longer a Brahmin.' "
 * Sentence Pattern 9a:

WHY: There is a repeated key word in the same position of the sentence. These repetitions emphasize the main point of the sentence. **

Examining the Setting with Research

My topic of research: Figures that appear throughout the first section.

http://www.crystalinks.com/buddha.html - I think the source above, which I used to discover the true identities of some characters within the first section of the novel, was very reliable and easy to use. It had loads of information that surprisingly corresponded with exactly what I needed; it had descriptions of certain figures who's names match that of within the book. The reliability of the site lies, entirely, within the information I read and used. Everything seems factual, there are no signs of bias, and the information seems to be very solid. On the other hand, this is religion we're talking about, a religion that wasn't properly recorded many times. Therefore it is hard to discern myth and fact.

- From the beginning of the book, even by just looking at the cover of "Siddhartha," we can probably predict what the novel is about. The cover is a picture of Buddha himself sitting in his meditative pose. By looking at my reliable site, I have unveiled the true identity of the protagonist, Siddhartha, and another character, Gautama or otherwise known as "Buddha." Very surprisingly, it turns out to be that "The Buddha" was actually, at first, named Siddhartha Gautama, meaning, the two different characters in the novel were actually the same person in history. At the beginning of the novel, there's an extensive description of Siddhartha's wonderful physical characteristics. In history, the to-be-Buddha was born a magnificent prince as well. Additionally, there's a saying that Gautama Siddhartha Buddha wanted to leave home and become a Samana, which corresponds exactly to that of the actions of Siddhartha in the novel. It is also said that he went through many hardships while becoming a samana, much like the story. Buddha was born in the year 565 B.C, which allows me to infer that the story is based around the same time period as well.

Reading Assignments: Divide your novel into four sections - by pages or chapters. **Post the schedule below on your wiki page with your pages/chapters due filled in for each class.**

Reflections: After each world literature circle discussion, please complete the following reflection in complete sentences on your page. (Clearly label each discussion reflection.) **What was the most interesting idea or insight that was discussed in your group meeting today?**Describe the discussion in as much detail as you can, noting the ideas various members came up with as well as any follow-up questions that were asked. (This reflection needs to be a paragraph in length.)

Class 39 World Literature Circles - Meeting #1 Pages / Chapters Due: 34, "Awakening" Reflection: This discussion was the very first of four more to come. In this discussion we shared our first impressions of this book as well as what each of us thought was the major goal the main character was striving to achieve. Which brings me to the most interesting idea or insight that we discussed in our group meeting: Siddhartha's life-long goal. There were many different opinions on what each group member thought was the actual goal of Siddhartha. Seunghyun exclaimed that Siddhartha was trying to accomplish a nearly impossible goal of establishing a 'perfect' society. Rosa and Susie, on the other hand, declared that this idea was false and that they thought differently. They thought that the goal was to become Enlightened, to quench Siddhartha's everlasting thirst for knowledge. In the end I had to side with Mr. Lee because I thought Siddhartha's goal was to achieve the status of Nirvana which is similar to the word 'perfect' Mr. Lee used in his explanation.

Class 41 World Literature Circles - Meeting #2 Pages / Chapters Due: 77, "By the River" Reflection: In today's discussion, a lot of interesting points were presented from each group member. Within the discussion, all the team members pointed out the important fact that this was where Siddhartha experienced the most change in his life. We thought it remarkable that one could go through such notable changes within such a short amount of "book-time." Throughout the section, the reader observed as Siddhartha underwent some major changes in his way of living. The group members noted that in the beginning of the section, Siddhartha was just liberating himself from the confined life of a samana and his usual thirst for knowledge. Rosa was the one who pointed out the fact that all of a sudden this thirst for knowledge had subsided, to be replaced by the awakening of Siddhartha, as a new being. At this point I supplemented Rosa's point by providing a direct quote of what Siddhartha had said to himself as he left Govinda and Gautama, about his self-admittance to the level of Atma and Brahma (godly stature). That was it for the beginning section. At the later part of the section, Susie and Mr. Lee presented their views on yet another change of Siddhartha in his way of life as he was now a wealthy merchant. They made me extremely curious by asking the group what we thought would happen next, now that he'd abandoned his merchant life and left the town without notice.

Class 43 World Literature Circles - Meeting #3 Pages / Chapters Due: 102, "The Son" Reflection: Today was our third discussion out of four. Once again, many interesting points were brought up throughout it. One VERY interesting, major point that our group focused on was the sudden complete abandoning of life by Siddhartha. From the very beginning of this book, our group decided to focus most of, if not all of our attention to the course in which Siddhartha's life is played out as the book progresses. To our biggest surprise, the section we had to read for today clearly illustrated to the reader the mental instability Siddhartha had had to cope with until now. We see him tragically transform and become extremely depressed which is ironic after his somewhat splendidly wealthy life, in which he was living in until he came to the realization that he was escaping his past principles, which were (by now) long forgotten. This is the one section where we witness Siddhartha enduring severe trauma (mentally). However, he is successfully able to block the strong temptation to end his own life, he is guided by the randomly appearing "voice of wisdom," and is "reborn" anew (as a child) in the world once again and somehow knows now that henceforth he is to love everything! This discussion was very confusing as Siddhartha underwent some serious, but brief, mental changes and the group members had different opinions about whether the major mental collapse and reconstruction were good signs or signs of true mental-stability-issues.

Class 44 World Literature Circles - Meeting #4 Pages / Chapters Due: Until the end Reflection: This was the last discussion in a series of four consecutive discussions. Today, we started off our discussion by boldly rating "Siddhartha" out of 10. Susie gave the novel a 6/10, Rosa gave it 3/10, Mr. Lee gave the book an awfully high 8.5/10, and I gave it a 7/10. I honestly would've rated it higher than a mere 7 but the ending of the book really brought my expectations of a grand or at least a decent ending to the novel down by a lot. Unfortunately, the whole group agreed upon the conclusion that "Siddhartha" had a terrible ending to the somewhat decent story told throughout the novel. Anyways, in today's discussion we had to focus most of our time sharing our ideas on what connections we saw with other novels we've read prior to this one. Quite amusingly, Susie and Rosa's connections were quite similar while Mr. Lee's and mine were similar as well. Mr. Lee's and my connections were related by the fact that it focused on the two protagonists of the two stories, Okonkwo and Siddhartha. My connection was that both protagonists were fathers to a son. Obviously, this is merely a surface level observation. Underneath is a mental connection between the two rebellious beings. They both strongly dislike the path that their father(s) have set out for them. They therefore run away from home either to be never found or never to be recognized as sons again.


 * Preview** your book by answering the following questions on your wiki page:
 * What do you think this novel will be about based on the cover art? (complete sentence)
 * I think this novel will be about Buddha, based on the cover art.
 * READ THE FIRST PAGE ALOUD IN YOUR GROUP
 * What is the POV (provide evidence)?
 * Third Person
 * What conflict is introduced?
 * There is no conflict introduced in the very first page.
 * What characters are introduced?
 * Siddhartha, Brahmin, Govinda, Siddhartha's mother,
 * What do you learn about each of the characters (provide textual evidence)?
 * Siddhartha is a golden boy, eager to learn and very bright, intelligent.
 * Govinda is not explained much, only that he's the friend of Brahmin.
 * Brahmin is the proud dad.
 * Siddhartha's mom is introduced as someone who is even more proud of her son than the dad, overwhelming love.
 * What is the setting (time, location)?
 * house near the boats in the riverbank, fig trees
 * day time, sunshine shone brightly
 * What do you think this book will be about? (complete sentences)
 * I think this book will be about the growth and development of Siddhartha, and his life