TFA+Reflections+Alex


 * What were the two most interesting ideas or insights that were discussed in your group meeting today?

Discussion #1 Two most interesting ideas or insights that were discussed in our group meeting today was that we discussed about a meaning of a proverb that we did not understand, which was "when a man says yes, his chi says yes also." Before we couldn't figure out what the meaning of chi was, we did not get what this proverb meant, but when we figured out the meaning of chi which means "personal God", we started to get the meaning of this proverb and that made the discussion more interesting. We got funny answers such as eat, because chi in chinese, means to eat. We also got answers like surrounding powers, power inside, wife, etc. Another interesting insights that we discussed in our group was Okonkwo's personality. Although the answers were already showed in the book, we discussed about how Okonkwo actually has a warm heart, but he does not want to show it because he doesn't think it's manly. Later, we had an activity that we had to state one personality of Okonkwo's and that led us to know better about Okonkwo, the main character.

Discussion #2 Two most interesting ideas or insights that were discussed in our group meeting today was that we had this debate on the symbolism of the story of tortoise, and we were saying things like it showed how tortoise have shapes on their shells. Also, we said that it is somehow related to the colonialism. Another interesting insights was about the proverb "If one finger brought oil, it soiled the others." We came up with a conclusion that this means that one leader can influence his surrounding neighbors. We kept on referring back to this proverb when we were talking about tortoise, because I thought tortoise story dealt with how one ancestor affected his descendants by having shapes on his shell genetically.

Discussion #3 Two most interesting ideas or insights that we discussed in our group meeting was about whether exile for punishment is positive or neutral. I said it's positive because when you do something bad, you should pay for the consequences of your actions. My group member said it's neutral because exile for punishment is what it should be done for doing something bad not a positive view on something that should happen. Also we talked about whether Okonkwo changed or not. My group members said he did change and I agreed since Okwonkwo became more thoughtful by actually expressing his thoughts to his kinsman and his child.

Discussion #4 Two most interesting ideas or insights that were discussed in our group meeting was what changes were made in Okonkwo. We said he started as a strong man but as the time went, he felt bitter and later he hanged himself. From that point on, another interesting insights appeared. Why did Okonkwo kill himself? We were confused with why Okonkwo killed himself because he was about to kill the white men but he killed himself. My thought was that his anger went beyond his head that he couldn't control his anger so he wanted to kill the white men so much but he couldn't so he killed himself.

After discussion #4, please add an evaluation of your discussion performance. Review the Literature Circle Discussion Skills page and evaluate your performance in your literature circle. Have you been a strong discussion participant? Why or why not?

I think I was a semi-strong discussion participant because I was always the one who brought up answers that our whole group could debate on, but mostly it was because I had the wrong idea and wrong answers. I can't say that I was a strong discussion participant in terms of information and knowledge I had for the discussion.

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