TFA+Reflections+Jasmine

//Things Fall Apart// Literature Circle Reflections

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

Reflection #1 It was interesting when our group was talking about the positive elements. We came up with one specific positive element, and we agreed that the ceremony was positive. It is because no one fought during the ceremony. It was very interesting to share ideas about why Ikemefuna was being loved by people. We concluded that Ikemefuna's bright personality was loved by people, and Okonkwo treated Ikemefuna like others because he thought it was weak to show his emotions. We also had interesting ideas when we were discussing about proverbs. "An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb." We came up with many ideas for this proverb. Because old woman is close to being dead, old woman doesn't feel comfortable talking about dry bones. And this is related to this book because it depicts Okonkwo and his son's uneasy relationships.

Reflection #2 We got into a deep discussion talking about why the priestess wanted to see Ezinma. It was not clearly explained in the book about priestess's purpose of calling out Ezinma, so we all got confused. We also thought deeply about if Ezinma knew that she had a wicked spirit inside her body. Then we had a follow up question of whether Enzinma really had the wicked spirit in her body or not. Because we thought that the village people might be just believing in obanje, just for belief.

Reflection #3 Our group focused talking about the difference between Okonkwo and Uchendu, and whether white men destroyed the village or not. For the difference between Okonkwo and Uchendu, we reached a decision that Okonkwo doesn't take in the reality, and he is keep depressed. In contrary, Uchendu knows how to face the reality quickly, even though it is a bad situation. Uchendu is much more mature than Okonkwo. Our group also talked about how the whites destroyed the village. I thought the British did bring lots of modern stuffs to the isolated village, but actually damaged the village by killing the village tradition. British were trying to help, but they killed their Igbo tradition.

Reflection #4 I think the discussion went well today, despite the fact that our group was missing two original members. We talked a lot about what Okonkwo was mistaken about the village people. We all agreed that Okonkwo was expecting the village people to respect him when he killed the messenger, and Okonkwo was also wanting to have a war against the white people. Arnold, who joined our group just for today, gave an interesting idea about what the village people thought of committing suicide. His idea was that the village people kind of avoided the dead body, and he actually acted out the possible reactions of village people.