Today was our first day back in the class room after three snow days. It took a few minutes to warm back up to All Our Sons and re-establish the fairly complicated layering of characters and the way they relate to the truth at this point.
Mother knows her husband is guilty but won't acknowledge that he sent out bad airplane parts to the navy because that would implicate him in his own [pilot] son's disappearance.
Keller maintains that he is innocent, though he knows the full weight of his crime. It seems that to him, the idea of the truth being exposed is too frightening to contemplate. Not only does he want the truth concealed, he wants Deever to be vindicated, since Keller feels that if he can get the other characters to forgive Deever, he will essentially be earning their forgiveness himself, for a crime of which they don't know he's guilty.
What became interesting in the second class was their recognition of what a momentous moment this is for Chris if indeed he is starting to doubt his father. They listed the implications of this realisation on the board.
- My father sent faulty airline parts to the army. Hence, my father cares more about the business than the lives of America's soldiers.
- My fiancee will probably leave me because my father is guilty of a crime for which her father is serving time behind bars.
- I might have to cut ties with my father if this is true.
- My rather put an innocent man behind bars.
- My mother has been lying to me since the event happened.
- All the neighbours are right in their suspicions about my father's morals and conduct during the war.
Next class I hope we get a chance to return to this and acknowledge that the fall out from knowing the truth may be so large that we would do anything to keep it under wraps.
N's comment was good. She noted that when she's arguing with her sister, even when she realises herself that she's wrong, she doesn't submit to her sister, but just continues to listen and respond as if she thinks her sister is crazy. That's exactly what Chris does here, calling George's voice "The Voice of God!" and telling him he's a "Little boy" and threatening that if he doesn't "cut it out I'll throw you out of here." Both classes picked up on how suspicious this behaviour was in Chris, indicating that he may be experiencing doubts himself.
This scene is so tense. N and M were terrific readers in the second group. The readers in the first group didn't bring it to life quite as well, but the class's comments were just as astute. Which brings me to write the post above this one about whether talk is enough.
Mother knows her husband is guilty but won't acknowledge that he sent out bad airplane parts to the navy because that would implicate him in his own [pilot] son's disappearance.
Keller maintains that he is innocent, though he knows the full weight of his crime. It seems that to him, the idea of the truth being exposed is too frightening to contemplate. Not only does he want the truth concealed, he wants Deever to be vindicated, since Keller feels that if he can get the other characters to forgive Deever, he will essentially be earning their forgiveness himself, for a crime of which they don't know he's guilty.
What became interesting in the second class was their recognition of what a momentous moment this is for Chris if indeed he is starting to doubt his father. They listed the implications of this realisation on the board.
- My father sent faulty airline parts to the army. Hence, my father cares more about the business than the lives of America's soldiers.
- My fiancee will probably leave me because my father is guilty of a crime for which her father is serving time behind bars.
- I might have to cut ties with my father if this is true.
- My rather put an innocent man behind bars.
- My mother has been lying to me since the event happened.
- All the neighbours are right in their suspicions about my father's morals and conduct during the war.
Next class I hope we get a chance to return to this and acknowledge that the fall out from knowing the truth may be so large that we would do anything to keep it under wraps.
N's comment was good. She noted that when she's arguing with her sister, even when she realises herself that she's wrong, she doesn't submit to her sister, but just continues to listen and respond as if she thinks her sister is crazy. That's exactly what Chris does here, calling George's voice "The Voice of God!" and telling him he's a "Little boy" and threatening that if he doesn't "cut it out I'll throw you out of here." Both classes picked up on how suspicious this behaviour was in Chris, indicating that he may be experiencing doubts himself.
This scene is so tense. N and M were terrific readers in the second group. The readers in the first group didn't bring it to life quite as well, but the class's comments were just as astute. Which brings me to write the post above this one about whether talk is enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment