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Name: Tyler DeMilt
Email: 24114TD@chaminade-hs.org

Name: Ben Fox
Email: 24154BF@chaminade-hs.org

Name: Paul Durnan
Email: 24136PD@chaminade-hs.org

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Always be prepared and up to date with the reading

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Section/Pages: 1-49
Members Present: All

Discussion Highlights:
- When or if we will get to see what the narrators name is.
- We made some predictions on what the conclusion will be, based on clues given.
- Will fathers have any impact on the story for characters?
- We prepredict that the narrator will meet a famous writer
- We spoke will Mr. Booth about the complexities of writing inside the story, and how if you dive deeper you can find a lot.

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BOOK TITLE/AUTHOR: Old School by Tobias Wolff 

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BOOK TITLE/AUTHOR: Old School by Tobias Wolff 

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Section/Pages: 147-195
Members Present: All

Discussion Highlights:
- The story took a big turn in these chapters
- Narrator learns more about his school
- Did we enjoy the end or did we not enjoy the end?

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Section/Pages: 3/99-146

Members Present: Ben, Tyler, Paul

Discussion Highlights:
- We can see the narrators true passions come into play.
- We see what weighs in the narrators mind as he explains many different decisions he’s made.
- We see the narrators relationships with his teachers come into play.
- A question is raised by the group of “ what does the author use in this section to help us better understand him?”
-Lastly, the group wanted to see what happens in later chapters based off of the developments in this section.

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Section/Pages: 50-98
Members Present: All

Discussion Highlights:
- The Narrator changes a large amount throughout these chapters
- The Narrator explains to us who his favorite author is
- The narrator gets sick and is disappointed he missed out on so much
- The narrator is super excited to meet his favorite author, Hemingway

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Meeting 1 Date:
Pages / Section: 49

Meeting 2 Date:
Pages / Section: 98

Meeting 3 Date:
Pages / Section: 147

Meeting 4 Date:
Pages / Section: 195

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Enjoy the book to your best ability!

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“There was a tradition at my school by which one boy was granted a private audience with each visiting writer. We contended for this honor by submitting a piece of our own work, poetry if the guest was a poet, fiction if a novelist. The writer chose the winner a week or so before arriving. The winner had his poem or story published in the school newspaper, and, later, a photograph of him walking the headmaster's garden with the visiting writer. (Wolff, 6)”

We can predict from this statement that the poem contest will be a major plot point for the story. The main character obviously shows much interest in the competition, and thinks that his work should be put in. He doesn’t believe the work that won is worthy of winning.

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“That's not what I said. But no, certainly not. Send a boy packing if he breaks the rules, by all means. Plant a boot on his backside, but do please leave the word honor out of it. It's dis-gusting, how we forever throw it about.”(161)
- This quote shows us the value of honor at the school. This shows that there are crucial punishments for breaking the rules at this school, showing it has a high standard for the students.

“The excuse I gave myself at the time was that someday I'd write something about my days at the school, and needed to guard my fragile vision of the place.”(169)
- This quote talks about how the narrator always has aspirations towards his writings and never runs out of ideas. This shows the true drive of a passionate writer.

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“That was partly why I'd chosen Columbia. I liked how the city seethed up against the school, mocking its theoretical seclusion with hustle and noise, the din of people going and getting and making. Things that mattered at Princeton or Yale couldn't possibly withstand this battering of raw, unironic life. You didn't go to eating clubs at Columbia, you went to jazz clubs. You had a girlfriend--no, a lover--with psychiatric prob-lems, and friends with foreign accents. You read newspapers on the subway and looked at tourists with a cool, anthropological gaze. You said crosstown express. You said the Village. You ate weird food. No other boy in my class would be going there.”(109)
- This shows how the narrator felt that his lifestyle came differently from amongst the other boys. This is shows through the explanation of how the Ivy League lifestyle is, and how it is very formal, and the other boys would not want to live there. Another point to make is that this shows that the narrator wants what is best for himself. Lastly, this quotas highlights his individuality compared to the rest of his class.

“All up and down the hall I heard my classmates preparing for the Farewell Assembly, roaring in the showers, going from room to room to be admired in their tuxes under the pretext of having a tie adjusted, a cummerbund cinched tight.”(115)
-This quote shows how the school all is tight knit, and is excited for the Farewell Assembly. We can see that the farewell assembly is a highly anticipated event within the school, and everyone is rushing to get there. Lastly, the narrator too was looking forward to this, as the paragraph below this shows he had his tux already prepared.

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“When classes started I still hadn't begun my story; and the

the longer I went without writing, the more convinced I became of its inevitable superiority. By now I was reading The Fountainhead for the fourth time, my confidence at a boil as I fell behind in my assignments and picked up demerits for missing chapel and chores. Bill had to prod me to keep my side of the room halfway neat, and one afternoon he confiscated the novel and wouldn't give it back until I'd picked up the mess around my bed. Man, you're really hot on this stuff, aren't you?”(Wolff, 71).

- What this quote is describing is the time before author Ayn Rand visits the school. The narrator should be spending his time preparing a story for Rand to judge, but instead he does things like missing class, getting in trouble, and being messy in his room. This is a big change for the narrator, as before this, he was on time and did his work and seldom get on trouble. This change might end up hurting the narrator and he may not get a good article in for Rand.

“As the submission deadline approached I entered a fever of elation as if Ayn Rand had already chosen my story. I literally had chills, my brow was hot and clammy. I began to hear the bases of my characters and see their faces. It was all coming together: a great story, a masterpiece!” (Wolff, 73).

- What this quote is describing is how things have changed once again for the narrator. The narrator has gained some motivation, especially from Bill. He decides to begin to write his story, and has hopes of beating the rest of the students, and hopes Rand likes his story.

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Stay on task while in a reading club meeting

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“Our paper printed his poem in a box on the front page, a dramatic monologue in which an old farmer feels the bite of mortality on the first cold day of autumn. George had used an odd mixture of tones. At one moment the farmer is lyrically drooling over the sight of the hired girl milking a cow…Then a few stanzas down he's a terse fatalist (Wolff, 39)”

Here we see the narrators reaction to the writing of a classmate. This classmate won the opportunity to have Robert Frost himself read his work. The narrator seems to look down on George’s work, as he thinks it’s sloppy. This could show some arrogance coming from the narrator, as he clearly thinks his writing is better.

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“I figured the school had washed its hands of me, spat me out for good…I never made it to these musters of the corps, nor advertised my progress, but I read every bulletin from cover to cover” (Wolff, 167).

- What this quote is describing is the part in which the narrator learns more about the school after his departure. He discovers the yearbooks and also learns about the dark truth that they removed him.

“Hemingway had driven an ambulance in Italy, as he had, and both had suffered leg injuries. But they’d never met. Hemingway served with the Red Cross, Arch with the Ambulance Service” (Wolff 179).

-  What this quote is describing is the point in which one of the narrators classmates asked their headmaster if they knew Hemingway during the War. He worked with him, but did not actually know him. Hemingway ultimately never visited the school.

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“Our schoolboy journal was not going to set the world on fire. But for the past year we'd been acting on the faith that it might, choosing and shaping every issue with the solemnity of Big Jeff designing a spaceship.“(120)
- This quote shows us that writers never know whether or not they will have any success. With that being said, an author must have a lot of faith in himself that he will please an audience. Lastly, it can be said that writers can be hit or miss.

“Everything's okay. That was the last line in the story, this story where nothing was okay. I went back to the beginning and read it again, slowly this time, feeling all the while as if my inmost vault had been smashed open and looted and every hidden thing spread out across these pages. From the very first sentence I was looking myself right in the face.” (125)
- This quote shows us that after reading a novel, a writer can leave us confused, or we may have interpreted his message differently from his intent. In this quote specifically, we can see clearly the way the writer left the novel the narrator read was different from how the audience thought it was.

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“Ayn Rand gave her talk in the afternoon. I'd thought of sneaking out for it, but the nurse kept fussing through my room and then I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until Bill White dropped by after it was over. He meant to cheer me up, of course, but instead left me desolate for everything I’d missed” (Wolff, 79).

- What this quote is describing is one of the scenes in which the narrator was in the infirmary with the flu and pneumonia for two weeks. This unfortunately came right before Ayn Rand was about to visit the school as well as the submission was approaching for Ayn Rand to read all of the stories. The narrator wishes to see Rand, and actually thought of sneaking out of the infirmary to see her. This shows how much the narrator cares for Rand as well as how bad he wants to win the story contest.

“But not as much as Ayn Rand. Right away she tore into our

school motto- Give All- and urged everyone to ignore such drivel and live for themselves alone. Then she rebuked Hiram Dufresne for calling her a conservative in his introduction” (Wolff, 79).

- What this quote is describing is the conversation Bill had with the narrator about the visit of Ayn Rand. During the meeting, she talked pretty down about the school, even going as far as to talk down about the school motto. This would upset both Bill and the narrator, and changed their view on Rand as a person and author.

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1 Brainstorm a LIST OF THEMES for the book thus far. Then, select one theme from the list and find at least three pieces of textual evidence to support it. 1

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I saw the school as if I'd left it forever, and the thought made me sick at heart. I got up and collected my suicide kit of cigarettes and lighter and holder from their hiding places and went to the bathroom at the end of the hall and stuffed it all into the trash can. I never smoked at school again. (Wolff, 31)”

This is a great characterization moment for the narrator. After seeing a student getting in trouble for smoking in a secret spot the narrator is scared, because he was smoking in the spot with the student moments earlier. After these events he has a dream of leaving the school, which causes him to quit the cigarettes. This moment shows that the narrator has the will to drop cigarettes on the spot.

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“I never made it to these musters of the corps, nor advertised my progress, but I read every bulletin from cover to cover. Thus I learned of Jack Broome's death while landing his A6 on an aircraft carrier, and of George Kellogg's Rhodes Scholarship and his march through the philosophy departments of Penn and Yale and Stanford. Purcell sent nothing in, but Big Jeff did, regularly. He'd gone into computers early on and now had his own famous company. (Wolff, 167)”

This baliten is a clear display of the narrators classmates successes. Most of them have gone on to live lives filled with achievements and prosperity, but that is not the interesting thing here. The point of interest in why the narrator chooses to read about all his former classmates from a school he was expelled from. To others it would seem that this would make him sad, yet the narrator reads all of the bulletins front to back. This furthers the point I made with him throwing out the cigarettes, that the narrator really does love the school.

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“We're not here to talk about essays, he said. One can imagine a world without essays.”(131)
- This quote talks about the narrators encounter with one of his teachers, and in this instance, the narrator is being spoken to for something besides his works. This could raise the question, what would society look like without writings?
“Schools like ours are vulnerable to criticism, the headmaster said softly, as if to himself. There is some truth in these criticisms.

Too much truth. But we are trying to do something here. We are trying to become something different and even admirable, and for this effort we need all the loyalty we can draw on. More than loyalty. Love.” (144)
- This quote shows the headmaster urging the narrator to keep doing what he is doing to make the school look good as they are facing a lot of criticism. Also, we can see that schools are not always perfect in their teachings.

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“The problem was that I could no longer read Ayn Rand’s sentence without hearing her voice. And hearing her voice, I saw her face; to be exact, the face she’d turned on me when I sneezed” (Wolff, 91).

- What this quote is describing is how disappointed the narrator was in Ayn Rand. He said the he couldn’t even think of her. She was very negative towards the school, and this angered the narrator. His view on Rand changes from excited to extremely disappointed.

“Her ridicule of Hemingway brought this home to me…My first reaction was shock-at her unfairness not only to the writer, but to a character for whom I had great liking” (Wolff, 95).

- What this quote is describing is the narrator’s disappointment in Ayn Rand. The narrator was hoping that Ayn Rand would have positive feedback for his favorite author Hemingway, as well as a positive feedback towards his school. Instead, Rand was very negative and left a bad impression on the narrator. The narrator was disappointed in Rand and hopes to meet his favorite author Hemingway one day instead.

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1.
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1. One new understanding we learn in these sections is more about Hemingway, as well as more information about the school the narrator went to.
2. Our meeting went well today and we discussed our thoughts on the novels ending.
3. One way we could have made our meeting better is maybe have a better understanding of what actually happened at the end of the novel.

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1. Overall, the group discussion went pretty well today, but we did lose focus towards the end.
2. The group raised many good questions to ask, and are yearning to gain the full knowledge of the narrator in the next section.
3. The group enjoyed this section much better than the last as it brought up some interesting points.

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1. One new understanding we gained of the novel as a group was that the narrator has changed a lot as a character
2. Our meeting went well today, we had good discussions
3. One way to make our meetings more effective is to come a little more prepared and have questions that we can ask each other about the novel

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I could write an essay about the many themes employed throughout the novel such as the theme of growth and failure. I could asilo reflected on the different moods expressed by the narrator.

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I could make my project a comic strip. In the comic strip, I could depict what I think the most important scenes look like in a typical day like today. I’ll add many characters and different colors and backgrounds.

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In my reflection essay I could talk about my personal experience with the book. I have grow to realize I enjoy a certain types of book more than other types. This book fell into one of these categories very clearly, and I will write about that.

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My idea for the essay was how I can relate to this text. I would like to compare and contrast myself with the narrator in this stories, as there are many similarities between us, but in some areas, we are polar opposites.

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In my project I want to create a comic strip. Last time I did a short story, which may work well of this book, but I think a comic strip should do pretty much the same thing. I could create a story and add depth to it through the images.

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For my Indie Project, I would like to do a comic strip. This is because I feel most comfortable using this. Also, I feel I can depict the way I feel better through images.