Discussion Leader

TAYLOR MILLER

Discussion Questions:

1. Does the fact that Murph is dead have an effect on how difficult it is for Bartle to fit into society?
     - Yes. Bartle made a promise to Murph's mother that he would keep him safe and, when he fails to do so, is devastated for the rest of his life. He never really recovers from the fact that he failed to stay true to his promise even though Murph's death was almost inevitable.

2. Why did Bartle write a fake letter to Murph's mother after his death?
     - It is hard to tell what was going on inside Bartle's head after Murph's death. Everything seemed to be spinning inside of him. Bartle could not let Murph's mother down and one of the only ways he could temporarily "prolong" Murph's life was to make up a letter and send it to his mother.

3. Why do you think Bartle would not let the fact that Murph died go?
     - Murph and Bart were such good friends and companions during the lonely times of war. When Murph died, the only person in Bart's life was gone and he was very empty inside. After disposing of his body, Bart had to deal with the guilt of breaking the law which is hard to mentally escape.

4. How is Bartle eventually able to overcome the dealings of the war?
     - After being released from prison, Bartle moves to the mountains. There, he recounts the war and imagines Murphy. He imagines that Murphy's body is washed out to sea and gone. He is able to escape some dealings of the war though the memories are still in his head. He realizes that Murph's death was a result of the death of nurse who he loved. This realization helps Bart to makes sense of everything.


REFLECTION

This is the second time I have worked with this group on a group multimedia project and overall we are a great group. Everyone does there part of the project and in the end we created an overall great project. It was a lot of fun and we were able to accomplish everything while still having a good time.

My part that I was assigned was the discussion leader. I had to generate questions and add questions that the other people in my group had. I did my part well and it benefited the group because we were able to gather together our questions and come up with answers to them. As we discussed these, a lot of things were made clear. This is a big part because it helps all of the other roles and I was able to do it with the help of my group mates.

Of course, we could have done better. There is always room for improvement. Of the few things we could have done, one of them was communicating a little bit better. We could have planned out everything better and planned out what we were going to do exactly before we met to work on the project. Also, we could have worked a little bit harder with the time that we had so that we would not have had to meet multiple times. But, we still got the work done.

I liked this project and the experience I had with it. I really enjoyed the book and realized some things I didn’t see when I read the story by myself. My group members pointed out some good things to me and together everyone was able to obtain a more clear understanding. It was hard work but we have a fun group so it makes the work a whole lot easier.