You can use this post to discuss/debate/question what is going on in the poem "Evolution" by Sherman Alexie. Remember that our Socratic circles should be rich with connections and reflections on how this poem relates to our ideas of individuality and society etc.
21 comments:
Wow, when I read this at first it made no sense to me. But when I read it again and I think its saying that some people will give anything for the newest and greatest. Kind of like that kid story, the Starbellied Sneeches (I think thats what it was called?) where the sneeches wanted always wanted what was new and better. And the business man would alter things to keep them interested and always buying.
I thought it was mean of Buffalo Bill to have a pawn shop across from the liquor store. He is greedy to only want money not happiness or joy for others. I also thought it was mean of him to close the shop and abuse what he had bought by turning the Indians into a museum. It shows his disrespect for the Indians by taking advantage of them when they are drunk.
After the circle I realized what I thought before was wrong. I now understand the poem better.
After the circle, I was shocked this week especially because I was only focused one the fact that Native Americans were being treated terribly by whites, just like during Manifest Destiny, and I was almost positive that the whites were at fault throughout the poem. However, many people disagreed and made me realize something that I had never thought of going into the circle. Many people said that the Native Americans were actually at fault because they were drinking away their life and loosing their culture was just one of the consequences they were paying. They said that the Indians were really at fault, and Buffalo Bill was just being a good business man.
I did not really like this story because personally I had no connection to it and therefore I had no purpose in my reading and I did not like it. If were to choose our story then I would not read it and I would not read it again
Not to sound like if know everything but you can always connect to something. You're not supposed to connect to the characters problems but to the characters feelings.
I**
The socratic circle made me change my mind about some things in evolution because when people in the circle discussed certain topics they backed it up with good evidence to persuade me
Although most people in my Socratic circle thought that the Native Americans were to blame for their addiction to alcohol, I know that it is a disease, not aIlack of mental strength. My Grandfather is alcoholic and he is a very nice man, however, he just cannot stop drinking.
One thing in this poem that confused me what who the speaker was. I thought it was the author but i am not positive. That part kinda threw me off. Was there anyone else that didn't know who the speaker was and would be able to clarify?? :)
I also was confused about who the speaker was like brooke, I couldnt have been buffalo billl because there were no "I" statments, although i guess i could have been him speaking in third person but a gain there is nothing in the story to justify it.
Im pretty sure it was the author, since it said "Buffalo Bill" in it and it also said "Indians". In my socratic circle, we talked about how the author was an indian and in the story, it seemed he was trying to show what Buffalo Bill did to the indians. Therefore, he could easily be the speaker. When I first read this story, I did not get it (like most people) I read it a couple more times and understood it more. However, I learned some new things in the socratic circle that I would have never thought of. For example I didn't know that the liquor store had anything to do with it.
Before the Socratic Circle i thought that Buffalo Bill was taking advantage of the Native Americans. But after the Socratic Circle i realized that the Native Americans went to his pawn shop on their own...Buffalo Bill never forced them to. So Buffalo Bill was never taking advantage. He was just being smart.
Like most people said this poem confused me at first but after i read it a few more times I understood. Even after the socratic circle I still agree with my original reaction. I think that Buffalo Bill was taking advantage of the Indians because even though the Indians choose to sell their stuff, Buffalo Bill knew they would sell to him. Then he made a profit off opening the museum and charging them to come in and see their own stuff. So I think Buffalo Bill had a plan from the beginning.
I was looking at what Adam said and i need to make a point that you do not have to have a connection to make it a good poem and that to fully grasp a poem it can sometimes be helpful to not have one because some people might put their own feelings into the poem instead of understanding the readers.
I agree with Will. In this circle everyone that spoke backed there comments up. This circle especially changed my mind about the poem before the circle.
Before the circle, I thought Buffalo Bill was taking advantage of the Native Americans. However, after the cirlce I realized that he didn't force them to pawn all of their items. Our circle didn't really conclude much more than that though.
When I first read this poem I was very confused, as most people said. One question I had was who the speaker was. At first I thought Buffalo Bill was the speaker, but there was no "I" throughout the story. This part confused me.
For me the evolution circle was the best one we had because it helped me understand the story so much better. After i read it i had no idea what it meant.
When I read this story I didn't understand it at first because I could't tell what was metaphorical or not. When the story was telling about how the Indians laid down everything that they had, I didn't know if it was literally everything they owned or just the most important things. For example, when they were saying how they were going to lay down their hands and finally their hearts, I did understand that they were not actually giving up body parts, bu things that were important. Beside that, the circle was not that bad, I thought we did a good job on discussing the theme.
When I first read this story, I was really confused. So then i read it a couple more times and eventually got to the meaning behind the story. I also think that annotating the story really helped me understand it. I think this story can have many different theme. A theme I got was that some people are greedy, because Buffalo Bill was greedy. As the circle progressed, I changed my mind and realized that the Indians chose to pawn everything they had and Buffalo Bill didnt force them to.
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