Creating Questions for a Harkness Discussion (Literature Based)

Ask three questions about the text (three per level). These need to be questions that you want to discuss or hear your classmates
discuss. Do not ask questions that you know the answer to just to have something down on paper to turn in.

Level One Question: What is the moral story of the poem ?

For the seminar student, these are not mere recall questions; Was he talking to his mother as a ghost or just in his head ?
rather, they establish evidence of basic facts presented in the
author’s proof paragraph. What stage of grief is he at ?

Examples:
● What evidence does the author use to support his
argument that it is man’s responsibility to care for the
land?
● To what does the author compare his boyhood
experience on the family farm in order to further his
argument that man is forever attached to the land?

Level Two Question: Why does the author use “oblivion” or “apocalypse” ?

These questions are textually implicit, requiring analysis and When the author says “strange now to think you’re gone”, What
interpretation of specific parts of the text, pointing out what a does that mean ?
specific part of the text actually means, or what language was
used to create the meaning. It’s not about what happened on Why does they author use repetition during section 5
page 47 of the novel; it’s more like, “How does the author’s
description of the dying horse on page 47 of the novel create a
tone?”

Examples:
● Why do you think the author relies heavily upon visual
imagery in this passage to convey his love of the land?
● How does the heavy use of repetition contribute to the
effectiveness of the author’s argument that
___________?
● What do you think the author means when he says:
_____

Level Three Question: How is mental illness viewed today ?

These questions are more open-ended and go beyond the text.
They are intended to provoke a discussion of an abstract idea or
issue, to connect events/themes in the anchor text to other
texts, other arguments, or to universal issues of
life/society/mankind itself.
Why do you think people fear death ?
If back then they had the same treatment they have now for
mental issues, would the world be in a better place

Examples:
● How has man’s attitude toward nature changed over the
last 100 years?
● How has society’s changing perception toward nature
been advantageous? Detrimental?

In one complete sentence, write what the text is about (a

summary of the purpose, message, plot, theme, etc.).
 Create a textual analysis. This analysis should take into account
your previous questions and explore possible answers of your
level two and three questions. (500 words or more)
Remember: This assignment is due at the beginning of the period in which we will discuss a text —not mid-way through. These
responses will serve as the basis for our class discussion.
i
Ginsberg wrote this in 1961, a few years after the death of his
mother. He found himself moving to New York from San
Francisco because of that reason so his life had real changes. A
lot of people agree that his poem was hard to understand, that
his words were written randomly. His thoughts were all over the
place that it was regarded as his “terrible masterpiece’. Words
like, ‘ a crown of roses’, ‘a dog for eyes’,do not seem to make
sense. These words are all random and he is all over the place.
Observers believe that most of his words were taken from his
personal experiences- mostly experiences with his mother.
The second part shows Ginsberg talking about the things that
made him fed up with modern life. Things that made him crazy
about the aspects of life. Those things are probably the same
things that made his own mother crazy and caused her own
death. Here he displays the Beats literature. This kind of
literature has a signature confessionalism. It combines personal
sharing of one’s own experience with the modernist technique
of writing. Another characteristic of this kind of writing is their
love for inner monologue, where writers write their pieces as
they are thinking. There is really no time to construct your
thoughts in an organized way with this kind of writing. The next
part shows him doing the monologue with his own dead mother.
He is either talking to a ghost or just remembering his
conversations with his mother when he was alive and trying to
relive it in his head. The way this piece is written, it is hard to
distinguish the real from the fiction. The things he wanted to say
to his mother but never had the chance, here he was able to put
it into words. This has become very personal for him. When a
loved one dies, people have different forms of mourning, but
one thing that does not change is their personal longing for the
departed person. Death has five stages, the first one is denial. It
is hard to get into terms with the death of a loved one, especially
if it is sudden. The next one is anger. You are angry at someone
and blaming other people for the death of your loved one. After
anger, the next phase is bargaining, where you bargain with God
or a supreme being just to have the person’s life back. Next to
that phase is depression. This is where most people get stuck.
This phase depends a lot on the person’s willingness to move on
so they can get into the last phase which is acceptance. In
Ginsberg’s case, it’s not hard to realize that he might still be in
the denial stage. With him talking to his mother like she was
alive or just trying to relive their conversations would make one
think that he has not moved on from the reality of the situation.
Or maybe he is in the anger stage and he is angry at himself for
the death of his mother.