David Jazo

Mrs. Storer
English 3 Honors American Literature Block 4
1/22/2020
Emerson and Thoreau Socratic Circle Reflection
I believe both my circle and Sofia’s circle performed exceptionally well. During my
discussion, Thoreau’s Walden and Emerson’s Nature were discussed. We talked about the
significance of the battle between ants that fascinated Thoreau so much, how he characterizes the
ants, the things in the US today that might cause Thoreau so cry, what Emerson said would
happen if stars appeared only one night in a thousand years, how our feelings compare to
Emerson’s, and how his profession might have affected his writing. Our circle Our circle did
particularly well because the discussion never really reached and endpoint; it constantly flowed
with new or related ideas. For instance, Dom contradicted my idea that Emerson relates all of
nature’s beauty to God by stating he thought Emerson wasn’t entirely talking about the goodness
of God in Nature. He backed this by saying Emerson was questioning God because of his wife’s
passing, meaning he didn’t portray God as this “all good” being. This helped further the
discussion by bringing in a different viewpoint to mine and a couple other students.
For the most part, I performed at an acceptable level this Socratic circle. I say this
because although I did not go above and beyond what is required of us while in the Socratic
circle, I did meet the criteria for an A, which is to speak loud and clear at least once and use
textual evidence to support what I stated. I did particularly well during the discussion when it
came to speaking clearly and using quotes from the text to back up what I was saying. I built off
a couple other people’s similar ideas to say that I believed Emerson’s first profession as a
preacher impacted his writing in the sense that after everything he wrote, he referred back to God
about it, no matter what it was. I gave an excerpt about when he was describing mother nature’s
beauty and how he said something about it being God’s creation; it was something along those
lines. I used this to back up my answer that he always relates his writing back to God. I also did
well in being attentive to what others had to say and to what my partner had to say, so that I
could give her constructive feedback. By piggybacking off other ideas, I was also deepening the
understanding of our discussion to a certain extent. I could’ve facilitated the discussion a lot
better even though I was not given the role of “facilitator”. Next time, I will try to ask questions
when the conversation gets stale.
In Emerson’s nature, he tries to instill the idea that everything in nature happens because
God intended for it to happen a certain way, which is shown when he relates God to his wife’s
death, the beauty of nature, and finding himself in nature. Emerson mourns his wife’s death and
asks where God was when his wife died; if there truly was a God, why did his wife go so soon.
Emerson also speaks nonstop about the beauty of nature and how it is God’s creation; the reason
it is so beautify is because it is made in the image and likeness of God. Emerson also talks about
how he finds his true self in nature because he is able to get away from all of the distractions in
life, whether they be the people around him or materialistic things surrounding him. Nature was
created by God and is therefore perfect in his eyes, therefore nature is where Emerson can find
his true self because that is where he gets to be closest to God, which is what everybody has to
stride for as human beings.
I feel as if though the aspect of this story I can most relate to is when Emerson asks
where God was when his wife passed. I can relate to this the most because I too find myself
asking for the whereabouts of our Lord and savior when times get tough or when things just
haven’t gone my way. For instance, when my brother was diagnosed with pneumonia, I asked
myself, “Why me? Please God, have mercy on him.” This happened when we were younger and
in spite of my mom’s comforting words that his case was not serious, I was still questioning
God.