Socratic Seminar Reflection - Kite Runner #2

                   The Socratic seminar influenced my thinking on women's role and how the rest of world sees America. The seminar made me compare women's roles in different countries and how they are similar or different. For instance, it made me think more about how American women are seen in the United States and how Afghanistan women are seen in Afghanistan. In the seminar, there was a lot of talk over what would have happened if Amir and stopped Assef from getting raped. I hadn't thought too much about this scenario before the seminar. 

                         I agreed the most with Jessie when she said that women all over the world were generally viewed the same, but just on different levels. I believe that women are viewed as lesser than men and in society they are expected to only be the mothers and caregivers. Jessie touched on this same point and then brought up the fact that this ideology is expressed in more extreme ways in certain countries. I disagreed with Ryan and Frankie the most when they said that all countries loved America. If I had been able to respond to that I would have and I would have shed light on how 1st world countries in Europe and Australia, there is a dislike for America's arrogance. I would have said this to see if anyone else agreed with me.

                       One thing that worked really well for the seminar was that we went deep into issues. Instead of skimming the surface of issues like the other group, our group was able to dive a little deeper. We went a little farther than the book and talked about it's general themes, not just about how Assef raped Hassan. Lastly we were passionate about the subjects that we were talking about and shared experiences from our own lives to help explain our comments.

One thing that did not go well during the Socratic seminar was that it was extremely hard for people to talk and everyone one was arguing, not discussing. People talked over one another constantly and cut into people talking. Because of these two very rude things, the conversation was very jumbled and confusing and no one really understood what was going on. Also, people got really angry and hurt by certain comments and so the discussion turned into a heated argument a couple of times. It was not very pleasant to talk and it felt as though people were trying to beat each other, not collectively discuss themes and emotional appeals from the Kite Runner.