1. Everyone must speak
2. Use the text to support your ideas
3. Build off of one another; keep moving forward
4. Think before you speak
5. Plan: take 5-7 minutes to formulate your ideas and then we'll begin
"'It wasn't just the baseball game. I wanted it to be a metaphor for something else: perhaps trust, or freedom, or ritual, or faithfulness, or joy, or any of the other things that baseball can symbolize. I only want to make you happy ...'" I feel myself choking up as I say it.
'You don't know how those words affected me,' I go on. 'It was the line 'They tore down the Polo Grounds in 1964' that got me. Those words flew off the printed page, hovered in the air, assumed the shape of a gray bird, and landed on my shoulder. I reached up and picked off the bird and held it in my hand, tiny and pulsing, pressed it hard against my chest, and it disappeared like mist. If I were to open my shirt, and you looked closely, you could see its faint silver outline on my skin'" (97).
Ray is easily intoxicated by magic, faith, and his religion, but not all humans are. Why do humans daily deny the presence of what Ray finds so fulfilling? In what ways has Ray's religion and faith persuaded Salinger to head to Minnesota with Ray and how does that inform us about Salinger's true character? What role does the language of myth play at this point in time in the novel?
Other questions for discussion
1. Compare and contrast Mark & Ray. Use the text and W.P. Kinsella's similes to support your ideas.
2. What are Ray's specific vulnerabilities?
3. How has Ray changed since the opening of the novel? How has he remained stagnant as a character?
4. Some critics say Ray gives a sermon on pp. 84 -85. Firstly, what is he preaching? Remember that a sermon is a speech by a prophet or member of the clergy. Secondly, how does Ray fit into that definition?
5. How does nostalgia present itself in last night's reading?
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