Class 15: EWRT 2

AGENDA

0 Essay #3 Questions or Comments 0 Group Discussions: Justice and A Game of Thrones

0 Get into your teams to consider the application of Cicero and Thoreau to A Game of Thrones

0 Class discussion: Cicero/Thoreau and A Game of Thrones

0 In-class writing: Generating Prompts

Essay #3 Questions or Comments?

Why look at GOT through the lenses of philosophy texts

0 EWRT 2 aims at providing the tools for both meaningful reading and critical thinking. Intertextuality expands the scope of text interpretation beyond the reader, carrying it to the meeting place of texts.

0 The challenge of developing intertextual aptitudes develops conceptual, curricular, and methodological perspectives.

0 Using a theoretical or philosophical lens, that is viewing a novel from a particular perspective, fosters thinking development, the use of broad lateral thinking, associative thinking, focusing, and critical thinking.

0 The practice of frequently using intertextual aptitudes helps to develop a habit of mind that includes complex thinking, creative insights, and speculative conclusions.

Group Discussions: Justice and

A Game of Thrones

Get into your teams to consider the application of Cicero and Thoreau to A Game of Thrones. Make sure to find textual evidence to support your claims.

Cicero!Thoreau

Acts of civil disobedience

Injustice

DiscussionJustice and A

Game of Thrones

0 [Robert] yells, “I want them dead, mother and child both, and that fool Viserys as well. Is that plain enough for you? I want them dead”

0 (Eddard responds, “This ‘dragonspawn’ is in his mother’s belly…Even Aegon did no conquering until after he was weaned” (352).

0 Philus says, “the teaching of ‘wisdom’ [is] that we should rule over as many subjects as possible, indulge in pleasures, hold on to power, be rulers and masters” (127)

0 Philus’s interpretation of justice: “be merciful to all men, act in the interests of the entire human race,…and never tamper with religious property or what belongs to the community or to private persons” ” (127).

Cicero: Eddard, and Robert

Cicero: Eddard and Joffrey

0 ” Let us imagine that there are two men, one a paragon of virtue, fairness, justice and honesty, and the other an outrageous ruffian. And let us suppose that [...]the good man is an evil villainous criminal, and that the bad man, on the other hand is a model of honourable and propriety” (128).

0 ” King Joffrey looked her up and down. “your sweet words have moved me,” he said gallantly, nodding, as if to say all would be well. ” I shall do as you say, but first your father has to confess. He has to confess and say that I’m the king..” (2238 ipad version).

Cicero, Eddard, and Honor

0 Given the circumstances, Philius asks “who could be so mad as to doubt which of the two men he would prefer to be?” (128). The obvious choice to this is the life of the evil man. But to live a humble and honorable life, Laelius says all men would eventually answer to God “the single master and ruler of us all” (129),

0 Eddard Stark has lived an honorable and humble life as he shows it through all of his actions. When King Joffrey arrests him for treason against the crown, Eddard Stark stays humble until the bitter end. While King Joffrey’s ruling was unfair. The “stone[s] came sailing out of the crowd” (607) as the mass majority reacted to Eddard’s confession.

0 “[Laws] are imposed by the fear of being penalized” (Cicero 126).

0 “Do as [Daenerys says], […] before you get us all killed” (Ser Jorah to Viserys: Martin 498).

Cicero: Shedding Blood in Vaes Dothrak

Thoreau and Arya

0 Thoreau expresses his disdain for the government: “…he cannot without disgrace be associated with [slavery].”(Thoreau 140).

0 Arya states to Sansa “I don’t care” (Martin 117) and “I don’t like the queen” (Martin 119) Arya says “the woman is important too” (Martin 61),

Thoreau and Eddard

0 Thoreau claims, “A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it (139-140).

0 Ned responds to Marq Piper, asking for vengeance [in response to Ser Gregor Clegane burning down common man fields] , when he argues, “I thought we were speaking of Justice. Burning Clegane’s fields and slaughtering his people will not restore the kings’ peace, only your injured pride (Martin 469).

Thoreau and Eddard

0 “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison” (146).

0 Eddard Stark was thrown into prison for trying to keep his honor and remain loyal and just to the king, yet was thrown into prison for his actions.

Thoreau and Danerys0 “They pass other women

being raped. Each time Dany reined up, sent her khas to make an end to it…”(680)

0 “It is not a man’s duty, as a matter of course to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still have other concerns; but it is duty to wash his hands of it, if he gives it no thought no longer” (Thoreau 143).

0 “’The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends,’” Ser Jorah told her. ‘It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace’” (Martin 151).

0 “Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform […] are not a hundred thousand politicians […] but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity” (Thoreau 141).

Thoreau and the Dothraki

Thoreau, Tyrion, and The Wall

0 “Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lamp of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs.” (pg. 2 Thoreau)

0 “The Nights Watch is a noble calling!” Tyrion laughed. “You’re too smart to believe that. The Nights Watch is a midden heap for all the misfits of the realm” (104 Martin).

Using Machiavelli or Lao-tzu, and A Game of Thrones, write one or two good questions that you might consider answering for your final paper. .

Using Cicero or Thoreau, and A Game of Thrones, write one or two good questions that you might consider answering for your final paper.

Thinking Ahead: Generating Prompts

Brainstorming Essay Prompts: Example

0 Is civil disobedience a practical and worthwhile response to injustice? 0 Identify an example (or two) of Thoreauvian-style “Civil

Disobedience” in A Game of Thrones. 0 Argue for its success or failure as both a social protest and a

personal undertaking. That is, does it disrupt or change the status quo? Do the personal risks and sacrifices outweigh the consequences of the disobedience?

0 Finally, argue either for or against “civil disobedience” as an approach that should be used in contemporary society?

So ends the unit on Justice with Cicero and Thoreau.

So Begins the Unit on Privilege and

Perspective: Plato and Woolf

Form new teams for this unit. Remember, 50% of your team must be new to you!THEN, DISCUSS THE DIVISION OF LABOR FOR PLATOQuestions for Critical Reading (453-54) We will come back together to go over the homework before

we leave!

Homework0 Essay #3 Due Friday before

noon 0 Read A World of Ideas: Plato's

"Allegory of the Cave" (443-453)

0 Post #29 Questions (TBD) for Critical Reading: (pages 453-54)