Reflections

I was so surprised that Don LePan was not at all the man who I had envisioned in my mind! For whatever reason, probably because his views came through so clearly in the book, I had expected him to be much more assertive and "forceful" in his methodology behind the text. I guess just as you can't judge a book by its cover, you can't generalize about an author from the name printed on the page!

I really enjoyed LePan's visit. He clarified a lot of points in the book that we actually may have been over-thinking in class, and his simplification of the text's message really helped drive that message home for me.

It was so interesting to hear that certain things that we the readers picked up on were entirely unintentional, such as Broderick's relationship to Sam, etc.

And as far as the word chattel goes, I have to say that I do think that it would have been an interesting "play on words" had it been intended to mean "child-cattle;" however, for those of us who were aware that this word has been in existence for quite some time, I think that that particular argument is difficult to buy. I think sometimes we read too much into the text, which, as analytical readers, I supposed we are called to do to an extent. However, one of the biggest lessons I learned from LePan was that taking things at their face value might be all that is necessary in order to best understand the message. As he said, it's best not to blow things out of proportion... when it comes down to shower-heads and melting glaciers, we are called to act responsibly in accord with what really matters.