"Lobsters" Discussion

On Tuesday of this week, our class held two consecutive discussions regarding the poem "Lobsters", by Howard Nemerov. The first of these, which I participated in, mainly contained conversation concerning the relationship between lobsters and humans, as well as the final lines of the poem: "Thinking: There's something underneath the world. The flame beneath the pot that boils the water." (Nemerov). One interesting comparison brought up in the discussion was that of the poem being similar to To Kill A Mockingbird in terms of misunderstanding. Humans not understanding the lobsters were stated to be analogous to the white population of Maycomb not understanding the black population. Consequently, the formers of both situations would mistreat the latter in each.

This comment and its resulting conversation made me think more deeply about lobster-human relationship in the poem. My thoughts on the theme and message had mainly revolved around what only the lobsters represented, not including the corresponding human symbolism. I had also formerly given comparison of the lobsters in their tank to being similar to humans in our society. However, with the introduction of the human aspect, I became aware of a great amount more of existing symbolism. It enlightened me to the fact that the connection between humans and lobsters in the poem could be compared to many other existing situations in addition to the example of whites misunderstanding and mistreating blacks. After the discussion, I had gained a much deeper and layered view of the symbolic material in "Lobsters". As a result, I came to better understand the meaning that the author had most likely intended to convey.

5 Part Paragraphs

In the past, I have written several types of paragraphs that followed specific formats, most of which were mostly 8-12 sentences long. The Olympia High School 5 Part Paragraph is slightly longer and more specific to each sentence than most of these were, requiring a greater abundance of commentary and more defined concrete details. From the last few weeks of paragraph presentations, I have found that some of the most important skills in regards to this format include the proper embedding of concrete details, commentary free from plot summary, and a writing style that flows well and uses good word choice. In my class period, a common difficulty in formating was the correct embedding and citation of quotes in the paragraphs. Multiple people lacked these elements in their concrete detail sentences. Many papers were also criticized for some level of summarization of plot in the commentary sentences. Thus, the class as a whole needs to work on these proficiencies. However, I feel that the most essential element is the writing style. The paragraphs presented in the class that flowed well and contained fitting and appropriate word choice sounded great, and were entertaining to listen to.

For my next 5 part paragraph, I intend to improve upon a couple of aspects. Firstly, I will need to be absolutely sure that none of my commentary contains traces of plot summary, as one of my sentences could be seen as partly recounting an event from the book. As more of a personal goal, I plan to spend more time brainstorming and further developing new ideas and concepts to use as points and commentary in my sentence. In my last paragraph, though I was able to produce a final product that I was proud of, I felt somewhat restricted in ideas while I was writing it. In the future, I hopefully will have a greater abundance of thoughts from which I can choose to include in my writing.