[Open] The New Post

Nathaniel walked down the hall, binder full of papers and lesson plans in hand. As he had just finished with the freshmen, it was now time for the juniors' English classes.

He entered and placed his papers on the desk before turning to address his students. "Good morning, class. Today we'll be reviewing the assigned reading from this weekend and begin preparing for the examination at the end of the week. So, who would like to start off our discussion today?" he asked them, in English of course.

Jimmy was slouching in his seat a little, taking it easy. English was a breeze for him, with it being his first language and all. But there was some hesitance in his classmates to being the first to respond to the teacher. Nobody wanted to be teacher's pet, it seemed.
"Sure thing, sir. I suppose I'll take one for the team." Jimmy replied in English, the full force of his strong Australian accent came through in his speech, no longer intentionally subdued.

"Thank you, James." He stepped to the board and wrote "The Old Man and the Sea - Review" at the top.

I can't say I'm surprised. He's doing quite well, of course, but I do wish the others would be a little more involved.

He turned back toward the class. "Now that we've finished, would you care to summarize the last couple of chapters for us?"

"I wish english came that easy to me" 
Mizo thought to himself. He could get a little frustrated with english sometimes, it could be a little confusing.

[OOC: Sorry for keeping you waiting, I've been too busy to commit to researching the book recently, but I finally did my homework and got a quick response together, so here it is:]

Jimmy scoured his brain for the details of the story, he'd refreshed himself on some of it, but it had been a while since he read it all the way through during his stay in the hospital.

"Ok... So, the main character is an old Cuban fisherman called Santiago. He's been really unlucky and hasn't caught anythihg for eighty-four days in a row. He has a young apprentice called Manolin, whose parents have forbidden him to fish with Santiago because they believe he's cursed by bad luck. Manolin works on some more successful boats for a while and goes back to help Santiago again. Santiago decides that to break the streak of bad luck, he's going to go really far out from shore the next day, and Manolin decides to join him. This first chapter is mainly letting us get to know Manolin and Santiago, but it sets up some recurring things, too. Like, uh, their shared love of baseball and the player... Joe DiMaggio, and Santiago's recurring dream of seeing lions playing on African beaches from his ship. We also know that Santiago had a picture of his wife that he took down because it made him feel too lonely." Jimmy answered.

He started off confident, his speech was planned and measured, until about halfway through his rather stripped down synopsis where he lost some steam and began improvising the points he thought the teacher wanted, stalling when he forgot details like the name of the baseball player the two characters in the story idolised so much. The part about the picture of Santiago's wife had struck a chord with Jimmy, but he tried not to let it show. He hesitated after the prolonged silence following his speech.

"Uh, is that enough?" He asked, awkwardly, his confidence vanishing under the gaze of the entire class.

[Sorry if that wasn't familiar. I tried to pick something fairly common and easy.]

"That would be an excellent summary... of the first chapters. You have been keeping up with the reading, I trust?

"Would anyone like to help with the rest? Asari? Kinai? Takameshi?"

Chiharu was working on the previous period's homework throughout Jimmy's summary, but she decided to look up from it and help move things along to hopefully more interesting segment of the period. She understood English fairly well, however her performance with it was fairly poor. There was barely any emphasis put on any part of her words and in general the pronunciation felt awkward and forced not to mention her generally dry tone.

"The man caught a sword fish and it was hard. Then a bunch of sharks tried to eat his catch so he tried to fight them off. Over time the sharks ate everything of the sword fish except the bones. When he returns to shore he went to his home and went to bed because he was very tired. His apprentice was there in the morning. They talked and his apprentice decides to go with him next time after seeing the very big sword fish bones."

Upon giving her answer in english she returns to her homework.

"Very good. Thank you."

He wrote down these major points under the heading "Plot," then started another column with "Theme."

"Was everyone able to follow that? If so, let's start with some deeper analysis. What kinds of themes did Hemingway incorporate into this work?"

Mizo decided to speak up this time

"I feel that there was metaphors for both growing old and the fear that we all as human beings have of death."

He jotted these down before continuing.

"Yes, good. And how does Santiago respond in the face of these challenges?"

Hawke quietly opened the door to the classroom and ducked inside, trying not to draw any attention to himself. He'd just been on the other side of the school assisting another English teacher teach the seniors. The walk had been particularly difficult for Hawke as the junior classroom was on the bottom floor of the building in comparison to the senior top floor classrooms.

He bowed to Nathaniel, quietly saying "Laurence-sensei" and perched himself on the edge of the desk. Hawke began to familiarise himself with what was going on in the classroom; this was his first day assisting the juniors and as such had no idea what they were studying. Unfortunately for him, having received an English education, he had never read the American book and began to fear that Nathaniel would ask him his opinion. The feeling was a familiar one, Hawke may have been a fairly avid reader but he avoided reading books for his classes at all costs, he preferred to simply read up online about the books and regurgitate that information into the exams, which worked well most of the time. It did not work, however, in the classroom when he needed to formulate an opinion.

Hell... this is just like school all over again! I guess the fisherman began to accept failure as a necessity in life... He never gives up despite enormous adversity.

{Hawke,I thought this was the Juniors english class, or did I read your post wrong?}

"He doesn't give up. He hangs in there to the very end."

"Absolutely right," he said, as he wrote out "Perseverance."

"Even though the others doubt him, though they say his luck has run out, though it seems all the world conspires to keep him from his goal, he trusts in himself and fights on.

"As we know, by the time he finally reaches land, the sharks have devoured all but scraps of the great marlin. What you think this implies in relation to the themes? Was his tenacity all for nought?"

[Whoops - momentary lapse of concentration there I guess. Sorry about that!]

{No worries.}

"In relation to the themes I feel that it represents the way that time wears us all down. I also don't think that the man's efforts were all for nothing. He knows what he accomplished, it doesn't really matter what the others say or think."

"Spot on today, Mr. Takameshi. Even as Santiago struggles against the marlin, the sea, and the sharks, there is an internal conflict as well. He could quite easily have left the marlin to the sharks and made his way back to shore unhindered, yet he refuses to do so. Why do you think this is?"

"It's part of not giving up. He didn't give up when he was trying to reel the fish in, and he wasn't going to give up on getting it back to shore. He had determination."

"Good points."

He wrote atop a third column "Symbolism."

"Keeping those themes in mind, did you recognize things that Hemingway employed as symbols to reinforce deeper connotations?"

"Well, the main symbol is the marlin itself. It's a symbol of grace, glory and power. It's supposed to be a worthy opponent to Santiago, bringing out the best in him, and a trophy to show his skill as a fisherman. The sharks are a symbol as well, for the exact opposite of the marlin. They're unstoppable, unrelenting and unintelligent creatures that only want to destroy. They're thoughtless and brutal. I think it could be argued that they're supposed to symbolise death or the destructive forces in life that get between you and your goals." Jimmy responded.

"Good, good. Was there perhaps symbolism with Santiago himself?"