When I was in university, Samuel Becket’s Waiting for Godot, while having been published for years, was still newish. We had no clue. There was no internet and the literary magazines had not grasped the play. We were also unworldly in the main, so all of this nonsense was nonsense – except that play is a comment on life – a life most of us did not know.
This is to say I have empathy for you as you work with The Hut on the Mountain. The author experienced acute political pressures. Her parents were on the wrong side politically. All suffered. In the greater sense, the government also saw that familial unity undergirded individuals. If a government could dismantle those relationships and respect, then it would be easier to control vast numbers of people. People under pressure can break.
Read the material, Understand or gain an awareness of psychological “warfare.”
An effective way to understand the work is to see thematic and symbolic relationships. Please copy the following chart and attempt to discern how the symbols function. Give it a fair effort. Apply what I have shared here and on the site. I seek critical thinking. This is not how many you get right. It is how you think.
The goal is salient, focused, pertinent ideas. Do not “pad.” Paragraphs are not sought. Sentences are not sought. Applause if you can narrow to essential words, phrases. If you can add a quoted sentence or phrase to support your view – so much the better. Work with the symbols included. Add 11-15.
Copy and paste to a Word document. Enter in the Hut DB.
SYMBOL
POSSIBLE MEANING/THEME
1
Mountain
2
Desk Drawers Tidying
3
Hut
4
Sounds
5
Window Screens p. 233
6
Wolves Howling p.234
7
Chess Set p. 234
8
Cold Sweat
9
Well
10
Listening
11
12
13
14
15
