delivermeeting3

Meeting # 3

1) Discuss the themes and images that your book contains. What are some of the images that are used? What do they seem to represent? Why do you think the author uses these images to convey his or her meaning? 2) Discussion Questions
 * In the chapter, "September 16th", The narrator Ed is lying in a crevice on the cliff overlooking the 150 ft drop to the winding river that goes through the canyon, comtempleting about where Lewis is, and who the murderer will go after next. He is wondering if all of them will be safe where they are or if they should go up stream to get away from the murderer. He is trying to figure out what to do as night falls upon them when the murder seeks his victim. He is also talking with the other guys about what their story will be about Lewis when they get back to Atlanta. Should they say he was shot out there or that he drowned?
 * The falling gun into the river represents safety, the group is no longer in danger of being shot. This was also used to convey to Lewis and Bobby that they were safe. The author chose to use this because it has both a literal and figurative (right term?) meaning.
 * The elongated imagery of Ed climbing up the cliff was used to symbolize will and agony (and my losing of concentration). I mean, Dickey really dragged that part on. The author chose to make it long in order to symbolize exactly Ed's agony and will to succeed in his mission. (Could have also appeared to be dragged on because I was trying to read it on a plane with a screaming child in front of me at 9pm.)
 * Ed perched in the tree was used to convey stealth, and make Ed the bigger man. The author did explain how hunters' tree perches were used. Deer do not have any natural enemies in trees, therefore they have no reason to look up, exactly why hunters perch themselves up there. The author simply translated this idea to human hunting. The guy with the rifle is expecting to see the group down by the river, not Ed up in the tree waiting to attack.
 * We learn that the man that Ed shot was " an honorary sheriff deputy." How does this affect Ed's mindset?
 * It affects his mindset in a negative way because he knows that he did not shoot the human hunter. He finds out that he shot a deputy and it makes him go from feeling good about himself that he saved his friends from the hunter to feeling bad that he killed a honorary deputy by accident. He can't believe that he shot an innocent man instead of the man that is causing them all their trouble, the human hunter.
 * In the previous meetings, we discussed who might be the human hunter. How has this changed?
 * This has changed because during the first meeting, we thought it was going to be Lewis. Then as we read on and we had the second meeting, we thought it would be Ed. Then we read on through the last chapters and they did not seem so sure who was the human hunter. In the beginning of the chapter, "September 16th", Ed is lying in a crevice on the cliff looking down 150ft to the river and he is thinking about who the hunter is and what is going to happen to them if they stay where they were. So it is interesting because the author gives clues about possible human hunters but never the clues about the real human hunter till you get towards the end of the story.
 * Why does Ed slightly pry out the man's teeth?
 * Ed ties the body to a rope and throws it over the edge of the cliff. How does this relate to Ed's throwing of the rifle over the cliff and into the river?
 * It relates to it because if there is a rifle in the river and a body, it looks like the person committed suicide by shooting themselves. They do this to cover up their tracks in case anyone ever investigates what happened out here while they were out here. They do not want to get into any type of trouble.
 * Explain why they don't want to come clean.
 * They don't want to come clean because they know that if they go back to Atlanta and come clean to the police or anyone that they will end up going to jail. They make any situations that went on out there while they were out there seem like it was not done by them, that it was done by someone else.
 * They don't want to come clean because they know that if they go back to Atlanta and come clean to the police or anyone that they will end up going to jail. They make any situations that went on out there while they were out there seem like it was not done by them, that it was done by someone else.

Meeting summary: We were both absent from class, work was done independently.