The first discussion with my group was poorly executed. Although everyone knew what she/he was supposed to do, two members of my group did not do the required task (s) for whatever reason(s). However, I found myself fortunate to discover that one member (Ted) had at least done some research and was ready to share his theme and somehow connect it with mine. .
The theme that he came up with was about deception and he tied it up with one short story he read called "The Elephant". We came up with a few good points such as deception has the power to ruin people, deception only benefits a person in the short run, and deception is a non-effective way to deal with a problem. Later on, we were able to make an unanimous connection to Macbeth, finding that the story revolved around deception itself. .
When the time to discuss my theme had come, we raised and commented on the validity and connection of my theme to my 4 selections and Macbeth. My theme that intelligence is essential for survival developed good questions. However, I was then forced to ponder more deeper within my theme after Ms. Singer helped me investigate one of the short stories I had chosen, "A secret lost in the water". Ms. Singer suggested that this story was about the inner-wisdom within people, not necessarily intelligence in means of education as I had thought before. Ms. Singer also suggested that it was this inner-wisdom that people eventually lost and got them destroyed. With a new suggestion in hand, Ted and I decided to make connections with my selections. The first short story was already done for us, so we decided to move on to the second one, "The Maiden wise than the Tsar". .
In this short-story, the maiden possessed inner-wisdom and had a unique gift of meeting the Tsar's impossible requests (as a test). The Tsar on the other hand, saw this inner-wisdom within this simple Maiden and he asked for her hand in marriage.
