Adulthood Socratic Seminar
Objectives: To demonstrate your understanding of each reading
To demonstrate your ability to connect each reading to our overarching theme of adulthood
To demonstrate your ability to analyze the theme of adulthood as it relates to literature
Prepwork: Choose quotes from below or directly from Pay It Forward, the song presentations (list of songs attached),
The Man Who Was Almost A Man, and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? And The Key to the Highway that
best represent adulthood. To accomplish this, complete the work below (answer all components of all three questions):
1. Find one quote that best represents each of the following themes (Each theme should have a different quote)
1. Loss of Innocence
2. Vulnerability of Youth
3. Responsibility
4. Maturity
Note each quote (you can star it, circle it, or rewrite it on the back of this packet) you plan on using. Also provide
an explanation as to why you chose each quote.
2. Find one quote that least represents each of the following themes (Each theme should have a different quote)
1. Loss of Innocence
2. Vulnerability of Youth
3. Responsibility
4. Maturity
Note each quote (you can star it, circle it, or rewrite it on the back of this packet) you plan on using. Also provide
an explanation as to why you chose each quote.
3. Determine which character or characters best represent each of the four above themes. Choose a quote to support your
opinion and provide an explanation of why you chose the character and the quote.
Graded Discussion Grading:
Prep-work - 30 points (formative assessments)
As based on the grading scale. – 50 points (summative assessments)
The Man Who Was Almost A Man
“ One of these days he was going to get a gun and practice shooting, then they couldn‟t talk to him as though he were a
little boy.”
“He went through the door, hearing it slam again behind him. Ahma git some money from Ma n buy me a gun! Only two
dollahs! He tucked the thick catalogue under his arm and hurried.”
““But, Ma, we needa gun. Pa am got no gun. We needa gun in the house. Yuh kin never tell whut might happen.” “Now
don yuh try to maka fool outta me, boy! Ef we did hava gun, yuh wouldn‟t have it!””
““But Ma, Ah wans a gun. Yuh kin lemme have two dollahs outta mah money. Please, Ma. I kin give it to Pa... . Please,
Ma! Ah loves yuh, Ma.””
“The first movement he made the following morning was to reach under his pillow for the gun. In the gray light of dawn
he held it loosely, feeling a sense of power. Could kill a man with a gun like this. Kill anybody, black or white. And if he
were holding his gun in his hand, nobody could run over him; they would have to respect him. It was a big gun, with a
long barrel and a heavy handle. He raised and lowered it in his hand, marveling at its weight”
““Know whut this is, Jenny? Naw, yuh wouldn know! Yuhs jusa ol mule! Anyhow, this is a gun, n it kin shoot, by
Gawd!””
“He had never seen so much blood in all his life. He chased the mule for half a mile, trying to catch her. Finally she
stopped, breathing hard, stumpy tail half arched. He caught her mane and led her back to where the plow and gun lay.
Then he stopped and grabbed handfuls of damp black earth and tried to plug the bullet hole. Jenny shuddered, whinnied,
and broke from him.”
“Dave‟s stomach felt empty, very empty. He picked up the gun and held it gingerly between his thumb and forefinger. He
buried it at the foot of a tree. He took a stick to cover the pool of blood with dirt — but what was the use?”
““Waal,” he drawled. “Ah brung ol Jenny down here sos Ah could do mah plowin. Ah plowed bout two rows, just like
yuh see.” He stopped and pointed at the long rows of upturned earth. „Then somethin musta been wrong wid ol Jenny.
She wouldn ack right a-tall. She started snortin n kickin her heels. Ah tried t hol her, but she pulled erway, rearm n goin
in. Then when the point of the plow was stickin up in the air, she swung erroun n twisted herself back on it... . She stuck
herself n started t bleed. N fo Ah could do anything, she wuz dead.””
“His father caught his shoulders and shook him till his teeth rattled. „Tell whut happened, yuh rascal! Tell whut Dave
looked at Jenny‟s stiff legs and began to cry. “Whut yuh do wid tha gun?” his mother asked. “What wuz he doin wida
gun?” his father asked. “Come on and tell the truth,” said Hawkins. “Ain‟t nobody going to hurt you.... His mother
crowded close to him.”
“Dave turned and walked slowly. He heard people laughing. Dave glared~ his eyes welling with tears. Hot anger bubbled
in him. Then he swallowed and stumbled on.”
“He remembered other beatings, and his back quivered. Naw, flaw, Ah sho don wan im t beat me tha way no mo. Dam em
all! Nobody ever gave him anything. All he did was work. They treat me like a mule, n then they beat me. He gritted his
teeth. N Ma had t tell on me.”
“He clutched the gun stiff and hard in his fingers. But, as soon as he wanted to pull the trigger, he shut his eyes and turned
his head. Naw, Ah can‟t shoot wid mah eyes closed n mah head turned. With effort he held his eyes open; then he
squeezed. Blooooom! He was stiff, not breathing. The gun was still in his hands. Dammit, he‟d done it! He fired again.
Blooooom!”
“hen he reached the top of a ridge he stood straight and proud in the moonlight, looking at Jim Hawkins‟ big white house,
feeling the gun sagging in his pocket. Lawd, ef Ah had just one mo bullet Ah‟d taka shot at tha house. Ah‟d like t scare ol
man Hawkins jusa little.. . . Jusa enough t let im know Dave Saunders is a man. To his left the road curved, running to the
tracks of the Illinois”
“The cars slid past, steel grinding upon steel. Ahm ridin yuh ternight, so hep me Gawd! He was hot all over. He hesitated
just a moment; then he grabbed, pulled atop of a car, and lay flat. He felt his pocket; the gun was still there. Ahead the
long rails were glinting in the moonlight, stretching away, away to somewhere, somewhere where he could be a man. ...”
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
“Connie would raise her eyebrows at these familiar old complaints and look right through her mother, into a shadowy
vision of herself as she was right at that moment: she knew she was pretty and that was everything.”
“… but around his bent head Connie's mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she
herself was dead and it was all over. "She makes me want to throw up sometimes," she complained to her friends.”
“ She wore a pull-over jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away
from home. Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk,
which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head; her
mouth, which was pale and smirking most of the time, but bright and pink on these evenings out; her laugh, which was
cynical and drawling at home—"Ha, ha, very funny,"—but high pitched and nervous anywhere else, like the jingling of
the charms on her bracelet.”
“She drew her shoulders up and sucked in her breath with the pure pleasure of being alive, and just at that moment she
happened to glance at a face just a few feet from hers. It was a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted
gold. He stared at her and then his lips widened into a grin. Connie slit her eyes at him and turned away, but she couldn't
help glancing back and there he was, still watching her. He wagged a finger and laughed and said, "Gonna get you, baby,"
and Connie turned away again without Eddie noticing anything.”
“She and that girl and occasionally another girl went out several times a week, and the rest of the time Connie spent
around the house—it was summer vacation—getting in her mother s way and thinking, dreaming about the boys she met.
But all the boys fell back and dissolved into a single face that was not even a face but an idea, a feeling, mixed up with the
urgent insistent pounding of the music and the humid night air of July”
“Connie sat out back in a lawn chair and watched them drive away, her father quiet and bald, hunched around so that he
could back the car out, her mother with a look that was still angry and not at all softened through the windshield, and in
the back seat poor old June, all dressed up as if she didn't know what a barbecue was, with all the running yelling kids and
the flies.”
“"You wanta come for a ride?" he said.
Connie smirked and let her hair fall loose over one shoulder.
"Don'tcha like my car? New paint job," he said. "Hey."
"What?"
"You're cute."
She pretended to fidget, chasing flies away from the door.”
“"I wanta introduce myself, I'm Arnold Friend and that's my real name and I'm gonna be your friend, honey, and inside
the car's Ellie Oscar, he's kinda shy."”
“"Connie, you ain't telling the truth. This is your day set aside for a ride with me and you know it," he said, still laughing.
The way he straightened and recovered from his fit of laughing showed that it had been all fake.”
“He looked at her. He took off the sunglasses and she saw how pale the skin around his eyes was, like holes that were not
in shadow but instead in light. His eyes were like chips of broken glass that catch the light in an amiable way. He smiled.
It was as if the idea of going for a ride somewhere, to someplace, was a new idea to him.”
“"My sign." And he drew an X in the air, leaning out toward her. They were maybe ten feet apart. After his hand fell back
to his side the X was still in the air, almost visible. Connie let the screen door close and stood perfectly still inside it,
listening to the music from her radio and the boy's blend together.”
“Connie felt a wave of dizziness rise in her at this sight and she stared at him as if waiting for something to change the
shock of the moment, make it all right again. Ellie's lips kept shaping words, mumbling along with the words blasting in
his ear.”
“Evidently his feet did not go all the way down; the boots must have been stuffed with something so that he would seem
taller. Connie stared out at him and behind him at Ellie in the car, who seemed to be looking off toward Connie's right,
into nothing. This Ellie said, pulling the words out of the air one after another as if he were just discovering them, "You
want me to pull out the phone?"”
“Something roared in her ear, a tiny roaring, and she was so sick with fear that she could do nothing but listen to it—the
telephone was clammy and very heavy and her fingers groped down to the dial but were too weak to touch it.”
“She was hollow with what had been fear but what was now just an emptiness. All that screaming had blasted it out of
her. She sat, one leg cramped under her, and deep inside her brain was something like a pinpoint of light that kept going
and would not let her relax.”
“She thought, I have got to think. I have got to know what to do.”
“She put out her hand against the screen. She watched herself push the door slowly open as if she were back safe
somewhere in the other doorway, watching this body and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight where Arnold
Friend waited.”
Key To The Highway
Mark Halliday
I remember riding somewhere in a fast car
with my brother and his friend Jack Brooks
and we were listening to Layla & Other Love Songs
by Derek & the Dominos. The night was dark,
dark all along the highway. Jack Brooks was
a pretty funny guy, and I was delighted
by the comradely interplay between him and my brother,
but I tried not to show it for fear of inhibiting them.
I tried to be reserved and maintain a certain
dignity appropriate to my age, older by four years.
They knew the Dominos album well having played the cassette
many times, and they knew how much they liked it.
As we rode on in the dark I felt the music was,
after all, wonderful, and I said so
with as much dignity as possible. "That's right,"
said my brother. "You're getting smarter," said Jack.
We were listening to "Bell Bottom Blues"
at that moment. Later we were listening to
"Key to the Highway", and I remembered how
my brother said, "Yeah, yeah." And Jack sang
one of the lines in a way that made me laugh.
I am upset by the fact that that night is so absolutely gone.
No, "upset" is too strong. Or is it.
But that night is so obscure—until now
I may not have thought of that ride once
in eight years—and this obscurity troubles me.
Death is going to defeat us all so easily.
Jack Brooks is in Florida, I believe,
and I may never see him again, which is
more or less all right with me; he and my brother
lost touch some years ago. I wonder
where we were going that night. I don't know;
but it seemed as if we had the key to the highway
Pay it Forward
Trevor: I guess it's hard for people who are so used to things the way they are — even if they're bad — to change. 'Cause
they kind of give up. And when they do, everybody kinda of loses.
Trevor: What did you ever do to change the world?
Eugene Simonet: Jesus Arlene, he doesn't have to. All he has to do is not love him.
Thorsen gives Chris the keys to his car]
Chris: You want me to drive home in your car?
Thorsen: No, I want you to take my car. Had a lot of luck lately. I don't need it.
Chris: You're giving me a brand-new Jaguar, and you don't want anything?
Thorsen: I can prove it. Give me your card.
[Chris gives Thorsen a business card]
Thorsen: I'll be in touch.
Chris: Whoa, what is this? What, you want me to kill your wife or something?
Thorsen: No. Tempting, but no. Call it generosity between two strangers.
Trevor: Are you saying you'll flunk us if we don't change the world?
Eugene: Well, no. But you might just scrape by with a C.
Arlene: Sit down, I want to talk to you.
Trevor: You want to lie to me.
Thorsen: I thanked him and there were some very specific orifices in which I was told to shove my thanks. He told me,
"Just pay it forward." Three big favors for three other people. That's it.
Chris: So it's like a pass-it-on thing, then. Wait a minute. You and this lowlife are in this chain of do-gooders, some kind
of Mother Theresa conga line? That's a little New-Agey for you, isn't it? Sort of Tibetan? What, are you in a cult?
Thorsen: If you mention my name, you'll be selling your kidneys to pay for your lawsuit. Cult.
Chris: Hey, the guy. What was the guy's name?
Thorsen: [as he's walking away] Sorry, I'm late for my mass wedding.
Jerry: You ever been on the street?
Arlene: My mom took us pretty close.
Jerry: Well, you can't know. Not until you look at a dumpster. But when you climb into that thing for the first time and
you pull those newspapers over you, that's when you know you've messed your life up. Somebody comes along like your
son, and gives me a leg up, I'll take it. Even from a kid, I'll take it.
Chris: Is that what you wanted for your birthday? Everybody to Pay it forward?
Trevor: I can't ask for that.
Chris: Sure you can, why not ?
Trevor: It wouldn't work.
Chris: Why?
[Pause; thoughtfully thinks]
Trevor: I already blew out my candles.
Song Presentations
Title
100 Years
Serve The Servants
Hold Ya Head Up
Time of Your Life
Lady Madonna
Old Man
Bikes and Bridges
Drive
Just Can’t Wait to Be King
Make a Man out of You
Rubber Ball
Jesus, Take the Wheel
Bitter Sweet Symphony
Artist
Five For Fighting
Nirvana
Macklemore
Greenday
Beattles
Redlight King/Neil Young
Defiance, Ohio
Incubus
The Lion King
Mulan
Cage The Elephant
Carrie Underwood
The Verve
The Reason
Stop This Train
Time
Survivors
We Weren’t Born To Follow
Daughters
Get Some
What Hurts the Most
Help
For Good
Old Man
Lead the Way
Soundtrack 2 My Life
My Way
Not Afraid
Hoobastank
John Mayer
Pink Floyd
Matthew West
Bon Jovi
John Mayer
Wiz Khalifa
Rascal Flatts
The Beattles
Lea Michele and Gris Colfer (Wicked)
Neil Young
Sweatshop Union
Kid Cudi
Frank Sinatra
Eminem
Grading Scale (Your goal is to earn 10 points during the discussion. Your score will be multiplied x 5 for
your overall grade)
 1 point – relevant and contextual general question (basic comprehension)
 For example: “What happened to Dave at the end of The Man Who Was Almost A
Man”
 2 points – Relevant and contextual analysis or synthesis question
 For example: “Do you think Dave should be considered a man/adult? Why or why
not?”
 2 points – relevant and contextual on topic comment
 For example: “Dave jumped on a train at the end of the story”
 3 points – relevant and contextual on topic comment with a textual reference
 For example: “Dave jumped on a train at the end of the story which can be seen
when the narrator states, “He hesitated just a moment; then he grabbed, pulled atop of a car, and
lay flat. He felt his pocket; the gun was still there. Ahead the long rails were glinting in the moonlight,
stretching away, away to somewhere, somewhere where he could be a man” (pg 8).
 4 points – relevant and contextual on topic comment with a textual reference and analysis
 For example: “Dave jumped on a train at the end of the story to “go somewhere that
he could be a man” (pg 8). However, I do not believe this is possible because running
away from one’s problems is not a quality of a true adult.”
 5 points – relevant and contextual on topic comment with a textual reference and evaluation
 For example: “Dave jumped on a train at the end of the story to “go somewhere that
he could be a man” (pg 8). However, I do not believe this is possible because running
away from one’s problems is not a quality of a true adult. Looking at the qualities of
adults posters and thinking about the other characters we have encountered, Dave is
the character who is just about the farthest away from being an adult. Dave’s actions
throughout the store were continually immature. An adult would keep their own
money, would not lie about buying a gun, would not disobey rules established by a
superior, and finally, a true adult would not kill someone else’s property, lie about and
then leave town to neglect the consequences of his actions.