Positive:
1. This novel demonstrates to students the interaction between teachers and students. I use the novel for developmental writing (English 098) and I asked the students to discuss what kind of student and what kind of teacher the book illustrates. The dialogue between the characters (a human student and a gorilla teacher) is a Socratic dialogue. The student/narrator engages in the learning by actually THINKING and by responding to the teacher/gorilla with “I see” or “I see but…” or “I don’t understand what you mean.” In short, the book is an example of active learning.
2. Most students like the fact that this is philosophy written in fictional form. The philosophical question it addresses is “How shall we live?” The teacher offers support for his arguments that demonstrate inference, logical connection, and analogy. Often the student/narrator says that he agrees with the teacher/gorilla’s argument and I ask the students if they also agree and to provide support for their response.
3. The book offers an opportunity for critical thinking as well as a model for it. The student/narrator must ask relevant questions. The student/narrator’s willingness to speak up, to think, and to ask questions is not a model my students immediately identify with.
4. My impression is that students feel proud to be reading a book like this. They feel they’re hearing something they’ve never heard before and have never thought about. I think much of the time they are disappointed that the English class isn’t necessarily challenging them. Developmental English pretty much covers what they failed to learn in high school. Sometimes this is true of their math class too. They thought it would be more difficult. This novel is easy reading but the ideas are complex. They feel like grown-ups to be reading this kind of novel.
5. I find lots of vocabulary in the novel that is sophisticated but in common use among educated people.
6. This book was originally published in 1992. There’s lots of online information about it including online book groups. Research for students and teachers would not be difficult.
Negatives:
1. I think it would be difficult for a first year student to read the novel without a lot of guidance. It would be easy to spend fifteen hours in class discussion. It is rich with issues that would make worthwhile essay topics, but many instructors will not want to spend that much time on the novel. Without encouragement and guidance I’m not sure how valuable the book would be. Some students in my class said that their friends had already recommended the book to them. One way to deal with the book as a common reader might be to form a “Gorilla” lounge (actual or virtual) as a perpetual discussion group on the book. If there is an actual Gorilla Lounge, there might be volunteer students or teachers scheduled to come in at certain hours to lead the discussion.
2. The biggest problem with the novel (at least for me) is that the last third of the book re-interprets the Adam and Eve story and other bible-based stories. I could see how easily someone who believes in the literal truth of the Old Testament might be offended. Actually, I downplay that section in class. Freshmen love to get involved in discussions of religion but I don’t think that’s appropriate for my class. I don’t feel prepared to lead such a discussion. For the last section, I point out that this is fiction and the point Quinn is making is that we can change how we enact the story by changing what the story means to us. The story itself need not change. This seems to me an important lesson to learn. The story of our lives is not changeable but we can change the way we think about our lives. Someone might say that her mother is a drug addict and her father is in jail, therefore she can’t be expected to succeed at anything. The fact that her mother as a drug addict and her father as a prisoner isn’t going to change but the outcome can change by changing the way she thinks about her own story. She can change her story to read that her mother is an addict and her father is in jail therefore, the example of their failure has motivated her to succeed in life. That allows the lesson to be learned with little emphasis on the source of Quinn’s examples. In the context of the novel, it’s necessary for Quinn to focus on the bible as providing the story our society is enacting, but the students will have learned a great deal without dealing with this part of the novel.
I like using the book and it makes for lively discussion, but I think each instructor would have to figure out how to approach the book to apply to his classroom.
Beverly Cope
