Lit Circles Summative Journal

Lit Circle: The Lost Symbol - Journal (from Week 2)

After two weeks, my literature circle group had decided to read up to around page 200, however, by the end of the week, I had exceeded this point in the book.  During our discussions in-class, my group and I mainly talked about how the multiple settings created the tone for the scenes and how these surroundings affected and reflected the different characters. The Lost Symbol is a book that at this point, has more than one clear theme; it is a story filled with mystery, darkness, and manipulation.

The different themes that 'The Lost Symbol' portrays are not shown separately, but is painted as a twisted picture through the multiple settings and the motives of the different characters.  Setting plays a huge part in who holds the power and authority in each chapter of the book, and it also sets the mood of eerie darkness for each of them as well.  Even at the beginning of the book in chapter six, before key events have taken place, "the first few raindrops began to fall", (p.24), and it were as if "the skies were threatening to open at an moment", (p.24), on the "wet cement" (p.24) that Robert Langdon was pacing himself upon. As the day approached evening, the setting creates a moody feeling towards how Langdon felt not only having to run through the rain, but also his fear, or phobia of the underground tunnel he had to use as a pathway to get inside the Capitol Building at that time of day.  By this initial opening scene, you can tell that the author, Dan Brown, uses Robert Langdon's fears and insecurities to set the feeling of darkness and mystery through the unexpected gloomy evening that the character encounters.

Robert Langdon's fears and personal issues with claustrophobia is again used by the author in chapters 32 and 35, where Langdon, Sato, and Anderson are going down to SBB13, the Capitol Building's subbasement, which in a whole, was just one very large, yet narrow maze.  "The wooden stairs [that descended] to the Capitol's subbasement were steep and shallow", (p.145), and the group's "footfalls drum[med] up an eerie, uneven echo in the long passageway [as] doorways lined the long hallway; some closed but many ajar, [and]  many of the rooms [down on this level] looked abandoned."  (p.136).  The feeling that is given off in this closed, dusty area is one that makes the reader fear this space themselves, and makes the reader really wonder what mysteries are contained within all the dark, deserted rooms of such a historic building's underground basement.  These are feelings not only felt by us, the reader, but they are characterized in Langdon, Sato, and Anderson's unfamiliarity with the unkept parameters that they are entering and searching.

One more setting that my Lit Circle group believed was a key in revealing the themes of this story is Katherine Solomon's science lab, called Pod 5.  This lab, known as "The 'Cube', was a massive windowless box", (p.55), "located in the farthest corner of the [blackness of] Pod [5] for maximum separation." (p.44).  The blackness and isolation of Pod 5 and 'The Cube' combined makes us as the reader wonder why it is that Peter Solomon thought that this would be the perfect place for his sister, Katherine, to do her scientific work. The darkness, and lack of light in the Pod itself gives off a feeling of uncertainty, uneasiness, and perhaps even evil when first introduced to this space.  For anyone encountering the blackness of the Pod, a "leap of faith" (p.45) is required to walk through in order to get to the actual lab, highlighting another theme that is apparent within the characters' relationships: trust (and often mistrust).  However, it must be recognized that Katherine's work was unknown, so the Solomons were definitely trying to further keep Katerine's lab a secret and exclusive to her own knowing; however, this also represents the deep privacy that apparently the Solomon family tries to withhold, later revealed through the talisman, the gold pyramid that protected the Freemason's secrets, which was kept in the Solomon family for many generations.

Identical to how the settings affected and portrayed many of the characters' initial reactions, us, as human beings are no different to these characters.  The environment around us can easily alter our view upon the possible situations that we are put in on a daily basis.  For example, the weather plays a huge factor in our moods, just as it did to Langdon when he arrived at the Capitol Building, in the rain.  If we, as mere humans wake up at 7 in the morning to a downpour knocking at our window, I believe that the majority of us barely have the desire to get out of bed; however, on a beautiful sunny day, our spirits are enlightened by the warm, welcoming sunshine that starts off our days.  Like Pod 5, dark spaces that we know no whereabouts of where are are or where anything else is located for that matter can make our heart beat quicker and our jaws tremble in fear.  Setting and environment can play with our emotions greatly, just as they do to the characters in The Lost Symbol.

Similar to what I stated before about the weather affecting our emotional reactions, the environment that surrounds us can also remind us of certain emotions, feelings, and situations that we've been in previously.  The simplest memory of momentarily being blinded in the sunlight's gaze can send one back to a time spent in the summer at a cottage with their family, for example.  These kinds of memories that are triggered by encountering like-scenarios, comparable to a flashback that characters in movies and books are struck by often.  In relation to The Lost Symbol, Robert Langdon has one of these memory-stricken types of moments in chapter six, as mentioned earlier, as he was running through a dark, underground passage, it reminded him of his claustrophobia and the struggles he faced as a child, feeling unable to breathe, like "[he had] to get out of this box," (p.6), and now, as an adult, Langdon felt as if he were searching for "light, [and] spacious[ness]".  (p.25)

The past weeks, we had a few brief discussions about what I highlighted in my journal entry, as well as the multiple characters that we are encountering as we read The Lost Symbol.  Personally, I feel like we have not had a substantial amount of time to discuss key events or to go into detail about the deeper meanings or possibilities of the storyline, so I hope that in the upcoming week, we will have the opportunity to discuss much more.  More recently, our literature circle group has had more time for general discussion about the multiple story lines in the book.  We have gotten into discussions and opened up our opinions while interpreting the text and sharing with each other.  For example, I was confused about Zachary's death and Inmate 37's transformation into Andros.  My group was able to explain how they interpreted that event while taking into consideration my input as well.  In general though, I believe that our group is making a good use of the time that we are given to discuss; we all participate by listening to each other's opinions, and we each take turns to build on the opinions stated and ask questions to further our thinking during our discussions.  An improvement would just be to get a little bit deeper into the many layers of symbolism that is beginning to be mentioned.  It's obvious that The Lost Symbol contains many depths and layers underneath of the surface of the text, as it will open our minds to the real symbolism and mysteries that the story reveals.

NOTE: What I have edited/improved on is that I added another connection, (t-t/t-w) and also have further explained in detail and depth, our group's progress up to this point.