What I liked the most about this week’s discussion was how each of the different Greek myths and references in the book were addressed. When I first read Asterios Polyp I had no idea that the myths mentioned reflected so much of what was occurring in the novel. I don’t know much about Greek myths but I was able to appreciate the use of them in the novel only after our discussions because we clearly tied how each myth related back to what was happening in the book. For example someone mentioned that Asterios’ last name was probably Polyphemus and that in Greek mythology Polyphemus was a cyclops. This helped explain the significance of Asterios loosing his eye near the end of the novel. Since Asterios Polyp is such a dense book made of little things that seem insignificant in the beginning but make sense at the end of the book, I was glad that we took the time to allow everyone to explain some of the different parts of the book that did this because it helped explain some things in the book that some of us didn’t realize were intentional. For example on Thursday we discussed the scene after Asterios has built the tree house and how Asterios doesn’t smack the fly that’s on his cheek. I’m sure many of us didn’t realize that this was referring to Francis of Assisi or that Mazzuchelli used this scene to show that Asterios was changing as a person.