At the beginning of the session,Marcel completed grammar exercises on comparisons, and misplaced modifiers . We then began our study of Sherwood Anderson's novel,,"Winesburg ,Ohio". Marcel took notes on Anderson's life, the literary realist movement prevalent at the beginning of the 20th Century, and the distinction between Anderson's fiction and the then dominant realist fiction. We further discussed the difference between realism's focus on the impact of external institutional or social forces , and Anderson's more introspective view that a person's internal longings, losses , and misunderstandings impact the course of one's life. I then outlined predominant themes of the novel and how to recognize their appearance in certain symbolic acts . Last, I provided a brief list of the main characters and their relationships to each other. We discussed the importance of George Willard to the narrative as the author's alter-ego, the artist- writer who observes and gives meaning to the desperate lives of the citizens of Winesburg, Ohio. For Thursday, I assigned reading the first story in the narrative.