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I enjoyed reading this excerpt from Ahab's Wife, but I agree wholeheartedly with Courtney that reading the whole book is always a much better idea.  However, I did find this excerpt very compelling--but mainly the 3rd day's reading (pgs 209-253).  I agree with what some people said in class that the way the writing style changes with Una's mind was very engaging and made the character more relatable.  I feel very connected with Una (maybe it is just a function of first person) but my heart felt heavy with Una as she transferred over to the Pequod.  I found it interesting that I did not feel as heavy with the death of Giles, but when I took time to think about it I think that it may be because I did not feel the pain through Una, she was only describing Kit's pain.  So, I would say Una's character is very effective.

As far as this reading being the culminating text for the class it makes perfect sense to me.  Everything links back to choice...and I'm starting to see that even in my own daily monotonous life everything is about choice.  Though some things seem like habit or necessity there is always choice involved. (I am probably very late in realizing this...)

However, one type of "choice" I don't think we really have discussed in class is the idea of loyalty.  I think that we very slightly touched upon it when discussing the advantages of groups against cannibalism (which we see in the book!), but I think we see a different type of loyalty connection between Una and Kit--maybe one more of duty.  It seemed to me that Una almost feels responsible for Kit and thus chooses to stay with him.

This also makes me realize that we didn't necessarily focus on the reasons behind choices rather than the impact of our choices.  We did read part of Nudge, but in my recollection very few of the other texts focused on the why.  I do understand that the impact of a choice is probably more important than the reason behind it, but maybe being more aware of why we make a decision (or want to act a certain way) will help us be more conscientious choosers.