The lonely life of Sophocles’ Ajax as well as his military/personal demise and other issues. More specifically, we discussed his post-traumatic stress, his relationship with his wife, his suicide and eventually how, although he was a dishonored warrior, Teucer made arrangements for Ajax’s respectful burial. We noticed that Ajax was an extraordinary warrior, who at the same was inflexible and unable to cope with the new image of himself that was developing in the army. His military strength, value and reputation seem to have been both his success and failure.

Feminism - which may have been prompted by a nearby women’s rally in Washington Square Park. The military team, masculinity, biology of the natural world and survival. Discussion included the stigma of masculinity and social progress. We talked about men as major leaders through the world wars: men were performing the duties of warriors, whereas women were mostly back on the home front and were not given an opportunity to fight for their country. We touched briefly on the painting “My Bunkie” by Charles Schreyvogel, and plan to discuss next time the topic of comradeship depicted therein with more detail. We will also compare Schreyvogel's painting to Remington’s sculpture “My Wounded Bunkie” and other art of the time.

In addition, we looked at and discussed sections of “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller.