Please read through the novel again.
Then read through this list of passages. Pick out two of these passages -- some of them are really digressions -- which seem to you to be both important and also puzzling.
Write 300+ words discussing one of these passages.
Don't spend more than 100 words summarizing it (you don't have to summarize it at all, if you don't want to).
You should relate it to other parts of and issues in the novel.
NOTE: MAKE SURE that your passages come from different sections of the novel. I want to make certain that everyone has read this novel.
Make sure your discussion of the passages makes it clear, from the references to various parts of the novel, that you have, in fact, read it all.
This is a long novel, though it's fun reading! I'm sure you will all understand that we cannot have fruitful discussions of it unless and until EVERYONE has read it, completely.
You should do your level best to understand the passages.
But, please don't hesitate to point out references which are obscure or simply confusing to you.
At the same time, try, at least, to make sense of them.
Send your assignment to me and to your group.