I may add a question or two or edit the wording on a few but these are the questions for essay #1.
I will still have a handout to give to you in class next week:
Assimilation
1. 1. Use examples from The Namesake, “Two Kinds”, “Brave We
Are” and from your own experience if it applies (and limit it to one
paragraph) to explain the “new American” experience and the challenges of
assimilation. Use examples from the texts along with outside sources to support
your thesis. You must use at least one of the short stories as an example
for this question.
- We discussed how symbols were used in “Brave
We Are” this week for the issues new Americans face. Discuss three (the
meal, the song, the poem) of those symbols and explain their importance in
the story. Use examples from the texts along with outside sources to
support your thesis.
- In “Two Kinds” the mother puts a lot of
pressure of her daughter to do well. This can be referred to as her
“putting all her eggs in one basket”. Explain how she attempts to shape
her daughter’s life in the story. Use examples from the texts along with
outside sources to support your thesis. There are sources on the blog that
discuss the pressure some Asian parents put on their children to succeed
in school. These would work well as outside sources.
- Food is clearly important in all cultures
and we see that in “Brave We Are” and to a lesser extent in The Namesake; using examples from
both of those texts OR JUST “Brave We Are” and two outside sources,
explain what role food plays in culture. Use examples from the texts along
with outside sources to support your thesis.
Identity
- Newark plays an important role in “Live For
Today.” Using the links on the blog about crime in Newark or articles you
fin don your own, explain how the story uses Newark’s negative reputation
to tell the story. Use examples from the texts along with outside sources
to support your thesis.
- Explain how the dead victims in “Live For
Today” and the lawn jockeys from “Mrs. Turner’s Lawn Jockeys” function as
symbolic in each of their stories. In other words, explain how their
communication with the main characters from each story is important. Use
examples from the texts along with outside sources to support your thesis.
- Bernie and Emma put on black shoe polish so
they will not be seen when they sneak out at night to paint the lawn
jockeys white. Why could this been seen as symbolic? What is your
understanding of blackface? Later on, Bernie says they are invisible—could
there be more to that? Use examples from the texts along with outside
sources to support your thesis.
- When they see
their father in the kitchen as they are attempting to paint the jockeys,
Bernie says to himself that his father is “thinking about who he used to
be, who he is, who people think he is, and who he wants to become” (79).
What does this mean?
Use examples from the texts along with outside sources to support your
thesis.
9.
Pick NO
MORE THAN THREE characters from “Live For Today”,
“Mrs. Turner’s Lawn Jockeys” or Lion and explain how their identity is shaped or
explained in their story. Use examples from the texts along with outside
sources (links about identity on blog) to support your thesis.
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