Preview of Essay #1 Questions...

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.

2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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

5. 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.
6. 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.

7. 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.
8. 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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