Writing a 2-4 page essay
Humanities
As students of American literature and its long history, we often encounter texts that make us uncomfortable. How can we read 18th– or 19th-century captivity narratives, where Native Americans are cast as “savages” who kidnap and kill white settlers when we know now just how those settlers destroyed Native communities, stole their land, and set in motion the massacre of millions of people? How can we like books that use racist language that we would never use today, or stories that legitimize slavery or lynching? How can we identify with female characters who seem so different from modern women, or the men who treat them in ways we would never permit today? In short, how do we encounter America’s literary past – and learn to appreciate it – while still recognizing that each text is a product of its time and place?
For this paper, I would like you to engage with at least one (and not more than two) text from the semester that makes you question your relationship with America’s past. You may approach this text in one of two ways. Some to choose from are: –
Hilda Doolittle (H. D.), “Oread,” (489), “Leda” (490), “Helen” (491)
– Ezra Pound, “In a Station of the Metro,” “A Pact” (484)
– T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (502)
– E. E. Cummings, “Next to of Course God America I”
Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (693), “Let America Be American Again” (696), “I, Too” (702), “Harlem 2” (website)
– Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool” (1229)
Option 1: Focus on why you believe this text should be read. How can you appreciate, and even enjoy a text that relies on outdated assumptions, and why do you believe this text should be read regardless of its anachronisms? What does it have to offer us, despite its less-than-modern assumptions or characterizations.
Option 2: Perhaps you’ve read something this semester that you don’t believe should be read. Maybe it’s better to keep it in the past, that there are better ways for us as Americans to learn our history without relying on this text in particular.
For whichever option you choose, be sure to use examples from the text that support your point. Critically analyze the text, the characters, the plot, the situation. Analyze what you believe the author wanted his or her audience to take away from this text and whether it is still applicable today. Engage critically and passionately with the text, because really, we are all students of the past, all students of history, and we are responsible for passing down this legacy.
Papers Should Be: 2-4 pages, single spaced (roughly 500-1,000 words, though more is okay). Be sure to proofread!
