Category: ENGLISH

What is the meaning of this quote? How does it apply to society today? “Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat.”What is the conflict, moment of crisis, and peripety in Ralph Ellison’s “A Party Down at the Square”?

Short Stories Readings & Questions Week 9

Ellison A Party at the Square Discussion Questions

What is the meaning of this quote? How does it apply to society today? “Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat.”

What is the theme, setting, and plot in “A Party Down at the Square” by Ralph Ellison?

What is the conflict, moment of crisis, and peripety in Ralph Ellison’s “A Party Down at the Square”?

Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”

Discussion Questions

Discuss the mother (the narrator) in this story. What kind of person is she? How does she seem to feel about Dee? About Maggie?

Do the narrator’s language and grammatical usage match the picture she paints of herself?

What elements prepare the reader for Dee before she arrives on the scene?

How did Dee relate to her family before she left home? What role did she assume for herself? Does this change after she leaves home?

How do you feel about Dee? Do you sympathize with her desire to “improve” herself and her family? Where do you think she goes wrong?

Discuss the relationship between Maggie and Dee.

What is suggested by Dee’s prolonged picture-taking with her Polaroid? Her kissing her mother on the forehead?

Why has Dee assumed African dress, hairstyle, and name? How would you characterize the attitudes of her and her new husband/boyfriend toward their race? Positive or negative? Honest or simply “politically correct”?

Discuss Dee’s mother’s and sister’s reactions to her new persona, “Wangero.” Do you sympathize with them?

How would you describe the way that Dee reacts to the food and objects in her mother’s house?

Why does Mrs. Johnson decide to stand up to Dee and not allow her to take the quilts at the end of the story?

Why do you think Maggie is so content at the end?

Could this story just as well have been about a white mother and her daughters? Aside from the African or Muslim names, does anything distinguish Dee’s relations with her mother and Maggie as especially black? If not, is that a strength of the story, or a weakness?

Evaluate the significance of cultural (or, if you prefer, psychological) constructions of gendered relations and gendered identity in Macbeth.

Evaluate the significance of cultural (or, if you prefer, psychological) constructions of gendered relations and gendered identity in Macbeth.
Sources:
macbeth text- Shakespeare
https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/szekspir/article/view/7676/7921
https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/between/article/view/980/665

(for source number 2- will have to translate from Italian to english)

file:///Users/daniellapolevoy/Downloads/You_should_be_women_Constru.pdf

 How does mixed identity create the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist?How does this passage shed light on a larger conflict of race?

Statement, and 5 paragraph essay

Tayo: Native American/White

Relationship with Emo

Protagonist vs antagonist

How does mixed identity create the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist?

Army uniforms: treatment of Native Americans before the war vs during the war

Only treated like Americans during the war while wearing the uniforms

How does this passage shed light on a larger conflict of race?

Betonie and Night Swan

Betonie: medicine man

NA and Mexican

Believes ceremonies must change and grow or die

Night Swan: dancer

NA and Mexican

Hazel eyes…

What can be done to increase public adoption? What can be done to increase adoption for older kids? or What can be done to increase adoption for special needs children?

The topic is to write about a problem/solution research paper on either of the three following topics; what can be done to increase public adoption? What can be done to increase adoption for older kids? or What can be done to increase adoption for special needs children? Also if you don’t mind can you send me the introduction for this paragraph later on today or by tomorrow December 11 and then send me the rest before the due date which is on December 17.

“Are reparations necessary or possible?Analyze, the arguments for and against reparations and what those reparations would look like.

Are reparations necessary or possible?

For your research, keep in mind our driving question for the course, “Are reparations necessary or possible?” Throughout this course, our focus is on a domestic level looking at injustices committed against people in the United States. At the same time we should look at injustices on a global level. There is an ongoing debate on whether England should repay India form of reparations. Belgium occupied the National Republic of Congo and committed genocide, killing about ten million Congolese. There are several countries in Africa that are asking for their art and stolen antiquities during European colonization. If you want, you can expand your definition of colonizer beyond a government to some injustices that were created or had the help of corporations. For instance, you can look Shell oil extraction in the Ogoni region of Nigeria or Chevron in the Yasuni rainforests of Equador. In both cases, the Indigenous people have been severely affected.

In your research paper you need to discuss the history of an occupation and the related racism, brutality, and theft. You need to to analyze, the arguments for and against reparations and what those reparations would look like. Your research paper needs to be a minimum of eights pages, not including your works cited page. You need a minimum of six outside source, with at least two of them from primary sources.

Consider how the main characters deal with the events in the text Do they make different choices? Examine whether the texts have similar character types or patterns that have been reoeated in many works of literature iex. the wise person, the outcast, irood vs. evil etc.

Compare and Contrast Essay

Discuss the message about life that each text shares with the reader

Analyze how each -text deals with common topics (EL the treatment of death in Fahrenheit 451 compared to death in the recent text)

Discuss how another character influences the main character in each text

Consider how the main characters deal with the events in the text Do they make different choices?)

Examine whether the texts have similar character types or patterns that have been reoeated in many works of literature iex. the wise person, the outcast, irood vs. evil etc.1

What does Tayo mean when he says “love had outdistanced death” (204)?How are the white ranchers also under the influence of ck’o’yo magic (the witchery, destroyer magic)? Think about the “the lie” on p. 189-190

English Work

REVISION

1. Tayo falls off of his horse while running away from the white ranchers. When he opens
his eyes, what is he aware of? Give details from the paragraph on p.187

a. What is the choice he seems to be making in the paragraph on p. 187

2. How are the white ranchers also under the influence of ck’o’yo magic (the witchery,
destroyer magic)? Think about the “the lie” on p. 189-190

3. How are the seasons changing while Tayo searches for the cattle? How does this help or
hinder his search?

4. What is “Texas roping” and how does Tayo feel about it?
What does Tayo mean when he says “love had outdistanced death” (204)?

5. Where is Tayo living?

6. Who does he see on a regular basis? What is her name?

7. What rumors has Emo been spreading? What kind of risk does this pose for Tayo?

8. On p. 216, she says that “They are trying to decide who you are.” How is “who we are”
defined? By others? By ourselves? By our actions?