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(2016
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2016 (Index to # 1 samples) #1: Long Essay: learning, challenges, issues |
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Jackie Rodriguez
The Winning Side is not the Only Side
In teaching, it seems that the history that is given is that of the
winning side. In a world that is so culturally rich, it is important to try to
make every student feel somewhat represented in the classroom. We as a society
are finding it more important to shed light on even the parts of our nation’s
history that may not be exactly palpable. The question of which America we teach
is very relevant today, it is a question that is well rounded on both sides, and
I do not think we are going to come to an answer any time soon. It is equally
important at this time to teach both dominant culture and to approach the
material as multiculturally as possible. This is our third objective in the
course and every time we discuss a text, we must ask ourselves which America
this text perpetuates.
It is equally as important to remember
not all the cultures we begin reading about were writing things down, one of the
terms we discuss is spoken-written literature a lot of native American cultures
did not have a written language; some of them used wampum. We see this in Mary
Jemison’s narrative, she makes it very clear that she had attained some sort of
schooling and had known her numbers and letters however she had no need for them
in “captivity” therefore she forgot all of what she had learned in that aspect.
Which is why her story is written and has some influence from Seaver. It can be
difficult to find the line where Jemison and Seaver end and begin. Yet another
reason to look at the non-dominant culture. At this point how can the native
American story every be accurately captured, when their cultures do not have a
way of expressing their history that cannot be misinterpreted.
We are reading things written by some of
the first people to be here, for example much of our countries early days are
written out by the Puritans as they were really the only ones writing everything
down in that time. When reading Benjamin Franklin’s
Remarks on the Savages of America we
were able to see things in a much more calm and collected manner then we had
been reading so far, so even in reading this particular text we are still able
to look at the other culture present but in a much different light. Then we have
our captivity narratives, which not only teach a type of very popular literature
in the time but they also give us an inside view to the losing side in the time
of history. Mary Rowlandson and Mary Jemison’s texts gave us an inside look at
the Native American way. This has been such a struggle this semester to come
closer to the answer of which America do we teach however we have held strong
and continued asking ourselves each time we read a new text which we feel it
fits into, or perhaps if it helps bring us closer to any type of answer.
Origin stories in my opinion can
feel really magical, it is a wonderful feeling to think that we as people came
from somewhere specific and that we are able to pin point that. Therefore, in my
opinion it is equally as amazing to be able to talk about the birth of our
nation. These texts are able to do that for us. It is really exciting to be able
to read the federalist papers, the account of Jon Smith and the many things
Benjamin Franklin wrote to be able to watch the nation take for and to watch it
struggle and survive. We do not often think of political works like the
Constitution as anything other than a piece of history that tells us where we
came from. It is so much more than that. The texts we read about from the
Puritans as telling us how things were before America was established, reading
the captivity narratives tells us how things were before. We can line them up
and find a chronicling to our rise to power, that is an amazing resource to
have. It helps us know who we are as a nation and what the founding fathers had
in mind when they were trying to give birth to the nation.
The
texts we read from that time do not really feel like literature as we are used
to it today however, that is the bones of our literature.
When thinking about objective 2 and reading these early pieces is really
amazing to think of how we can see the historic background of America and let it
fill in the blanks for wondering how it was back then, but it is also like
watching literature grow and transform into what we have today. Something I
thought of as very cool was reading the narrative of John Smith, we have
Disney’s Pocahontas and most of us grow up as kids being very familiar with such
a disturbing story when you really think about it. This particular text was
really cool to analyze because after finding out that it was revised so many
times you can really see how it feels like fiction and not so much a narrative
of truth and history. You can again see how history was taught to you in a way
that someone else saw fit instead of extremely factually. This on the part of
not only Disney but also that of John Smith. This text feels a lot like a story
you would read nowadays. It is made relevant not only because it is a historical
fact that most of us have been led to believe was one way when it was really
something else. To call this text a captivity narrative is kind of a stretch as
he was not captive for too long.
We were able to read a poem written by
Sor Juana Inez de Cruz called “You Men” that I really liked a lot and reading
poetry makes us, as students feel more comfortable because it is something we
are more used to reading. This poem, written in the 1600’s and yet here in the
year 2016 it is still extremely relevant today. The poem calling attention to a
sexual double standard, which everyone knows exists, also shows us that not
everything changes. We as humans and members of a society are still facing the
same issues. Objective 1 as us as students to learn to make the literature
matter today and this piece proved to be extremely easy as we are still finding
women looked down upon for succumbing to the will of men in that way. The Virgin
of Guadalupe was a text that was easily relevant as some of us are Hispanic or
catholic and this story means a lot to us. For those that were not familiar it
was exciting to be able to share it but it also was a really nice example of
syncretism, a blending of religious traditions through symbols and narratives
for us. Not only is the Virgin Mary a Christian Idol but for use Hispanics she
is a symbol of the birth of our race. The story told there is riddled with
symbols that hold meaning all in themselves to make the entire narrative
stronger. A lot of religion is symbolic and syncretism happens a lot all around
us so it is important to have an understanding of what that is and be able to
spot it in order to enrich our understanding of the texts we read.
In
conclusion each of the objectives we are trying to work on really go hand in
hand and they are interesting questions to bring to the table in themselves. The
captivity narratives, the origin stories and the historical documents are
somewhat different from what we are so used to now but they are really relevant
to us today for not just what they represent but for what they can teach us
about where we come from. We should do our best to teach both sides of America
when talking about these texts. In doing so we are bound to find a way to keep
evolving as a nation as we also keep growing culturally into something
unrecognizable, and with these texts it will be possible to keep a hold on where
we come from and who we were meant to be.
