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(2017
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2017 (index to #3 samples) #3: Web Highlights |
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Chelsea Brotherton
Origin Stories and Further Reading
I am interested in working with origin stories for my long essay, so I
looked for essays that dealt with the subject to review. I was curious to see
what others had taken from the stories, and what conclusions they came to. I
have found areas in these essays that are similar to ideas that I have about the
stories, but they have also sparked original points that I will utilize in my
long essay.
In Holesovsky’s “A Matter of Origin,” she relates the reading of origin
stories to a personal experience of watching a documentary. She summarizes a
handful of origin stories, and she reads the Declaration of Independence as an
origin story of America. Holesovsky connects the two Native American origin
stories, and points out how they both emphasize the importance of the earth and
nature within these cultures. She analyzes Genesis, and remarks that the origin
and creation stories from different cultures speak to a need in all cultures to
explain our beginnings. Holesovsky then delves into two works that can be read
as origin stories, though they are not creation stories or stories about nature.
She concludes by remarking on how diverse a genre origin stories can be,
and the breadth of works that can be read as origin stories. Her final point I
found to be the most interesting of the essay, and I wish that she had done more
with this throughout: “Knowing all that they can add to the whole of Early
American literature, these texts remain incredibly relevant and work together to
offer a complete, multicultural view of Early American history.” This idea of
origin stories of different cultures being important pieces to having a complete
and multicultural history of America is one that I plan to work with further in
my long essay. This essay also does not stray from texts outside of the origin
stories class, and I believe it would have strengthened her essay to look at
other texts in relation to these origin stories, and possibly develop more in
relation to the course objectives.
In Olivarez’s “Captivity Narratives as Origin Stories,” she looks at the
Mary Jamison story and John Smith’s text. Olivarez analyzes the Jemison story
through an origin story, and I think the connection works well. She describes
Jemison’s journey with the Indians in a different manner: “the origin of
Deh-he-wä-mis is described through the captivity narrative of Mary Jemison.”
This points to the captivity narrative as being almost a story of metamorphoses,
and a new character emerges from Jemison. Olivarez then relates Jemison’s text
to the John Smith reading, and makes a connection with the origin story out of a
captivity narrative. I think this connection is a bit more of a stretch than
with Jemison, but I can see how it works. I enjoy her view of taking these
captivity narratives and characterizing them as origin stories. She also notes
that these texts tell stories that often go untaught in grade school, and offer
a valuable cultural and historical view. This is certainly accurate and
relevant. However, this is the point at which this essay starts to lose me, as
she concludes with the point that multicultural literature is important in
schools and needs to be taught. While this assertion is completely valid, I
think this final point deviates from the focus of the essay and detracts from
it. I would have more liked to see her further the point of connection between
captivity narratives and origin stories. This essay, however, makes a good
effort in further broadening the origin story genre, and makes good use of texts
outside of traditional origin stories. I plan to utilize this also in my long
essay.
In Rea’s “Origin and Creation Stories,” she highlights the historical
importance of origin stories. For Rea, these origin stories made her come to the
realization that history is wide and diverse, and that many different stories
and viewpoints need to be taken into account when trying to understand history.
Rea said “There can never be just one story to explain everything,” and I think
this is the ultimate point of her essay. Through these origin stories, which are
broad and varying, we learn that it takes a multitude of views and stories to
make up a culture, as with the Native American origin stories. She clearly
answers objective five, and asserts that all of these various stories are
necessary to get a true picture of American history. This is a large idea that I
have been working with for my long essay, and I hope to further develop this
point there.
All of these essays made varying points about origin stories, but
together they all point to one large truth about them; origin stories are so
diverse and abundant, and each of them is culturally and historically
significant. No single one of these stories gives a complete picture of Native
American culture or North American history, but all together they have
significant importance for the true and multicultural history of our country.
