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LITR 4332: American Minority
Literature Sonia Sanchez, "Song No. 3" READER: MARIA WILDE RESPONDENT: SHERI LOWE RECORDER: CLAUDINE FAVORITA BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Sonia Sanchez was born Wilsonia Bonita Driver in Birmingham, Alabama. She is an African American poet, writer, and political activist of the 60’s. She has a B.A. in political science. Sanchez describes herself as having been a shy child with a stutter. In time she became a powerful speaker. Ms. Sanchez is currently a member of the faculty at Temple University and teaches Black American Literature and Creative Writing. She is a recipient of several awards. These include the Pen Writing Award, Lucretia Mott Award, NEA Award, Academy of Arts and Letter Award. She has written books and poetry. COURSE OBJECTIVES: Objective 5A To discover the power of poetry and fiction to help others hear the minority voice and share the minority experience. Objective 3A To contrast the dominant "American Dream" narritive which involves voluntary participation, forgetting the past, and privileging the individual with alternative narratives of American minorities, which involve involuntary participation, connecting to the past, and traditional or alternative families. Objective 2 To observe representational and narratives of ethnicity and gender as a means of defining minority categories. ANGLES OF INTERPRETATION:
STYLE QUESTIONS: What does the poem accomplish? You get right to the point of the poem. Lyric poem expresses the poet’s thoughts and feelings. Experiences and circumstances of life led poet to write about this poem. How is it more successful than narrative?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: If for one minute you closed your eyes and imagine you are of dark skin color, how does this make you feel? And vice versa What is a virtue outer appearance or inner beauty? What is the language usage in the poem? Works cited: http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~cybers/sanchez2.html http://secure01.win.net/aalbc/sonia.htm http://www.dclibrary.org/news/sanchez.html DISCUSSION: Answer to question #1 One student said that they felt like they were not appreciated for who they were, but judged by what the looked like. Another student used the example of being trapped in his or her own culture and by their color. About the poem: Looking around in a new environment feeling out of place in that environment. Idea of being different is not only a minority, little girls often feel they are different, it is a growing up stage. Her appearance is ugly not just disliking her color. A person’s true character is exposed when they think no one is looking. Children looking at the world stare in order to learn about something’s. Little girls are not always beautiful; all the cues in her environment tell her she is ugly. She is expressing her self-conscience. Her thoughts and words are directed out there not at anyone in particular. She might have low self-esteem. Perhaps she is a bi-racial? Is that why she doesn’t feel pretty and accepted? Redemption at the end of poem is seen. |