LITR 4332 American Minority Literature 2013 Student Midterm Samples midterm assignment #2. Long essay

Rebecca Chlapowski

Cheated

            I love to read.  In elementary school all the way through high school I would get in trouble for reading too far ahead, a concept I have never understood.  As an adult, I love to read, mostly I read murder mystery novels, I have certain authors that I prefer, I read everything they write and share the books around with my sister and children.  During my college education, I have been told what to read and when to read, two things I despise.  However, I have not regretted any of the readings.  The readings have opened up many new worlds for me that I am able to pass on to other people, and have fostered a love for many different types of literature.  These classes have even taught me the importance of history, which I have never liked; I now have a newfound need to know more.

            My previous knowledge with African American literature was none.  My only knowledge of minority literature was with female authors, which for some reason, I never classified as minority because they were making a name for themselves, and they were not hiding in the shadows allowing someone else to take credit for their work.  I learned in a Jane Austen class last semester that women writers are indeed minorities.  This gives me a sense of pride that these women overcame so much to be able to write and have their works published.  I have found this to be true in the American Minority Literature class as well.  This completely new world has been opened up to me, so that I can explore it and learn more about people and history.

            Throughout intermediate school and high school, students are asked to read many novels.  They are chosen by some higher power that thinks they know what is best for all students.  I remember the two most controversial books I read was To Kill a Mockingbird and The Outsiders both remain favorites of mine.  After spending time with the readings in the LITR 4332 class, I have found that these books are not as controversial as I had once thought.  I would have loved to read Frederick Douglass or Toni Morrison in high school.  It would have fostered a hunger for more by African American writers and even history; the history beyond what we were taught in the early 1990’s.  What learned most about in history class was from the two research papers I wrote, one on the Watergate scandal, and the other on the KKK (both of these done as my own personal way of rebelling against the norm).  This was my knowledge of history, and thus by omission my lack of knowledge about African American writers and other minority writers.  Today, in high schools, the most controversial readings are Fahrenheit 451 and Freedom Writers and those are in an advanced class.  The powers that be should really try some new literature concepts to help foster the love of literature and not shut it down with “this is the best we can do”.  I feel that I, and the present generation are being robbed of the knowledge, love, and understanding that can come from being introduced early in life to the experience of reading minority literature.

            African American literature, especially slave narratives are a great way to seduce a person (of an acceptable age) into learning more about history and the story of people.  Looking through the high school web sites in my area to find out if minority literature is begin introduced.  I found that two English teachers have Harlem Renaissance, and one teacher has a cultural activity for AP students to do over the summer.  I also found that history teachers have nothing on their websites for either school, unless you count coaching schedules.  The teacher with the cultural activity is in the town that is predominately African American and Hispanic American, the same town where I was born and raised.

            The second meeting of LITR 4332 class I was discussion leader for the poem Still I Rise by Maya Angelou.  The first time I read the poem it spoke to me as a woman.  I understood the undertones of the African American influence, but mainly, to me it was a woman empowering poem.  I can now attribute this to number one, being raised in a predominately African American town and second, by having zero experience with African American literature.  Now, in the second month of this class, and after reading Frederick Douglass, Phyllis Wheatly, and Harriet Jacobs, I can see in the poem more about African American empowerment than woman empowerment.  This class has shown me the difference between being a minority and a “double minority”.  I will be able to carry this knowledge with me throughout the remainder of my life.

The most notable thing I have become aware of is the intensity and the feeling that African American writers write with.  Not only is the reader reading the story, they are engulfed with the emotions and the state of mind of each individual, no matter how meager a character they are.  I am sad that our time on African American literature is at a close, and excited at what is to come with other minorities in literature and what it is going to teach me about history and the lives of others.