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

Heather Schutmaat

2. Teaching History Through American Minority Literature

            What has struck me most about American Minority Literature so far is its effectiveness in teaching American History. Unlike formal textbook teachings that simply familiarize us with terms and concepts that relate to the American minority experience, American Minority Literature allows us an intimate view into the lives of authors that have experienced life as a minority, and we witness these terms and concepts carried out in the lives of the characters in their literature. Furthermore, as we engage wholeheartedly in readings such as the narratives, novels, and poetry of American minorities, we create a relationship with these characters – a relationship that calls for compassion and sympathy. By doing so, we are not merely becoming acquainted with these terms and concepts, but as readers opening our hearts to a work of art, we are somehow living the American minority experience with them, and are therefore able to develop a much more in-depth understanding of what these historical terms and concepts really mean.

            Although I have studied the American minority experience by means of textbooks and have held knowledge of the ghastliness of the institution of slavery, I had very little experience with American Minority Literature prior to taking this course. I believe it was by fully engaging in the narratives of Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs that I have become far more aware of the slavery experience and now hold a more profound understanding of what it entails.

For example, in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Equiano was taken from his utopia-like homeland and forced onto a boat to America and into the institution of slavery, and I gained through his written experience a more painstaking understanding of what it means to be without a voice or choice and to be denied the very freedoms we use to define ourselves as human beings. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, each time Douglass illustrated slaves being regarded as property, handled like animals, and treated cruelly, such as his descriptions of slaves being brutally beaten, as well as his description of his own experiences with Covey the “slave-breaker”, I became more aware, and felt in the pit of my stomach, what it means to be dehumanized, deprived of autonomy, and without a voice or choice.

Like Equiano’s and Douglass’ narratives, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl illustrated what it means to be dehumanized, and to be denied a voice or choice. However, her narrative also demonstrated the experience of being a female slave and suffering from what is referred to as the double-minority concept. Similar to my experiences with learning about the institution of slavery prior to taking this course, I had acquired knowledge of the double-minority concept through academic essays on the subject. However, I believe it was Jacobs’ literary work, and the emotion that awakens within me when I read her narrative, that provide me with another painstaking understanding of what it means to suffer from both the institution of slavery and sexual exploitation, and to be adversely affected by the double-minority concept.  

Amongst demonstrations of what it means to be without voice or choice and to suffer from the double-minority concept, Jacobs’ narrative, as well as Douglass’, also provide us with a literary demonstration of the Dream vs. the American Dream and allow us a clear understanding of the concept. At the beginning of the semester, we learned that the American Dream vs. the Dream is at the foreground of understanding the differences between the immigrant experience and the American minority experience. However, it wasn’t until I read the narratives of Douglass and Jacobs and was provided with a literary illustration of these concepts that I was able to fully understand the vast differences between the Dream and the American Dream, and how important they are to the experiences of immigrants and minorities in American history. In other words, rather than just being aware that the Dream entails setbacks, such as the information a textbook teaching would provide, I was instead afforded through American Minority Literature illustrations of what these setbacks are and how they affect the lives of American minorities.

In addition to allowing us a clearer and more in-depth understanding of the terms and concepts that relate to the American minority experience, American Minority Literature also illuminates many important aspects of the American minority experience that are not commonly given to us through formal textbook teachings. For example, at the center of Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye is the concept of self-hatred, as we see in Pecola’s character, and feel profoundly in our relationship to her. Traditional teachings may inform us of the standards that were once historically present in society; however, we aren’t nearly as informed of how these standards, such as the white beauty standards present in The Bluest Eye, affect an individual’s self-image. While textbooks may allow us an understanding of how society views minorities during a certain time period, I believe that what’s more important in understanding the American minority experience is how minorities viewed themselves. Furthermore, as literature allows us such a candid view, it is perhaps the most effective way to convey concepts such as self-perception, that are exceptionally important in understanding the American minority experience.

            Conclusively, I believe that American Minority Literature is not only effective in teaching terms and concepts as they relate to the art of the literature and literary style, such as color code, symbols, aesthetics, and mimesis, but I also believe that American Minority Literature is the most effective method of teaching the history of American minorities.