Cherie Correa

19 June 2006

Midterm

Part: 1 Web Review

LITR 5733 2004 Midterm

“The narratives of immigrants and minorities are woven as multi-hued and multi-textured threads in the tapestry of the overarching story of America. In seeing the tapestry as a whole, a cloth that protects us, identifies us, and comforts us, we sometimes assume its strength and beauty comes from the quality of the loom, from the machinations of living within the governmental and societal constructs of America…The story of America is the story of a many narratives that have been interwoven and blended into a colorful tale as diverse as the strands of the richest tapestry imaginable.

In examining the literary and cultural tapestry of America, we can use many lenses or paradigms: the melting pot, the salad bowl, and the patchwork quilt. All of those lenses, though, must focus at some point on the narratives of minorities and immigrants, for we are members of those groups or their descendents. [SC]”

            The use of a beautiful extended metaphor is what originally drew my attention to this excerpt. The vivid description of the tapestry that is composed of all of the immigrant and minority narratives makes a valid point about the content of this course: the immigrant and minority literature that we have been studying are the stories that make America the “melting pot” that it is. The above passage has given me insight for how to describe what I have gained from the course, up until this point.

            The most profound issue that I have noticed is that the stories we have read could be anyone’s stories. This country’s population is based on immigration, which is something I had not taken time to consider before taking this course. These types of narratives compose the identity of America as a whole. Even though there is a “dominant culture” to be assimilated to, the immigrants/minorities are still prominent groups that are part of America’s culture as a whole. Even though the stories we have read are not written by the “dominant culture,” they still deserve appreciation.

            This is something I feel I have learned outside of discussion because I realize I had not thought about these issues before taking this class. The above passage was a perfect, beautiful way to express these thoughts. I identified with the idea that was being conveyed.

LITR 4333 2002 Midterm Essay 2

“The immigrant and minority narrative can be contrasted in various ways. Although the two contain similar stages, these stages are viewed very differently…Also in "The Lesson"(IA) the minority students showed resistance to the lesson they were being taught. These feelings of shock, resistance, exploitation and discrimination can also be shared in the immigrant narrative. . . . [AP]”

             I found this passage to be interesting because the similarities and differences between immigrant versus minority literature are explained very clearly; this passage gets straight to the point.

            When reading this excerpt, I realized that I have mainly been focusing on the differences between the two types of literature in class, so when this person wrote, “These feelings of shock, resistance, exploitation and discrimination can also be shared in the immigrant narrative,” it helped me to remember how the immigrant and minority narrative components do overlap occasionally. When considering this, I thought of another similarity I would have added to this essay in reference to the last story mentioned, “The Lesson.”

            In class, when discussing “The Lesson,” we mainly focused on the aspects that made it a minority work, but a similarity with immigrant literature I noticed was that there was a sense of hope at the end. When the little girl goes off to think by herself, she comments that nobody’s going to keep her down, implying she is going to rise above expectations.

            Even though we discuss similarities in class, this passage just made me realize that I need to focus more on them myself because there is just as much to be said for them. In reflection, I think I have just been focusing on the differences because, before taking this class, I made the common mistake of thinking that immigrants and minorities were one and the same.

LITR 4333 2003 Midterm

“The backbone of the struggle is the conflict between resistance and assimilation…The common thread throughout both the immigrant narrative and minority narrative is that time does not seem to play a role in the stage of the narrative development. Baldwin and his friend are presumably the same age, yet are affected by different influences. They are both many generations removed from the forced immigration of their ancestors, so their social contracts have been dictated by current trends. Conversely, Diego Torres and Stephen Paczkowski are both first generation immigrants with entirely different perspectives. Their contracts have likewise been dictated by current trends. In each case, the people have chosen either assimilation or resistance. [RH]”

            This passage is interesting because it focuses on a topic that I find intriguing: assimilation versus resistance. The point made in this passage that truly catches my attention is that “time does not seem to play a role in the stage of the narrative development.” There are the basic stages of the immigrant narrative, but people do not always make decisions that align with the stages. The above speaker mentions that some characters are from the same generations, in terms of their immigrant/ minority backgrounds, but they are in completely different stages when it comes to how assimilated they are or how resistant they are to assimilation.

            This point made me think about the fact that people in the narratives have proved that assimilation is often a choice, to a certain extent, and each individual has a right to make that choice for themselves. The speaker above went on to talk about how choices are “key” to people’s identities, and I could not agree more. I have been thinking about why some people assimilate easier than others, but this passage made me think that, by focusing on that issue, I have missed an important point: people’s differing choices about everything, including assimilation to the dominant culture, are what make America the country that it is. I have been wondering why all immigrants and minorities do not want to assimilate, when, in reality, if they all assimilated, we would be losing a substantial part of the diversity that makes America great.