Cana Hauerland

27 June 2008

In reviewing work from the past, I decided to focus on three different types of assignments found unique and interesting in order to further the learning process and learn to “step outside” the box without overstepping.

Since a presentation is what I find myself doing first in the class, I decided to search for one that would help me improve my own. The presentation I found most interesting was that off Pat Mora “Immigrants”. This person took a unique approach to this poetry reading presentation because they began with thoroughly informing the viewers about the author. This presenter revealed the following in his three paragraph introduction statement about the author that I found helpful:

“Pat Mora is one of the most distinguished and widely read Hispanic writers. She is a third generation immigrant raised and educated in El Paso, Texas, in a home that included her parents and a maternal grandmother and aunt, a storyteller”

 I found this interesting because immediately I realized why Pat Mora was so passionate in her poem, “Immigrants”. She grew up with her aunt and grandmother who had many stories from their past to tell her. He goes on to inform us of Mora’s immigrant story calling it “the model immigrant story.”

“Her grandparents on both sides left Mexico @ 1916 to flee the chaos relating to the Mexican revolution led by Pancho Villa when her father was four  years old.”

Not only does this presenter offer information on the reader’s background, but he uses a source who studies Mora’s work intensively:

“There are several themes that permeate Mora’s work and the major theme is the metaphor of “Borders”, which is also the title of her second poetry collection. Mora’s borders are both are physical and philosophical ”

Reading this resourceful information on Pat Mora’s literary works not only provides a basis for understanding her pieces better, but it gives a secure feeling to the reader in knowing that the information provided is valid. Opinions and insights from a reader are helpful and create a better understanding through examples, but sources make me feel a well-rounded confidence in my knowledge about Mora [GL].

The next assignment I chose to review was the one I find myself doing secondly in Dr. White’s class, which is the research project. The reader I chose took a different approach to the research project by simply interviewing three immigrants, telling their stories, and comparing them informatively using the class objectives. The reporter on these immigrants reveals the stories of immigrants from South Korea, Mexica, and Iran, but before doing this she describes her learning experience and explains her reasoning behind this informal approach to the research assignment:

“Getting to know them has made a history, geography, politics, religion, and culture personal [to me] and alive. How would informal interviews compare with the immigrant narratives from the class lectures and readings? Some of the main questions I asked were why the came, why they chose to stay, what it was like adjusting to America, and finally, who are they now?”

By explaining how the project relates to the class and informing readers of her interview questions, this researcher forms an outline for herself, and included questions for the immigrants she interviews to help her connect objectives 1-3 to their stories, thus helping herself and readers of her project better understand the immigrants from different multicultural backgrounds and the objectives. After the reader writes paragraphs on each immigrant, she makes the reader feel as though they enter the immigrants lives. The reader begins an informative paragraph:

“In 1982, Azar brought her husband and their five year old daughter Lili to Boston for an eye operation.”

I liked this researchers approach because I actually felt as though I lived Azar’s experience, as well as her other immigrant stories told. This mainly helped me because when I did my first research project, I interviewed two people but also reviewed two articles concerning their ethnicities. I realize that if I would have focused more on just the interviews and topics that cam from the immigrant I interviewed, then I may have gotten more out of the assignment and produced a more interesting report for readers. In focusing mainly on the immigrant stories, this researcher compares to an immigrant narrative writer. Her report is not far from the immigrant narratives we read in class and her analogies of the narratives aren’t far from the discussions we have in class. I am used to understanding the immigrant and minority from reading discussing these types of literary pieces; therefore, I felt comfortable and well informed from this report [PC].

The last assignment I find myself doing in American Immigrant Literature thus far is the Midterm, in which I found one that covered the content and provided a unique theme of her own which made the information covered seem interesting, and not repetitive, but also just added a special feeling to the essay which is equally important when writing about a the passionate immigrant and minority narratives studied in class. This write begins by comparing the immigrant narratives to a unique metaphor and how it came about:

“While evaluating for my research posting, I encountered the claim that many of Anzia Yezierska’s works focus on the theme of hunger. After pondering this notion, I realized that many of the works we have studied so far center on hunger: physical hunger for native foods, spices, and dishes and metaphoric hunger characterized by seemingly insatiable desires for America’s offerings. This idea of unfulfilled hunger and the resulting quest for satiety leads me to suggests that immigrant and minority narratives are also “hunger narratives”.

This essay explains the graduate approach to giving the professor what he requires for sake of the course content and for revealing to him your understanding, but adding your own personal and interesting insight to the material. By using this method, this write shows its possible to complete both f these tasks, and provided yet another way for a reader to understand the material connection to the course objectives. I learned that in taking this approach, one cannot go wrong, but only grow stronger in their essay, and in their own knowledge.