Sandra Murphy

Part One: Web Review

30 minutes reading and preparation, 1 and ½ hours writing and revising

First Review

The first student submission I reviewed was a research posting from Summer 2006 which was written by Gordon Lewis. The title of this posting is The Harlem Renaissance. I chose this posting because we had touched briefly on the significance of the Harlem Renaissance in class discussion, and I wanted to learn more about this very exciting and important black intellectual and political movement. Mr. Lewis begins his discussion of the Harlem Renaissance by stating that “the inclusion, and recognition, of more minority and immigrant authors, literature, and information in English classes” is important for all students. I could not agree more. As educators we owe our students a complete, balanced, and accurate rendering of the literary world where each group’s contribution is recognized and validated.

Mr. Lewis went on to discuss the importance of the Harlem Renaissance. He noted that blacks from Africa, the Indies, and America converged upon the tiny island of Manhattan and there embarked on an amazing intellectual and political journey that continues to inspire black leaders of today. He listed a number of influential black writers of the time, including W.E.B. DuBois, Countee Cullen, Alain Locke, and Marcus Garvey. He also detailed the achievements of many of these individuals. I was intrigued to read that Marcus Garvey was the originator of the concept of a new black homeland called Liberia. Garvey’s vision of a new homeland seemed to echo much of the Jewish immigrant experience in that both the Blacks and the Jews were torn from their homelands and after these diasporas each group longed for a new homeland—the Jews in Israel and the Blacks in Africa.

Mr. Lewis’s research posting was interesting and clearly written. Like all good scholarly works, it raised a number of questions that merit further research. I am looking forward to learning more about the Harlem Renaissance through readings of the author’s he listed.

Second Review

The second student submission I reviewed was a midterm long essay from Kim Pritchard titled The Immigrant Narrative – A Piece of the American Literary Puzzle. I chose this piece because I was intrigued by the author’s use of a puzzle metaphor to describe American Literature and I wanted to learn more about her viewpoint. Although Ms. Pritchard failed to extend her metaphor of immigrant literature as a puzzle piece, the essay was nonetheless well done and offered a thoughtful contrast between the American Dream and the American Nightmare. Ms. Pritchard provided solid textual evidence to support her claims and ably differentiated between the social contracts of immigrants and minorities.

I particularly appreciated Ms. Pritchard’s treatment of Mexican Americans as an ambivalent minority especially as it relates to gender roles. Pritchard’s comparison of Lola, in Nash Candaleria’s El Patron, with the young girls in Sandra Cisneros’ Barbie Q was particularly apt, and I confess I had failed to notice it in my reading. She wrote “Lola understands and seems to accept the ambivalence of living between two cultural worlds, but the young girls in Cisneros’s “Barbie-Q” accept and embrace the ideals of the dominant culture over their own through their fantasy lives with Barbie dolls. Barbie, an American icon, symbolizes what is beautiful within the American culture. She also symbolizes independence and individuality to young girls who dream of having it all – career, family, education, beauty, and wealth.  The “tall, blonde, white woman” with impossible measurements symbolizes the American Dream of every young American girl including members of the immigrant and minority cultures.”

Third Review

The third student submission I reviewed was a midterm long essay by Carrie Arnett, titled For Liberty and Justice for All. I first read this submission as I prepared for my web highlight presentation on midterms. I found it to be well-written and informative, and I wanted to look at it more closely. Ms. Arnett does a fine job of identifying and differentiating between the social contracts of immigrants and minority groups. She addresses the importance and the impact of the color code, and offers solid textual evidence to back up her assertions. What I found most helpful in this essay, however, was her incorporation of the stages of the immigrant narrative. Through her references to Anzia Yezierska’s Soap and Water and Sui Sin Far’s In the Land of the Free, Ms. Arnett illustrates the reality that these stages are not always linear or easy, and oftentimes vary greatly within the immigrant family.

Ms. Arnett closes her essay by stating, “America is seen as a land of opportunity, freedom, prosperity and hope.  People, who are brave enough to leave their motherland, come to America expecting to not be persecuted because of their color, religion, and ethnicity.  All are human beings who have sacrificed in order to make their journey, whether it is long or short.  By reading the stories offered by immigrants, minorities, and New World Immigrants we have the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the issues that surround immigration.”  With this statement, Ms. Arnett clearly identifies the value and the importance of this course.