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Index
to Sample Student final exam answers 2016 |
LITR 4340
 American Immigrant Literature Model Assignments |
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Austin Green
What Do You Think?
I decided to start my final exam by doing the web highlights section
first. As usual, I do this so I can get a good idea of what other students have
done to make their own essays and research reports successful. I can then use
these ideas to help form my own assignment. I did review a few of the 2013 final
exam essays for a presentation assignment during our class, so I already had
some familiarity with a couple of the examples. Most that I had read began with
giving their own personal stories of how familiar or not they were with the
material covered, before jumping in to discuss what they have learned. To give
myself a broader spectrum of samples, I am not using any of the essays I read
for the assignment to do web highlights, but I might compare some of the new
ones I read to those I had already. I ultimately ended up reading two new final
essays, along with one of the research reports. My goal being simply to confirm
information we went over in class (and how the information was used in the
essays) as well as looking for examples of what was successful or not.
Right away when reading Marissa Turner’s 2013 essay on dominant culture
titled “Defining America” I see she started differently than what I was
expecting. Instead of giving us a base of where she was in regards to knowledge
of the material before coming into the class, she starts off by letting the
reader know where she is currently. She lets us know right away that she will be
writing about “dominant culture and its relations with the immigrant or minority
cultures.” She then smoothly weaves talking about the dominant culture not
wanting to be change to bringing up pilgrims from Of Plymouth Plantation, and
how from our earliest settlers America has had a mindset that others should
change to assimilate to us, not the other way around. The writer, while good
intentioned, did lose me a little with one line: “I believe that there should
not be a “dominant” culture and if there absolutely has to be one, it should
have been the Native American as they were here first.” Afterwards she contends
that Americans were immigrants to the land, and I completely agree with the
arguments she lists, it’s the initial claim above that I believe sort of missed
the mark. I do not think there cannot be a dominant culture. Every dominant
culture will stay that way until they are replaced. Before the early American
settlers came and spread, the Native Americans were the dominant culture.
Eventually something else will come in to replace the current one. We even
mentioned in our class how society is becoming more and more racially mixed.
I found more examples of selections that I thought worked well in Carolee
Osborne’s 2013 essay “The Many Faces of Immigrant Literature.” In talking about
the pilgrims before coming to America, she notes that “Their refusal to
assimilate creates a new dominant culture that we still use today…” One of my
favorite things I have found in this and previous web highlights is when I see
another student sum up something that we discussed in class in a way that makes
it seem so simple and obvious. While I cannot say the point they were making was
new to me, I know it would have taken me at least a few sentences to make that
point. At first I wanted to argue that we don’t use the dominant culture, that
it exists around us, and we could see it, but saying we use it sounded off. The
more I thought about it though, the more I was ok with the terminology used
here. We use it in the way we dress, the way we act, we use it all the time.
Intended or not, it also gave me a unique way of viewing present day connection
to the dominant culture along with the simplistic but great explanation.
I then moved over to research reports, and selected Adam Glasgow‘s “A
Serious Paper: Jewish American Identity, Assimilation, and the Coen Brothers.”
Right away our author lets us know how successful Jewish Americans have been as
assimilation, “Many have adopted the dominant culture to
such a degree that famous Jewish Americans are frequently not commonly
recognized as Jewish.” Included in this, are the director combo Joel and Ethan
Coen. As someone familiar with their work, it was interesting to see someone
write about whether their Jewish identity can be found in their films. I agree
that in the handful of films I have seen, I never once thought about it one way
or another. He then lists in detail the Jewish experience is depicted in the
film “A Serious Man.” It was an interesting read, and makes me want to add that
movie to my to-watch list. There was two lines in the research report I wish our
author had elaborated on however: “The Coens' Jewish American identity is
embedded in their work, but it usually goes unnoticed by the general public. It
probably even goes unnoticed by the brothers themselves.” Since even by the
admission of the writer the film “A Serious Man” was about the Jewish
experience, it would have been interesting if we had some examples of the
underlying or hidden influences in other films.
Overall, I think that I got what I was expecting out of reading previous
student’s works. I will say all three that I read had a readability to them that
was appreciated on my end. It may sound obvious, but sometimes when I have done
these web highlights in the past a few have been a struggle to finish. All three
here kept me with them from start to finish. I feel confident in the directions
I am headed in with both my essay and my research report.
