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2016 Midterm1
(assignment) |
LITR 4340
American Immigrant Literature Model Assignments |
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Madi Coates
Experiencing Past Experiences
In Dorothy Noyes’s essay “Resistance Versus Persistence: How Does
Immigrant Literature Differ?” she meticulously details out the struggle of the
immigrant and minority narrative. Having read the entire essay she does a great
job of illustrating the otherness that is felt those outside of the dominant
culture. It is hard to read this essay and not want to emulate the way she
writes clear and decisive paragraphs that tie in easily with her thesis. She
begins by setting up America as a beautiful and promising place that is renowned
with accomplishments. Throughout the rest of the essay she details how America
is not as promising and full for those who emigrate and those who are forced to
assimilate. Her thesis rounds out the entire essay nicely: “Though immigrant and
minority literature have some similar features, they tell the stories of two
very different groups of people: one striving to assimilate in the land they
have chosen, and one striving to survive in a land chosen for them by a forceful
hand or mere circumstance.”
One of the only things that the essay struggles with toward the end of
the entire essay are the transitions. While the voice is never lost, there are
definitely some sudden transitions. I know that as a writer I also struggle with
this so I can sometimes recognize when others do this as well. Overall, I found
this midterm essay one to be well done and insightful. I hope that in the future
I can write like Noyes.
The next essay I found was a research report by Kia Vrettos. I decided to
click on this essay because it was the only one that was about Greek-Americans.
Not sure what to expect I quickly opened up the page and started to read with my
pen in hand. To my shock it was a personal account about finding an identity in
Greek culture while growing up American. The personal details are what really
make this entire essay amazing. The story of Vrettos father emigrating from
Greece to America is not the usual story of struggle. While the story of
starting his own business down in Texas is a common story, the ease in how it is
describe is different. I was also shocked to learn that there was no Greek
immigrant literature in the American Immigration Literature class and that this
student struck out on their own to find something they identified with more. I
find that extremely appealing since I too come from a family that is still
finding its cultural identity.
The technicalities of these essays, such as spelling, grammar, and
sentence structure is not as impressive as the first essay I read by Noyes, but
the personal attachment and the real stories make this essay far more memorable.
I also found the information about Greek immigration fascinating. One of my
favorite books by Jeffrey Eugendies, “Middlesex” also talks about Greek
immigrants and it makes me want to reach out to Vrettos and give them something
else to add to their Greek-American narrative.
The final essay I read was by Carolee Osborne “The Many Faces of
Immigrant Literature”. The essay is well written and easy to read. Osborne
embeds her quotes really well and it is easy to see how she transitions from
idea to idea. She has a clear understand of American immigrantions and maps out
the standard immigrant, the new world immigrant, and the minority. The oddest
thing she does it make major understatement, such as “the pilgrims decided that
they wanted some of the land for
themselves”. This statement makes it sound like the pilgrims only took some of
the Native Americans land when in fact the settlers pillaged and forced out a
large population of people which eventually lead to the eradication of a once
flourishing culture. She does this a few more times throughout the essay and it
was distracting. She knows what she is talking about, and that is clear from the
beginning all the way to the end, but these statements make it hard to read the
paper.
All of these essays are different in approach and execution, but give
insight of what I need to be focusing on in the future when writing my papers.
Sitting down and reading through a number of successful papers gives me an idea
of how students in the past have tried and succeed in writing papers.
