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Sample Final Exam submissions 2015 (2015 final exam assignment) Essay 1 Sample |
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Assignment: Describe and evaluate your learning experience, referring to texts, seminar, objectives, research, and midterm. (may incorporate or overlap with midterm essay[s])
Ashlea Massie
An Informed Student, Teacher, and Citizen
I had never heard of colonial-postcolonial literature, until I began this
class in August. I was quite uninformed about this even as a genre. All of the
terms associated with this genre of literature were practically foreign to me as
well. Each week in class brought with it new definitions, new texts, and new
observations. I would regard my experience in taking this class as beneficial,
necessary, and important as a student, teacher, and citizen.
As a student, I learned many new terms: hybridity, intertextuality,
transnational migration, and traditional vs. modernity within the text. I have
learned so much more than just these, but the aforementioned are the most
essential terms to the genre that have taught me something important. Hybridity
was a term I thought only used for apples pollinated with different types of
apples to create a hybrid apple. It was not until we began talking about the
mixture of cultures, especially in Chinua Achebe’s
Things Fall Apart that I fully
understood the meaning of hybridity. In
Things Fall Apart, white missionaries come to the little Igbo town and are
allowed to dwell among the ancestral traditional background of the Igbo people,
causing a mixing of cultures to take place. This epitomizes the concept of
hybridity.
Hybridity is an important term, but so is intertextuality.
Intertextuality is how an informed reader analyzes various works and finds that
a work within the same genre can overlap in similar content with another work.
Two separate texts can intertwine with each other, despite different plot
schemes. We did a lot of this type of analysis within class, especially in our
last assignment, the research essay. In my research essay, I compared
Things Fall Apart to Daniel Defoe’s
Robinson Crusoe. I was able to find
many similarities between the two texts. Each text contained some type of
missionary, whether explicit or implicit, trying to convert the “heathens” and
both people groups in each story were impacted in good ways, ways to recognize
universal human rights. Although both novels were written in different time
periods and based in different countries, I was still able to find many
similarities see the intertextuality between the two.
Another term that can be
associated with hybridity is a term that I never realized existed. It is a term
specific to foreigners from other countries leaving their homeland to another
country, and now I know that is exactly what transnational migration is. An
obvious example of this occurred with Jasmine, in the story,
Jasmine. She migrated from India to
America, and she was a prime example of transnational migration.
I knew of traditionalism and modernity as words, but not in regards to
colonial-postcolonial literature, where traditional viewpoints are applied to
cultures that pass down their values from generation to generation and modernity
is applied to a culture that embraces a new ideology. This was especially seen
in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. I
mentioned this in detail within my research essay, in which I was able to show
how traditional Okonkwo was and how resistant to the changing of times and
culture he was when modernity, the white missionaries and their Christian
religion, come to the Igbo village in which Okonkwo lives in.
All of the aforementioned terms were helpful to me, not only as a
student, but also the feedback on each assignment, especially my mid-term,
helped me to grow as a student. In my mid-term, Dr. White mentioned the
inaccuracy of my statement that nobody had ever heard of colonial-postcolonial
literature, and he brought it to my attention that the rest of the world outside
of America was very familiar with the concept. Even though it was not related to
the colonial-postcolonial literature, I did learn a lot about essay writing and
the importance of using transition phrases as well, something no one had every
pointed out to me before. All of the terminology and feedback given by Dr. White
helped me out as a student, in order to expand my knowledge of literature, but
most importantly it helped me out to become a better teacher.
As a current high school English teacher, my students learn the basics of
literature, terms like hyperbole, personification, symbolism, and so on. But I
want them to learn so much more, and from what I’ve learned in class, I disperse
to them in small amounts, as they are still quite young. For instance, when we
discussed whether Heart of Darkness
was a racist novella or not, I was teaching some short texts by Mark Twain to my
high school students. We discussed the same issue of racism within
Huckleberry Finn,
and I was able to encourage the students to think about the historical time
period and realize that the issues we consider racism today were not considered
to be so back in the 1800s. This was normal for those in that time period.
Because history and literature can sometimes be so interlaced with one another
that literature cannot be understood without having a historical context, I was
able to briefly explain to my students the concept of analyzation through
historicism and why we go back in time to study a bit of the history in order to
understand texts that contain history. We did this in analyzing Longfellow’s
infamous poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” and I took them back in time and explained
how historically inaccurate the poem was, so they wouldn’t be confused with the
sublime and with the actual events. I explained this concept as we discussed
El Dorado, a poem by Poe, about the
lost city of gold. The students had to be taken back into history and learn
about the historical background in order to fully appreciate the piece.
All of the concepts and terminology learned within class helped me to
become a better teacher to my students, to teach them new things they had not
known and to help them better understand a text through background information,
but not only did this class make me a better teacher, it made me a better
citizen.
As a citizen, I owe it to my country to be informed in order to make wise
decisions as a voter and participant of the way my country is governed. This
class has helped to form how we perceive others. Do I perceive others in the
dehumanizing way of the self-other concept? Do I regard those who come from
other countries as such? It was a great way to evaluate myself. As we discussed
the issue of racism, something our country is currently evaluating as well, I
was able to realize that these texts can be viewed within the timeline of
history, as a historicist. Heart of
Darkness is a text that must be discussed, so we can see where we came from
as a nation, see where we are at now, and make changes, if necessary. This may
not be a political class, but it definitely impacts the way a person thinks in
regards to universal human rights, especially as seen in Chinua Achebe’s
Things Fall Apart when the
missionaries show the Igbo people that all humans have value and should be
treated with value. I mentioned in my mid-term submission that I felt it was
important to bring colonial-postcolonial literature into programs across the
United States and out of the obscurity I felt it resided in as a genre, and I
still feel this way, because the texts and terms within this class positively
shaped my opinions as a citizen.
Although I have only briefly described the impact each text has had upon
me as a student, teacher, and citizen, I believe that if I were to delve further
into the impact it has had upon me in other aspects of life, I would be able to
find more ways the lessons within class have positively pervaded my way of
thinking. As a student, I know much more than I did five months ago, when I was
oblivious to the genre. As a teacher, I can teach my students more than what
they would learn in a normal high school course, and thus better prepare them
for college. As a citizen, I can vote with confidence, knowing that I am
constantly evaluating myself in relation to the texts read in class, remembering
that colonial-postcolonial literature deals with universal human rights and the
importance of upholding those rights. No person deserves to be dehumanized just
because they have come from another country, culture, or religion. We can all
learn something from colonial-postcolonial literature, and these are just a
handful of the important concepts that I have learned within class.
