What's in a name?

Hello Students!
There is only one option for homework this week: this one! 

Read the following selection, a short story called a vignette, by Sandra Cisneros from her book House on Mango Street. You'll find the assignment questions below!

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In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.

It was my great-grandmother's name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse--which is supposed to be bad luck if you're born female-but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong.

My great-grandmother. I would've liked to have known her, a wild, horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn't marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier. That's the way he did it.

And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn't be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window.

At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like silver, not quite as thick as sister's name Magdalena--which is uglier than mine. Magdalena who at least- -can come home and become Nenny. But I am always Esperanza. would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees. Esperanza as Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze the X. Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do.

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Assignment: Answer the following comprehension questions. Remember to answer each question using a complete sentence. ("Her dad" is not a complete sentence. "Esperanza is named after her dad" is.) Then, read the "Think Deeper" questions. Choose ONE and a prepare a short paragraph (3-5 sentences) that answers the question. Remember to follow the structure we've been practicing in class for your paragraph. Publish the answers to the questions and your paragraph in the comment section below.

Comprehension Questions:

1. After whom was Esperanza named? 
2. What does Esperanza find shameful or burdensome about her name? 
3. What kind of name would Esperanza like for herself?

Think Deeper

Why might Cisneros (the author) have chosen this name for her protagonist? What could her name represent?

What does her namesake's story tell you about the status of women in Latino society?

Flower Power and Hugs

Peaceful (and not so peaceful) protests have been a way for Americans to express their feelings and ideas en masse for years. Oftentimes, when a problem arises that affects many people in an unjust way, people take to the streets to show the authorities what they think.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the first major proponents of non-violence during the Civil Rights Movement and his ideas have left a lasting impact.

In the last assignment, you listened to a song about the Vietnam War. This war was no very popular in the USA (that's why they had to draft young men to go to the war!), and there were many protests in cities throughout the country. A lot of the peaceful protests turned violent when the police lost control.

If you're interested, you can check out The Kent State Incident to read more about how the police opened fire at a university war-protest. 

In October of 1967, anti-Vietnam War protesters gathered at the Pentagon. The police were there in riot gear. The picture below shows a young woman, Jane Rose Kasmir, placing a daisy in the barrel of a gun.

La jeune fille a la fleur, Marc Ribauld

Protests don't just happen at war time. In recent history, there have been HUGE gatherings in Washington to protest the legalization of abortion, the defunding of public schools and even to protest racism.

Very recently, there have been protests throughout the country against police brutality and racism. You may have seen pictures of famous people, especially famous African-Americans, with their hands in the air saying "hands up, don't shoot", or have seen the hashtag #wecantbreathe. Events in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City have led people to attend "die - ins" and to gather in protest in large cities. The protests have not been 100% peaceful, but, like in the picture above, there are glimpses of humanity and peace in them.

Below is a picture of a twelve year old boy hugging a police officer. The boy had been holding a sign saying "free hugs," and, as the story goes, the police officer started a conversation with him. When they finished speaking, the officer said "well, don't I get a hug?"

Assignment: Prepare a well-thought out narrative paragraph of 4-6 sentences that tells the story of ONE of the people in these pictures. (For example, you could write the perspective of the police officer receiving a hug.) Make sure you have an introduction sentence AND a conclusion sentence.

Publish your paragraph in the comments below.

Story Telling through Music

There are many ways that people tell stories. The oral tradition of story telling has been around since the beginning of time. When writing came into existence, those oral stories were then transcribed into writing. Lucky for us, though, oral storytelling did not stop.

One form of (very popular) oral story telling is music.  Sacred music tells us the story of the gods.  Popular music of different time periods tells us the values of its listeners and even what was happening at the time! Even classical music played with only instruments tells a story.

Listen to the song Travelling Soldier by The Dixie Chicks. It is a fairly "new" song, but tells a story that was common in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States. The US was fighting a war in Vietnam, and due to low enrollment in the armed forces (like the Army), the government drafted young men to go fight. If they didn't go, they went to jail instead. Many soldiers left behind sweethearts, and they shared letters (because there wasn't any e-mail!).

You can find the lyrics to this song here

Assignment:

Listen to the video and watch the video footage. If you need to, read the lyrics along with the song for better understanding.
Answer each of the following three questions with 2-3 well developed sentences.

1. Do you think that the sweet girl and the soldier were truly in love? Why or why not?

2. What might have made the news that her "boyfriend" was dead easier for the girl?

3. The girl probably knew that something terrible could happen to the soldier, but she wrote him letters anyway and put her heart into it. Is it better to take the risk for love or to avoid heartbreak?

What do you value?

When we meet people for the very first time, there are two questions that most ask:
What is your name?
What do you do?

Our name and our "job" often define us for others. But! Are you more than just a name and an occupation? 

What do you value?

"Values are central; they go to the very core of us, to our personal identity.  Our principles are perhaps the most important thing as, whether or not we live out our dream or achieve our mission, they are most likely to remain intact. Values are a foundation and a plumb line as well as a moral compass." -- therightquestions.org

Self exploration is necessary for your first writing assignment: the personal narrative essay. You will need to pinpoint a time in your life that helped you to understand your personal values. Self exploration is difficult - it is much easier to critique others than it is to critique ourselves. St. Augustine even said

“Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.”  

We search the universe for wonderful things without realize that we are wonderful creatures! 

Assignment:
Take a few minutes to think about your values or priorities in life. Make a list of four things/ideas that you value in order from most important to least important and publish your answer in the comments below.

(Some common values: family, faith, education, friends, romance, career, money) 

A picture is worth 1000 words

Below you will see the photo Migrant Mother by renowned photo journalist Dorothea Lange. 

In order to analyze the photo in writing, we, as writers, must ask some general questions:

When, where, and by whom was the work made?
Where would the work originally be seen? (In a museum? Probably not!)

What purpose did this piece serve?
For whom was the work made?
From what materials was it made?

"Asking questions can be a useful strategy early in the writing process, especially for students who feel they don't have much to say about the material they've been asked to write about. The first step in developing ideas about a text/work of art is to look closely at it. Asking questions and answering them is one way to focus your attention; it's also a way to begin finding things to say. Unexpected answers often emerge as soon as you raise a question." - A Short Guide to College Writing, Second Edition

The questions that we ask will depend on our interests and how the text (or work of art) affects us. An architecture student might be interested in the construction of the piece - how each shape fits together to form the whole - while a sociology student might question the significance of the boys' turned away faces.

Assignment: Choose ONE of the following questions and answer it in three to five sentences. Publish your response in the comments section below.

          ** What is the focus of this photo?
          ** How would you describe the mother's facial expression?
          ** What is surprising or strange about the image?
          ** How might the subject (mother) have felt about being photographed?