...My trailblazing family’s thrifty efforts were legendary in our neighborhood. We started reusing and repurposing way before it was trendy. We made do with what we had and made what we had do more in order to awkwardly swim toward the Dominican American dream. Frugality is a game, or at least we made it into one. A game of who can save the most money by turning off lights, keeping the heater off and going to the library when the apartment got too hot. A game of who could make a skirt out of a short dress or find a scholarship for swimming lessons at the Y.M.C.A. The act of conserving money, the audacity to solve problems no one has thought of before is what set my family apart. Together we share our victories in a little tribe of four Amazon warriors partaking in our own version of the show, Survivor: NYC edition. The phrase “making do” could evoke connotations of stagnation and despair for some; but for me it is about understanding my situation and being proactive. The values I gained...
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...Choice, Sports, Stem Cell Research, Steroids, Terrorism, Violence, War on Drugs, more... Business - Advertising, Business, Buy Web Sites, Economics, Finance, Management, Marketing, Sell Websites Education - ADHD, Learning, Philosophy of Education, Privatization, Public Schools, School Violence, School Vouchers, Teaching, Technology and Education, Test and Testing, Writing English Composition Essays - Analitical, Autobiographical, Argument, Cause/Effect, Classification, Compare/Contrast, Comparison, Conversation, Creative+Writing, Critical, Deductive, Definition, Descriptive, Description, Dialog, Division, Exploratory, Expository, Informative, Interview, Inquiry, Journalistic, Narration, Observation. Personal Narrative, Place, Profile, Process, Proposal English Literature and Literary Analysis - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A & P, Antigone, Apocalypse Now, Araby, The Awakening, Barn Burning, Beowulf, Beloved, Bible, Birthmark, Blade Runner, The Bluest Eye, Candide, Canterbury Tales, Catcher in the Rye, Cathedral, Chrysanthemums, A Clockwork Orange, The Color Purple, Comparing Literary Works, Crime and Punishment, Death of a Salesman, Death in Venice, Desiree's Baby, A Doll's House, Dr. Faustus, Epic of Gilgamesh, Everyday Use, A Farewell to Arms, Frankenstein, The Grapes of Wrath, Great Gatsby, Great Expectations, Glass Menagerie, Gulliver's Travels, The Handmaid's Tale, Heart of Darkness, The Iliad, Invisible Man, Jane Eyre, The Joy Luck Club, The Lottery, ...
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...In Juan Escalante’s article DACA 101: What it Feels Like To Be A Dreamer is a narrative essay on his personal experience as someone who was fortunate enough to obtain the DACA permit. In his article he opens up with letting his audience know the current status of the DACA permit. As of recently, the president of the United States has started the process of demantling the program that was offered to young undocumented children that were brought to the United States as children. Juan goes on to describe the fear and anxiety that has overcome all of the young undocumented children that have been contributing to society. He also speaks about the fear and horror that he felt when he and his family heard knocks at his door. In this article he is...
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...accented English to collide with the sawedtwenty years. off consonants. I tell him that will be fi ne, that I’m familiar with 3 Barrientos was born in Guatethe conversational setup, and yes, I’ve studied a bit mala and raised of Spanish in the past. He asks for my name and I in El Paso, Texas. Her first novel, Frontera Street, was supply it, rolling the double r in Barrientos like a pro. published in 2002, and her second, That’s when I hear the silent snag, the momentary Family Resemblance, was pubhesitation I’ve come to expect at this part of the exlished in 2003. Her column “Unchange. Should I go into it again? Should I explain, conventional Wisdom” runs every the way I have to half a dozen others, that I am Guaweek in the Inquirer. This essay originally appeared in the collectemalan by birth but pura gringa by circumstance? tion Border-Line Personalities: A Do I add the humble little laugh I usually attach New Generation of Latinas Dish to the end of my sentence to let him know that of on Sex, Sass & Cultural Shifting. course I see the irony in the situation? We selected this reading because This will be the sixth...
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...For this essay, you will undertake a similar project. Through your personal narrative, you will investigate some misunderstood or misperceived facet of American culture (technology, entertainment, consumerism, etc.) or life (family, illness, disability or any kind of difference, etc.) in order to persuade your readers to think differently. In this week’s discussion, we examined the various strategies used by authors to persuade their audiences. We noted that these authors did not simply assert a thesis and then defend or “prove” it; rather, the authors invited us to explore and think further about a topic. However, as readers we weren’t taken on an unfocused or disorganized journey: * The focus (or what we might understand as the “thesis”) of each essay was clear and woven throughout the essay. * The focus was well supported through appeals to logic, emotion, and through the writer’s expertise on the topic. * The essays were organized in persuasive ways. * The writers carefully crafted their language and tone to appeal to the audience. Title- A prospective from an average American becoming changed and labeled with PTSD. The year is 2006 in Tucson, AZ during the holiday season. Going through the motions of every day life as a Career Airman in the USAF. After finishing a long week of work on a Friday, my phone rings from my Supervision. I was instructed to report to the shop ASAP. As I’m driving back towards the office thoughts are running...
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...Bharati Mukherjee and the American Immigrant: Reimaging the Nation in a Global Context Leah Rang University of Tennessee - Knoxville, lrang@utk.edu Recommended Citation Rang, Leah, "Bharati Mukherjee and the American Immigrant: Reimaging the Nation in a Global Context. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2010. http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/655 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact trace@utk.edu. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Leah Rang entitled "Bharati Mukherjee and the American Immigrant: Reimaging the Nation in a Global Context." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in English. Urmila Seshagiri, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Lisi Schoenbach, Bill Hardwig Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Leah Rang entitled ―Bharati Mukherjee and the American Immigrant: Reimagining the...
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...Both, CSI and X Factor have been huge successes in their own respective genres. This essay will examine the similarities and differences in the ways and techniques that X Factor and CSI use to attract their audiences. Both texts attract a worldwide audience with over 30 countries having their own version of ‘X Factor’, and in 2006, CSI was named the most popular show in the world in a study of ratings in over 20 countries. These stats connote a measure of the popularity and dominance of these shows within their genres, and generally within the TV industry. The Uses and Gratifications theory can be applied to both these texts to show how they attract audience using the 4 stages. Firstly, personal identity, as X Factor is a contestant based show, and the people start the show as average everyday people, and this is connoted in their interview before their audition where they talk about their current life, and have very casual dress codes in a public and busy mise-en-scene. As the show progresses some of these contestants start to turn into ‘celebrities’ by gaining publicity, and this is connoted due to their change in dress codes, which is now smart and classy compared to casual before. Also connoted through their confidence, as at the start they are very nervous and modest, and as the competition progresses, depending on good results a person will gain self-confidence and gain more and more fans. An example of contestants that used the X Factor as a way to gain fame is One Direction...
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...Ben Martinez Professor Chavez Mexican History II May 2, 2015 Book Critique The Hunger Of Memory: And the Education of Richard Rodriguez “Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez” is an autobiography, that vividly paints and reveals a journey in which Rodriguez withstood numerous struggles in order to become the American he is currently known for. He endured what most would call a life set up for failure, yet he challenged himself and transformed from a young Mexican American to a genuine man. However Rodriguez remembers his own experience being a minority, questioning his own value and self as he grew older. Through his narrative we are able to see his core obstacle of learning to become the ideal American. Rodriquez consistently...
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...Global Cold War tensions increased as political turmoil turned to violent conflict in developing Third World nations. Responding to all of this, cinema became politicized on a scale not seen since World War II. The Third World was at the forefront of revolutionary cinema as filmmakers in those countries treated cinema as a tool of social change and a weapon of political liberation. This use of film as a social and political force emerged first in Latin America and spread to Africa and China, while also emerging in the First World countries including the U.S.S.R. and United States. The counterculture and the New Left were examples of an international politics of youth that focused on opposition to American involvement in Vietnam, critique of post-World War II capitalist society, and social-protest movements focused on equality of diverse groups. Eventually, radical leftism declined in the mid-1970s, but engaged filmmaking remained central to the micropolitics of the era. A June 1979 alternative-cinema conference in New York assembled over 400 political activists working in film and video in the United States. In some countries, government liberalization led to funding for militant film. The new Labour government in Britain assisted Liberation Film and Cinema Action, while the regional Maisons de la Culture allotted money for local media groups in France. Some parallel distribution and exhibition circuits proved successful in promoting films about nuclear power, day care...
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...very strong foundations. The very nature of Avant-Garde film requires it to be at the forefront of experimentation. As new techniques are explored and boundaries are broken down, what may have been at the forefront of experimentation in the Fifties for example, may be one of the most used techniques in Hollywood by the Seventies or now. This gives the impression that to remain innovative, Avant-Garde directors must change style to fit what is required of them during their particular time period. The mention of Hollywood hints at the relationship it has with the Avant-Garde. Murray Smith describes Avant-Garde as a ‘personal mode’, and goes on to say the films are made by, ‘filmmakers alone or in combination with private patronage and grants from arts institutions.’[2] It seems easy to glean that Avant-Garde cinema works outside the Hollywood community. This ‘personal mode’ gives filmmakers a chance to make films for reasons beyond money. To test limits, reaction and technique is more important. Perhaps these films are made not for an audience, but for the pleasure of the filmmakers themselves. Smith does not mention funding...
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...Beginning theory An introduction to literary and cultural theory Second edition Peter Barry © Peter Barry 1995, 2002 ISBN: 0719062683 Contents Acknowledgements - page x Preface to the second edition - xii Introduction - 1 About this book - 1 Approaching theory - 6 Slop and think: reviewing your study of literature to date - 8 My own 'stock-taking' - 9 1 Theory before 'theory' - liberal humanism - 11 The history of English studies - 11 Stop and think - 11 Ten tenets of liberal humanism - 16 Literary theorising from Aristotle to Leavis some key moments - 21 Liberal humanism in practice - 31 The transition to 'theory' - 32 Some recurrent ideas in critical theory - 34 Selected reading - 36 2 Structuralism - 39 Structuralist chickens and liberal humanist eggs Signs of the fathers - Saussure - 41 Stop and think - 45 The scope of structuralism - 46 What structuralist critics do - 49 Structuralist criticism: examples - 50 Stop and think - 53 Stop and think - 55 39 Stop and think - 57 Selected reading - 60 3 Post-structuralism and deconstruction - 61 Some theoretical differences between structuralism and post-structuralism - 61 Post-structuralism - life on a decentred planet - 65 Stop and think - 68 Structuralism and post-structuralism - some practical differences - 70 What post-structuralist critics do - 73 Deconstruction: an example - 73 Selected reading - 79 4 Postmodernism - 81 What is postmodernism? What was modernism? -...
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...self-identity and definition and independence. Walker (95) argues that I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings is characterized by thematic unity, which is achieved using the structure adopted in the text that takes more of a thematic form rather than a chronological form. In addition, Angelou managed to emphasize on the universal ideas in her literary work irrespective of its periodic quality. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou used the major characters of the book to facilitate its thematic development identity, racism and literacy throughout the text. Basing on this assertion, this essay uses evidence from the book to affirm the role that the major characters played in the development of the major themes in the book. The first major theme in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is identity. In the course of the text, Maya is depicted as symbolic character representing every African American girl growing in America. Maya is depicted as...
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...NORTH AMERICAN FICTION BRIEF INTRODUCTION: Before starting our study of American Fiction we must understand what American Literature is in itself and which pieces of writing we can include within this label. It is believed that when a piece is written in North America, more precisely in the USA, it would automatically be given this epithet. But it should be taken into account that this idea is quite broad and doesn’t reflect the real essence of the term. However, there is also another definition that gathers this essence: American Literature is the one that represents the Americanism, the singularity of the USA philosophy and culture. This way, instead of focusing on who the author is, it is focused on the content of the writing. In that which concerns Fiction, the following documents are the ones considered as narrative: Speeches Letters Short Stories Essays Political Documents Sermons Novels Diaries 1 FIRST LITERARY EXPRESSIONS The first documents in which the idea of Americanism is very present are the Sermons. They respond to the strict Protestantism settled in the New Continent after the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers and Puritans in the Mayflower (1620) and the Arabella (1630). They established a theocratic community whose main and only point of reference was the Bible. That is why the idea of the ‘city upon a hill’ is still very present in American mentality. As we all know...
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...Barriers Influencing American Dreams Do obstacles in one’s life change one’s aspirations? If something hard or even Winston Patterson 5/17/10 9:49 PM Comment: TITLE SHOULD REFLECT OVERALL THEME OF ESSAYß Winston Patterson 5/17/10 9:35 PM Comment: Attention Getter unexpected occurs, does one turn his or her back on all that has been worked for? In an American society, there is an idea of a dream. Most people have dreams that differ from one another. Dreams are not limited only to society. Countless numbers of times in American literature, there are moments when an obstacle slows or possibly halts progression. Dreams can also be found in American literature; however, like the reality of society, barriers can be a component of having aspirations. Barriers create obstacles, whether emotional or physical, that make achieving a dream difficult or even appear to be impossible. In American literature dreams seem to be unattainable because of barriers. In all the years of literature, dreams, goals, and aspirations come in contact Winston Patterson 5/17/10 9:35 PM Comment: Broad Topic Winston Patterson 5/17/10 9:35 PM Comment: Narrow Topic Winston Patterson 5/17/10 9:36 PM Comment: Thesis Statement Winston Patterson 5/17/10 9:36 PM Comment: Clincher Sentence with a conflict. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby has a dream to be with Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby has a passion for his dream so fierce that he pursues ...
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...critical theory today critical theory today A Us e r - F r i e n d l y G u i d e S E C O N D E D I T I O N L O I S T Y S O N New York London Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN © 2006 by Lois Tyson Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business Printed in the United States of America on acid‑free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number‑10: 0‑415‑97410‑0 (Softcover) 0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑97410‑3 (Softcover) 978‑0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data Tyson, Lois, 1950‑ Critical theory today : a user‑friendly guide / Lois Tyson.‑‑ 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0‑415‑97409‑7 (hb) ‑‑ ISBN 0‑415‑97410‑0 (pb) 1. Criticism...
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