Textual Analysis Essays – Due Friday, November 5th. Please submit your essays by midnight on Friday by placing your document in the folder that contains your Literacy Narrative. Your essay should have a title that reveals something about its content, but the file should be named “Your Name / Textual Analysis Essay”. If you have any problems meeting this deadline, you need to reach out to me BEFORE the essay is due, not after the deadline has passed. Don’t forget to proofread your essay before you submit it, being careful to use the present tense when you discuss your text and checking to see that you you have inserted your quotations smoothly into your writing.
Dear Reader Letter: As you did for the Literacy Narrative, you will be taking some time to reflect on the process of writing your Textual Analysis Essay. In your “Dear Reader” letter, you may want to consider the following: What are you especially proud of in this essay? What do you wish you had done better? What did you learn from. your ‘deep dive’ into your chosen text? How did the process of planning, drafting, peer review, and revision go for you? What did you change about your essay between your first draft and your final draft? How did you feel about “loosening up” your language and writing in a more natural, authentic voice? What did you learn from reading your partners’ essays? What got in the way of your progress on this essay? Why? What else would you like your reader to know before he/she reads your essay? These letters should be a minimum of 300 words and should be added to your folder by Monday, November 8th.
Chimamanda Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story”: Please watch Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie’s talk, “The Danger of a Single Story.” You can find a link to the video under the “Texts” tab above. Once you have watched the video, please share a response to it in the form of a comment on this post. In your response, please share an example of a “single story” you have encountered in your own life. This could be a time when you have been on the receiving end of someone else’s “single story” about YOU; it could be an example in which you found yourself having a “single story” about someone else; or it could be a time when you have encountered a “single story” being promoted in the media. Please share your comments by Tuesday, November 9th.
Representation: You may remember that our course is called “Language, Identity, and Representation.” We have talked a lot about language, and we’ve talked a lot of identity, but we haven’t addressed representation yet. By representation, I mean the way that individuals, groups, and experiences are depicted, written about, and presented to us. To begin thinking about representation, I would like you to find a piece of media whose representation of a particular identity strikes you as being exactly right, totally problematic, or somewhere in-between, and be prepared to share it in class on Wednesday. The term “media” is very broad; your selection could be an advertisement, a music video, a television show, a meme, a newspaper story or headline, a comedy routine, a film, a character in a novel, etc…. Think about something you’ve seen that you have had a strong reaction to – either because it handles representation in a way that you really like and appreciate or because you found it offensive or troubling. In advance of class, please create a new post and share the piece of media you have selected. If you have selected something long like a tv show, please select and share a short clip that would illustrate what you have in mind. Please reach out to me via email or stop by my office hours on Monday if you have questions about this assignment. Please post by 11:30 am on Wednesday, November 10th to receive credit for this assignment.
16 thoughts on “Assignments – Week #12”
We hear and learn about “single stories” commonly in our conversations, media, school, etc. A “single story” is a story that only shows the point of view of one particular person or something. It sometimes does not show the truth nor highlight the negatives. One example of a “single story” that I have encountered in my own life is when I learned about Columbus Day in school. I don’t recall what grade it exactly was, but I remember being little and learning about how great of a person Christopher Columbus was because he discovered the Americas. I thought that he was a very important person, especially since we had a whole day dedicated to him and learned so much about his journey to the Americas. It was not until I was older that I learned the dark truth behind who Columbus was and what he actually did to the natives living on this land. We never learned about him enslaving native people and stealing from their land while in school. Instead, we celebrated him for accidentally finding the Americas. This is an example of a “single story” because only one side of the story is taught to us while in school. We miss a very large portion of the information that highlights the truth.
An example of a single side story I witnessed was in my senior year in high school. I was friends with another senior in my Spanish class, her name was Liz. One day she told me how she lost all her friends she made in freshman year. She told me that one of the friends in the friend group told her that another girl in the friend group, was talking about her behind her back. She questioned the girl on it, and there was an argument. They all end up taking the other girl’s side and stop talking to Liz. I would hear a lot of bad stuff about her from people, but she was a really nice person from what I knew of her. I never paid attention to the rumors, but this is an example of a single side story because you only hear the bad side of Liz and not the good.
A single story I’ve witnessed is one from social media. There were allegations going around between two celebrities, Zayn Malik and Yolanda Hadid. They said that Yolanda came in barging into Zayn’s house disturbing his peace while he was with his daughter and the mother (Gigi Hadid) was out that week because of NYFW. She apparently took photos of her granddaughter and leaked them out to the public which made Zayn furious because they never posted a face picture of their child since she was born and then Yolanda claimed Zayn hit and cursed at her. Many people heard this and started taking Zayn’s side because Yolanda is known to be problematic. She would basically starve both her daughters in order to maintain a “good” body since they’re both models. This is considered a single story because people are automatically choosing who’s side to pick due to things occurring from the past.
A single story that I saw my friend face multiple times, being asked where he’s from and people not believing him when he replies Mexico. He is 6 foot 3 in tall but because Mexicans are known to be short. They do not believe him and simply think he’s joking. That’s the another thing about single stories, they’re based off stereotypes which can hurt peoples identity
I have recently experienced a single story when some people ask me what college I go to. And when I tell them I go to Baruch, everyone always assumes I’m a business or finance major because that’s what Baruch is known for, even though I’m a Communications major. There are many other examples of this that I have gone through but, Single stories always come from assumptions and bias ideas that people have towards anything that they are unfamiliar with.
After listening to “The Danger of a Single Story”, it reminds me of how social media portrays that and enforces that through stereotypes and incomplete stories like Chimamanda Ngozi said. A time where I experienced one of these single stories myself is when I talk about where I live, which is in Queens. People would assume I would be more wealthy than I am but that is not the case.
An example of a single story i have encountered was about myself. I am a very private person and my personal life such as my friends and family are very sacred to me. In an age where everything is shared on social media people start to assume a lot about you and develop their own single stories. Since i was very active in my high school yet no one really knew much about me i heard a lot of single stories about myself based on what people thought they could come up with about my personal life.
I saw a girl’s story where she met a white man and she let him know that she was Argentinian. He was like “oh where is Argentina? Is it in Europe?” Then he asks, “Then why are you white,” They then start talking about Mennonites, which is a Christian religious group and they don’t live with electricity. She talks about how difficult it would be to live like that and then the guy says “I thought you would be used to it, you’re from Argentina.” She has to explain to him that they have electricity. This shows the ignorance or one-sided story he had of Argentina.
The time that I experienced a “single story” was during my junior year of high school before Covid took place and shut schools down. During this time many children would judge Asians very poorly because they believed that only the Asians were responsible for the cause of this terrible event. These “single stories” not only sabotage someone’s identity but also can make them feel really bad about themselves.
I single story I experienced would be that throughout my educational career i had many peers come up to me assuming I’m good at “studying” or great at math just because I’m Asian and fit the usual stereotype of Asians being good a math. To be honest my side of the story is that I’m not really good at math and struggle with lots of other subjects but that’s okay because no one is perfect. So it just goes to show that stereotypes are not always right or correct just because people assume things and twist the original story of things. So don’t always believe what you hear.
A single story that i went through myself would be, the time when i was in elementary school. i don’t remember how old i was, but a classmate of mine was reading this Animal Planet magazine and one of the articles said something about Asians eating cats and dogs. I was like no they don’t. This was a one sided story because he assumed that people like me would do such a thing. It’s a false stereotype that negatively impacts a group of people.
A single-story that had occurred to me very recently, was when I got a 100 on my exam in math class. I heard a couple of murmurs of students claiming that it was because I was Asian and that I was smart. This is a one-sided story because they just assumed I was intelligent in math but instead I was not. I have taken algebra twice in high school because I failed the first time, and every time I do the homework, I spend hours and hours because I would get them all wrong. Math was the last time I wanted to do and I stayed up reviewing for the grade. The 100 meant a lot to me but because they had just assumed I had math ingrained in me because I was Asian, the idea just didn’t sit right with me.
The time that I experienced a “single story” was my past summer vacation when I traveled to the Dominican Republic. The most popular game in this country is baseball. Because I’m 6 foot 4 everyone thought that I was a baseball player. Throughout the entire time I was there I got asked if I was a baseball player daily by strangers. They were surprised by my height and assumed that I played baseball.
A one sided story of mine would be when I first came to America. my mother would tell me don’t give money to the poor men on the subway as they were men and if they could walk around asking for money they could walk and get themselves a job. I carried this idea with me through my life as I saw her point of view, which made sense to me at the time. I thought if your homeless then go work and get a home. this idea of mine crashed down when I saw a video of a homeless man explaining that being homeless isn’t easy. he explained not all home less people are crack smoking bums. the video hit me most when he said he wasn’t a bum he was a normal working man who got screwed my his company and ended up with no money to show for working and ended up on the streets. since he was homeless he could secure a job as he doesn’t do taxes and jobs won’t risk hiring someone like that. he said he can’t get into programs to help people in his position as the homeless shelters are sometimes dangerous and there’s too much people in his position trying for that same program. it opened my eyes up and made me stop calling homeless people bums as it was offensive and hurtful
A one-sided story that I encountered was during high school when I was going to play a game of soccer with my friends. I’ve always hated playing soccer because I would tend to get bored pretty quickly and the sport itself never caught my attention. I only played because my friends insisted I join them. Once we were going to start playing, one of the people from the opposite team commented, “It’s not fair you have a Mexican on the team, you automatically win” but little did he know I didn’t enjoy playing soccer and hardly ever played the sport. Some people just create their own ideas and beliefs based on the person’s appearance rather than getting to actually know and understand the person.
A one sided story I would share is about an artist, who’s name is Kanye West. Many people view him as this controversial figure who speaks things that don’t make sense. But if we decompose his art, we can see the genius he creates and how he portrays his message through music.
We hear and learn about “single stories” commonly in our conversations, media, school, etc. A “single story” is a story that only shows the point of view of one particular person or something. It sometimes does not show the truth nor highlight the negatives. One example of a “single story” that I have encountered in my own life is when I learned about Columbus Day in school. I don’t recall what grade it exactly was, but I remember being little and learning about how great of a person Christopher Columbus was because he discovered the Americas. I thought that he was a very important person, especially since we had a whole day dedicated to him and learned so much about his journey to the Americas. It was not until I was older that I learned the dark truth behind who Columbus was and what he actually did to the natives living on this land. We never learned about him enslaving native people and stealing from their land while in school. Instead, we celebrated him for accidentally finding the Americas. This is an example of a “single story” because only one side of the story is taught to us while in school. We miss a very large portion of the information that highlights the truth.
An example of a single side story I witnessed was in my senior year in high school. I was friends with another senior in my Spanish class, her name was Liz. One day she told me how she lost all her friends she made in freshman year. She told me that one of the friends in the friend group told her that another girl in the friend group, was talking about her behind her back. She questioned the girl on it, and there was an argument. They all end up taking the other girl’s side and stop talking to Liz. I would hear a lot of bad stuff about her from people, but she was a really nice person from what I knew of her. I never paid attention to the rumors, but this is an example of a single side story because you only hear the bad side of Liz and not the good.
A single story I’ve witnessed is one from social media. There were allegations going around between two celebrities, Zayn Malik and Yolanda Hadid. They said that Yolanda came in barging into Zayn’s house disturbing his peace while he was with his daughter and the mother (Gigi Hadid) was out that week because of NYFW. She apparently took photos of her granddaughter and leaked them out to the public which made Zayn furious because they never posted a face picture of their child since she was born and then Yolanda claimed Zayn hit and cursed at her. Many people heard this and started taking Zayn’s side because Yolanda is known to be problematic. She would basically starve both her daughters in order to maintain a “good” body since they’re both models. This is considered a single story because people are automatically choosing who’s side to pick due to things occurring from the past.
A single story that I saw my friend face multiple times, being asked where he’s from and people not believing him when he replies Mexico. He is 6 foot 3 in tall but because Mexicans are known to be short. They do not believe him and simply think he’s joking. That’s the another thing about single stories, they’re based off stereotypes which can hurt peoples identity
I have recently experienced a single story when some people ask me what college I go to. And when I tell them I go to Baruch, everyone always assumes I’m a business or finance major because that’s what Baruch is known for, even though I’m a Communications major. There are many other examples of this that I have gone through but, Single stories always come from assumptions and bias ideas that people have towards anything that they are unfamiliar with.
After listening to “The Danger of a Single Story”, it reminds me of how social media portrays that and enforces that through stereotypes and incomplete stories like Chimamanda Ngozi said. A time where I experienced one of these single stories myself is when I talk about where I live, which is in Queens. People would assume I would be more wealthy than I am but that is not the case.
An example of a single story i have encountered was about myself. I am a very private person and my personal life such as my friends and family are very sacred to me. In an age where everything is shared on social media people start to assume a lot about you and develop their own single stories. Since i was very active in my high school yet no one really knew much about me i heard a lot of single stories about myself based on what people thought they could come up with about my personal life.
I saw a girl’s story where she met a white man and she let him know that she was Argentinian. He was like “oh where is Argentina? Is it in Europe?” Then he asks, “Then why are you white,” They then start talking about Mennonites, which is a Christian religious group and they don’t live with electricity. She talks about how difficult it would be to live like that and then the guy says “I thought you would be used to it, you’re from Argentina.” She has to explain to him that they have electricity. This shows the ignorance or one-sided story he had of Argentina.
The time that I experienced a “single story” was during my junior year of high school before Covid took place and shut schools down. During this time many children would judge Asians very poorly because they believed that only the Asians were responsible for the cause of this terrible event. These “single stories” not only sabotage someone’s identity but also can make them feel really bad about themselves.
I single story I experienced would be that throughout my educational career i had many peers come up to me assuming I’m good at “studying” or great at math just because I’m Asian and fit the usual stereotype of Asians being good a math. To be honest my side of the story is that I’m not really good at math and struggle with lots of other subjects but that’s okay because no one is perfect. So it just goes to show that stereotypes are not always right or correct just because people assume things and twist the original story of things. So don’t always believe what you hear.
A single story that i went through myself would be, the time when i was in elementary school. i don’t remember how old i was, but a classmate of mine was reading this Animal Planet magazine and one of the articles said something about Asians eating cats and dogs. I was like no they don’t. This was a one sided story because he assumed that people like me would do such a thing. It’s a false stereotype that negatively impacts a group of people.
A single-story that had occurred to me very recently, was when I got a 100 on my exam in math class. I heard a couple of murmurs of students claiming that it was because I was Asian and that I was smart. This is a one-sided story because they just assumed I was intelligent in math but instead I was not. I have taken algebra twice in high school because I failed the first time, and every time I do the homework, I spend hours and hours because I would get them all wrong. Math was the last time I wanted to do and I stayed up reviewing for the grade. The 100 meant a lot to me but because they had just assumed I had math ingrained in me because I was Asian, the idea just didn’t sit right with me.
The time that I experienced a “single story” was my past summer vacation when I traveled to the Dominican Republic. The most popular game in this country is baseball. Because I’m 6 foot 4 everyone thought that I was a baseball player. Throughout the entire time I was there I got asked if I was a baseball player daily by strangers. They were surprised by my height and assumed that I played baseball.
A one sided story of mine would be when I first came to America. my mother would tell me don’t give money to the poor men on the subway as they were men and if they could walk around asking for money they could walk and get themselves a job. I carried this idea with me through my life as I saw her point of view, which made sense to me at the time. I thought if your homeless then go work and get a home. this idea of mine crashed down when I saw a video of a homeless man explaining that being homeless isn’t easy. he explained not all home less people are crack smoking bums. the video hit me most when he said he wasn’t a bum he was a normal working man who got screwed my his company and ended up with no money to show for working and ended up on the streets. since he was homeless he could secure a job as he doesn’t do taxes and jobs won’t risk hiring someone like that. he said he can’t get into programs to help people in his position as the homeless shelters are sometimes dangerous and there’s too much people in his position trying for that same program. it opened my eyes up and made me stop calling homeless people bums as it was offensive and hurtful
A one-sided story that I encountered was during high school when I was going to play a game of soccer with my friends. I’ve always hated playing soccer because I would tend to get bored pretty quickly and the sport itself never caught my attention. I only played because my friends insisted I join them. Once we were going to start playing, one of the people from the opposite team commented, “It’s not fair you have a Mexican on the team, you automatically win” but little did he know I didn’t enjoy playing soccer and hardly ever played the sport. Some people just create their own ideas and beliefs based on the person’s appearance rather than getting to actually know and understand the person.
A one sided story I would share is about an artist, who’s name is Kanye West. Many people view him as this controversial figure who speaks things that don’t make sense. But if we decompose his art, we can see the genius he creates and how he portrays his message through music.