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English 2850 KMWA

Professor Jennifer Sylvor

Spring 2021

FINAL EXAM

Please compose your response to this final as a Word Document or Google Doc, give the file a name with the format:  Your Name, ENG2850 Final Exam, and share it with me at [email protected] by midnight (11:59 pm) on Tuesday, May 25th.   Late submissions will receive no credit.

Read the instructions in their entirety before you begin to work on this final exam. You are welcome to consult your notes from the course and all the texts we’ve read, but you are NOT allowed to do any internet research while completing this project. Use of outside sources will result in a grade of F on the exam.

 Plan to spend 2-3 hours on this exam (including thinking time). Be sure to proofread your work carefully before sharing it with me. If you have questions about any part of this exam, please  message me via Slack or email me at [email protected].

Final Exam: Propose a Mini-Course

Your task is as follows:

Drawing on the list of works we’ve read this semester (available on your syllabus), please design and propose a “Mini-Course”.   This mini-course will bring together a selection of readings from our syllabus, but will focus on a particular topic or theme that is of interest to you. Coming up with your theme will be the key step in completing this assignment. You will need to identify some component or issue that you have encountered at several different points in your reading for this course and construct your proposal around this idea. [Your idea might be a particular element you’ve noticed in your reading (i.e. railroad travel) or a persistent question (i.e. what happens when we die?) I have deliberately chosen examples that wouldn’t work for our particular reading list because I don’t want to render any ideas off-limits, but I hope you get the idea!]  Your course proposal must contain the following components:

–Course Title: Your course title should be creative and inviting and should let us know what the focus of your course is.

–Course Description: In this one paragraph course description, articulate the subject that your mini-course will explore and lay out the central questions that you will be exploring in the course.  Your description should be as specific, detailed, and engaging as possible.

–Annotated Reading List: Select 5 texts from the semester as the reading for your mini-course. Write a thoughtful paragraph for each text in which you explain your rationale for including this text, offer a quotation from the text that illustrates how the text is connected to the topic of your mini-course, and provide at least three discussion questions you might ask about the text in the context of your course. List your texts in the order you think they should be read for your course. You don’t have to follow our chronological organization.  Feel free to comment on the logic of the sequencing of the readings, if you think that is important to the effectiveness of the course.

–Wild Card: Add a 6^th text of your choosing to your reading list. This text should NOT come from our syllabus. It should be a text that you have encountered elsewhere that you think would work with your theme and be a good addition to your reading list. This text could be a written text, or it could be a film, a tv show, a song, a painting, a photograph, a meme…. This is totally up to you. Don’t be afraid to be creative. Compose a paragraph in which you describe your wild card text and explain how it is connected to the subject of your mini-course.  Place your “Wild Card” text in the spot on your reading list where you think it would be most effective.

–The Pitch: In the final paragraph of your course proposal, make a “pitch” for your course. What would you say to convince a fellow student to enroll in this course?

Your final exam will be judged by the following criteria:

–Have you followed all the instructions and completed the assignment exactly as instructed?

–Have you come up with a creative and engaging course?

–Does your course make sense, given the texts you’ve selected?

–How thoughtfully does your course description reflect your engagement with our reading over the semester?

–Does your Wild Card add to and complement your choices?

–How successful is your “pitch” at selling your idea to prospective students?

After Reading ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich,’ I was reinforced with the idea that nothing we gain in this life through money, wealth, or status, will go with us once we die. After reading about Ivan’s struggle to accept death, I noticed his focus was so much on how he will not be able to live life as he once enjoyed. He has to get used to and anticipate a new experience, for example not having people over as much to his house, not having the physical strength to do things as he once did, and the most daunting anticipation of all, death. During the pandemic, I have seen many people go through the same process of getting used to new ways of living and even anticipating death. For me though, in this new era of life when the entire world has to live through a pandemic like this, I have realized that although everything that we cherish in this life does bring comfort and joy, we must all also anticipate and expect even, the few things common to all human beings, and one of the only few things that do not discriminate; change and death. Throughout this entire pandemic, personally, I have gotten used to the trend of change and the news of death. Although I never experienced death in my immediate family, since the beginning of the pandemic I have witnessed relentless news reports of the mass deaths due to the coronavirus. I have also witnessed and experienced tremendous change due to this pandemic. Change is also one of those things that everyone must experience, by choice or not. Having to stay home all the time not, not being able to visit family members as frequently, seeing so many establishments closed, have all been changes we all had to face in this pandemic. In this way, this idea that every human being is going to experience and even has to prepare for these things is reinforced after reading the Death of Ivan Ilyich. Ivan, although a fortunate and wealthy man, could not escape change nor death, nor can any of his friends or family members escape those things, and neither can we.

1. What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
   I learned that even children were not spared from being dehumanized, and from the horrors of the Holocaust. There were many extremely disturbing scenes in the text, but the most striking and painstaking was reading about children being brutalized.
2. Are we good people?” asks our narrator.  What is this exchange about? What do you think?

I believe this exchange was the process of the narrator being desensitized to the horrors of killing people. The fact that I’m the text, the narrator said he wanted the people to hurry up and be killed off in the gas chambers so he could go rest was a signal that he was not completely emotionally connected to the lives of the people that were being stripped away, and their suffering. Him asking this question was a realization of this disconnection, and he asked in order to see if this feeling resonated with Henri. I believe this was just one step in the process of the narrator being desensitized to human suffering and death.

After reading Isabel Allende’s story “And of Clay We Are Created,” I noticed specific elements in Rolf’s partner’s character that I could relate really to. In the story, as she watches on the television Rolf helplessly trying to save the trapped girl from the muddy, dangerous debris from the volcanic eruption, I could sense her having a feeling of earnest yet obsolete desire to help them, but she is not able to, since they are in completely different locations. This same desire resonated with me, because it reminds me of all the times in my life where I watched helplessly as a person whom I really want to help does not receive the aid they need due to their situations, and my help is also rendered obsolete, because we are in completely different places in the world. One such occasion that comes to mind are the countless infomercials that show how millions of African children have to suffer from thirst, starvation, and even death, because they don’t have the provisional resources to keep them healthy. I remember watching the African children, thin to the point where their bones poke through their skin, oftentimes covered in flies. I remember watching them cry for attention, for food and water, many of them also in need of serious medical attention, to which they may not receive. During these times, I feel that like I need to help these children, but at the same time, I realize how far away I am from helping them; both physically through distance, and financially, since I am not financially stable enough to donate any impactful amount of money. In these times, as I watch these suffering children on the television screen, I can closely relate to Rolf’s partner, in her futile desire to help those in need, since they are opposite sides of the world.

In the wake of the recent rise of attacks on the Asian American Community, I felt as if I had watched too many incidents now to the point I have become desensitized. At first, my grandparents were instructed to try to stay at home. But now it is uncomfortably common in the news where I have to admit to myself, it’s shocking me less and less, it almost feels like a norm. Even my grandparents, prime targets for being a victim have disregarded their potential har. It also does not feel real to me since all I have been doing is reading about it, but I know it’s real and it’s happening all around me. But because even though it is in my community, the screen I have been reading it from has enhanced my distance to any single event. I know that if it were to happen to me or my family, I would feel a different way about it. If I had experienced these incidents first hand, perhaps I can truly understand what’s happening to the victim and their family. I also want to note that while media is important to spread awareness, I cannot help think that media also helped enhance the problem. Putting Asian hate crime in the spotlight might give the potential perpetrator the green light to also do it. But the silver lining in this rise of these events is that politicians and government have acted swiftly following it. This is where it differs from “And of Clay We Create”, in the text the politicians have acted for selfish needs, going to the volcanic site just to show their face on television but not doing anything to save the dying people. In contrast, the recent administration has acknowledged the problem and has acted upon it, passing bills and executive orders.

The one I’m most closely associated with is COVID-19. Especially when it first broke out in China, it caught everyone off guard. Because my family was all in China, I was very worried about their health. Thanks to the strong quarantine measures taken by the Chinese government, my family is all right and not infected. It wasn’t until the outbreak reached New York that I began to realize the danger was around me. At that time, the situation was reversed. My family called me every day to check on me. Everything is fine for me, but the situation around me is getting worse. The first thing to get up every day is to turn on the phone to check the number of new infections and deaths today. But only rising numbers. When I started wearing a mask, the media and people around me felt that I was making a fuss. COVID-19 was just the flu. I wanted to refute but no one believed me. Until New York announced to lock down the city, my roommate’s bubble milk tea shop in Chinatown was also forced to shut down. I’m also lost my part-time job which is work in a restaurant. Throughout 2020, I feel like I can’t do anything. I can only watch the disaster happen but I can’t do much.

For my life experience I do not have that experience, however there is a thing going on right now, I think this is the most similar experience with Isabel Allende. It is the Covid- 19. When this happened first in China, I did not feel anything about this, I still do whatever I do usually, going to school, go to work, however I do not know is this happened in one second, the school was shut down, everyone wear mask, that make me feel suddenly in one second, I try to buy a ticket to go back to China, since when United Stated more people died in one day, I decided to go back to China, but there is no ticket for me to go back to China, I feel so hopeless, one week only one fly, and during tat period, the mask was so expensive than usually, I feel everything was shut down. Even during that period the China seen more control than United Stated, but right now the vaccination is for now is faster than in China, I try to call my family member in China, they did not even have any news that they can get the vaccine, compare to China, I think United Stated have more resource can let the people get the vaccine as soon as possible, even China get control early than United Stated. During the pandemic period, the news I saw the people died increase everyday, the news report everyday to people. Everyone is concern about how many people died in one day, when the first happened in China, no on is thinking how terrible is the disease, they did not think about this result, everyone is afraid of this disease, also included me, I think this is the most similar thing happened during my life experience with Isabel Allende was a terrible experience.

The story “And of Clay are We Created” made me remember about an Earthquake that occurred at Nepal in 2015. I was in New York at the time and I got a call from my aunt at 4A.M and I was shocked to find out that it was one of the strongest one and the buildings near my houses were collapsed. We tried contacting our relatives and friends back in Nepal but we couldn’t reach them due to poor connections and it was terrifying to see historic monuments being collapsed and the news terrified us even more. In the story, the narrator tries her best to contact political leaders to locate the pump and makes appeal to the media, however, there’s no result. After the earthquake, there were many damages, people lost homes, jobs, relatives and the political leaders weren’t really available to provide any help. In fact, many countries had donated money and supplies for the people but the money didn’t reach innocent people who actually needed it. The role of politicians during these crisis weren’t helpful. This crisis made me connect to my own country in a very different way. I was away from home and when I saw the buildings being destroyed and heard the stories from my relatives and friends back home, it made me realize how much I missed and loved Nepal. When I went back after few years, things had changed a lot and there were still many buildings which weren’t repaired and it shows how politicians  don’t usually do anything in some countries.

In the story, I believe Talib was conveying that even though tradition is an important, respected part of society, it will imminently be affected by modernity. In the story, Talib talks about all of the inconvenient ways of life in his village. He makes it clear that it is not easy to live there, and has many unpleasant aspects. But in this underdeveloped neighborhood, the Doum tree is the most respected and cherished part of their culture. This can especially be seen as people speak about having dreams of Wad Hamid and the Doum tree, and also the woman’s report of being healed because of the tree. But although the tree is very important to the village, which can be seen by the villagers relentlessly defending it against government officials who sought to cut it down, the Doum tree was eventually affected by modernity. This is seen when the government officials manage to block off the tree, in an attempt to memorialize it. The effect of modernity was also seen in how the narrator’s children ended up leaving the village to live in the city. This just goes to show that no matter to what extent a certain tradition is protected abd preserved, the effect of modernity will affect it one way or another.

What do you think Tayeb Salih’s story is ultimately saying about the relationship between tradition and modernity? 

In my opinion, ultimately Tayeb Salih’s is trying to say that the relationship between tradition and modernity is that modernity means letting go of the doum tree which has played a very significant role in their tradition. “The doum tree of Wad Hamid; and just as no one remembers how it originated and grew…” signifying that the tree has always been there in the village and represents their tradition. However, there also seems to be a a generational gap as youngsters are going to school, hospital, cinemas and the importance of tradition seems to be fading away.