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

The relationship between tradition and modernity does not need to be either or. As the elder suggested “ what all these people have overlooked is that there’s plenty of room for all these things”(pg 824). There is room for both tradition and modernity, it’s just a matter of the needs of the people. I think that the elder is suggesting that it takes time when it comes to advancing towards a modern society and that it’s inevitable. The elder suggests that when tradition does not hold the same amount of values for the people, they will eventually leave the tradition behind. Tradition provided value for the people by giving people that needed them, such as old beliefs and faith. But perhaps for the generations to come such as the elder’s son, those beliefs and faith loses its value. It is then when modernity’s value increases, such as science. But ultimately we do not need to force people to convert necessarily, we just have to provide enough time for them to come around. Eventually with enough time what was once modern will become traditional and the cycle begins again.

1. Final Zoom Session: We will be holding our final Zoom session of the semester on Monday, May 17th.  We will be discussing Isabel Allende’s “And of Clay Are We Created” and wrapping up the semester!   This is a mandatory session.
2. Isabel Allende, “And of Clay are We Created” – Allende’s story, based on a real-life volcanic eruption that took place in Colombia in 1985, takes a clear-eyed look at how we process disaster and  its attendant human suffering.   In a brief (300-400 word) response, connect your reading of “And of Clay are We Created” to  your own life experience, perhaps focusing on the pandemic or thinking about other disasters that have occurred during your lifetime.   Some questions worth pursuing might be:  How do we connect or respond to suffering – whether nearby or far away?  What role do screens play in our experience of this pandemic or of other disasters?  What do they make possible, and what do they obstruct?  What role do politicians and government have in managing disasters?  What role do the media play in how we experience tragedies?     Please refer to specific elements of Allende’s story in formulating your response.   Please share your response on the blog by May 17th.
3. Final Essays: As you know, your essays are due on Wednesday, May 19th by midnight. Please submit your finished essay to me by sharing it as a google doc with [email protected].    If you are intending to share any materials with me while working on the essay, please be aware that Monday would be the last day to get any feedback from me!
4. Office Hours: Because of our final class, I will not be holding my regular office hour on Monday.  Please reach out to me via email or Slack if you would like to make an appointment to meet with me or if you have any questions as you complete these final weeks of the semester.
5. Final Exam: As I announced earlier, your final exam will be posted to the blog by 8 am on Monday, May 24th and will be due by the end of the day on Tuesday, May 25th.  Because of the tight turnaround to submit your final grades, I will not be accepting any late submissions of the final exam, so plan accordingly.
6. Course Evaluations:. If you haven’t already done so, please take a few minutes to complete your course evaluation for English 2850.  Student feedback is important to me!!!  (Rest assured that I will not see your evaluations until after I have submitted my final grades.)

“Are we good people?” asks our narrator. What is this exchange about? What do you think?
I think they want to say if we are good people, why should we treat like animals? We must do something to worry so we deserve that.

Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies, and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
It seems like the Gestapo says to the victims to go this way. But that is not the exit but the death. In the concentration camps, death means to release and freedom for the captures.

How does one organize an essay about two different texts?

To begin, let me state the obvious:  Before you begin to draft your essay, you MUST have a plan!  It doesn’t matter whether your plan is a traditional outline or just a list of body paragraph ideas, but you need to sketch out the structure of your essay before you begin to write.

When I write a paper, I start by collecting the “textual evidence” that I want to use (all the quotations and examples from the text that address my question).  Then I sort the evidence into different paragraphs, based on the idea that each piece of evidence illustrates or supports.  Then I decide what order of paragraphs would be most effective.  This means that before I begin writing my first draft I already know what idea each body paragraph will be exploring, what textual evidence I will be including in each body paragraph, and what order I will be presenting my ideas in.

For your final essays, you have two different possible paths for organizing your body paragraphs:  The Sequential Option and The Alternating Option.  I describe both below.  The alternating option is slightly more challenging to execute.  It works best when you discover that your texts are very closely aligned and that the ideas you have about one text hold true for the other text as well.  Do not “mix and match.”  Choose one of these structures, and stick with it!  These examples each have three ideas.  I just stopped at three because that was enough to make my point; I would imagine that you would have at least three ideas for each of the texts you’re writing about.  By “ideas,” I mean claims about the text that respond to your over-arching question.  Each of these ideas gets its own body paragraph.  You will notice that in both options, only the introduction and conclusion discuss the two texts together in a single paragraph.  Each body paragraph focuses on a single text.

The Sequential Option 

1.Introduction:  Lays out your question in relation to both Text A and Text B

2. Text A – Idea #1

3. Text A – Idea #2

4. Text A – Idea #3

5. Text B – Idea #1

6. Text B – Idea #2

7. Text B- Idea #3

8. Conclusion – Brings together Texts A and B, recaps the argument you have made in the body of your paper, and provides an answer to the “so what?” question.  What are the implications of what you have shown us in this essay? What do we learn from it?

The Alternating Option

1.Introduction – Lays out your question in relation to both Text A and Text B

2. Text A – Idea #1

3. Text B – Idea #1

4. Text A – Idea #2

5. Text B – Idea #2

6. Text A – Idea #3

7. Text B- Idea #3

8. Conclusion – Brings together Texts A and B, recaps the argument you have made in the body of your paper, and provides an answer to the “so what?” question.  What are the implications of what you have shown us in this essay? What do we learn from it?

What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?

I think the most surprising thing I’ve learned is that some camp prisoners are allowed to have different kinds of food, specifically kinds of food looted from new prisoners. On page 696, the prisoner is in the middle of “unwrap the bacon, the onion, we open a can of evaporated milk.” I had always thought that the prisoners were either fed with inhuman food or starved to death. Even though prisoners are allowed to eat looted food, somehow it makes the already egregious act of concentration camps more vile. I can’t imagine what the prisoners are feeling but it feels like they are being conditioned to be happy when new prisoners are arriving at these camps because it means they get to have decent meals. It is one thing to commit genocide by killing but it is another when they strip these prisoners of their humanity.

Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.”  What seems strange about it?

There seems to be some element of irony in the title. If we did not know any better, we would think that dying by suffocation in a gas chamber is the worst possible ending for a precious human life. But for these prisoners it’s actually eerily comforting, knowing that they will not have to suffer any more in the concentration camp. The last thing the prisoners will know is that they think that they are taking a shower. All the people who are sent directly to the gas chambers will know no more evil. They all have suffered immensely by being dragged from their houses, crammed into a train like they are livestock going to the slaughter house. The gas chambers will free them, they will not have to be slaves, they will not have to starve, they will not have to walk around naked, and most importantly they will not have to be stripped of their humanity anymore. 

1. What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?

It made me gain more insights on everyday life of prisoners and the horrors they faced. It was interesting and horrifying to read about the events that occurred within the concentration camps.

1. Describe an example of dehumanization in the text.  What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?

An example of dehumanization was “Several others men are carrying a small girl with only one leg. They hold her by the arms and the one leg. Tears are running down her face and she whispers faintly: “Sir, it hurts, it hurts..,” They throw her on the truck on top of corpses. She will burn alive along with them.” It shows the violence and how badly people were treated in the camp. It’s extremely sad to see how badly innocent people were treated and this text shows how these S.S guards didn’t even perceive them as humans by the way they are treating them.

Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?

The title is significance is because this shows the life of people in the campus, the relationship between the people’s life and the death that people in the campus, and the relationship between the prisoner and the poisonous.

What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?

“We lie against the rails in the narrow streaks of shade, breathe unevenly, occasionally
exchange a few words in our various tongues, and gaze listlessly at the majestic men in
green uniforms, at the green trees, and at the church steeple of a distant village.” I learn that the people that in the campus have a terrible life, and how the prisoner scare about them, can not eat enough and can not rest really good. I have more clear about the life in the campus during that period.

Poland and the Holocaust

How is Gregor’s family transformed in the wake of his metamorphosis?

I think Gregor’s family becomes cold towards Gregor after his transformation. His parents seemed bothered for the fact that Gregor couldn’t provide for them anymore and now they had to provide for Gregor. Before the transformation it seemed as the family were happy as when he first didn’t get up to leave for work, they seemed like they wanted to help Gregor. By the end, Gregor’s mother and sister both didn’t care about him anymore since she didn’t believe that the he wasn’t actually her son.

Explain your understanding of Gregor’s death.  How/why does he ultimately die?

Gregor dies through his family no longer caring for him and he dies by starvation. His family doesn’t truly believe that it’s actually him and they stop taking care of him and they started to despise him. Because, they didn’t really care for him anymore he decided to starve himself to stop the abuse he felt from his father, mother and sister.

How is Gregor’s family transformed in the wake of his metamorphosis?

Gregor’s family didn’t start out with disdain but rather with detachment. However I do think that the three different chapters shows that the detachment feeling slowly starts to change into disdain for each individual family member. It starts out with an outright rejection by Gregor’s father when Gregor first shows himself in chapter one. On page 219, we can see that the father grabs a cane and newspaper to drive Gregor back into his room and even hisses at him. This obviously shows how much a disgust his father had for him. On the contrary, even though his mother and sister, still in shock, don’t actually find Gregor repulsive but continue to care for him throughout the rest of the story. However towards the end of chapter 2, his sister also starts to show hatred towards Gregor. In the moment when Gregor startles his mother, we can see his sister’s patience grow thin. “Ooh Gregor! Cried his sister, brandishing her fist and glowering at him”(pg, 229). His sister starts out with detachment and passivity in the beginning of the story but is now filled with hatred and disgust for Gregor. By the end of chapter three, we can still see Gregor’s mother’s hope for his son to return and even tries to clean Gregor’s room. Then when Gregor ruins the dinner, she gives up on him too. She finally breaks and says “ I can’t do it any more either” (pg 238). 

Ultimately, what do you think Gregor’s metamorphosis means?  What does it mean to be transformed into a giant bug?

I don’t think it really mattered if it was he was a giant bug at all, it could’ve been any sort of permanent damage to the ability to provide for a family. The story could well portray the same effect if Gregor wasn’t transformed into a giant bug but instead got sick and was bedridden. His family’s hatred for Gregor is partially because he turned into a disgusting bug but it isn’t the main reason. It was because who was once the breadwinner of the family is now useless and needs to be taken care of. The question of whether someone’s worth should be determined by their ability to work and make money came up in class and it connects to this question. When all there is for a person is work all the time, what happens when they can’t? Well in Gregor’s family, they start to disdain him for the extra work even as far as trying to replace him by talking about a marriage for Grete at the end of chapter three. But what the family isn’t trying to do is move forward from the grief of losing Gregor but the loss of the income he provided.