Category: Prompts

Mention one new detail that you learned from the documentary segment that none of your classmates have commented on previously.

In Chinatown Family, Lin Yutang depicts the life of a family of Chinese immigrants living in New York City in the 1930s. Comment on the similarities and differences between Chinese and American culture, as they are portrayed in the book, with regard to a couple of the following: family, social hierarchy, wealth, religion, and confrontation. If you feel you have the perspective to do so, feel free to also comment on the extent to which Yutang’s portrayal remains true today, or even the degree to which it was ever completely true.

Also comment on what traits the book suggests, through its plot, are ultimately of the greatest value.

Mention one new detail that you learned from the documentary segment that none of your classmates have commented on in previous responses.

Mention one new detail that you learned from the documentary segment that none of your classmates have commented on in previous responses.

Many of the people and incidents that make up the the plot of Ragtime are real, even the sensational ones.  For instance, Harry K. Thaw really did shot and kill architect Stanford White, and he really was married to Evelyn Nesbit. Emma Goldman really did conspire with Alexander Berkman to assassinate Henry Clay Frick.

Check the historical validity of an incident in Ragtime and post your results.  Use an incident that neither I nor any of your classmates who have responded before you have mentioned.  In doing so quote the passage from Ragtime, mention what chapter it is from, and provide a confirming or dis-confirming link.

Stephen Crane’s Maggie: Girl of the Streets has been both praised and criticized for its unsentimental and nonjudgmental style.   As narrator, Crane describes events without commenting on the conduct of his character and without telling readers what they are expected to feel.  He wants to give readers “just the facts”  of the case and let readers form their own opinions.  But now, having read the book, comment on each of the following: 1) Where does responsibility for Maggie’s fate lie? With Maggie herself? With Pete? With Maggie’s mother, father, or brother?  Nellie? 2) What role do social and economic conditions play in Maggie’s tragic end?  3) Which of the characters to you feel the most sympathy for?  Why?

The commentators in “Sunlight and Shadow,” the speeches of mayors Low and Edson, and the poems of Crane and Mayakovsky all celebrate different sets of qualities and values embodied by the Brooklyn Bridge.  Compare and contrast the meaning of the Brooklyn Bridge for two or three of the above.

Using what you have learned about Frederick Law Olmsted from the readings and the videos, discuss the similarities and differences that the view of nature that underlies his design of the park has with that of the artists of the Hudson River School, or Washington Irving,  or transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson, or Walt Whitman.

Write a paragraph or two to introduce yourself.  You can talk about where you live; films, novels or music that you like; your family, friends, and pets; your dream job; or similar topics of your own choosing.

Write about a surprising or interesting thing that you learned from the segment of the New York documentary that you just watched that has not been mentioned in a previous response.  Why did you find it striking?