Reaction Paper # 3—Analyzing Themes in “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan.
A theme is a concept or idea that an author explores in a literary work (See Reading Fiction I in ‘Course Readings”) for more detail.
Directions: Read “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan. Choose two themes listed in the charts on the following pages. Collect 3-4 details from “Girl” and/or “Two Kinds” (such as specific plot points, symbols, or quotes) that the author/s use to explore each theme and enter them in the Evidence section of the table below. When you have completed your work, remember to save it as a new file, otherwise you will just re-send this file without saving your work.
Next, use the evidence you’ve collected to write an analysis that describes and explains the role of the theme in “Girl” and/or “Two Kinds.” Your analysis should be at least 1-2 paragraphs. Here are some questions to consider as you write:
How do the ideas or actions of the main characters reflect different aspects of the theme?
Does the theme develop or change over the course of the story? If so, how?
If your evidence includes symbols, explain how the author/s use those symbols to explore the theme.
Include specific quotes from the text and explain how those quotes provide examples of how the theme applies to the story you are discussing.
The four themes I have asked you to explore include the following:
· Mother/daughter relationship
Authenticity and Identity
Generational Differences
Culture and Tradition
These four suggested themes to explore do not necessarily capture all possibilities. If you find a theme you would like to explore, you can enter it into one of the charts on the following pages.
Theme # 1
Theme
Mother/Daughter Relationship
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Analysis: Write your 1-2 paragraph analysis that describes and explains the role of mother/daughter relationship in the readings.
Theme # 2
Theme
Authenticity and Identity
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Analysis: Write your 1-2 paragraph analysis that describes and explains the role of the authenticity and identity in the readings.
Theme # 3
Theme
Generational Differences and Conflicts
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Analysis: Write your 1-2 paragraph analysis that describes and explains the role of the generational differences and conflicts in the readings.
Theme # 4
Theme
Culture and Tradition
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that ...
2English 2 Literary Analysis Essay on Two Kinds” by Amy Tan.docxtamicawaysmith
2
English 2: Literary Analysis Essay on “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan
Background: Amy Tan’s story, “Two Kinds,” demonstrates the importance of the past on shaping characters’ present identity, thus reinforcing the notion that personal history shapes an individual’s cultural identity and attitudes about the world in the present. For some, the past is a stumbling block, but for others it is something to embrace and hold onto. This common theme plays out in many different works of literature. The past turns out to be an ironic force that moves forward in the present. One author explains, “Moreover, for most Asian American writers, the Old country and its culture are neither ancient nor buried history but very much alive and integral to the present, either in their own lives or in those of their parents and grandparents” (Huntley, Amy Tan a Critical Companion, 20). Keep in mind that the past is a timeless lesson taught in the present and this is something that is woven into the fabric of Tan’s story.
Purpose of a Literary Analysis: The purpose of your literary analysis paper is to analyze the story by showing and explaining your own conclusions (interpretations) about how the different literary elements (tools) work together to present Tan’s major theme in the short story. A Literary analysis is not summarizing the story—or plot summary. Your paper should explain— that is, show your own thinking on how different literary devices that you believe are relevant for proving your thesis statement, supports your thesis statement, which is the answer to the one central question your essay will answer. Your paper should be focused on supporting and proving your thesis statement with a clear method of organization: chronologically or order of importance. The point being is that this paper must have a clear purpose (thesis statement) and a method of organization that frames your analysis.
Assignment: Write a two-to-three page paper that addresses one central question about the work. The question will be the same for all papers; however, the thesis statement will be your answer to the question, which is basically your own conclusion or interpretation about how the story comes to express the central theme. Body paragraphs will prove the truth of your thesis statement with evidence and your interpretation—not plot summary. The quotes must be relevant to proving the topic sentence and your thesis statement. Limit the number of quotes to two per paragraph—avoid one word quotes. Always use a signal phrase with the name of the speaker, cite it, explain and interpret, and end the paragraph with a linking sentence. Do not simply dump a bunch of short quotations in a paragraph.
Question: In Amy Tan’s story, “Two Kinds,” how and why does Tan reinforce that personal history—heritage, is important for shaping individual identity in the present?
Thesis Statement: In answering this question, you are drafting a thesis statement that includes your concl ...
Research Paper Choose two short stories you have studied.docxeleanorg1
Research Paper
Choose two short stories you have studied from the syllabus
Write a thesis/take a stance that establishes a comparison between both
items chosen
Complete a Formal Outline of your paper.
Write your research paper and prove your thesis in a minimum of six pages
Complete a Cover Page and a Works Cited page
Ensure your paper follows an essay format by having a thesis, topic
sentences, paragraphs, sufficient supporting ideas, an Introduction, and a
Conclusion
Throughout your paper (and not just in the Introduction and Conclusion),
include in your analysis both evidence from the stories chosen, as well as
from academically credible research sources
Complete your research using at least one library book and at least four
library database sources (only one Internet source will be accepted)
Your research must consist of material that enables you to prove a point
raised about a story and/or or an author being analyzed
o (You cannot research and cite random topics such as “the effects of
divorce” because your protagonist is suffering the effects of a
divorce. However, if you are writing about a historical topic such as a
war, you must cite research to prove that the story or poem
accurately depicts this war.)
Format your Formal Outline, Cover Page, and Research Paper using the
MLA format
Format the in-text citations used and the Works Cited page using the MLA
format
Complete and submit with your paper the following:
o Research Paper Cover Page
o Research Paper Formal Outline
o Research Paper (with the Works Cited page at the end)
Note: Your page count (of six pages) does not include the
Cover Page, Formal Outline, or the Works Cited page
Research Paper Strategies
As you complete your research paper, please note the strategies below that are useful in
helping you create a thorough and well-organized paper.
1.
After rereading the two stories chosen, decide on what they have in common and on what literary
techniques and/or literary criticism studied in class applies to both stories.
2.
For example, if you were completing an analysis of O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story”
and Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home,” you can have a thesis such as this:
The plots and characters of O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story and Hemingway’s
“Soldier’s Home” tell the truth about the realities of war and its consequences making these
works open to Biographical, Historical, and Psychological Criticisms.
In this thesis, you have accomplished the following:
You have identified the stories and the authors
You have established the literary techniques and criticisms you will be using in your
analysis
You have indicated what you plan to prove—the authors’ use of these techniques to make
a point/send a message/give their stories purpose
3.
Next, you need to decide how to organize your paper.
Because you have ide.
A compilation run through of basic literary analysis techniques intended for use with freshman composition students. Sources include the Bedford Guide for College Writers (Lottery examples).
The Five Moves of Analysis(aka The Most Important Thing You Will.docxoreo10
The Five Moves of Analysis
(aka The Most Important Thing You Will Ever Learn)
1. Suspend Judgment: Set aside your likes and dislikes, your agreeing or disagreeing. Say to yourself, “What I find most interesting here is...”.
2. Notice and Focus: Simply put, pay close attention to details. “What do you notice?” What is significant/interesting/revealing/ strange. Slow down and take your time here. Don’t jump to interpretations before you’ve exhausted the details. Uncertainty is good.
3. Look for Patterns: Start sifting through the text looking for Repetitions, Strands, Binaries, and Anomalies.
Repetitions: sheep dog in "How to Talk to a Hunter"
Strands: Animals in "How to Talk to a Hunter," alcohol in "Sonny's Blues"
Binaries: Light/Dark in "Sonny's Blues," young/old in "One of Star Wars, One of Doom"
Anomalies: Mysterious notebook in "One of Star Wars, One of Doom," tin of chocolates with Santa Claus "fondling" children painted on it in "How to Talk to a Hunter"
4. Make the Implicit Explicit: Explain to the reader what the details or the patterns imply. Explain your thought process. Pull out the implications and show them why you think they are “folded in” to the meaning of the text or image. What does this mean and So What? Why is it important?
5. Keep Reformulating Questions and Explanations: What else might this detail or pattern mean? How else could it be explained? What details don’t fit my theory? Can I adjust my theory to better fit with this?
Prepping the Final Paper
Take a minute to re-read the assignment sheet for Paper 3. Then choose which prompt you would like to focus on for your paper. Once you have chosen your prompt, I would like you to go through the book and identify the scenes that you think link to your topic in an interesting way. Now…
1. List the scenes you have chosen, e.g. “Scene #1: The scene in which Oscar is taken into the cane and beaten.”
2. Carefully gather details from your chosen scenes. These should include both individual details you find interesting or bizarre, AND binaries, strands, repetitions, and anomalies. Use the skills we’ve practiced all quarter long to gather these. Write them down. For example, “Oscar’s hands are ‘seamless’ in the dream.’
3. Now spend some time pulling multiple implications out of as many details as you can. For instance, “Seamless hands = brand new, no history, no fingerprints so no traces, like a blank page.”
4. Choose your six juiciest, most interesting and analytically rich details and type them up in a list that includes implications.
5. Use your detail-analysis to develop a working thesis. This is your own analytical theory about what is going on in the scenes you’ve chosen. What have you uncovered and why is it significant? Write that thesis down.
My answer
1. Scene
#1: The scene in which Oscar’s dead at the beginning.
#2: The scene in which the narrator is not Yunior in chapter 2.
#3: Narrating the identity of Yunior.
#4: Using footn ...
2English 2 Literary Analysis Essay on Two Kinds” by Amy Tan.docxtamicawaysmith
2
English 2: Literary Analysis Essay on “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan
Background: Amy Tan’s story, “Two Kinds,” demonstrates the importance of the past on shaping characters’ present identity, thus reinforcing the notion that personal history shapes an individual’s cultural identity and attitudes about the world in the present. For some, the past is a stumbling block, but for others it is something to embrace and hold onto. This common theme plays out in many different works of literature. The past turns out to be an ironic force that moves forward in the present. One author explains, “Moreover, for most Asian American writers, the Old country and its culture are neither ancient nor buried history but very much alive and integral to the present, either in their own lives or in those of their parents and grandparents” (Huntley, Amy Tan a Critical Companion, 20). Keep in mind that the past is a timeless lesson taught in the present and this is something that is woven into the fabric of Tan’s story.
Purpose of a Literary Analysis: The purpose of your literary analysis paper is to analyze the story by showing and explaining your own conclusions (interpretations) about how the different literary elements (tools) work together to present Tan’s major theme in the short story. A Literary analysis is not summarizing the story—or plot summary. Your paper should explain— that is, show your own thinking on how different literary devices that you believe are relevant for proving your thesis statement, supports your thesis statement, which is the answer to the one central question your essay will answer. Your paper should be focused on supporting and proving your thesis statement with a clear method of organization: chronologically or order of importance. The point being is that this paper must have a clear purpose (thesis statement) and a method of organization that frames your analysis.
Assignment: Write a two-to-three page paper that addresses one central question about the work. The question will be the same for all papers; however, the thesis statement will be your answer to the question, which is basically your own conclusion or interpretation about how the story comes to express the central theme. Body paragraphs will prove the truth of your thesis statement with evidence and your interpretation—not plot summary. The quotes must be relevant to proving the topic sentence and your thesis statement. Limit the number of quotes to two per paragraph—avoid one word quotes. Always use a signal phrase with the name of the speaker, cite it, explain and interpret, and end the paragraph with a linking sentence. Do not simply dump a bunch of short quotations in a paragraph.
Question: In Amy Tan’s story, “Two Kinds,” how and why does Tan reinforce that personal history—heritage, is important for shaping individual identity in the present?
Thesis Statement: In answering this question, you are drafting a thesis statement that includes your concl ...
Research Paper Choose two short stories you have studied.docxeleanorg1
Research Paper
Choose two short stories you have studied from the syllabus
Write a thesis/take a stance that establishes a comparison between both
items chosen
Complete a Formal Outline of your paper.
Write your research paper and prove your thesis in a minimum of six pages
Complete a Cover Page and a Works Cited page
Ensure your paper follows an essay format by having a thesis, topic
sentences, paragraphs, sufficient supporting ideas, an Introduction, and a
Conclusion
Throughout your paper (and not just in the Introduction and Conclusion),
include in your analysis both evidence from the stories chosen, as well as
from academically credible research sources
Complete your research using at least one library book and at least four
library database sources (only one Internet source will be accepted)
Your research must consist of material that enables you to prove a point
raised about a story and/or or an author being analyzed
o (You cannot research and cite random topics such as “the effects of
divorce” because your protagonist is suffering the effects of a
divorce. However, if you are writing about a historical topic such as a
war, you must cite research to prove that the story or poem
accurately depicts this war.)
Format your Formal Outline, Cover Page, and Research Paper using the
MLA format
Format the in-text citations used and the Works Cited page using the MLA
format
Complete and submit with your paper the following:
o Research Paper Cover Page
o Research Paper Formal Outline
o Research Paper (with the Works Cited page at the end)
Note: Your page count (of six pages) does not include the
Cover Page, Formal Outline, or the Works Cited page
Research Paper Strategies
As you complete your research paper, please note the strategies below that are useful in
helping you create a thorough and well-organized paper.
1.
After rereading the two stories chosen, decide on what they have in common and on what literary
techniques and/or literary criticism studied in class applies to both stories.
2.
For example, if you were completing an analysis of O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story”
and Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home,” you can have a thesis such as this:
The plots and characters of O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story and Hemingway’s
“Soldier’s Home” tell the truth about the realities of war and its consequences making these
works open to Biographical, Historical, and Psychological Criticisms.
In this thesis, you have accomplished the following:
You have identified the stories and the authors
You have established the literary techniques and criticisms you will be using in your
analysis
You have indicated what you plan to prove—the authors’ use of these techniques to make
a point/send a message/give their stories purpose
3.
Next, you need to decide how to organize your paper.
Because you have ide.
A compilation run through of basic literary analysis techniques intended for use with freshman composition students. Sources include the Bedford Guide for College Writers (Lottery examples).
The Five Moves of Analysis(aka The Most Important Thing You Will.docxoreo10
The Five Moves of Analysis
(aka The Most Important Thing You Will Ever Learn)
1. Suspend Judgment: Set aside your likes and dislikes, your agreeing or disagreeing. Say to yourself, “What I find most interesting here is...”.
2. Notice and Focus: Simply put, pay close attention to details. “What do you notice?” What is significant/interesting/revealing/ strange. Slow down and take your time here. Don’t jump to interpretations before you’ve exhausted the details. Uncertainty is good.
3. Look for Patterns: Start sifting through the text looking for Repetitions, Strands, Binaries, and Anomalies.
Repetitions: sheep dog in "How to Talk to a Hunter"
Strands: Animals in "How to Talk to a Hunter," alcohol in "Sonny's Blues"
Binaries: Light/Dark in "Sonny's Blues," young/old in "One of Star Wars, One of Doom"
Anomalies: Mysterious notebook in "One of Star Wars, One of Doom," tin of chocolates with Santa Claus "fondling" children painted on it in "How to Talk to a Hunter"
4. Make the Implicit Explicit: Explain to the reader what the details or the patterns imply. Explain your thought process. Pull out the implications and show them why you think they are “folded in” to the meaning of the text or image. What does this mean and So What? Why is it important?
5. Keep Reformulating Questions and Explanations: What else might this detail or pattern mean? How else could it be explained? What details don’t fit my theory? Can I adjust my theory to better fit with this?
Prepping the Final Paper
Take a minute to re-read the assignment sheet for Paper 3. Then choose which prompt you would like to focus on for your paper. Once you have chosen your prompt, I would like you to go through the book and identify the scenes that you think link to your topic in an interesting way. Now…
1. List the scenes you have chosen, e.g. “Scene #1: The scene in which Oscar is taken into the cane and beaten.”
2. Carefully gather details from your chosen scenes. These should include both individual details you find interesting or bizarre, AND binaries, strands, repetitions, and anomalies. Use the skills we’ve practiced all quarter long to gather these. Write them down. For example, “Oscar’s hands are ‘seamless’ in the dream.’
3. Now spend some time pulling multiple implications out of as many details as you can. For instance, “Seamless hands = brand new, no history, no fingerprints so no traces, like a blank page.”
4. Choose your six juiciest, most interesting and analytically rich details and type them up in a list that includes implications.
5. Use your detail-analysis to develop a working thesis. This is your own analytical theory about what is going on in the scenes you’ve chosen. What have you uncovered and why is it significant? Write that thesis down.
My answer
1. Scene
#1: The scene in which Oscar’s dead at the beginning.
#2: The scene in which the narrator is not Yunior in chapter 2.
#3: Narrating the identity of Yunior.
#4: Using footn ...
riting About LiteratureGenerally, the essays you write in lite.docxjoellemurphey
riting About Literature
Generally, the essays you write in literature courses attempt to answer interesting questions about works of literature. These questions are interesting for at least two reasons: a) their answers are not obvious, and b) their answers (or at least the attempt to answer them) can enrich other readers’ understanding and experience of those works of literature. Often works of literature seem to be intentionally posing these questions to us; they require us to do some work to get them to work.
Readers have asked many different types of questions of works of literature, for example:
· What did the author want to communicate in this work?
· What does the work reveal about the author’s feelings, opinions, or psychology?
· What does the work reveal about the society in which it was written?
· What can we learn from this work about the issues or topics it deals with?
· What motivates the characters in the work to behave as they do?
· How are literary devices used in the work?
· How does the work create emotional or intellectual experiences for its readers?
· Is this work good or bad?
· Is this work good or bad for its readers?
Some of these questions require information from outside the text itself; for example, to argue that a work reveals a writer’s psychological condition, it would be helpful to have some other evidence of that condition to corroborate your interpretation of the work of literature. Some of these questions ask about the world outside the work—about the author, his/her society, or our own society, for example—while others try to focus more on the features of the work itself. Analyses which try to make statements about the work itself is often calledformalist criticism: it attends more to the structures and strategies employed in the work. Ultimately, such arguments generally do try to move beyond the work, to claim, for instance, that it is likely to create certain effects in its readers, or that readers will understand the writer’s intent more clearly if they pay attention to its formal characteristic.
In LIT 100, we are going to be paying attention primarily to these formal features of literary works. In fiction, some of these features include tone, point of view, setting, character, etc. We will be paying less attention to extra-textual features, such as the author’s biography or the historical contexts in which the literature was produced and/or read; these elements are not less important than formal features, but they naturally vary greatly from one work to another and often require in-depth study to truly appreciate. To understand how Shakespeare’s social situation in London in the 1590s might have been reflected in his plays would require a whole course in Elizabethan history. On the other hand, the formal features we will be studying in this course can be found in literature of all eras and genres, though they may often be used to different effect by different writers at different times. A ...
riting About LiteratureGenerally, the essays you write in litera.docxdaniely50
riting About Literature
Generally, the essays you write in literature courses attempt to answer interesting questions about works of literature. These questions are interesting for at least two reasons: a) their answers are not obvious, and b) their answers (or at least the attempt to answer them) can enrich other readers’ understanding and experience of those works of literature. Often works of literature seem to be intentionally posing these questions to us; they require us to do some work to get them to work.
Readers have asked many different types of questions of works of literature, for example:
What did the author want to communicate in this work?
What does the work reveal about the author’s feelings, opinions, or psychology?
What does the work reveal about the society in which it was written?
What can we learn from this work about the issues or topics it deals with?
What motivates the characters in the work to behave as they do?
How are literary devices used in the work?
How does the work create emotional or intellectual experiences for its readers?
Is this work good or bad?
Is this work good or bad for its readers?
Some of these questions require information from outside the text itself; for example, to argue that a work reveals a writer’s psychological condition, it would be helpful to have some other evidence of that condition to corroborate your interpretation of the work of literature. Some of these questions ask about the world outside the work—about the author, his/her society, or our own society, for example—while others try to focus more on the features of the work itself.
Analyses which try to make statements about the work itself
is often called
formalist
criticism: it attends more to the structures and strategies employed in the work. Ultimately, such arguments generally do try to move beyond the work, to claim, for instance, that it is likely to create certain effects in its readers, or that readers will understand the writer’s intent more clearly if they pay attention to its formal characteristic.
In LIT 100, we are going to be paying attention primarily to these formal features of literary works. In fiction, some of these features include tone, point of view, setting, character, etc. We will be paying less attention to extra-textual features, such as the author’s biography or the historical contexts in which the literature was produced and/or read; these elements are not less important than formal features, but they naturally vary greatly from one work to another and often require in-depth study to truly appreciate. To understand how Shakespeare’s social situation in London in the 1590s might have been reflected in his plays would require a whole course in Elizabethan history. On the other hand, the formal features we will be studying in this course can be found in literature of all eras and genres, though they may often be used to different effect by different writers at different times. Almost all fict.
ENG 30 INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE PROF. GENE MCQUILLANSPRTanaMaeskm
ENG 30: INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE
PROF. GENE MCQUILLAN
SPRING 2021 FINAL EXAM
ALL OF THE QUESTIONS REQUIRE THAT YOU REFER TO
THESE FOUR TEXTS:
=Sherman Alexie, “Superman and Me”
=Isabel Allende, “Reading the History of the World”
=the “Transcript” of the interview between Michiko Kakutani and President Barack Obama
=Alison Bechdel, Fun Home
I expect a QUOTE from each text. Make sure to use the formats we have reviewed! Please write an essay—not a list. As always, please do more than just list examples and then stop—I expect a patient and challenging conclusion to the essay.
Please do NOT refer to any outside sources or to our other readings, such as The Great Gatsby.
There are THREE questions. Choose ONE. Please do not copy the question—just indicate the letter of your choice.
QUESTIONS:
A) In all of these texts, these writers speak of how reading allowed them to claim their identity, to raise their voice, to see their world more clearly, to find the words they had been unable to say. Refer to a specific example of this process from each of the texts. Which readings (or types of readings) are mentioned? What sort of effects did these readings have on the people reading them? What might be significant about the choices they made or the reactions they had?
B) In all of these texts, these writers speak of reading and writing as a social process, one that deeply involves their families. Refer to a specific example of this process from each of the texts. Which readings are chosen and shared? Who shares them with whom? Why and how might these exchanges of texts and ideas matter?
C) In all of these readings, the writers recall that they were very curious about a range of different texts. In what ways were they influenced by “classic literature” and in what ways did they also search for inspiration in texts that might not be considered “literature?” Refer to a specific example of this process from each of the texts. Which readings (or types of readings) are mentioned? What sort of readings seem to have the most profound effects on each author? What might be significant about the types of readings that they chose and considered most influential?
It is worth 8 points (all-or-nothing). It needs to be emailed in a Word file (or just “pasted” into an email), by NOON on Thursday, June 10th.
To get 8 points, you need to:
—Write at least 600 words.
—Refer to ALL four texts.
—Refer to specific and relevant statements. Please include a quote from EACH of the texts, and when you “quote,” follow the formats we’ve reviewed.
—Do more than write a “list” of references. What MATTERS about the statements and texts you chose?
One more key thing>>
Unlike all of our previous assignments, this one will NOT feature the option of sending me a “draft”—you have two weeks to do this, SO GET IT RIGHT!
Reflecting on the fire investigation process in your community, do you believe that it is thorough enough when it comes to determining the causes and ...
209.20191.ENG11238A Assignments * Essay 1 Final!
* Essay 1 Final
* Essay 1 Final !
Upload Submission
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This assignment will also be used for a!endance.
This assignment will also be used for a!endance.
ENG 1123 Online Summer Thompson
Essay #1: UNIT 1 –
Stories:The Disappearance, The Story of an Hour, The Yellow
Wallpaper, and Suicide Note
Instruc!onsInstruc!ons:
Compose a cri!cal analysis essay on one of the topics below.
Your essay should be well developed, unified, coherent, and
gramma"cally correct. Refer to the Grading Criteria for MCC
English Classes in the First Day Handout for this course.
Required length: 1 ½ -2 typed pages
You will have a chance to earn 5 bonus points on this essay
by following the direc"ons for checking your graded essay
in Turn It In and looking over the correc"ons and comments
(a#er I have graded it). Turn It In will show me if you viewed
your document or not. The direc"ons (with pictures) are in
this week's module "tled "Instruc"ons for Seeing
Correc"ons in Turn It In."
Create a thesis statement, and back up your claim with
support/evidence from the text. Support should contain clear,
specific examples from the story or stories you are analyzing, as
well as documenta"on for all text references. Include at least
one quota!on from the story in each body paragraph of your
essay, for a total of 4 quota"ons from the story/poem. *See
handouts about how ci"ng poetry is different than stories. It
would be a good idea to do an outline before wri"ng the essay.
Follow MLA format: Use size 12, Times New Roman font and 1-
inch margins; double space.
Include a Work Cited page. It is not included in the two-page
length requirement; it should appear on a separate page at the
end of your paper. You will automa"cally lose 20 points for not
including a Works Cited page.
Topics:
1. Analyze a character in one of the short stoires and show
how he or she is a dynamic, round, flat, or sta!c character
by examining his or her development over the course of the
story.
2. Choose one work from Units 1 and discuss how in
the story/poem society plays a part in imprisoning/s"fling
the main character.
3. Discuss the importance of se%ng in 1 work from Units 1.
Analyze how the se%ng ("me and place) adds meaning,
conflict, and/or relevance to the characters. Do NOT just
describe the se%ng and tell me “in this story the se%ng is
this. In that story the se%ng is that.” That is not analysis,
nor is it interes"ng. I want to know how and why the
se%ng is significant, what thisreveals about the characters,
the "me period, and the conflict within the story
StepsSteps:
Before beginning your paper, read the wri"ng handouts; use
them as a guide while working on your essay as well.
Use the outline form on the next page to plan your paper.
You may write/type directly o.
Core 168 LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAYYour first essay for the c.docxvoversbyobersby
Core 168: LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY
Your first essay for the course will be a literary analysis essay. You will choose one primary text (one of the poems, stories, speeches, or memoirs) from our class reading so far and then focus your essay analyzing the text.
Your analysis must have:
· a worthwhile, interesting introduction leading to your thesis sentence (stating the focus/main point of the essay);
· a substantial body of paragraphs to support your analysis (at least 2-3 paragraphs);
· an interesting, relevant conclusion.
You will follow these steps of the writing process to write your essay. Each step will also earn you assignment credit. Your assignments will provide guidance for how to approach and perform a literary analysis. Also, included below are specific directions for HOW TO WRITE A LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY:
1. Read “How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay” (below in this document);
2. Choose a primary text of literature as your focus for the essay; (9/25/18)
3. Brainstorm regarding two different aspect of the text—the content (WHAT THE TEXT SAYS) and the literary devices (HOW THE TEXT SAYS WHAT IT SAYS). If you would like to use a recommended topic, you may do so, but you are also free to explore your own topic (9/27/18)
4. Determine WHAT is interesting and important about what happens in the text and make a statement about it. That statement is your thesis statement. (9/27/18)
5. Write an essay to support your thesis statement, using textual evidence (quotes from the primary text) to illustrate and provide examples of your thesis. (10/2/18)
6. Revise your essay for content and organization. (10/4/18)
7. Edit your essay for clarity and correctness.
8. Visit the Writing Center and do a peer review of your essay.
9. Proofread your essay before submitting it.
10. Submit your essay by the deadline of 10/10/18.
SUGGESTED/EXAMPLE TOPICS
· Examine Sherman Alexie’s poem “Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World”
· Examine how Nora Naranjo-Morse uses the legend/tradition of the coyote trickster in her poem “A Well Traveled Coyote”
· Analyze the coyote figure in any of the coyote texts from Native American Coyote Mythology
· Analyze Red Jacket’s rhetorical strategies he used in his speeches
· Examine how Black Elk uses descriptive details to evoke empathy for his people in Black Elk Speaks
· Analyze Lame Deers use of one or more of the following literary devices: simile/metaphor; circular storytelling; humor
· Analyze E. Pauline Johnson’s short story (fiction) “As It Was in the Beginning,” focusing on one or more of the following:
· 1st person point of view;
· the focus on skin color and how race is characterized in the text;
· the focus on womanhood, particularly Ester’s connection with her mother and how Ester uses the wisdom passed from her mother;
· the circularity of the story in terms of the beginning and end of the text and Ester’s return home;
· the significance of the snake;
· how Christian ideas of heaven and hell a.
Mr. Bush, a 45-year-old middle school teacher arrives at the emergen.docxaudeleypearl
Mr. Bush, a 45-year-old middle school teacher arrives at the emergency department by EMS ground transport after he experienced severe mid-sternal chest pain at work. On arrival to the ED:
a. What priority interventions would you initiate?
b. What information would you require to definitively determine what was causing Mr. Bush’s chest pain?
.
Movie Project Presentation Movie TroyInclude Architecture i.docxaudeleypearl
Movie Project Presentation: Movie: Troy
Include: Architecture in the movie. Historical research to figure out if the movie did a good job of representing the art historical past of not. Anything in the movie that are related to art or art history. And provide its outline and bibliography (any website source is acceptable as well)
.
More Related Content
Similar to Reaction Paper # 3—Analyzing Themes in Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid.docx
riting About LiteratureGenerally, the essays you write in lite.docxjoellemurphey
riting About Literature
Generally, the essays you write in literature courses attempt to answer interesting questions about works of literature. These questions are interesting for at least two reasons: a) their answers are not obvious, and b) their answers (or at least the attempt to answer them) can enrich other readers’ understanding and experience of those works of literature. Often works of literature seem to be intentionally posing these questions to us; they require us to do some work to get them to work.
Readers have asked many different types of questions of works of literature, for example:
· What did the author want to communicate in this work?
· What does the work reveal about the author’s feelings, opinions, or psychology?
· What does the work reveal about the society in which it was written?
· What can we learn from this work about the issues or topics it deals with?
· What motivates the characters in the work to behave as they do?
· How are literary devices used in the work?
· How does the work create emotional or intellectual experiences for its readers?
· Is this work good or bad?
· Is this work good or bad for its readers?
Some of these questions require information from outside the text itself; for example, to argue that a work reveals a writer’s psychological condition, it would be helpful to have some other evidence of that condition to corroborate your interpretation of the work of literature. Some of these questions ask about the world outside the work—about the author, his/her society, or our own society, for example—while others try to focus more on the features of the work itself. Analyses which try to make statements about the work itself is often calledformalist criticism: it attends more to the structures and strategies employed in the work. Ultimately, such arguments generally do try to move beyond the work, to claim, for instance, that it is likely to create certain effects in its readers, or that readers will understand the writer’s intent more clearly if they pay attention to its formal characteristic.
In LIT 100, we are going to be paying attention primarily to these formal features of literary works. In fiction, some of these features include tone, point of view, setting, character, etc. We will be paying less attention to extra-textual features, such as the author’s biography or the historical contexts in which the literature was produced and/or read; these elements are not less important than formal features, but they naturally vary greatly from one work to another and often require in-depth study to truly appreciate. To understand how Shakespeare’s social situation in London in the 1590s might have been reflected in his plays would require a whole course in Elizabethan history. On the other hand, the formal features we will be studying in this course can be found in literature of all eras and genres, though they may often be used to different effect by different writers at different times. A ...
riting About LiteratureGenerally, the essays you write in litera.docxdaniely50
riting About Literature
Generally, the essays you write in literature courses attempt to answer interesting questions about works of literature. These questions are interesting for at least two reasons: a) their answers are not obvious, and b) their answers (or at least the attempt to answer them) can enrich other readers’ understanding and experience of those works of literature. Often works of literature seem to be intentionally posing these questions to us; they require us to do some work to get them to work.
Readers have asked many different types of questions of works of literature, for example:
What did the author want to communicate in this work?
What does the work reveal about the author’s feelings, opinions, or psychology?
What does the work reveal about the society in which it was written?
What can we learn from this work about the issues or topics it deals with?
What motivates the characters in the work to behave as they do?
How are literary devices used in the work?
How does the work create emotional or intellectual experiences for its readers?
Is this work good or bad?
Is this work good or bad for its readers?
Some of these questions require information from outside the text itself; for example, to argue that a work reveals a writer’s psychological condition, it would be helpful to have some other evidence of that condition to corroborate your interpretation of the work of literature. Some of these questions ask about the world outside the work—about the author, his/her society, or our own society, for example—while others try to focus more on the features of the work itself.
Analyses which try to make statements about the work itself
is often called
formalist
criticism: it attends more to the structures and strategies employed in the work. Ultimately, such arguments generally do try to move beyond the work, to claim, for instance, that it is likely to create certain effects in its readers, or that readers will understand the writer’s intent more clearly if they pay attention to its formal characteristic.
In LIT 100, we are going to be paying attention primarily to these formal features of literary works. In fiction, some of these features include tone, point of view, setting, character, etc. We will be paying less attention to extra-textual features, such as the author’s biography or the historical contexts in which the literature was produced and/or read; these elements are not less important than formal features, but they naturally vary greatly from one work to another and often require in-depth study to truly appreciate. To understand how Shakespeare’s social situation in London in the 1590s might have been reflected in his plays would require a whole course in Elizabethan history. On the other hand, the formal features we will be studying in this course can be found in literature of all eras and genres, though they may often be used to different effect by different writers at different times. Almost all fict.
ENG 30 INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE PROF. GENE MCQUILLANSPRTanaMaeskm
ENG 30: INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE
PROF. GENE MCQUILLAN
SPRING 2021 FINAL EXAM
ALL OF THE QUESTIONS REQUIRE THAT YOU REFER TO
THESE FOUR TEXTS:
=Sherman Alexie, “Superman and Me”
=Isabel Allende, “Reading the History of the World”
=the “Transcript” of the interview between Michiko Kakutani and President Barack Obama
=Alison Bechdel, Fun Home
I expect a QUOTE from each text. Make sure to use the formats we have reviewed! Please write an essay—not a list. As always, please do more than just list examples and then stop—I expect a patient and challenging conclusion to the essay.
Please do NOT refer to any outside sources or to our other readings, such as The Great Gatsby.
There are THREE questions. Choose ONE. Please do not copy the question—just indicate the letter of your choice.
QUESTIONS:
A) In all of these texts, these writers speak of how reading allowed them to claim their identity, to raise their voice, to see their world more clearly, to find the words they had been unable to say. Refer to a specific example of this process from each of the texts. Which readings (or types of readings) are mentioned? What sort of effects did these readings have on the people reading them? What might be significant about the choices they made or the reactions they had?
B) In all of these texts, these writers speak of reading and writing as a social process, one that deeply involves their families. Refer to a specific example of this process from each of the texts. Which readings are chosen and shared? Who shares them with whom? Why and how might these exchanges of texts and ideas matter?
C) In all of these readings, the writers recall that they were very curious about a range of different texts. In what ways were they influenced by “classic literature” and in what ways did they also search for inspiration in texts that might not be considered “literature?” Refer to a specific example of this process from each of the texts. Which readings (or types of readings) are mentioned? What sort of readings seem to have the most profound effects on each author? What might be significant about the types of readings that they chose and considered most influential?
It is worth 8 points (all-or-nothing). It needs to be emailed in a Word file (or just “pasted” into an email), by NOON on Thursday, June 10th.
To get 8 points, you need to:
—Write at least 600 words.
—Refer to ALL four texts.
—Refer to specific and relevant statements. Please include a quote from EACH of the texts, and when you “quote,” follow the formats we’ve reviewed.
—Do more than write a “list” of references. What MATTERS about the statements and texts you chose?
One more key thing>>
Unlike all of our previous assignments, this one will NOT feature the option of sending me a “draft”—you have two weeks to do this, SO GET IT RIGHT!
Reflecting on the fire investigation process in your community, do you believe that it is thorough enough when it comes to determining the causes and ...
209.20191.ENG11238A Assignments * Essay 1 Final!
* Essay 1 Final
* Essay 1 Final !
Upload Submission
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This assignment will also be used for a!endance.
This assignment will also be used for a!endance.
ENG 1123 Online Summer Thompson
Essay #1: UNIT 1 –
Stories:The Disappearance, The Story of an Hour, The Yellow
Wallpaper, and Suicide Note
Instruc!onsInstruc!ons:
Compose a cri!cal analysis essay on one of the topics below.
Your essay should be well developed, unified, coherent, and
gramma"cally correct. Refer to the Grading Criteria for MCC
English Classes in the First Day Handout for this course.
Required length: 1 ½ -2 typed pages
You will have a chance to earn 5 bonus points on this essay
by following the direc"ons for checking your graded essay
in Turn It In and looking over the correc"ons and comments
(a#er I have graded it). Turn It In will show me if you viewed
your document or not. The direc"ons (with pictures) are in
this week's module "tled "Instruc"ons for Seeing
Correc"ons in Turn It In."
Create a thesis statement, and back up your claim with
support/evidence from the text. Support should contain clear,
specific examples from the story or stories you are analyzing, as
well as documenta"on for all text references. Include at least
one quota!on from the story in each body paragraph of your
essay, for a total of 4 quota"ons from the story/poem. *See
handouts about how ci"ng poetry is different than stories. It
would be a good idea to do an outline before wri"ng the essay.
Follow MLA format: Use size 12, Times New Roman font and 1-
inch margins; double space.
Include a Work Cited page. It is not included in the two-page
length requirement; it should appear on a separate page at the
end of your paper. You will automa"cally lose 20 points for not
including a Works Cited page.
Topics:
1. Analyze a character in one of the short stoires and show
how he or she is a dynamic, round, flat, or sta!c character
by examining his or her development over the course of the
story.
2. Choose one work from Units 1 and discuss how in
the story/poem society plays a part in imprisoning/s"fling
the main character.
3. Discuss the importance of se%ng in 1 work from Units 1.
Analyze how the se%ng ("me and place) adds meaning,
conflict, and/or relevance to the characters. Do NOT just
describe the se%ng and tell me “in this story the se%ng is
this. In that story the se%ng is that.” That is not analysis,
nor is it interes"ng. I want to know how and why the
se%ng is significant, what thisreveals about the characters,
the "me period, and the conflict within the story
StepsSteps:
Before beginning your paper, read the wri"ng handouts; use
them as a guide while working on your essay as well.
Use the outline form on the next page to plan your paper.
You may write/type directly o.
Core 168 LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAYYour first essay for the c.docxvoversbyobersby
Core 168: LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY
Your first essay for the course will be a literary analysis essay. You will choose one primary text (one of the poems, stories, speeches, or memoirs) from our class reading so far and then focus your essay analyzing the text.
Your analysis must have:
· a worthwhile, interesting introduction leading to your thesis sentence (stating the focus/main point of the essay);
· a substantial body of paragraphs to support your analysis (at least 2-3 paragraphs);
· an interesting, relevant conclusion.
You will follow these steps of the writing process to write your essay. Each step will also earn you assignment credit. Your assignments will provide guidance for how to approach and perform a literary analysis. Also, included below are specific directions for HOW TO WRITE A LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY:
1. Read “How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay” (below in this document);
2. Choose a primary text of literature as your focus for the essay; (9/25/18)
3. Brainstorm regarding two different aspect of the text—the content (WHAT THE TEXT SAYS) and the literary devices (HOW THE TEXT SAYS WHAT IT SAYS). If you would like to use a recommended topic, you may do so, but you are also free to explore your own topic (9/27/18)
4. Determine WHAT is interesting and important about what happens in the text and make a statement about it. That statement is your thesis statement. (9/27/18)
5. Write an essay to support your thesis statement, using textual evidence (quotes from the primary text) to illustrate and provide examples of your thesis. (10/2/18)
6. Revise your essay for content and organization. (10/4/18)
7. Edit your essay for clarity and correctness.
8. Visit the Writing Center and do a peer review of your essay.
9. Proofread your essay before submitting it.
10. Submit your essay by the deadline of 10/10/18.
SUGGESTED/EXAMPLE TOPICS
· Examine Sherman Alexie’s poem “Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World”
· Examine how Nora Naranjo-Morse uses the legend/tradition of the coyote trickster in her poem “A Well Traveled Coyote”
· Analyze the coyote figure in any of the coyote texts from Native American Coyote Mythology
· Analyze Red Jacket’s rhetorical strategies he used in his speeches
· Examine how Black Elk uses descriptive details to evoke empathy for his people in Black Elk Speaks
· Analyze Lame Deers use of one or more of the following literary devices: simile/metaphor; circular storytelling; humor
· Analyze E. Pauline Johnson’s short story (fiction) “As It Was in the Beginning,” focusing on one or more of the following:
· 1st person point of view;
· the focus on skin color and how race is characterized in the text;
· the focus on womanhood, particularly Ester’s connection with her mother and how Ester uses the wisdom passed from her mother;
· the circularity of the story in terms of the beginning and end of the text and Ester’s return home;
· the significance of the snake;
· how Christian ideas of heaven and hell a.
Mr. Bush, a 45-year-old middle school teacher arrives at the emergen.docxaudeleypearl
Mr. Bush, a 45-year-old middle school teacher arrives at the emergency department by EMS ground transport after he experienced severe mid-sternal chest pain at work. On arrival to the ED:
a. What priority interventions would you initiate?
b. What information would you require to definitively determine what was causing Mr. Bush’s chest pain?
.
Movie Project Presentation Movie TroyInclude Architecture i.docxaudeleypearl
Movie Project Presentation: Movie: Troy
Include: Architecture in the movie. Historical research to figure out if the movie did a good job of representing the art historical past of not. Anything in the movie that are related to art or art history. And provide its outline and bibliography (any website source is acceptable as well)
.
Motivation and Retention Discuss the specific strategies you pl.docxaudeleypearl
Motivation and Retention
Discuss the specific strategies you plan to use to motivate individuals from your priority
population to participate in your program and continue working on their behavior change.
You can refer to information you obtained from the Potential Participant Interviews. You
also can search the literature for strategies that have been successfully used in similar
situations; be sure to cite references in APA format.
.
Mother of the Year In recognition of superlative paren.docxaudeleypearl
Mother of the Year
In recognition of superlative parenting
Elizabeth Nino
is awarded
2012 Mother of the Year
May 9, 2012
MOM
Smash That Like Button: Facebook’s Chris Cox Is Messing with One of the Most Valuable Features on the Internet
Inside Facebook’s Decision to Blow Up the Like Button
The most drastic change to Facebook in years was born a year ago during an off-site at the Four Seasons Silicon Valley, a 10-minute drive from headquarters. Chris Cox, the social network’s chief product officer, led the discussion, asking each of the six executives around the conference room to list the top three projects they were most eager to tackle in 2015. When it was Cox’s turn, he dropped a bomb: They needed to do something about the “like” button.
The like button is the engine of Facebook and its most recognized symbol. A giant version of it adorns the entrance to the company’s campus in Menlo Park, Calif. Facebook’s 1.6 billion users click on it more than 6 billion times a day—more frequently than people conduct searches on Google—which affects billions of advertising dollars each quarter. Brands, publishers, and individuals constantly, and strategically, share the things they think will get the most likes. It’s the driver of social activity. A married couple posts perfectly posed selfies, proving they’re in love; a news organization offers up what’s fun and entertaining, hoping the likes will spread its content. All those likes tell Facebook what’s popular and should be shown most often on the News Feed. But the button is also a blunt, clumsy tool. Someone announces her divorce on the site, and friends grit their teeth and “like” it. There’s a devastating earthquake in Nepal, and invariably a few overeager clickers give it the ol’ thumbs-up.
Changing the button is like Coca-Cola messing with its secret recipe. Cox had tried to battle the like button a few times before, but no idea was good enough to qualify for public testing. “This was a feature that was right in the heart of the way you use Facebook, so it needed to be executed really well in order to not detract and clutter up the experience,” he says. “All of the other attempts had failed.” The obvious alternative, a “dislike” button, had been rejected on the grounds that it would sow too much negativity.
Cox told the Four Seasons gathering that the time was finally right for a change, now that Facebook had successfully transitioned a majority of its business to smartphones. His top deputy, Adam Mosseri, took a deep breath. “Yes, I’m with you,” he said solemnly.
Later that week, Cox brought up the project with his boss and longtime friend. Mark Zuckerberg’s response showed just how much leeway Cox has to take risks with Facebook’s most important service. “He said something like, ‘Yes, do it.’ He was fully supportive,” Cox says. “Good luck,” he remembers Zuckerberg telling him. “That’s a hard one.”
The solution would eventually be named Reactions. It will arrive .
Mrs. G, a 55 year old Hispanic female, presents to the office for he.docxaudeleypearl
Mrs. G, a 55 year old Hispanic female, presents to the office for her annual exam. She reports that lately she has been very fatigued and just does not seem to have any energy. This has been occurring for 3 months. She is also gaining weight since menopause last year. She joined a gym and forces herself to go twice a week, where she walks on the treadmill at least 30 minutes but she has not lost any weight, in fact she has gained 3 pounds. She doesn’t understand what she is doing wrong. She states that exercise seems to make her even more hungry and thirsty, which is not helping her weight loss. She wants get a complete physical and to discuss why she is so tired and get some weight loss advice. She also states she thinks her bladder has fallen because she has to go to the bathroom more often, recently she is waking up twice a night to urinate and seems to be urinating more frequently during the day. This has been occurring for about 3 months too. This is irritating to her, but she is able to fall immediately back to sleep.
Current medications:
Tylenol 500 mg 2 tabs daily for knee pain. Daily multivitamin
PMH:
Has left knee arthritis. Had chick pox and mumps as a child. Vaccinations up to
date.
GYN hx:
G2 P1. 1 SAB, 1 living child, full term, wt 9lbs 2 oz. LMP 15months ago. No history of abnormal Pap smear.
FH:
parents alive, well, child alive, well. No siblings. Mother has HTN and father has high cholesterol.
SH:
works from home part time as a planning coordinator. Married. No tobacco history, 1-2 glasses wine on weekends. No illicit drug use
Allergies
: NKDA, allergic to cats and pollen. No latex allergy
Vital signs
: BP 129/80; pulse 76, regular; respiration 16, regular
Height 5’2.5”, weight 185 pounds
General:
obese female in no acute distress. Alert, oriented and cooperative.
Skin
: warm dry and intact. No lesions noted
HEENT:
head normocephalic. Hair thick and distribution throughout scalp. Eyes without exudate, sclera white. Wears contacts. Tympanic membranes gray and intact with light reflex noted. Pinna and tragus nontender. Nares patent without exudate. Oropharynx moist without erythema. Teeth in good repair, no cavities noted. Neck supple. Anterior cervical lymph nontender to palpation. No lymphadenopathy. Thyroid midline, small and firm without palpable masses.
CV
: S1 and S2 RRR without murmurs or rubs
Lungs
: Clear to auscultation bilaterally, respirations unlabored.
Abdomen
- soft, round, nontender with positive bowel sounds present; no organomegaly; no abdominal bruits. No CVAT.
Labwork:
CBC
:
WBC 6,000/mm3 Hgb 12.5 gm/dl Hct 41% RBC 4.6 million MCV 88 fl MCHC
34 g/dl RDW 13.8%
UA:
pH 5, SpGr 1.013, Leukocyte esterase negative, nitrites negative, 1+ glucose; small protein; negative for ketones
CMP:
Sodium 139
Potassium 4.3
Chloride 100
CO2 29
Glucose 95
BUN 12
Creatinine 0.7
GFR est non-AA 92 mL/min/1.73 GFR est AA 101 mL/min/1.73 Calcium 9.5
Total protein 7.6 Bilirubin, total 0.6 Alkaline.
Mr. Rivera is a 72-year-old patient with end stage COPD who is in th.docxaudeleypearl
Mr. Rivera is a 72-year-old patient with end stage COPD who is in the care of Hospice. He has a history of smoking, hypertension, obesity, and type 2 Diabetes. He is on Oxygen 2L per nasal cannula around the clock. His wife and 2 adult children help with his care. Develop a concept map for Mr. Rivera. Consider the patients Ethnic background (he and his family are from Mexico) and family dynamics. Please use the
concept map
form provided.
.
Mr. B, a 40-year-old avid long-distance runner previously in goo.docxaudeleypearl
Mr. B, a 40-year-old avid long-distance runner previously in good health, presented to his primary provider for a yearly physical examination, during which a suspicious-looking mole was noticed on the back of his left arm, just proximal to the elbow. He reported that he has had that mole for several years, but thinks that it may have gotten larger over the past two years. Mr. B reported that he has noticed itchiness in the area of this mole over the past few weeks. He had multiple other moles on his back, arms, and legs, none of which looked suspicious. Upon further questioning, Mr. B reported that his aunt died in her late forties of skin cancer, but he knew no other details about her illness. The patient is a computer programmer who spends most of the work week indoors. On weekends, however, he typically goes for a 5-mile run and spends much of his afternoons gardening. He has a light complexion, blonde hair, and reports that he sunburns easily but uses protective sunscreen only sporadically.
Physical exam revealed: Head, neck, thorax, and abdominal exams were normal, with the exception of a hard, enlarged, non-tender mass felt in the left axillary region. In addition, a 1.6 x 2.8 cm mole was noted on the dorsal upper left arm. The lesion had an appearance suggestive of a melanoma. It was surgically excised with 3 mm margins using a local anesthetic and sent to the pathology laboratory for histologic analysis. The biopsy came back Stage II melanoma.
1. How is Stage II melanoma treated and according to the research how effective is this treatment?
250 words.
.
Moving members of the organization through the change process ca.docxaudeleypearl
Moving members of the organization through the change process can be quite difficult. As leaders take on this challenge of shifting practice from the current state to the future, they face the obstacles of confidence and competence experienced by staff. Change leaders understand the importance of recognizing their moral purpose and helping others to do the same. Effective leaders foster moral purpose by building relationships, considering other’s perspectives, demonstrating respect, connecting others, and examining progress (Fullan & Quinn, 2016). For this Discussion, you will clarify your own moral perspective and how it will impact the elements of focusing direction.
To prepare:
· Review the Adams and Miskell article. Reflect on the measures taken in building capacity throughout the organization.
· Review Fullan and Quinn’s elements of Focusing Direction in Chapter 2. Reflect on aspects needed to build capacity as a leader.
· Analyze the two case examples used to illustrate focused direction in Chapter 2.
· Clarify your own moral purpose, combining your personal values, persistence, emotional intelligence, and resilience.
A brief summary clarifying your own moral imperative.
· Using the guiding questions in Chapter 2 on page 19, explain your moral imperative and how you can use your strengths to foster moral imperative in others.
· Based on Fullan’s information on change leadership, in which areas do you feel you have strong leadership skills? Which areas do you feel you need to continue to develop?
Learning Resources
Required Readings
Fullan, M., & Quinn, J. (2016).
Coherence: The right drivers in action for schools, districts, and systems
. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Chapter 2, “Focusing Direction” (pp. 17–46)
Florian, L. (Ed.). (2014).
The SAGE handbook of special education
(2nd ed.). London, England: Sage Publications Ltd.
Chapter 23, “Researching Inclusive Classroom Practices: The Framework for Participation” (389–404)
Chapter 31, “Assessment for Learning and the Journey Towards Inclusion” (pp. 523–536)
Adams, C.M., & Miskell, R.C. (2016). Teacher trust in district administration: A promising line of inquiry. Journal of Leadership for Effective and Equitable Organizations, 1-32. DOI: 10.1177/0013161X1665220
Choi, J. H., Meisenheimer, J. M., McCart, A. B., & Sailor, W. (2016). Improving learning for all students through equity-based inclusive reform practices effectiveness of a fully integrated school-wide model on student reading and math achievement. Remedial and Special Education, doi:10.1177/0741932516644054
Sailor, W. S., & McCart, A. B. (2014). Stars in alignment. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 39(1), 55-64. doi: 10.1177/1540796914534622
Required Media
Grand City Community
Laureate Education (Producer) (2016c).
Tracking data
[Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Go to the Grand City Community and click into
Grand City School District Administration Offices
. Revie.
Mr. Friend is acrime analystwith the SantaCruz, Califo.docxaudeleypearl
Mr. Friend is a
crime analyst
with the Santa
Cruz, California,
Police
Department.
Predictive Policing: Using Technology to Reduce Crime
By Zach Friend, M.P.P.
4/9/2013
Nationwide law enforcement agencies face the problem
of doing more with less. Departments slash budgets
and implement furloughs, while management struggles
to meet the public safety needs of the community. The
Santa Cruz, California, Police Department handles the
same issues with increasing property crimes and
service calls and diminishing staff. Unable to hire more
officers, the department searched for a nontraditional
solution.
In late 2010 researchers published a paper that the
department believed might hold the answer. They
proposed that it was possible to predict certain crimes,
much like scientists forecast earthquake aftershocks.
An “aftercrime” often follows an initial crime. The time and location of previous criminal activity helps to
determine future offenses. These researchers developed an algorithm (mathematical procedure) that
calculates future crime locations.1
Equalizing Resources
The Santa Cruz Police Department has 94 sworn officers and serves a population of 60,000. A
university, amusement park, and beach push the seasonal population to 150,000. Department personnel
contacted a Santa Clara University professor to apply the algorithm, hoping that leveraging technology
would improve their efforts. The police chief indicated that the department could not hire more officers.
He felt that the program could allocate dwindling resources more efficiently.
Santa Cruz police envisioned deploying officers by shift to the most targeted locations in the city. The
predictive policing model helped to alert officers to targeted locations in real time, a significant
improvement over traditional tactics.
Making it Work
The algorithm is a culmination of anthropological and criminological behavior research. It uses complex
mathematics to estimate crime and predict future hot spots. Researchers based these studies on
In Depth
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- Predictive Policing: Using Technology to Reduce
Crime
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Patch Call
Known locally as the
“Gateway to the Summit,”
which references the city’s
proximity to the Bechtel Family
National Scout Reserve. More
The patch of the Miamisburg,
Ohio, Police Department
prominently displays the city
seal surroun.
Mr. E is a pleasant, 70-year-old, black, maleSource Self, rel.docxaudeleypearl
Mr. E is a pleasant, 70-year-old, black, male
Source: Self, reliable source
Subjective:
Chief complaint:
“I urinate frequently.”
HPI:
Patient states that he has had an increase in urination for the past several years, which seems to be worsening over the past year. He estimates that he urinates clear/light yellow urine approximately every 1.5-2 hours while awake and is up 2-4 times at night to urinate. He states some urgency and hesitancy with urination and feeling of incomplete voiding. He denies any pain or blood. Denies any head trauma. Denies any increase in thirst or hunger. He denies any unintentional weight loss.
Allergies
: NKA
Current Mediations
:
Multivitamin, daily
Aspirin, 81 mg, daily
Olmesartan, 20 mg daily
Atorvastatin, 10 mg daily
Diphenhydramine, 50 mg, at night
Pertinent History:
Hypertension, hyperlipidemia, insomnia
Health Maintenance. Immunizations:
Immunizations up to date
Family History:
No cancer, cardiac, pulmonary or autoimmune disease in immediate family members
Social History:
Patient lives alone. He drinks one cup of caffeinated coffee each morning at the local diner. He denies any nicotine, alcohol or drug use.
ROS:
Incorporated into HPI
Objective:
VS
– BP: 118/68, HR: 86, RR: 16, Temp 97.6, oxygenation 100%, weight: 195 lbs, height: 70 inches.
Mr. E is alert, awake, oriented x 3. Patient is clean and dressed appropriate for age.
Cardiac: No cardiomegaly or thrills; regular rate and rhythm, no murmur or gallop
Respiratory: Clear to auscultation
Abdomen: Bowel sounds positive. Soft, nontender, nondistended, no hepatomegaly
Neuro: CN 2-12 intact
Renal/prostate: Prostate enlarged, non-tender. No asymmetry or nodules palpated
Labs:
Test Name
Result
Units
Reference Range
Color
Yellow
Yellow
Clarity
Clear
Clear
Bilirubin
Negative
Negative
Specific Gravity
1.011
1.003-1.030
Blood
Negative
Negative
pH
7.5
4.5-8.0
Nitrite
Negative
Negative
Leukocyte esterase
Negative
Negative
Glucose
Negative
mg/dL
Negative
Ketones
Negative
mg/dL
Negative
Protein
Negative
mg/dL
Negative
WBC
Negative
/hpf
Negative
RBC
Negative
/hpf
Negative
Lab
Pt’s Result
Range
Units
Sodium
137
136-145
mmol/L
Potassium
4.7
3.5-5.1
mmol/L
Chloride
102
98-107
mmol/L
CO2
30
21-32
mmol/L
Glucose
92
70-99
mg/dL
BUN
7
6-25
mg/dL
Creat
1.6
.8-1.3
mg/dL
GFR
50
>60
Calcium
9.6
8.2-10.2
mg/dL
Total Protein
8.0
6.4-8.2
g/dL
Albumin
4.5
3.2-4.7
g/dL
Bilirubin
1.1
<1.1
mg/dL
Alkaline Phosphatase
94
26-137
U/L
AST
25
0-37
U/L
ALT
55
15-65
U/L
Pt’s results
Normal Range
Units
WBC
9.9
3.4 - 10.8
x10E3/uL
RBC
4.0
3.77 - 5.28
x10E6/uL
Hemoglobin
11.5
11.1 - 15.9
g/dL
H.
Motor Milestones occur in a predictable developmental progression in.docxaudeleypearl
Motor Milestones occur in a predictable developmental progression in young children. They begin with reflexive movements that develop into voluntary movement patterns. For the motor milestone of independent walking, there are many precursor reflexes that must first integrate and beginning movement patterns that must be learned. Explain the motor progression of walking in a child, starting with the integration of primitive reflexes to the basic motor skills needed for a child to walk independently. Discuss at which time frame each milestone occurs from birth to walking (12-18 months of age). What are some reasons why a child could be delayed in walking? At what age is a child considered delayed in walking and in need of intervention? What interventions are available to children who are having difficulty walking? Please be sure to use APA citations for all sources used to formulate your answers.
.
Most women experience their closest friendships with those of th.docxaudeleypearl
Most women experience their closest friendships with those of the same sex. Men have suffered more of a stigma in terms of sharing deep bonds with other men. Open affection and connection is not actively encouraged among men. Recent changes in society might impact this, especially with the advent of the meterosexual male. “The meterosexual male is less interested in blood lines, traditions, family, class, gender, than in choosing who they want to be and who they want to be with” (Vernon, 2010, p. 204).
In this week’s reading material, the following philosophers discuss their views on this topic: Simone de Beauvoir, Thomas Aquinas, MacIntyre, Friedman, Hunt, and Foucault. Make sure to incorporate their views as you answer each discussion question. Think about how their views may be similar or different from your own. In at least 250 words total, please answer each of the following, drawing upon your reading materials and your personal insight:
To what extent do you think women still have a better opportunity to forge deeper friendships than men? What needs to change to level the friendship playing field for men, if anything?
How is the role of the meterosexual man helping to forge a new pathway for male friendships?
.
Most patients with mental health disorders are not aggressive. Howev.docxaudeleypearl
Most patients with mental health disorders are not aggressive. However, it is important for nurses to be able to know the signs and symptoms associated with the five phases of aggression, and to appropriately apply nursing interventions to assist in treating aggressive patients. Please read the case study below and answer the four questions related to it.
Aggression Case Study
Christopher, who is 14 years of age, was recently admitted to the hospital for schizophrenia. He has a history of aggressive behavior and states that the devil is telling him to kill all adults because they want to hurt him. Christopher has a history of recidivism and noncompliance with his medications. One day on the unit, the nurse observes Christopher displaying hypervigilant behaviors, pacing back and forth down the hallway, and speaking to himself under his breath. As the nurse runs over to Christopher to talk, he sees that his bedroom door is open and runs into his room and shuts the door. The nurse responds by attempting to open the door, but Christopher keeps pulling the door shut and tells the nurse that if the nurse comes in the room he will choke the nurse. The nurse responds by calling other staff to assist with the situation.
1. What phase of the aggression cycle is Christopher in at the beginning of this scenario? What phase is he in at the end the scenario? (State the evidence that supports your answers).
2. What interventions could have been implemented to prevent Christopher from escalating at the beginning of the scenario?
3. What interventions should the nurse take to deescalate the situation when Christopher is refusing to open his door?
4. If a restrictive intervention (restraint/seclusion) is used, what are some important steps for the nurse to remember?
SCHOLAR NURSING ARTICLE>>>APA FORMAT>>>
.
Most of our class readings and discussions to date have dealt wi.docxaudeleypearl
Most of our class readings and discussions to date have dealt with the issue of ethics and ethical behavior. Various philosophers have made contributions to jurisprudence including how to apply ethical principles (codes of conduct?) to ethical dilemma.
Your task is to watch the Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma.’ If you cannot currently access Netflix it offers a free trial opportunity, which you can cancel after viewing the documentary. Should this not be an option for whatever reason, then please email me and we will create an alternative ethics question.
DUE DATE: Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020 by noon
SEND YOUR NO MORE THAN 5 PAGE DOUBLE SPACED RESPONSE TO MY EMAIL ADDRESS. LATE PAPERS SUBJECT TO DOWNGRADING
As critics have written, the documentary showcases ways our minds are twisted and twirled by social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google through their platforms and search engines, and the why of what they are doing, and what must be done to stop it.
After watching the movie, respond to the following questions in the order given. Use full sentences and paragraphs, and start off each section by stating the question you are answering. Be succinct.
What are the critical ethical issues identified?
What concerns are raised over the polarization of society and promulgation of fake news?
What is the “attention-extraction model” of software design and why worry?
What is “surveillance capitalism?”
Do you agree that social media warps your perceptions of reality?
Who has the power and control over these social media platforms – software designers, artificial intelligence (Ai), CEOs of media platforms, users, government?
Are social media platforms capable of self-regulation to address the political and ethical issues raised or not? If not, then should government regulate?
What other actions can be taken to address the basic concern of living in a world “…where no one believes what’s true.”
.
Most people agree we live in stressful times. Does stress and re.docxaudeleypearl
Most people agree we live in stressful times. Does stress and reactions to stress contribute to illness? Explain why or why not. Support your opinions with information from the text.
Make sure to reference and cite your textbook as well as any other source you may use to support your answers to the question. Your initial post must include appropriate APA references at the end.
.
Most of the ethical prescriptions of normative moral philosophy .docxaudeleypearl
Most of the ethical prescriptions of normative moral philosophy tend to fall into one of the following three categories: deontology, consequentialism, and virtue ethics. These categories in turn put an emphasis on different normative standards for judging what constitutes right and wrong actions.
Moral psychologists and behavioral economists such as Jonathan Haidt and Dan Ariely take a different approach: focusing not on some normative ethical framework for moral judgment, but rather on the psychological foundations of moral intuition and on the limitations that our human frailty places on real-world honesty, decency, and ethical commitments.
In this context, write a short essay (minimum 400 words) on what you see as the most important differences between the traditional normative philosophical approaches and the more recent empirical approach of moral psychology when it comes to ethics. As part of your answer also make sure that you discuss the implications of these differences.
Deadline reminder:
this assignment is
due on June 14th
. Any assignments submitted after that date will lose 5 points (i.e., 20% of the maximum score of 25 points) for each day that they are submitted late. Accordingly, after June 14th, any submissions would be worth zero points and at that time the assignment inbox will close.
.
Most healthcare organizations in the country are implementing qualit.docxaudeleypearl
Most healthcare organizations in the country are implementing quality improvement programs to save lives, enhance customer satisfaction, and reduce the cost of healthcare services. Limited human and material resources often undermine such efforts. Zenith Hospital in a rural community has 200 beds. Postsurgical patients tend to contract infections at the surgical site, requiring extended hospitalization. Mr. Jones—75 years old—was admitted to Zenith Hospital for inguinal hernia repairs. He was also hypertensive, with a compromised immune system. Two days after surgery, he acquired an infection at the surgical site, with elevated temperature, and then he developed septicemia. His condition worsened, and he was moved to isolation in the intensive care unit (ICU). A day after transfer to the ICU, he went into ventricular arrhythmia and was placed on a respirator and cardiac monitoring machine. Intravenous fluids, antibiotics, and antipyretics could not bring the fever down, and blood analysis continued to deteriorate.
The hospital infection control unit got involved. The team confirmed that postsurgical infections were on the increase, but the hospital was unable to identify the sources of infection. The surgery unit and surgical team held meetings to understand possible sources of infection. The team leader had earlier reported to management that they needed to hire more surgical nurses, arguing that nurses in the unit were overworked, had to go on leave, and often worked long hours without break.
Mr. Jones’ family members were angry and wanted to know the source of his infection, why he was on the respirator in isolation, and why his temperature was not coming down. Unfortunately, his condition continued to deteriorate. His daughter invited the family’s legal representative to find out what was happening to her father and to commence legal proceedings.
Then, the healthcare manager received information that two other patients were showing signs of postsurgical infection. The healthcare manager and care providers acknowledged the serious quality issues at Zenith Hospital, particularly in the surgical unit. The healthcare manager wrote to the Chairman of the Hospital Board, seeking approval to implement a quality improvement program. The Board held an emergency meeting and approved the manager’s request. The healthcare manager has invited you to support the organization in this process.
Please address the following questions in your response:
What are successful approaches for gaining a shared understanding of the problem?
How can effective communication be implemented?
What is a qualitative approach that helps in identifying the quality problem?
What tools can provide insight into understanding the problem?
In quality improvement, what does appreciative inquiry help do?
What is a benefit of testing solutions before implementation?
What is a challenge that is inherent in the application of the plan, do, study, act (PDSA) method?
What .
More work is necessary on how to efficiently model uncertainty in ML.docxaudeleypearl
More work is necessary on how to efficiently model uncertainty in ML and NLP, as well as how to represent uncertainty resulting from big data analytics.
Pages - 4
Excluding the required cover page and reference page.
APA format 7 with an introduction, a body content, and a conclusion.
No Plagiarism
.
Mortgage-Backed Securities and the Financial CrisisKelly Finn.docxaudeleypearl
Mortgage-Backed Securities and the Financial Crisis
Kelly Finn
FNCE 4302
Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) are “pass-through” bundles of housing debt sold as investment vehicles
A mortgage-backed security, MBS, is a type of asset-backed security that pays investors regular payments, similar to a bond. It gets the title as a “pass-through” because the security involves several entities in the origination and securitization process (where the asset is identified, and where it is used as a base to create a new investment instrument people can profit off of).
Key Players involved in the MBS Process
[Mortgage] Lenders: banks who sell mortgages to GSE’s
GSE: Government Sponsored Entities created by the US Government to make owning property more accessible to Americans
1938: Fannie Mae (FNMA): Federal National Mortgage Assoc.
1970: Freddie Mac (FHLMC): Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.
Increase mortgage borrowing
Introduce competitor to Fannie Mae
1970: Ginnie Mae (GNMA): Government National Mortgage Assoc.
US Government: Treasury: implicit commitment of providing support in case of trouble
The several entities involved in the process make MBS a “pass-through”. Here we have 3 main entities that we’ll call “Key Players” for the purpose of this presentation which aims to provide you with a basic and simple explanation of MBS and their role in the financial crisis.
GSE’s created by the US Government in 1938
Part of FDR’s New Plan during Great Depression
Purpose: make owning property more accessible to more Americans
GSE (ex. Fannie Mae) buys mortgages (debt) from banks, & then pools mortgages into little bundles investors can buy (securitization)
Bank’s mortgage is exchanged with GSE’s cash
Created liquid secondary market for mortgages
Result:
1) Bank has more cash to lend out to people
2) Now all who want to a house (expensive) can get the money needed to buy one!
Where MBS came from & when
Yay for combatting homelessness and increasing quality of life for the common American!
Thanks Uncle Sam!
MBS have been around for a long time. Officially in the US, they have their origins in government. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into creation Fannie Mae that was brought about to help ease American citizen’s difficulty in becoming homeowners. The sole purpose of a GSE thus was to not make profit, but to promote citizen welfare in regards to housing. Seeing that it was created by regulatory government powers, it earned the title of Government Sponsored Entity, which we will abbreviate as GSE. 2 other GSE’s in housing were created in later decades like Freddie Mae, to further stimulate the mortgage market alongside Fannie, and Ginnie which did a similar thing but only for certain groups of people (Veterans, etc) and to a much smaller scale.
How MBS works: Kelly is a homeowner looking to borrow a lot of money
*The Lender, who issued Kelly the mor.
Moral Development Lawrence Kohlberg developed six stages to mora.docxaudeleypearl
Moral Development:
Lawrence Kohlberg developed six stages to moral behavior in children and adults. Punishment and obedience orientation, interpersonal concordance, law and order orientation, social contract orientation, and universal ethics orientation. All or even just one of these stages will make a good topic for your research paper or you could just do the research paper on Kohlberg.
.
2024.06.01 Introducing a competency framework for languag learning materials ...Sandy Millin
http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/iateflwebinar2024
Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge and skills needed to create effective language learning materials are rarely part of teacher training, and are mostly learnt by trial and error.
Knowledge and skills frameworks, generally called competency frameworks, for ELT teachers, trainers and managers have existed for a few years now. However, until I created one for my MA dissertation, there wasn’t one drawing together what we need to know and do to be able to effectively produce language learning materials.
This webinar will introduce you to my framework, highlighting the key competencies I identified from my research. It will also show how anybody involved in language teaching (any language, not just English!), teacher training, managing schools or developing language learning materials can benefit from using the framework.
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
Read| The latest issue of The Challenger is here! We are thrilled to announce that our school paper has qualified for the NATIONAL SCHOOLS PRESS CONFERENCE (NSPC) 2024. Thank you for your unwavering support and trust. Dive into the stories that made us stand out!
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
Embracing GenAI - A Strategic ImperativePeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
Introduction to AI for Nonprofits with Tapp NetworkTechSoup
Dive into the world of AI! Experts Jon Hill and Tareq Monaur will guide you through AI's role in enhancing nonprofit websites and basic marketing strategies, making it easy to understand and apply.
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdfTechSoup
In this webinar you will learn how your organization can access TechSoup's wide variety of product discount and donation programs. From hardware to software, we'll give you a tour of the tools available to help your nonprofit with productivity, collaboration, financial management, donor tracking, security, and more.
Synthetic Fiber Construction in lab .pptxPavel ( NSTU)
Synthetic fiber production is a fascinating and complex field that blends chemistry, engineering, and environmental science. By understanding these aspects, students can gain a comprehensive view of synthetic fiber production, its impact on society and the environment, and the potential for future innovations. Synthetic fibers play a crucial role in modern society, impacting various aspects of daily life, industry, and the environment. ynthetic fibers are integral to modern life, offering a range of benefits from cost-effectiveness and versatility to innovative applications and performance characteristics. While they pose environmental challenges, ongoing research and development aim to create more sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives. Understanding the importance of synthetic fibers helps in appreciating their role in the economy, industry, and daily life, while also emphasizing the need for sustainable practices and innovation.
Reaction Paper # 3—Analyzing Themes in Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid.docx
1. Reaction Paper # 3—Analyzing Themes in “Girl” by Jamaica
Kincaid and “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan.
A theme is a concept or idea that an author explores in a literary
work (See Reading Fiction I in ‘Course Readings”) for more
detail.
Directions: Read “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “Two Kinds”
by Amy Tan. Choose two themes listed in the charts on the
following pages. Collect 3-4 details from “Girl” and/or “Two
Kinds” (such as specific plot points, symbols, or quotes) that
the author/s use to explore each theme and enter them in the
Evidence section of the table below. When you have completed
your work, remember to save it as a new file, otherwise you will
just re-send this file without saving your work.
Next, use the evidence you’ve collected to write an analysis that
describes and explains the role of the theme in “Girl” and/or
“Two Kinds.” Your analysis should be at least 1-2 paragraphs.
Here are some questions to consider as you write:
How do the ideas or actions of the main characters reflect
different aspects of the theme?
Does the theme develop or change over the course of the story?
If so, how?
If your evidence includes symbols, explain how the author/s use
those symbols to explore the theme.
Include specific quotes from the text and explain how those
quotes provide examples of how the theme applies to the story
you are discussing.
The four themes I have asked you to explore include the
following:
· Mother/daughter relationship
Authenticity and Identity
2. Generational Differences
Culture and Tradition
These four suggested themes to explore do not necessarily
capture all possibilities. If you find a theme you would like to
explore, you can enter it into one of the charts on the following
pages.
Theme # 1
Theme
Mother/Daughter Relationship
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Analysis: Write your 1-2 paragraph analysis that describes and
explains the role of mother/daughter relationship in the
readings.
Theme # 2
Theme
Authenticity and Identity
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
3. Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Analysis: Write your 1-2 paragraph analysis that describes and
explains the role of the authenticity and identity in the readings.
Theme # 3
Theme
Generational Differences and Conflicts
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Analysis: Write your 1-2 paragraph analysis that describes and
explains the role of the generational differences and conflicts in
the readings.
Theme # 4
4. Theme
Culture and Tradition
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Evidence from the text that explores the theme.
Analysis: Write your 1-2 paragraph analysis that describes and
explains the role of the culture and tradition in the readings.
Reading Fiction II—Exploring Themes, Symbols and Writing
Analysis
of Short Fiction
Theme
A theme is a universal idea, lesson, or message explored
throughout a
work of literature. One key characteristic of literary themes is
their
universality, which is to say that themes are ideas that not only
apply to the
specific characters and events of a book or play, but also
express broader
truths about human experience that readers can apply to their
own lives.
Some additional key details about theme:
• All works of literature have themes. The same work can have
5. multiple
themes, and many different works explore the same or similar
themes.
• Themes are sometimes divided into thematic concepts and
thematic
statements. A work's thematic concept is the broader topic it
touches
upon (love, forgiveness, pain, etc.) while its thematic statement
is
what the work says about that topic. For example, the thematic
concept of a romance novel might be love, and, depending on
what
happens in the story, its thematic statement might be that "Love
is
blind," or "You can't buy love."
• Themes are almost never stated explicitly. Oftentimes you can
identify a work's themes by looking for a repeating symbol,
motif, or
phrase that appears again and again throughout a story, since it
often
signals a recurring concept or idea.
Symbols
Broadly defined, a symbol is anything that represents another
thing.
In literature, a symbol is often a tangible thing—an object,
person, place, or
action—that represents something intangible.
Symbols might occur once or twice in a book or play to
represent an
emotion, and in that case aren't necessarily related to a theme.
However, if
6. you start to see clusters of similar symbols appearing in a story,
this may
mean that the symbols are part of an overarching motif, in
which case they
very likely are related to a theme.
https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/motif
Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of
literature.
Motifs, which are often collections of symbols, help reinforce
the central
themes of a work.
Identifying Themes
One way to try to identify or describe a theme within a
particular work is to
think through the following aspects of the text:
• Plot: What are the main plot elements in the work, including
the arc
of the story, setting, and characters. What are the most
important
moments in the story? How does it end? How is the central
conflict
resolved?
• Protagonist: Who is the main character, and what happens to
him or
her? How does he or she develop as a person over the course of
the
story?
• Prominent symbols and motifs: Are there any motifs or
7. symbols
that are featured prominently in the work—for example, in the
title, or
recurring at important moments in the story—that might mirror
some
of the main themes?
After you've thought through these different parts of the text,
consider what
their answers might tell you about the thematic statement the
text might be
trying to make about any given thematic concept. The checklist
above
shouldn't be thought of as a precise formula for theme-finding,
but rather as
a set of guidelines, which will help you ask the right questions
and arrive at
an interesting thematic interpretation.
Analyzing Themes
Every work of literature—whether it's an essay, a novel, a
poem, or
something else—has at least one theme. Therefore, when
analyzing a
given work, it's always possible to discuss what the work is
"about" on two
separate levels: the more concrete level of the plot (i.e., what
literally
happens in the work), as well as the more abstract level of the
theme (i.e.,
the concepts that the work deals with). Understanding the
themes of a work
is vital to understanding the work's significance.
https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/motif
https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/plot
8. Two Kinds
by Amy Tan
My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in
America. You could open a restaurant. You
could work for the government and get good retirement. You
could buy a house with almost no money
down. You could become rich. You could become instantly
famous.
"Of course, you can be a prodigy, too," my mother told me when
I was nine. "You can be best anything.
What does Auntie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best
tricky."
America was where all my mother's hopes lay. She had come to
San Francisco in 1949 after losing
everything in China: her mother and father, her home, her first
husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls.
But she never looked back with regret. Things could get better
in so many ways.
We didn't immediately pick the right kind of prodigy. At first
my mother thought I could be a Chinese
Shirley Temple. We'd watch Shirley's old movies on TV as
though they were training films. My mother
would poke my arm and say, "Ni kan.You watch." And I would
see Shirley tapping her feet, or singing a
sailor song, or pursing her lips into a very round O while saying
"Oh, my goodness."
Ni kan," my mother said, as Shirley's eyes flooded with tears.
"You already know how. Don't need talent
for crying!"
Soon after my mother got this idea about Shirley Temple, she
9. took me to the beauty training school in the
Mission District and put me in the hands of a student who could
barely hold the scissors without shaking.
Instead of getting big fat curls, I emerged with an uneven mass
of crinkly black fuzz. My mother dragged
me off to the bathroom and tried to wet down my hair.
"You look like a Negro Chinese," she lamented, as if I had done
this on purpose.
The instructor of the beauty training school had to lop off these
soggy clumps to make my hair even again.
"Peter Pan is very popular these days" the instructor assured my
mother. I now had bad hair the length of a
boy’s; with curly bangs that hung at a slant two inches above
my eyebrows. I liked the haircut, and it made
me actually look forward to my future fame.
In fact, in the beginning I was just as excited as my mother,
maybe even more so. I pictured this prodigy
part of me as many different images, and I tried each one on for
size. I was a dainty ballerina girl standing
by the curtain, waiting to hear the music that would send me
floating on my tiptoes. I was like the Christ
child lifted out of the straw manger, crying with holy indignity.
I was Cinderella stepping from her
pumpkin carriage with sparkly cartoon music filling the air.
In all of my imaginings I was filled with a sense that I would
soon become perfect: My mother and father
would adore me. I would be beyond reproach. I would never
feel the need to sulk, or to clamor for
anything. But sometimes the prodigy in me became impatient.
"If you don't hurry up and get me out of
here, I'm disappearing for good," it warned. “And then you'll
always be nothing."
Every night after dinner my mother and I would sit at the
Formica topped kitchen table. She would present
10. new tests, taking her examples from stories of amazing children
that she read in Ripley's Believe It or Not
or Good Housekeeping, Reader's digest, or any of a dozen other
magazines she kept in a pile in our
bathroom. My mother got these magazines from people whose
houses she cleaned. And since she cleaned
many houses each week, we had a great assortment. She would
look through them all, searching for stories
about remarkable children.
The first night she brought out a story about a three-year-old
boy who knew the capitals of all the states and
even the most of the European countries. A teacher was quoted
as saying that the little boy could also
pronounce the names of the foreign cities correctly. "What's the
capital of Finland? My mother asked me,
looking at the story.
All I knew was the capital of California, because Sacramento
was the name of the street we lived on in
Chinatown. "Nairobi!" I guessed, saying the most foreign word
I could think of. She checked to see if that
might be one way to pronounce Helsinki before showing me the
answer.
The tests got harder - multiplying numbers in my head, finding
the queen of hearts in a deck of cards,
trying to stand on my head without using my hands, predicting
the daily temperatures in Los Angeles, New
York, and London. One night I had to look at a page from the
Bible for three minutes and then report
everything I could remember. "Now Jehoshaphat had riches and
honor in abundance and...that's all I
remember, Ma," I said.
And after seeing, once again, my mother's disappointed face,
something inside me began to die. I hated the
11. tests, the raised hopes and failed expectations. Before going to
bed that night I looked in the mirror above
the bathroom sink, and I saw only my face staring back - and
understood that it would always be this
ordinary face - I began to cry. Such a sad, ugly girl! I made
high - pitched noises like a crazed animal,
trying to scratch out the face in the mirror.
And then I saw what seemed to be the prodigy side of me - a
face I had never seen before. I looked at my
reflection, blinking so that I could see more clearly. The girl
staring back at me was angry, powerful. She
and I were the same. I had new thoughts, willful thoughts - or
rather, thoughts filled with lots of won'ts. I
won't let her change me, I promised myself. I won't be what I'm
not.
So now when my mother presented her tests, I performed
listlessly, my head propped on one arm. I
pretended to be bored. And I was. I got so bored that I started
counting the bellows of the foghorns out on
the bay while my mother drilled me in other areas. The sound
was comforting and reminded me of the cow
jumping over the moon. And the next day I played a game with
myself, seeing if my mother would give up
on me before eight bellows. After a while I usually counted
only one bellow, maybe two at most. At last
she was beginning to give up hope.
Two or three months went by without any mention of my being
a prodigy. And then one day my mother
was watching the Ed Sullivan Show on TV. The TV was old and
the sound kept shorting out. Every time
my mother got halfway up from the sofa to adjust the set, the
sound would come back on and Sullivan
would be talking. As soon as she sat down, Sullivan would go
silent again. She got up - the TV broke into
loud piano music. She sat down - silence. Up and down, back
and forth, quiet and loud. It was like a stiff,
12. embraceless dance between her and the TV set. Finally, she
stood by the set with her hand on the sound
dial.
She seemed entranced by the music, a frenzied little piano piece
with a mesmerizing quality, which
alternated between quick, playful passages and teasing, lilting
ones.
"Ni kan," my mother said, calling me over with hurried hand
gestures. "Look here."
I could see why my mother was fascinated by the music. It was
being pounded out by a little Chinese girl,
about nine years old, with a Peter Pan haircut. The girl had the
sauciness of a Shirley Temple. She was
proudly modest, like a proper Chinese Child. And she also did a
fancy sweep of a curtsy, so that the fluffy
skirt of her white dress cascaded to the floor like petals of a
large carnation.
In spite of these warning signs, I wasn't worried. Our family
had no piano and we couldn't afford to buy
one, let alone reams of sheet music and piano lessons. So I
could be generous in my comments when my
mother badmouthed the little girl on TV.
"Play note right, but doesn't sound good!" my mother
complained "No singing sound."
"What are you picking on her for?" I said carelessly. “She’s
pretty good. Maybe she's not the best, but she's
trying hard." I knew almost immediately that I would be sorry I
had said that.
"Just like you," she said. "Not the best. Because you not
trying." She gave a little huff as she let go of the
sound dial and sat down on the sofa.
The little Chinese girl sat down also, to play an encore of
"Anitra's Tanz," by Grieg. I remember the song,
because later on I had to learn how to play it.
Three days after watching the Ed Sullivan Show my mother told
13. me what my schedule would be for piano
lessons and piano practice. She had talked to Mr. Chong, who
lived on the first floor of our apartment
building. Mr. Chong was a retired piano teacher, and my mother
had traded housecleaning services for
weekly lessons and a piano for me to practice on every day, two
hours a day, from four until six.
When my mother told me this, I felt as though I had been sent to
hell. I whined, and then kicked my foot a
little when I couldn't stand it anymore.
"Why don't you like me the way I am?" I cried. "I'm not a
genius! I can't play the piano. And even if I
could, I wouldn't go on TV if you paid me a million dollars!"
My mother slapped me. "Who ask you to be genius?" she
shouted. "Only ask you be your best. For you
sake. You think I want you to be genius? Hnnh! What for! Who
ask you!”?
"So ungrateful," I heard her mutter in Chinese, "If she had as
much talent as she has temper, she'd be
famous now."
Mr. Chong, whom I secretly nicknamed Old Chong, was very
strange, always tapping his fingers to the
silent music of an invisible orchestra. He looked ancient in my
eyes. He had lost most of the h air on the top
of his head, and he wore thick glasses and had eyes that always
looked tired. But he must have been
younger that I though, since he lived with his mother and was
not yet married.
I met Old Lady Chong once, and that was enough. She had a
peculiar smell, like a baby that had done
something in its pants, and her fingers felt like a dead person's,
like an old peach I once found in the back
14. of the refrigerator: its skin just slid off the flesh when I picked
it up.
I soon found out why Old Chong had retired from teaching
piano. He was deaf. "Like Beethoven!" he
shouted to me: We're both listening only in our head!" And he
would start to conduct his frantic silent
sonatas.
Our lessons went like this. He would open the book and point to
different things, explaining, their purpose:
"Key! Treble! Bass! No sharps or flats! So this is C major!
Listen now and play after me!"
And then he would play the C scale a few times, a simple cord,
and then, as if inspired by an old
unreachable itch, he would gradually add more notes and
running trills and a pounding bass until the music
was really something quite grand.
I would play after him, the simple scale, the simple chord, and
then just play some nonsense that sounded
like a cat running up and down on top of garbage cans. Old
Chong would smile and applaud and say Very
good! Bt now you must learn to keep time!"
So that's how I discovered that Old Chong's eyes were too slow
to keep up with the wrong notes I was
playing. He went through the motions in half time. To help me
keep rhythm, he stood behind me and
pushed down on my right shoulder for every beat. He balanced
pennies on top of my wrists so that I would
keep them still as I slowly played scales and arpeggios. He had
me curve my hand around an apple and
keep that shame when playing chords. He marched stiffly to
show me how to make each finger dance up
and down, staccato, like an obedient little soldier.
He taught me all these things and that was how I also learned I
could be lazy and get away with mistakes,
lots of mistakes. If I hit the wrong notes because I hadn't
practiced enough, I never corrected myself; I just
15. kept playing in rhythm. And Old Chong kept conducting his
own private reverie.
So maybe I never really gave myself a fair chance. I did pick up
the basics pretty quickly, and I might have
become a good pianist at the young age. But I was so
determined not to try, not to be anybody different,
and I learned to play only the most ear-splitting preludes, the
most discordant hymns.
Over the next year I practiced like this, dutifully in my own
way. And then one day I heard my mother and
her friend Lindo Jong both after church, and I was leaning
against a brick wall, wearing a dress with stiff
white petticoats. Auntie Lindo’s daughter, Waverly, who was
my age, was standing farther down the wall,
about five feet away. We had grown up together and shared all
the closeness of two sisters, squabbling over
crayons and dolls. In other words, for the most part, we hated
each other. I thought she was snotty. Waverly
Jong had gained a certain amount of fame as "Chinatown's
Littlest Chinese Chess Champion."
"She bring home too many trophy." Auntie Lindo lamented that
Sunday. "All day she play chess. All day I
have no time do nothing but dust off her winnings." She threw a
scolding look at Waverly, who pretended
not to see her.
"You lucky you don't have this problem," Auntie Lindo said
with a sigh to my mother.
And my mother squared her shoulders and bragged: "our
problem worser than yours. If we ask Jing-mei
wash dish, she hear nothing but music. It's like you can't stop
this natural talent." And right then I was
determined to put a stop to her foolish pride.
A few weeks later Old Chong and my mother conspired to have
me play in a talent show that was to be
held in the church hall. But then my parents had saved up
16. enough to buy me a secondhand piano, a black
Wurlitzer spinet with a scarred bench. It was the showpiece of
our living room.
For the talent show I was to play a piece called "Pleading
Child," from Schumann's Scenes from Childhood.
It was a simple, moody piece that sounded more difficult than it
was. I was supposed to memorize the
whole thing. But i dawdled over it, playing a few bars and then
cheating, looking up to see what notes
followed. I never really listed to what I was playing. I
daydreamed about being somewhere else, about
being someone else.
The part I liked to practice best was the fancy curtsy: right foot
out, touch the rose on the carpet with a
pointed foot, sweep to the side, bend left leg, look up, and
smile.
My parents invited all the couples from their social club to
witness my debut. Auntie Lindo and Uncle Tin
were there. Waverly and her two older brothers had also come.
The first two rows were filled with children
either younger or older than I was. The littlest ones got to go
first. They recited simple nursery rhymes,
squawked out tunes on miniature violins, and twirled hula hoops
in pink ballet tutus, and when they bowed
or curtsied, the audience would sigh in unison, "Awww, and
then clap enthusiastically.
When my turn came, I was very confident. I remember my
childish excitement. It was as if I knew, without
a doubt, that the prodigy side of me really did exist. I had no
fear whatsoever, no nervousness. I remember
thinking, This is it! This is it! I looked out over the audience, at
my mother's blank face, my father's yawn,
Auntie Lindo's stiff-lipped smile, Waverly's sulky expression. I
17. had on a white dress, layered with sheets of
lace, and a pink bow in my Peter Pan haircut. As I sat down, I
envisioned people jumping to their feet and
Ed Sullivan rushing up to introduce me to everyone on TV.
And I started to play. Everything was so beautiful. I was so
caught up in how lovely I looked that I wasn't
worried about how I would sound. So I was surprised when I hit
the first wrong note. And then I hit another
and another. A chill started at the top of my head and began to
trickle down. Yet I couldn't stop playing, as
though my hands were bewitched. I kept thinking my fingers
would adjust themselves back, like a train
switching to the right track. I played this strange jumble
through to the end, the sour notes staying with me
all the way.
When I stood up, I discovered my legs were shaking. Maybe I
had just been nervous, and the audience, like
Old Chong had seen me go through the right motions and had
not heard anything wrong at all. I swept my
right foot out, went down on my knee, looked up, and smiled.
The room was quiet, except for Old Chong,
who was beaming and shouting "Bravo! Bravo! Well done!" By
then I saw my mother's face, her stricken
face. The audience clapped weakly, and I walked back to my
chair, with my whole face quivering as I tried
not to cry, I heard a little boy whisper loudly to his mother.
"That was awful," and mother whispered "Well,
she certainly tried."
And now I realized how many people were in the audience - the
whole world, it seemed. I was aware of
eyes burning into my back. I felt the shame of my mother and
father as they sat stiffly through the rest of
the show.
We could have escaped during intermission. Pride and some
strange sense of honor must have anchored my
18. parents to their chairs. And so we watched it all. The eighteen-
year-old boy with a fake moustache who did
a magic show and juggled flaming hoops while riding a
unicycle. The breasted girl with white make up
who sang an aria from Madame Butterfly and got an honorable
mention. And the eleven-year-old boy who
was first prize playing a tricky violin song that sounded like a
busy bee.
After the show the Hsus, the Jongs, and the St. Clairs, from the
Joy Luck Club, came up to my mother and
father.
"Lots of talented kids," Auntie Lindo said vaguely, smiling
broadly. "That was somethin' else," my father
said, and I wondered if he was referring to me in a humorous
way, or whether he even remembered what I
had done.
Waverly looked at me and shrugged her shoulders. "You aren't a
genius like me," she said matter-of-factly.
And if I hadn't felt so bad, I would have pulled her braids and
punched her stomach.
But my mother's expression was what devastated me: a quiet,
blank look that said she had lost everything. I
felt the same way, and everybody seemed now to be coming up,
like gawkers at the scene of an accident to
see what parts were actually missing.
When we got on the bus to go home, my father was humming
the busy-bee tune and my mother kept silent.
I kept thinking she wanted to wait until we got home before
shouting at me. But when my father unlocked
the door to our apartment, my mother walked in and went
straight to the back, into the bedroom. No
accusations, No blame. And in a way, I felt disappointed. I had
been waiting for her to start shouting, so
that I could shout back and cry and blame her for all my misery.
I had assumed that my talent-show fiasco meant that I would
19. never have to play the piano again. But two
days later, after school, my mother came out of the kitchen and
saw me watching TV.
"Four clock," she reminded me, as if it were any other day. I
was stunned, as though she were asking me to
go through the talent-show torture again. I planted myself more
squarely in front of the TV.
"Turn off TV," she called from the kitchen five minutes later. I
didn't budge. And then I decided, I didn't
have to do what mother said anymore. I wasn't her slave. This
wasn't China. I had listened to her before,
and look what happened she was the stupid one.
She came out of the kitchen and stood in the arched entryway of
the living room. "Four clock," she said
once again, louder.
"I'm not going to play anymore," I said nonchalantly. "Why
should I? I'm not a genius."
She stood in front of the TV. I saw that her chest was heaving
up and down in an angry way.
"No!" I said, and I now felt stronger, as if my true self had
finally emerged. So this was what had been
inside me all along.
"No! I won't!" I screamed. She snapped off the TV, yanked me
by the arm and pulled me off the floor. She
was frighteningly strong, half pulling, half carrying me towards
the piano as I kicked the throw rugs under
my feet. She lifted me up onto the hard bench. I was sobbing by
now, looking at her bitterly. Her chest was
heaving even more and her mouth was open, smiling crazily as
if she were pleased that I was crying.
"You want me to be something that I'm not!" I sobbed. " I'll
never be the kind of daughter you want me to
be!"
20. "Only two kinds of daughters," she shouted in Chinese. "Those
who are obedient and those who follow
their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this
house. Obedient daughter!"
"Then I wish I weren't your daughter, I wish you weren't my
mother," I shouted. As I said these things I got
scared. It felt like worms and toads and slimy things crawling
out of my chest, but it also felt good, that this
awful side of me had surfaced, at last.
"Too late to change this," my mother said shrilly.
And I could sense her anger rising to its breaking point. I
wanted see it spill over. And that's when I
remembered the babies she had lost in China, the ones we never
talked about. "Then I wish I'd never been
born!" I shouted. “I wish I were dead! Like them."
It was as if I had said magic words. Alakazam!-her face went
blank, her mouth closed, her arms went slack,
and she backed out of the room, stunned, as if she were blowing
away like a small brown leaf, thin, brittle,
lifeless.
It was not the only disappointment my mother felt in me. In the
years that followed, I failed her many
times, each time asserting my will, my right to fall short of
expectations. I didn't get straight As. I didn't
become class president. I didn't get into Stanford. I dropped out
of college.
Unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I
wanted to be, I could only be me.
And for all those years we never talked about the disaster at the
recital or my terrible declarations afterward
at the piano bench. Neither of us talked about it again, as if it
were a betrayal that was now unspeakable. So
I never found a way to ask her why she had hoped for something
so large that failure was inevitable.
And even worse, I never asked her about what frightened me the
21. most: Why had she given up hope? For
after our struggle at the piano, she never mentioned my playing
again. The lessons stopped. The lid to the
piano was closed shutting out the dust, my misery, and her
dreams.
So she surprised me. A few years ago she offered to give me the
piano, for my thirtieth birthday. I had not
played in all those years. I saw the offer as a sign of
forgiveness, a tremendous burden removed. "Are you
sure?" I asked shyly. "I mean, won't you and Dad miss it?" "No,
this your piano," she said firmly. "Always
your piano. You only one can play."
"Well, I probably can't play anymore," I said. "It's been years."
"You pick up fast," my mother said, as if
she knew this was certain. “You have natural talent. You could
be a genius if you want to." "No, I
couldn't." "You just not trying," my mother said. And she was
neither angry nor sad. She said it as if
announcing a fact that could never be disproved. "Take it," she
said.
But I didn't at first. It was enough that she had offered it to me.
And after that, every time I saw it in my
parents' living room, standing in front of the bay window, it
made me feel proud, as if it were a shiny
trophy that I had won back.
Last week I sent a tuner over to my parent's apartment and had
the piano reconditioned, for purely
sentimental reasons. My mother had died a few months before
and I had been bgetting things in order for
my father a little bit at a time. I put the jewelry in special silk
pouches. The sweaters I put in mothproof
boxes. I found some old Chinese silk dresses, the kind with
little slits up the sides. I rubbed the old silk
against my skin, and then wrapped them in tissue and decided to
take them hoe with me.
22. After I had the piano tuned, I opened the lid and touched the
keys. It sounded even richer that I
remembered. Really, it was a very good piano. Inside the bench
were the same exercise notes with
handwritten scales, the same secondhand music books with their
covers held together with yellow tape.
I opened up the Schumann book to the dark little piece I had
played at the recital. It was on the left-hand
page, "Pleading Child." It looked more difficult than I
remembered. I played a few bars, surprised at how
easily the notes came back to me.
And for the first time, or so it seemed, I noticed the piece on the
right-hand side. It was called "Perfectly
Contented." I tried to play this one as well. It had a lighter
melody but with the same flowing rhythm and
turned out to be quite easy. "Pleading Child" was shorter but
slower; "Perfectly Contented" was longer but
faster. And after I had played them both a few times, I realized
they were two halves of the same song.
[1989]
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
from Charters, Ann, Ed. The Story and its Writer: An
Introduction to Short Fiction. 6th Ed.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.