Today in class we began to discuss possible essay prompts that might complement Cervantes' "Refugee Ship" on the AP Exam. I just want to suggest a couple more here on which I require your opinions.
Might there be a prompt such as, "To what extent does one's semantic environment affect one's perception of his/her identity?" Or is this question too vague?
How about a question such as, "To what extent is a person's perception of his/her identity a reflection of his/her cultural heritage?"
In general, how would we go about answering such questions that follow a poem on the exam? Would we need to make specific references to the poem at hand or would we focus solely on wider application? I plan to ask Mr. Lazarow, but if any of you have some ideas, please feel free to offer them.
What thoughts do all of you have? What other "poem prompts" might be on the exam?
(Janet Lee)
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Just as a review from class, this was the question I posed:
Does one need to understand a certain language in order to understand the culture that accompanies it? Does this work inversely?
My brainstorming also led me to others.
How do language barriers alienate members of the same culture?
What sorts of perceptions are altered between two parties a language barrier is present?
If you were, like Lorna Dee Cervantes, to be torn between two cultures, how would you find others like yourself? What sorts of things would you draw from each culture?
Like Mr. Lazarow mentioned, our course is based on language rather than literature. We won't be asked to do any extensive analysis in terms of figurative language. Our understanding will be reflected by connections drawn from the poem to the life we have observed around us. I think that this is precisely why the AP Exam allows us to use personal pronouns in our writing. What better source to use than our own, extensional experience?
Thus too answer your question, we'll have to do a little bit of both: pull out details from the poem that support our general, applicable thesis.
(Sam Maliha)
I might be biased since I'm not a huge proponent of miring oneself in the questions of cultural identity/perception of oneself but I disagree with the use of personal extensional experiences in writing (most of the time). It takes too much time and can verge on being too cutesy. I myself would be more inclined to take specific historical examples and analyze them with a brief tie-in to the prompt. (I got points taken off on the Life of Pi essay since I only referenced to the prompt once in the essay. I'm guessing that they are looking for it as a starting point/tie-in but not an overly dominant part?)
I think both are fine, but perhaps the second one would be better than the first because it's a bit more specific.
In general, I think that we have to find a sort of balance between the specifics of the poem and also the general idea behind the poem.
It's definitely something we're going to have to get use to...
I guess I misused the term "extensional". Personal experience may be acceptable, but I was more referring to our studies within the educational realm, the studies with which we have dealt with repeatedly and which allow us to draw our own conclusions. I feel that the discussions we have during English are preparing us perfectly for the AP Exam in May. Does this make any sense?
I guess what I'm saying is that straight facts are okay, but not very creative. We want our own personality, our own ethos, to shine through. The graders are going to be reading many papers on the same topic! The least we can do is put a spin on it and make it our own. Am I right, or am I right? (I've always wanted to say that.)
(Sam Maliha)
I think both of Janet's prompts are good questions, whether for an AP essay or not. They are fun to think about.
For the first one, I think the fact that Cervantes says "mama raised me without language" would imply that she has a confused semantic environment. From this, I think she and others have confused perceptions of her identity. She doesn't feel that she belongs to either country/culture/language, those in America would probably label her as Spanish, and those in Spain would probably label her as American. So, basically, I think semantic environment can play a large role in the creation of one's identity-- in this case, Cervantes' semantic environment is a mix of different cultures, so her perception of her identity is confused, especially because she hasn't fully decided which one she is a part of. (I hope that all makes sense...)
For the second question, I would argue that a person's identity is as much about cultural heritage as a person wants it to be. It seems that Cervantes is trying to leave her cultural heritage behind and adapt to the American culture. The problem is that she is not accepted as American. But, the basic point is that, from her perspective, her identity is not her cultural heritage. On the other hand, Americans looking on saw her darker skin and hair, and, to them, her identity was her cultural heritage. So, it depends from what perspective we choose to look.
Emily T.
I think that Sam makes a good point: everyone who takes the AP exam will be responding to the same prompt, so the only way we may distinguish our writing from that of our peers is to build upon our personal ethos and creativity. Clearly, those essays that will earn 8s and 9s will be the ones that stand out to the reader.
However, I am a bit (or shall I say quite) concerned about how we would write creatively, but at the same time, stay within the limits of the prompt at hand in order to avoid getting off-topic. Or would the prompt not have any limits? Indeed I have countless questions for Mr. Lazarow...
(Janet Lee)
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