THIS IS A GRADED DISCUSSION. Please post a 500-600 word (minimum) response to ONE of the following questions. Your initial response is due by Thursday evening. Also please comment on at least three other responses (using a minimum of 100-200 words) by Friday (for the first set of responses), and by the weekend (for another round of responses and answers to questions as needed. MAKE SURE TO USE YOUR OWN WORDS!
Below your essay please include one or two questions about the text that you want to discuss further in the Board. NOTE: These questions should NOT be questions related to definition of words (which can be found by just using a dictionary) or any other question that can be found by doing a Google search. The question that you pose to the class should be the type that carries a conversation rather than just ends with a factual answer. For example, the question “What does the author mean by ____?” is not really a discussion question. You could probably find an answer to this by typing it directly into a Google search box. On the other hand a question like “Do you think that the author’s ideas on _____ would be relevant today? If so how?” would invite more thoughtful answers.
In the introduction to Looking at Life magazine, Erika Doss claims that one of the primary aims of Life was to unify and assimilate the country (12) in and towards “common causes” centered on a particular vision of/for “middle-class American society” (13). For this week’s initial essay, I want you to look through one or two issues of Life magazine and make an argument as to what Life magazine’s vision is of and for middle-class America based on specific photo-essays in those particular issues. Based on the photo-essay(s) that you decide to study, what “message” is Life sending in regards to consumption, race, gender, class, etc? Make sure to properly reference the photo-essays that you used in the magazine(s) (with the issue date and page numbers) and the week’s readings (article name and page numbers).
A Reading Response is not (merely) a summary. Spend most of your essay engaging with a specific idea, text, or phrase that strikes you as interesting and worthy of discussion.
It is important that you give me confidence that you have actually read the text(s) thoroughly. Vague summaries or responses are often a dead giveaway. Be specific, cite the texts (i.e. page numbers), include brief quotes, and directly engage with the material.
Spend your essay writing about specific sentences or paragraphs that you personally find interesting, i.e. what jumps out at you, in the readings. This may be directly related to the overall argument(s) of the writer, OR it may be a tiny detail in the writing that you would like to flesh out, think through, and discuss.
Your essay questions should NOT be questions related to dictionary definitions or concepts that you can easily look up online. Questions are meant to move a conversation between you and other students forward.
If you are not sure where to start you can, you can look at photo-essays that Life had on youth-culture and college by looking through these issues:
June 7, 1937 College Students
December 11, 1944 Teenagers
Jan 7, 1952 Teenagers in Paris
Jan 4, 1954 The Luckiest Generation
You can view full copies of Life magazine issues at https://books.google.com/books/about/LIFE.html?id=R1cEAAAAMBAJ
When you click on an issue (preferable after 1940) there should be a link marked “Preview this magazine >>” which will take you view all the pages of that particular issue.
Please use easy language, thank you!
I will provide the sources for you, please use one of them as your source for writing.
