Essay Instructions:
Essay 1: Zitkala-Sa
Writing as Political Strategy and Act of Resistance
Malea Powell and Gerald Vizenor developed the term “survivance” to explain Native American strategies of survival + resistance. As we’ve talked about in class, in Zitkala-Sa’s time, Native Americans were losing the ability to physically fight to defend themselves and they had lost their status as independent nations via a series of many broken treaties and broken promises. So, they were faced with finding other ways to resist colonization and racism to ensure their lives, cultures, lands, and families as best they could. Native Americans’ future now depended on their relationships with white people and the U.S. government. Zitkala-Sa’s work is a great example of this resistance—as she worked to change the minds and hearts (and thus hopefully the policies and behavior) of her white audiences.
Choose one of the following topics:
Analyze the critiques of colonization that Zitkala-Sa is making and describe how she accomplishes these critiques through literary and/or rhetorical strategies. Finally, decide whether you think she would have been successful or effective in convincing her white readers of these critiques, meaning make them question colonization. (You could argue that she would be successful in some ways, but not in others. And remember, you’re discussing her white readers at the time (early 1900s) so her actual audience for whom she wrote.)
2. Zitkala-sa wanted to change her white readers’ hearts and minds through her writing. It is deeply political. Identify the mindsets you think she is targeting, the literary and rhetorical strategies she uses to challenge those mindsets, and whether or not you think she would be effective in changing hearts and minds. (Again, you could argue that she might be successful in some ways but not in others).
Requirements:
2000 words minimum
MLA Citation Style
Use substantial textual evidence to support your argument—meaning, your discussion should cover the breadth of the assigned reading from Zitkala-sa’s stories and speeches
Don’t do any additional research for this paper—this includes reading any summary notes about her stories online or other sources that critique her. But you can use any materials that have been presented in class. (I WILL PROVIDE ALL READINGS AND LECTURES!!)
Brainstorming for Essay 1
Idea and Evidence Development for Essay 1 (Given by professor)
Use the prompts below to start brainstorming ideas and evidence for Essay 1. So, you want to have BOTH ideas (points) and evidence (meaning, examples from the text).
Try to use examples across the texts if you can: “Impressions of an Indian Childhood,” “The School Days of an Indian Girl,” “An Indian Teacher Among Indians,” “The Great Spirit,” “The Enigma of Blue Star Woman,” and The California Speeches.
List three critiques of colonization she’s making and an example for each.
List three mindsets white colonizers had, and explain which she would be able to change.
What is more important to change: hearts or minds? Or both?
Which would be more effective in persuading people: pathos or logos, or does it depend on what you’re persuading them of? Which do you think was Zitkala-sa’s primary rhetorical appeal strategy, or did she equally use both?
Do you think she could have established her ethos with her readers-her credibility and authority? Her ability to appeal to their morals and ethics?
List three literary strategies she uses, and give an example of each.
List three contrasts or juxtapositions and an example of each.
List three symbols she uses and an example of each.
List three ways she uses tone and what effect (on her readers) that has.
List three examples of imagery
List three ways she uses characterization and give examples.
List three ways she uses plot and give an example of each.
List three goals she has in her writing and give an example of each.
List three reactions you think white people could have to what she describes in “The Great Spirit” and “Blue Star Woman.”
Outlining and Structure(PLEASE CREATE AN OUTLINE)
General information about Academic Essay Structure:
If you are a writer that likes to make outlines, I’ve uploaded an Outlining Worksheet
Actions
, both in this module, and in the Writing Resources section. For some people, this is the most important place to start. Other people prefer to freewrite, or bullet point, or just start in on the first point they want to make.
Regardless, at some point you need to arrive at two things:
a clear understanding of the overall structure–meaning, the order of the points (paragraphs) and the logical connections between points.
a clear understanding of individual paragraph structure. This will stay pretty consistent–look at the sample paragraph.
Also, some elements of an academic essay are not-negotiable; they need to be in place for your reader to access your argument effectively. These are called genre expectations. Meaning, each genre of writing has certain standard elements. Those elements are familiar to the reader, and so the reader can easily access the content.
For any academic essay, you must have:
Introduction and conclusion paragraphs (I’ll give guidelines)
A thesis or main argument
Transitions between paragraphs so there is a flow (I’ll give examples)
Academic essay paragraph structure: one main point, supported with multiple layers of evidence, explanation and analysis
If the essay includes source material (anything that you read or watched), there needs to be a clear delineation of who said what and whose ideas are whose and where to find source information (this is called citation–we’ll learn that as well).
SO: What are your options for Essay 1?
First, it’s important to break down any essay topic into parts to make sure you’re answering the whole question. Sometimes it helps to make the parts different colors with a highlighter or something. Some people cut and paste the topic right at the top of their draft so they’re always looking at it as they write. So, brainstorm ideas and examples for each part.
Second, figure out how your answers to those parts flow best. This depends on your answer to the essay question. So, not everyone necessarily has the same structure. BUT, you do want your structure to be clear to your reader and flow easily.
Here is a possible structure for each Zitkala-sa topic. *Note: these structures are just to give you a starting place! They are not mandatory. And I give only two sample paragraphs for each topic, but you’d have more than that. Also, one of the complicated parts of each topic is your answer to the last part, or the third part of each: would she be successful or effective in convincing her readers or changing their mindset? The answer to that can be yes for some things, no for others, yes to everything, no to everything…so, your structure really depends on your individual argument.
TOPIC 1: Analyze the critiques of colonization that Zitkala-Sa is making and describe how she accomplishes these critiques through literary and/or rhetorical strategies. Finally, decide whether you think she would have been successful or effective in convincing her white readers of these critiques, or of her larger agenda. (You could argue that she would be successful in some ways, but not in others. You will also have to be clear on what you think she is trying to convince them of, and that can be multiple things, or if you see her as having one, overarching agenda, etc.)
Possible Structure:
Body par. 1 Main Point: One critique of colonization is _____. She uses literary and rhetorical strategies of ___ and ___ to show readers this critique. I don’t think she’d be successful in changing their view though because…. So, then I go on to provide examples of each literary strategy and analyze those examples, and I would explain why I think she would or wouldn’t be effective…
Body par. 2 Main Point: Another critique she makes is ____. She uses…
[Continue with more body paragraphs]
Last Body par.: Whether she would be successful of convincing her white readers at the time of these critiques.
See how each element of the essay topic is in each paragraph?
TOPIC 2: Zitkala-sa wanted to change her white readers’ hearts and minds through her writing. It is deeply political. Identify the mindsets you think she is targeting, the literary and rhetorical strategies she uses to challenge those mindsets, and whether or not you think she would be effective in changing hearts and minds. (Again, you could argue that she might be successful in some ways but not in others).
Body par. 1 Main Point: One mindset she is targeting is the commonly-held belief by her white readers that assimilation would benefit Native Americans. Zitkala-sa uses ___ and ___ strategies to try to change this mindset, but I doubt she would have been effective. First, she uses _____ which is defined as… One excellent example of this is…
Body par. 2 Main Point: Another mindset she targets is…and the strategies she uses are ____.
[Continue with more paragraphs]
(IVE ATTACHED THE OUTLINE, PLEASE USE IT OR ANY TEMPLATE YOU FIND BEST; I ALSO INCLUDED A SAMPLE OUTLINE GIVEN BY THE PROFESSOR)
Writing Literary Analysis-Sample Paragraph
Sample Literary Analysis Paragraph (it is not complete)
First, Zitkala-Sa exposes the spiritual and moral inferiority of those working in the Indian Boarding Schools in order to dismantle her reader’s mindset about the value of these schools. Many of her white readers would have bought into the idea that the boarding schools and their assimilationist agenda were the best way forward toward peace. However, the difference between the ideals of the schools and their harsh realities were clearly one of Zitkala-sa’s main themes. For instance, in “Retrospection,” the narrator has returned to teach at the school, despite her own suffering at the hands of white teachers. Zitkala-sa uses characterization and setting here, in addition to metaphor, to illustrate her point. She describes the poor quality and character of the people who worked and taught at the school: The “inebriate” doctor who let children suffer and die and the cruel teacher who reminded an “ambitious Indian youth” that he was merely a “government pauper” all cause her to call them “the dwarfs their God had made them (111). She is calling out their shrunken capacity for morality, which contrasts sharply to the religious and intellectual superiority they used to justify their assimilation and colonization enterprise. This superiority mindset is evidenced by Captain Richard Pratt, in arguing for the Boarding Schools, who writes, …..[analyze Pratt’s arguments for the schools, which shows the mindset]. She also attempts to dismantle this superior mindset through the strategy of logos. [Use more examples from her stories that show logos] … But then I have to decide: will I discuss whether she would be effective in changing this mindset right here, or do I do that later?
So, the paragraph has:
1. A main point that links it to the essay topic and thesis.
2. Evidence, explanation, analysis, in multiple layers. A paragraph could be quite long–the one above would probably be double in length before I was finished with it.
3. A concluding sentence
(IVE ATTACHED THE RUBRIC FOR THE ESSAY)
MLA Citations for Zitkala-sa sources
Below are a few notes and explanations on the Zitkala-sa sources. They are a little complicated, so problem-solve the best you can. As long as you apply the main principles of MLA citation as explained in the module, you will be okay. But it does require some thinking.
The citations for the American Indian Stories is a little complicated. The book itself that you all are using is a collection of stories, essays, and speeches, but is also a book within a book (since the American Indian Stories was a book in and of itself at one point.)
So, you should treat the whole collection as an “Edited book or “collection” or “anthology” since it has editors–they wrote the “Introduction.” Then, the individual stories would be cited as within that larger collection.
You should list the “Introduction” as a separate item on your Works Cited if you’re using it, since it has different authors.
The citation information for the Henry Pratt speech is located at the top of the beginning of his speech. Again, do the best you can applying the principles of MLA to that source.
The Sitting Bull and Henry Ward Beecher quotes are not part of Pratt’s speech–I sourced them and gave them to you. So, you don’t need to cite them really. You could just signal, EX: Henry Ward Beecher says, “..” Since I gave you the source, the citation is less important.
The citation information for her biography on Canvas, not the “Introduction” to her book, is also on that pdf. file.
If you are using a digital book, you follow the guidelines for an e-book on the Works Cited, and then your In-text citation may or may not have page numbers depending on the particular digital version you used.
The Citation Guide at the LMC Library has more resources, which I’ve also excerpted below.
https://losmedanos.libguides.com/c.php?g=567189&p=3906896 .
(IVE ATTACHED THE MLA INSTRUCTION PAGES AND SAMPLE WORK CITED: THE PROFESSOR HANDED Please follow those! Teacher is precise!)
How to Design a Title
How to Design a Title
Your essay title should capture the unique argument of your essay.
It often includes key words that are echoed in the thesis or points. It may even tie in directly to the intro or conclusion. But here are some guidelines:
A few don’ts:
1. Don’t call it “Zitkala-sa”
2. Don’t call it “Essay 1”
Reason? That doesn’t reflect the unique argument of your essay. Everyone is writing Essay 1.
Strategies for great titles and examples:
1. Statement:
Zitkala-sa’s Attempts to Change Hearts and Minds
2. Question
Can Colonizer Mindsets Be Changed?
3. Two-part title–notice, this title is separated with a colon:
Zitkala-sa: Writing to Save Her People
In a two-part title, the first half of the title usually establishes the subject matter, and the second half establishes the argument you’ll make about it.
Zitkala-sa Essay Outline
Please upload your outline for your Zitkala-sa essay.
Your outline should include:
Ideas for your introduction
Your tentative thesis statement
The points you want to make in your argument and the evidence you want to use for each point (i.e,, which details from which stories).
This essay generally has 4-6 body paragraphs, depending on how you decide to organize it (as I described in the lecture).
I gave you an essay outline worksheet, so you can use that, or you can use a different outline template…whatever works for your planning and helps me see your argument and evidence so far.
(THESE ARE ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN; IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE LET ME KNOW)
(I WILL NOW ATTACH THE READINGS, LECTURES AND POWERPOINTS; IF YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS PLEASE LET ME KNOW. ALSO ONLY USE THE READING AND LECTURES AND POWERPOINTS I HAVE GIVEN. NO OUTSIDE SOURCES PLEASE)
One of the Readings: Beliefs Justifying Indian Boarding Schools
The creation of Indian Boarding schools was a key strategy in the U.S. Government’s effort at mass assimilation of Native Americans. Children were taken from their homes and relocated to boarding schools, not permitted to speak their language or wear traditional clothing.
Here you’ll read a now famous speech by Captain Henry Richard Pratt, who founded one of the first Indian Boarding Schools, the Carlisle Boarding School. This is the school where Zitkala-Sa eventually taught for a few years.
In this speech, he is making the case to charitable donors for why the boarding schools are necessary. He emphasizes the rationale for the schools and the teaching philosophy.
Video Lecture + Powerpoint: Literary and Rhetorical Analysis (10 mins)
Watch the video lecture on literary and rhetorical analysis. These are the tools writers and speakers use to construct meaning. So, literary and rhetorical analysis is where you are examining HOW a piece accomplishes its effect, nor simply WHAT it is saying. Then, you’ll apply this to Zitkala-Sa’s stories.
In the video, I will explain some of the following:
Literary Strategies:
Characterization/Character Development
Plot Structure
Setting/Atmosphere
Imagery
Symbolism
Dialogue
Tone (of narration)
Narration/ Narrative Strategy (first person, third person, etc.)
Genre: fiction, non-fiction, autobiography, semi-autobiography, drama, essay, poetry, blended genres, etc.
Rhetorical Strategies-Plan for achieving a specific purpose
Contrast or juxtaposition
Comparison
Narration (story-telling)
Cause/Effect
Division/Classification
Process analysis
Description
Rhetorical Devices- note, these will overlap with literary strategies
Allusion
Analogy/Metaphor
Personification
Rhetorical Question
Repetition
Tone/Diction
Paradox
Irony/Sarcasm/Satire
Symbolism
Rhetorical Appeals
LOGOS: Appeals to logic, intellect, reason. The idea is, if you are logical (re: intellectual), you will agree or understand.
PATHOS: Appeals to the heart, emotions, sympathy, passion, compassion, sentimentality
ETHOS: Appeals to the conscience, ethics, morals, standards, values, principles. Ethos also commonly refers to how an author/speaker builds their credibility, authority, and trustworthiness in the text.
Readings + Analyzing: American Indian Stories
From the collection, Zitkala-sa: American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings. read and take notes on the stories below.
Impressions of an Indian Childhood:
I. “My Mother”
II. “The Legends”
III. “The Beadwork”
VII. “The Big Red Apples”
The School Days of an Indian Girl: All stories
Zitkala-sa: American Indian Stories-Lecture 2 (POWERPOINT ATTACHED BELOW)
Introduction to Zitkala-sa (POWERPOINT ATTACHED BELOW)
Zitkala-sa follow up lecture: 2 parts(POWERPOINT ATTACHED BELOW)
Zitkala-sa: More readings (All attached in pdf form below)
1. All stories in An Indian Teacher Among Indians.
This is the last part of her stories, in which she describes her experience as a teacher in a boarding school, and what caused her to leave.
2. “The Great Spirit”: This is one of her most famous works. It is a little more difficult in language than the other stories you’ve read. You’ll notice much more imagery, and more elevated tone. Do the best you can with it!
In this story, she makes a passionate case for her religion and describes her resistance to conversion to Christianity.
3. “The Widespread Enigma of Blue Star Woman.”
In this story, she highlights the problems that arise from the allotment process (the dividing up of Indian lands) and the tribal enrollment. Part of what she focuses on also is the cultural misunderstandings or gaps that are created when a system is imposed on a people, and how that system, even when intended for “good,” can be mis-applied, abused, or even erase the very people it was supposed to protect.
(This is all the readings and lectures/powerpoints; PLEASE ONLY USE THESE I HAVE GIVEN. NO OUTSIDE SOURCES.)
****IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS PLEASE LET ME KNOW, THANK YOU! IM SO SORRY IT’S A LOT. PROFESSORS GIVE SO MUCH BUT LITTLE TIME)*****
