These essays should reflect your best thinking and writing. Be sure that you quote from the books to support your thesis. In your responses, I am not interested in reading summaries of these works. Instead, formulate a strong thesis, provide interpretation, textual quotes, analysis, and then draw convincing conclusions. For each book, you have two or three options/choices; write only one essay (approximately 400 words) per book for a total of three essays. A Place to Stand, Jimmy Baca 1A. Argue or prove that Jimmy Baca does not show remorse or that he does not recognize that he has done anything wrong. What is the problem with this? 1B. Make a case that Baca is a sociopath or a psychopath (using the definition from the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders). What evidence from the memoir (or autobiographical novel) can you use to support this claim? Based on this, what do you conclude about Baca’s book? 1C. Argue that A Place to Stand is a good example of the unreliable nature of memoirs. Formulate a thesis, be specific, draw conclusions. Paper Daughter, Elaine Mar 2A. On page 158, Mar writes, “More than anything, I wanted to obscure my foreignness, that combination of ethnicity and poverty.” In another essay, “Bi Bi Hua,” she writes, “I could not conceive of myself as anything other than American.” How would you defend Mar against minorities who would call her a “sell-out,” or who would criticize her for assimilating or for wanting to “act white”? 2B. On average, Asian-Americans earn more money and have more education than the average Anglo-American, and thus they have been referred to as the “model minority.” Mar graduated from Harvard University and is successful, but the blurb on the back of her book states that the memoir, “challenges the stereotype of Asian Americans as a ‘model minority.’” Why would this writer say that? Formulate a thesis and draw conclusions. Catfish and Mandala, Andrew X. Pham 3A. Does Pham attempt to do too much in his memoir? Do the disparate elements enhance or detract from his narrative? Why? 3B. “My search for roots has become my search for home,” writes Pham at the end of his narrative. Similarly, in an autobiographical novel, Thomas Wolfe wrote that “you can’t go home again.” Vietnamese-Americans, it might be argued, are not fully Vietnamese nor fully American. Using textual evidence from Pham’s story, is it possible for him to find a real home? Why or why not? 3C. Discuss the concept of shame OR of forgiveness in Pham’s book. Formulate a thesis, give examples, and draw conclusions. Just pick one question for each book and write about 400 words, try to avoid summary and get conclusions. Remember to use quotes from the books to provide support on your answer.
