Diagnostic Assignment
For your first assignment, you are asked to write a 750-word essay on the following topic:
In “Where Are the Stories of My People?” by Mary Panegoosho (in Paper Stays Put, p. 13) the author shows the importance of stories to a culture. Why are stories significant to the “hunter,” and how does he convey their importance? Compare the “hunter’s” experience with your own experience of “storytelling.”
Essay 1
Write an essay of 1500-2000 words on one of the following topics. Develop a thesis or main idea, and support your ideas with specific references to the appropriate texts from the course.
- Compare creation myths from two different Native tribes or Native cultures.
- Compare the role of women in three Native myths or legends on the course.
- Compare the attitude to the elderly in two short stories.
- Analyse the significance of the violence in two works from Units I to V.
- How is Christianity depicted in two works from Units I to V?
- Analyse the theme of “estrangement” in two works from Units I to V.
- In what ways are non-Natives perceived from a Native point of view in three works?
- Tape a story told by a Native elder and transcribe and edit the material into a coherent text which respects the integrity of the original. Include information on where, when and under what conditions you made the tape, and the audience response, if pertinent. Document or footnote any obscure references.
Essay 2
Write an essay of 1500 to 2000 words on one of the following topics:
- What are the implications of the sibling relationships in the two novels?
- What is significance of clothes in the two novels?
- What is the significance of the “games” or sports played in the novels, or in one novel and The Rez Sisters?
- Analyse the role of the trickster in two or three works from the course.
- What are the implications of the inconclusive conclusions to the novels?
- Compare the portraits of the mothers in two novels or a novel and The Rez Sisters.
- In what ways do three poets on the course use symbols taken from the natural OR the urban environment?
