September 12 - 18

 

Outcomes:

Students should

  • understand the concept of oppression of groups in the U.S., focusing on the historical context of the struggle of women, African Americans, and Native Americans for full rights in America
  • .examine the arguments of DuBois concerning the problems of African Americans in their struggle to attain the full rights and responsibilities as Americans.
  • examine the situations facing Native Americans in the 1900s through Sa's autobiography, including the loss of their lands, loss of family, separation from family, and loss of culture
  • analyze the concept of oppression as it applies to all marginalized persons and characters discussed in the literature, especially applying it to the characters or real persons studied who were oppressed by one group or another.

Assignments include

  • reading the historical introductory material in the text book,
  • reading links on women, realism, and oppression in the course site and viewing video on Gilman
  • reading selections from the works of Gilman, DuBois, and Sa.

Assessments include one written assignment.

 

Assignment 3: Due Sept. 18

1. Read the head note for W.E.B. Du Bois (531) and “The Souls of Black Folk,” beginning middle of p. 538. Write a paragraph explaining the three things he said that Blacks most needed to achieve equality in 1900 and what objections Du Bois had to the attitudes of Washington.

2. Read the head note for Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” p. 485. Write a paragraph tracing the deterioration  of the narrator's mind. In other words, what actions and thoughts does she have at each stage of the deterioration?The video by Prof. Berstein is good, but optional.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgqWKUa_c7Y Links to an external site.

Native American Writer Zitkala Sa

Gertrude Kasebier Photo of Zitkala Sa, Sioux Indian and activist

3. Read the head note for Zitkala Sa (639) and the short section (641-647) from her autobiography Impressions of an Indian Childhood, which will give you a glimpse of the life she remembered before her education and assimilation into the white culture began. Then write a paragraph that contrasts the life Zitkala had with her mother to the one she envisions if she goes off with the white people to the missionary school.

Click on List of Tribes Links to an external site.  to view a list all all the numbers and languages of Native American tribes, current an past. This list is astounding. Follow any link given to find out about any tribe you are curious about or perhaps descended from; many or most of us in the South have some Indian blood.

Notice that these three writers focus on the struggle between groups of people or individuals to understand each other. All three demonstrate the devastation that occurs when a person or group of people use their power to force their will upon another.  Read and really think about Oppression In America. Your Quiz 2, which is proctored will include an essay on oppression of the groups represented by the works studied this week.

Submit the three paragraphs assigned as ONE document labeled Assignment 3.