english

Read: Kothari, Lalami, Cornejo, Cofer, Raya, Solnit, and Tolentino. Write:

· Kothari worries in the essay whether she is "[her] parents' daughter." Why is this of concern? How is that concern related to the title of her essay? At the end of the essay, she says definitively: "I am my parents' daughter." How has she reached that conclusion in the process of writing the essay?

· Consider the ways food relates to cultural identity. How does Kothari characterize American foods? In what ways does she enjoy them? In what ways does she find them distasteful? For example, how is her husband-who is never named-described in terms of his favorite foods? In what ways do husband and wife differ from each other? How does Kothari suggest that their culinary differences could affect their relationship?

· What does Lalami mean by the “gray zone”?

· What implicit connection is she making between the West and ISIS?

· What does Cornejo mean when she says, “I learned that the price of my innocence was the guilt of my parents”?

· Is her anger at the status of the undocumented understandable? She has a degree from Harvard and is getting a PhD from Yale. Is her anger justified?

· Compare and contrast Cornejo’s article on the American dream with Jischke’s, especially regarding family.

· Discuss Cofer’s feelings about her family, especially her feelings of alienation.

· Discuss Cofer’s difficulties in assimilating to American society.

· Raya is torn in many ways. Discuss briefly what tears her and why. What is her conclusion?

“Every woman knows what I'm talking about. It's the presumption that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field; that keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. It trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men's unsupported overconfidence” (Solnit 4-5).

“Being told that, categorically, he knows what he's talking about and she doesn't, however minor a part of any given conversation, perpetuates the ugliness of this world and holds back its light” (Solnit 7).

“Most women fight wars on two fronts, one for whatever the putative topic is and one simply for the right to speak, to have ideas, to be acknowledged to be in possession of facts and truths, to have value, to be a human being” (Solnit 10-11).

· Comment on these passages.

· Is there anything else in Solnit’s essay that you think should be noted?

· Reading between the lines, what is Tolentino searching for?

· Give me your impressions of the essay, and of its author.

· Compare Tolentino’s search for meaning and self with Mairs’s search.

· Second essay assigned