English literature - Reading Response

K. Skwarczek

Engl 2310 / World Lit Fall 2017 Reading Response #2: symbols

Due Date: Wed., Oct. 4 (submit in class OR on Blackboard)

Readings: Paredes, “The Rio Grande” Anzaldúa, from Borderlands/La Frontera

Your assignment is to write a 400-500 word Reading Response in which you identify and

analyze two symbols in both or either of these poems (Paredes and/or Anzaldúa).

Possible symbols include (but are not limited to): From “Rio Grande”: The Rio Grande river; the sea ; the currents

From Borderlands/La Frontera: the border fence; the sea; the mestizos

Explain where the symbol appears in the poem, why it is significant to the poem, and what its larger

significance might be to the speaker and/or the reader. Keep in mind our discussion of symbols from

class, and be specific.

You must analyze examples from the texts to support your interpretation.

Use MLA citation, including a Works Cited page. You are not required to refer to outside sources in this

assignment; as always, any and all sources you use must be cited.

MLA tips:

• Quotes from poems should be cited with line numbers if possible. Example:

In her poem, Rich describes the ladder as “always there / hanging innocently” (14-15).

( If there are no line numbers given, just use page numbers.)

• The poems by Paredes and by Anzaldúa belong to the citation category “entry in an anthology” because the Water and Culture Reader is an anthology.

Example:

Paredes, Americo. “The Rio Grande.” The Water and Culture Reader,

edited by Matthias Schubnell et al., 2nd ed., Fountainhead Press, 2013, pp. 607-608.