Where do I fit in?
Garrison Keillor, "Born Among the Born-Again" (37)
Take a minute to think about the religious tradition you grew up with. Was it very different from that of your friends? Perhaps you grew up in a family that did not go to church or take religion very seriously. Think of what it was like if you wondered about what others did with their Sundays. Perhaps now that you are adult you feel different about those beliefs. Mostly try to remember when you first noticed (and felt) your family’s faith was different from others you knew.
Look at the first paragraph of the selection. {Read.} Why did the writer not want to explain his religion to other kids?
Why was Grandpa Cotten first "tempted toward Lutheranism"? What made him decide against it? What attracts the writer to religion of Catholics? How are the practices of the Catholics different from those of the Sanctified Brethren?
The writer does/didn’t seem to always have negative feelings about his own religion. Note description on page 38 (*). What does he like?
Who is Brother Mel and why is he important to Keillor’s story?
What does he mean when he writes, "I was born among the born-again" (39)?
One Sunday the family goes to a restaurant. What happens there? What bothered their parents? What is the writer’s reaction to having left? {"‘I feel like a leper or something’." (40).} How does his mother react to him? Where do they eventually go? What is the result?
Mary Crow Dog, "Lakota Woman" (31)
1. Why did Mary Crow Dog have difficulty with her identity as a child? What do you suppose conflicted in her that is much like any other young person? What was unique to her?
2. How does she "explain" (but not justify) the actions of many Native American men? How are present problems tied to history? [How much of history is ever present?]
3. Much of the essay is about her history, first as Sioux, then that of her own family, then that of her husband’s family. Why or how does that history connect to her sense of who she is? Why does she write, "After having been forced into reservations, it was not thought wise to recall such things [those who escaped to join great warriors]" (33)?
4. What do you think she means at the end when she writes, "You make your own legends now" (35)? How does one keep the traditions of the past alive in one’s life while trying to be one’s own person?
Susan J. Miller, "My Father’s Other Life" (42)
1. In our present social climate, we seem to have two competing ideas: first, that parents (or parenting) may be somewhat to blame for failures and weaknesses; second, the backlash that has no sympathy for that idea (or even a moderated view of it). What makes either idea make sense to us?
2. For those who have lived in a dysfunctional situation, what makes the child unable to see the problems around him (and yet sense them)?
3. In the beginning of the essay, what does the author like about her father? What is there to admire about her father?
4. She finds out that her father had been a heroin addict. Why hadn’t she suspected anything?
5. What role did the author’s grandmother play in his development? What happened with the will? {What role or effect does self-esteem play/have in addiction.}
6. When her father was dying, he is asked what he will miss most. What does he say? How does that affect the author’s mother and daughter? Comment on the last sentence of the essay.
Janice Mirikitani, "For My Father" (166)
1. {Read the poem aloud.}
2. In the first few lines we have the impression that the father had many burdens. What were they?
3. Why do the children steal the berries? What does the father do? Why does the speaker think that "his eyes held/nothing" (lines 13-14)?
4. Who gets the berries? What is significant about the fact the people who eat them?
5. Why did the author want "to scream/at [his] silence" (ll. 28-29)? What silence is she referring to?
6. Did the father feel pain? Where might that pain have been expressed? [Comment on the idea that the strawberries were "grown/from/tears" (ll. 41-43).]
Caroline Hwang, "The Good Daughter" (57)
Nguyen Louie, "A Daughter’s Story" (61)
The writer, like many people, seems to have a relationship with her parents, particularly her mother, marked both by tension and respect. Give examples of both.
To children, Time is a precious commodity. How did Louie’s parents spend time with her?
What happened on the author’s trip to Cuba that had a profound effect on her?
What made the author particularly conscious of how different she was from her peers?
What does she mean by, "I am a feminist by my own interpretation" (63)?
How has the writer been shaped by her parents? What is or has been their influence on her?
Sandra Cisneros, "Mericans" (64)
1. First thing we have to recognize is that this is a work of fiction. It may or may not reflect Cisneros’ own life experiences.
2. What makes the "awful grandmother" awful? Other than age, what makes her so different from Micaela (Michele) who tells the story? What is she doing? Why might she think that her grandchildren have been "born in that barbaric country with its barbarian ways" (66).
3. What is going on outside with the narrator and her brothers. Even if you don’t know who the characters her brother wants to pretend to be, you might figure out what sort of character they want her to pretend to be. Look in the ninth paragraph. She says, "I don’t mind being Ming the Merciless, but I don’t like being the Mud People" (66). What is the problem? Why does she want to avoid crying?
4. What is the narrator’s view of the church and what goes on inside? Why do you think she feels that way? Note in paragraph 14, she replies to her grandmother that is "neither proper nor polite" (66). What does that perhaps say about her?
5. When she goes outside, she sees one of her brothers being photographed by tourists. What do you think the tourists think about the children? Why are they surprised when the boy speaks English?
6. What is the last line all about?