Assignment task:
Memoir/Social Analysis Paper OR Analysis of Luiselli's Essay
You can decide if you want to write a memoir, a narrative of a meaningful moment of your life, or a social analysis, a journalistic-like writing of an event.
For either writing assignment, I'd like you to think of the exigence, the problem that demands your attention in your writing. How does your memoir or social analysis attempt to address this exigence?
The writers we read this semester, Anzaldua, Smith, and Luiselli, were driven by an exigence to write from their experience. Aspects of their identity also influence the shape of their writing. For example, Luiselli's identity as an immigrant, a mother, and a bilingual writer helps shape her approach to writing about her experience as a translator for undocumented children fleeing Central America. What aspects of your identity might shape your topic or approach in your memoir or social analysis?
Memoir:
The memoir has a minimum word count of 700 words. The memoir must be accompanied by an analysis of your memoir, where you discuss why you made certain rhetorical and literary choices in your writing. The analysis should be a minimum of 300 words.
Social analysis:
The social analysis has a minimum word count of seven hundred words. The social analysis must be accompanied by an analysis where you discuss why you made certain rhetorical choices in your writing. The analysis should be a minimum of three hundred words.
If the idea of writing a memoir or social analysis fills you with dread, you can instead write an analysis of Luiselii's essay. You would respond to one of the following prompts in your analysis:
Due: A 2.5-3 page paper (thousand words) analysis of Valeria Luiselli's Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions. Double-spaced, 12 Times New Roman font.
Please respond to one of the following prompts:
1) Reflecting on Luiselli's essay, think about your personal experiences, perhaps as a student, immigrant, writer, social justice advocate, etc. What did you gain from reading Luiselli's essay, and how might you use it to guide your writing, mentoring, social organizing work, etc., in the future? It is okay to speak more from your personal experiences for this prompt.
2) The back cover of the book describes Luiselli's book: " Luiselli's encounter with asylum seekers demands we see these children. What we do next is up to us." Another reviewer describes it this way: "Part treatise, part memoir, part call to action, Tell Me How it Ends inspires not through a stiff stance of authority, but with the curiosity and humility Luiselli has long since established."
Make an argument about what you think Luiselli is trying to achieve in her book. Does she want to inform us about the historical circumstances surrounding children fleeing from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras? Does she want to relay her own experiences? Does she want to get us to do something about this within our communities? All of the above or more?
3) In a way, Luiselli's essay reads like our research paper assignment. She raises a social issue and explores the in-depth roots that are not being addressed in social media and on the part of the government. She talks about the current consequences of not addressing the problem (including its root causes) and explores what it might take to start making some progress in addressing this issue in our society. Write a paper in which you use Luiselli's essay to write a mini-research paper on the social topic of the neglected human rights of refugees and asylum seekers from Central America. Use Luiselli's essay as your sole outside source, citing Luiselli as you define this social issue, address its root causes, etc.
4) Luiselli focuses on the importance of language and storytelling in her essay. In your essay, consider how Luiselli speaks of the experiences of those children for whom she translates. How can storytelling and language be essential tools in movements for social justice and in protecting human rights?
For example, you might think about: the questions and stories that her family tells each other and the importance of language when it comes to naming (for example, calling these children refugees rather than "illegal" immigrants).