1. Research Exercises--Avoiding Plagiarism
Please post a direct quote from your research that you plan on using in your essay four. Cite it using MLA format as you would within the body of the paper. Then post a paraphrase of this same quote and cite it using MLA format as you would within the body of your paper.
Here is an example of a student post.
Direct Quote: " Over three quarters of poor people live in cities, not in the countryside"(Pg 48 of Favela).
Paraphrased Quote: The majority of the poor people don't live in the countryside. Believe it or not three quarters actually live within the cities.
Here are my corrections for her:
Storm,
On your direct quote, your MLA in-text citation should look like this (Author's Last Name 48). I don't know the author of Favela, but say for example it was Alves: (Alves 48).
On your paraphrase, you need to reword a bit more, choosing different wording than the quote not just restructuring the sentence. For example: The majority of Brazil's poor don't live in rural areas. Believe it or not seventy-five percent actually live in urban settings (Alves 48).
Then you use an in-text citation. All information that is not general knowledge needs to be cited.
2. Black Dove Part One p. 1-114
Please respond to one of the questions in paragraph form.
1. Castillo writes in her introduction, "Know that we may differ greatly in opinion, but only a handful in the world make decisions that affect the majority, and that majority includes you and me" (1). Do you agree or disagree with her statement? Why? What is it about her life and/or opinions do you connect with, or what is it that makes it difficult to connect with her? Why?
2. Why does she share the story of her maternal grandparents who migrated to the US in the 1920s?
3. Castillo writes about the role of the INS after the stock market crash in 1929. How many Mexicans and Mexican Americans were "repatriated"? Why did this happen? What are Castillo's feelings about it? Does her anecdote relate at all to anti-immigration sentiment in the US today? Why or why not?
4. What are Castillo's first memories of going back to Mexico City with her mother? How does she feel a split, much like Satrapi or Vance describe in their books?
5. "'Ana del Aire' my mother called me...Woman of the air, not earthbound, not rooted to one place--not to Mexico where Mama's mother died, not to Chicago where I was born and where my mother passed away on a dialysis machine, not to New Mexico where I made a home for my son and later, alone for myself--but to everywhere at once" (25). How is this rootlessness both Castillo's burden and her strength? How does her writing offer her something "solid"(25)?
6. What does Castillo's Tia Flora teach her about life and love? Do you think Castillo herself is more like her mother "the rock" or like her aunt "the flower"? What is the power in each way of being?
7. How and why does Castillo, a "feminist" (47), take pride in tortilla making? Do domestic tasks take away from the time men and women can cultivate who they want to be in the world, or can they be viewed in another way? Are domestic chores equally divided in your homes? Why or why not?
8. What were the cultural and social forces at work shaping Castillo's identity as a teen? Who and what did she identify with? Why?
9. Castillo writes, "My mother was an outsider all her life. Maybe she passed this feeling of exclusion from everything on to me the way some parents inadvertently pass on OCD behaviors" (62). How is Castillo an outsider? In what ways does Castillo embrace this outsider status? In what ways does she want to be "in"?
10. What is Castillo's relationship with her mother like? What kind of relationship does she want? Why is she unable to cultivate this?
11. Castillo writes, "Sometimes, there's a serious transgression against your very soul. Henceforth, you live on the outside, possibly outside your own body. It is where the mother, father, or those who are your guardians deliberately neglect or otherwise fail in their love and protection of you" (68). Why was this Castillo's experience? Why does she still struggle with this? How does this compare to Satrapi, Vance, or Coates' experience?
12. What were Castillo's experiences with rape? Do you think times have changed in the way we as a culture address rape and rape victims? Why or why not?
13. As a teenager, how does Castillo also feel violated by those upholding the law? Do you know what it feels like to be vulnerable or unprotected? Why or why not?
14. Castillo describes an attempted suicide like this: "One particular Saturday in midwinter, the walls closed in on me. I felt acutely the vast separation between the world and me that had been building up throughout my teens" (84). What is between the world and Castillo as a young woman and why does she feel hopeless?
15. List the many sources of hope and power that she has found as an adult. How do these sources of power connect to the women in her life, to the earth, to her ancestors? What are your sources of power and how do you honor/tap into them?
16. Why do you think Castillo is unable to remember the intimate talk she has with her mom upon her return from the hospital?
17. In "Bow Out" how does Castillo describe the "hierarchy" (90) of her household? What are her reflections on relationships: hers with her son, her romantic partnerships, her son's love interests? Why does she open and close with his Japanese greeting that she can't understand?
18. How does Castillo describe her love affair with another woman? In what ways is this relationship constructive and "validating" (98) and in what ways is it destructive?
19. Castillo writes, "It was an era when sexual identity was black and white. There were two genders. There were two sexualities. You were either gay or lesbian or you were straight...Women of color were marginalized no matter what" (101-102). Do you agree that notions of identity are more free now? Why or why not?
20. Castillo jokes about equity and fairness in their relationship and says, "We should have had a sign on the front door: 'Feminist Household Under Construction" (104). Do Castillo and her lover/partner achieve the fairness they attempt? Why or why not?
21. What does Castillo mean, "It wasn't freedom from a man I sought. It wasn't that I had to prove myself capable as a woman on my own. I was not going to live reflected in someone else's idea of me" (105)?
22. Castillo asserts, "In general, I haven't cared much for labels. Sometimes they were important by way of introducing yourself. Many times they were slippery and lacked concision..." (111). Think of an incident she shares in her book that defies a label. Do you agree with her? In your life have you been labeled or have you labeled someone? Why ow why not?
3. Reading Discussion Questions Part Two Black Dove p. 117-209
Please respond in paragraph form to one of the following questions.
1. In "When I Died in Oaxaca," Castillo writes of many splits left/right brain, Spanish/English, herself as Mexican/American. Address one of these divisions and then contrast this to the feeling she has of "the other side."
2. What are the values Castillo hopes to instill in her son as she raises him? Why is she shocked to find her son is "a guy" (136)?
3. Which do you think has more of an influence: how you were raised, what you see in the media, or how your peers act as you develop your own sexuality, ideas of relating to boyfriends/girlfriends? What is your answer to Castillo's question in her essay entitled, "Are Hunters Born or Made"?
4. How does "Swimming with Sharks" become a metaphor throughout this essay for Castillo raising her son as a single mother?
5. Castillo writes, "All parents, not just in the United States but everywhere, worry that their sons and daughters may not be viewed in public with the humanity with which they are loved and regarded at home. But I've come to be especially sensitive and concerned how males of color, in particular, are viewed" (147). Compare her concerns as a mother to Ta-Nehisi Coates perspective as a father. Do you agree with her opinion that "[young men] learn as much of what it is to be a man outside the home as inside it" (147)? Why or why not?
6. What are the different ways Castillo categorizes survival? Why is her son's survival limited to "staying alive" (148)?
7.Castillo and her son go to the Galapagos Islands to check out "the natural order of things" (153). What is/was the order on land? How is there a shift in this order on their vacation?
8. In Castillo's son's essay, "What's in a Nombre?" why do you think he chooses the pen name that he does? What does this choice reveal about his connection to his mother and/or his father?
9. In reference to her son's arrest, Castillo states, "For those who always blame the mother, who blame all mothers, know that I blamed myself too. I just never knew for what. Where did the root of the chaos lie?" (163). What is your answer for her?
10. What is Castillo's opinion on incarceration for drug related crimes? How does it compare to your own opinion?
11. What are some events in her son's past that indicate he is not protected by the system but rather targeted by it?
12. What's your opinion on the hip-hop culture that her son embraces? Why?
13. What does Castillo mean by, "I yearned for [my son's] presence. I thirsted for his freedom but also for the saving of his spirit" (185)?
14. Do you agree or disagree with Castillo as she assesses her job at mothering. "I had devoted myself for over a quarter of a century to being a mother, and I had failed at the most important duty" (187-88). Do you feel compassion for her? For her son? Why or why not?
15. Like Coates and Vance, Castillo questions the American Dream: "The proverbial American Dream for the average person evaporated. Yet, we were made to feel that somehow, if we just went along with the program, each of us would soon be all right again. Our families would be fine. Instead the reality was that many of us gave up loved ones to the military, drug wars, and the incarceration industries. These blows wouldn't be easy to recover from...Yet we push on" (191). How do you compare her views to that of either Coates or Vance?
16. Choose any of the exchanges between Castillo and her son via email and explore their intellectual or emotional connection. What do you find interesting or inspiring about these exchanges?
17. In one of her email's Castillo links patriarchy to capitalism. What does she see as a step away from this system?What does she see as the benefits? Do you agree or disagree with think link? Why or why not?
18. Like Coates, Castillo uses family pictures as part of her essay collection. What is the effect of this for you as a reader? Why does she want to form this intimate connection with her reader?
4. Reading Discussion Part Three Black Dove p. 211-278
Please answer one of the following questions in paragraph form. .
1. In what ways is New Mexico a refuge for author Ana Castillo?
2. How do Castillo's childhood visits to family who were migrant farm workers inform her understanding of race and class in the United States?
3. In what ways did Castillo draw inspiration for her own writing through her childhood memories of reading Bible stories? How are stories an integral part of how you understand yourself? What sort of stories do you remember being important in your childhood?
4. How do you feel about Castillo's opinion regarding illegal border crossings: "They don't cross borders illegally on a whim. Even when many apply for permits, they don't receive them. The desire to be reunited with loved ones and the equally wrenching need to leave them behind impels the destitute to make that dangerous trek..." (221).
5. Regarding the 2008 election, Castillo writes, "It didn't surprise me that a man won the election. Nor that the political and academic discussion on race remained black and white, with white women representing what gains feminism had brought women...I wondered how much had actually changed concerning race and gender in the United States" (223). How do you view the political scene in our country now? What does it say about these two topics of race and gender? Have you witnessed positive social change in your life times? Why or why not?
6. How does Castillo relate her own life to that of mythology? Does myth have relevance in how you understand your own life? Why or why not?
7. How is solitude also a form of love "in all its variations" (23)? How does Castillo use her solitude?
8. How does Castillo discuss her spirituality in "Searching the Other Side"? In what ways is your spirituality important to you? Do you agree with her that it is important for children to have a foundation for belief in the Divine? Why or why not?
9. What gift did her grandmother offer her and how has this gift informed her life?
10. What do you make of her opinion for the spiritual importance of mothers?
11. How does she bring together her Catholic upbringing with beliefs linked to other forms of spirituality to pass on to her granddaughter?
12. In what ways has Castillo's relationship with her mother shaped her into the woman she is today?
13. Castillo asserts, "In public, from my understanding, men of color have to be wary and defensive. They posture physical strength. Mi'jo constructed his male persona from those involved in hip-hop--the rappers and artists he admired. Men of color learned to be men not necessarily from their loving or strong or vulnerable mothers at home but from other men and from fathers, whether present or absent" (272). Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why? Do you think the world would be different if sons modeled themselves after their mothers?
14. Castillo also believes that how this generation perceives gender roles is much more fluid--not "absolute" (274). What are your views on masculinity/femininity/gender neutral identities? Do you think your views on men/women will shape a new kind of future? Why or why not?
15. What is the meaning of the song "Paloma Negra"--"Black Dove" that Castillo's mother sings to her as she walks out the door?
16. What are Castillo's hopes for the future of humankind? What are yours? Is there any overlap between the two?
17. How can we use our stories to connect with each other rather than to assert a sense of separateness? Have any of Castillo, Vance, Coates, or Satrapi's stories connected with you? What did this connection make you realize about your shared humanity?