FOR THIS CREATIVE RESPONSE ASSIGNMENT, you will entertain the consequences of making one specific change to Steinbeck’s novel: you will imagine how the events in the selections we read would have been different if the strikers were primarily (not necessarily exclusively) people of color. Your creative response will be graded based on the degree to which it engages with the specific situations and dynamics at play in Steinbeck's novel, and draws upon the concepts, factual material, and concepts we have been discussing throughout the term to speculate vividly, and in explicit detail about the very particular consequences and differences that would be introduced along with racial and ethnic difference. (Do not be general, or vague – i.e. “If the strikers had been non-white then they would have faced racism or been treated as others”, etc...; be specific and concrete. Your paper must reflect an awareness/knowledge of the specific content we read and discussed in the novel, and a reworking of those specific scenes/conflicts, rather than a general reframing of the entire novel... likewise, the events you invent should be as specific to the particular changes you make as possible. (For example, if you imagined the strikers to be Filipino, how, specifically would they be perceived as racially other by the citizens/growers? What difference would it make if they were Filipino as opposed to New Immigrants? Etc...) There are a number of questions and possibilities you can pursue, and it's up to you to follow your interest: How would this change in circumstance have affected the actions that Steinbeck represents? How would it have changed the way the organizers spoke to, or organized the men, or planned their actions? How would it have changed the way they were addressed, or bargained with, by the owners? How might it have affected the interactions and dynamics between the laborers themselves? How might it have affected the specific actions taken by the growers in response to the strike, and in response to the intransigence of the strikers? Obviously, much of this will depend on how you choose to imagine the workers – in your version, what would be their racial/ethnic composition? Would there be more than one group? Etc... We've read a number of works that have helped us understand some of the dynamics of race, racialization, ethnic particularity, in response to questions like nativism and nationalism, and assimilation; we've also specifically looked at labor in relationship to ethnic identity in Christ in Concrete, “Be American,” and the Mexican Repatriation. DiDonato and Bulosan dramatize the intersection of Italian and Filipino identity, respectively, with class and labor struggles, and our recently-read writings by Americo Paredes, taken in this context, also offer insights on Mexican American identity formation. More pertinently, in our class discussion, we looked closely at the way that racialization, class resentment, and labor contributed to Mexican Repatriation (as well as the fact that that single historical event can be interpreted in multiple ways). Taken together, this should supply you with a decent basis from which to speculate and hypothesize about the role and dynamics of ethnic and racial identity in this imagined scenario. By re-imagining the event we read, you will be offering your interpretation of how race and class operated during this period in US history – something you should feel amply prepared for. You may reimagine the scenes that Steinbeck portrayed or invent scenes and events of your own. You are welcome to either treat this as a creative writing assignment, and offer your own creative version of this story, or it simply describe the differences you think would arise, and what would happen as a result of these differences. What could’ve happened, and why?
FOR THIS CREATIVE RESPONSE ASSIGNMENT, you will entertain the consequences of making one specific change to Steinbeck’s novel: you will imagine how the events in the selections we read would have been different if the strikers were primarily (not necessarily exclusively) people of color.
Your creative response will be graded based on the degree to which it engages with the specific situations and dynamics at play in Steinbeck's novel, and draws upon the concepts, factual material, and concepts we have been discussing throughout the term to speculate vividly, and in explicit detail about the very particular consequences and differences that would be introduced along with racial and ethnic difference. (Do not be general, or vague – i.e. “If the strikers had been non-white then they would have faced racism or been treated as others”, etc...; be specific and concrete. Your paper must reflect an awareness/knowledge of the specific content we read and discussed in the novel, and a reworking of those specific scenes/conflicts, rather than a general reframing of the entire novel... likewise, the events you invent should be as specific to the particular changes you make as possible. (For example, if you imagined the strikers to be Filipino, how, specifically would they be perceived as racially other by the citizens/growers? What difference would it make if they were Filipino as opposed to New Immigrants? Etc...)
There are a number of questions and possibilities you can pursue, and it's up to you to follow your interest: How would this change in circumstance have affected the actions that Steinbeck represents? How would it have changed the way the organizers spoke to, or organized the men, or planned their actions? How would it have changed the way they were addressed, or bargained with, by the owners? How might it have affected the interactions and dynamics between the laborers themselves? How might it have affected the specific actions taken by the growers in response to the strike, and in response to the intransigence of the strikers? Obviously, much of this will depend on how you choose to imagine the workers – in your version, what would be their racial/ethnic composition? Would there be more than one group? Etc...
We've read a number of works that have helped us understand some of the dynamics of race, racialization, ethnic particularity, in response to questions like nativism and nationalism, and assimilation; we've also specifically looked at labor in relationship to ethnic identity in Christ in Concrete, “Be American,” and the Mexican Repatriation. DiDonato and Bulosan dramatize the intersection of Italian and Filipino identity, respectively, with class and labor struggles, and our recently-read writings by Americo Paredes, taken in this context, also offer insights on Mexican American identity formation. More pertinently, in our class discussion, we looked closely at the way that racialization, class resentment, and labor contributed to Mexican Repatriation (as well as the fact that that single historical event can be interpreted in multiple ways). Taken together, this should supply you with a decent basis from which to speculate and hypothesize about the role and dynamics of ethnic and racial identity in this imagined scenario.
By re-imagining the event we read, you will be offering your interpretation of how race and class operated during this period in US history – something you should feel amply prepared for. You may reimagine the scenes that Steinbeck portrayed or invent scenes and events of your own. You are welcome to either treat this as a creative writing assignment, and offer your own creative version of this story, or it simply describe the differences you think would arise, and what would happen as a result of these differences.
What could’ve happened, and why?
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