American Book Award

the poem he/she feels the want to reread it to catch something possibly missed the first time around. Then, if one learns about who Joy Harjo is and where she is from, one will truly understand this poem. After learning that the author has a Native American and Canadian ancestry, things that were unclear became extremely visible. It was easy to relate to the idea of this poem due to religious reasons and ones faith in prayer. If one believes in prayer and nature bringing peace to oneself, then one can

Mexican-Americans are an essential part of the United States’ diverse mix of cultures. Although a prominent part of American culture, they are often repressed into stereotypes in literature. More often than not characteristics delegated to Mexican-Americans have negative connotations: poor, violent, alien, etc. This stems from years of tension between Mexico and America, whose relationship seems to be a never-ending cycle of highs and lows. Cultural critics recognize these problems and work towards

their pieces “ a drug called tradition” and “ the women hanging from the thirteenth floor window” they talk about individuals relationships with their own future and past and the relationships of others. Sherman Alexie speaks about how native americans relate to their history by shifting from the present to the past, using the same speaker for both settings. The short story is told by victor, who remembers a time he and two other boys on his reservation got high. Throughout the story the boys have

Throughout the Three pieces of literature I read – “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie, “Crazy Courage” by Alma Luz Villanueva, and “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes, multiple claims are implied on the subject of knowledge and individual power. Whether it is about Race, being different, or the struggle to survive, they all point towards the same direction. They all show that being strong, proud, and courage is what makes you individually powerful, even if others may look down upon you or think

about who we are and what others may feel. Although weʻre not alone because others are in similar scenarios as well. In the story “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie, talked about being a middle-class Indian living in American. “If heʻd been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy.

specificity to the individual. Although it is unique to each person, in general, in order to be empowered, one has to not only be knowledgeable, but also experienced. Empowerment requires a balance of comprehension and wisdom. It requires a balance of book smarts and street smarts. Walt Whitman's "When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer" projects this idea exactly; to be empowered, both education and experience are necessary. The speaker of this poem is sitting in a lecture hall listening to a professor

The poems “New Orleans” by Joy Harjo and “Indian Boy Love Song (#2) by Sherman Alexie have two very similar themes. Themes are underlying message, or main ideas, basically the theme is the lesson you learned after you read a story, or in this instance a poem. The theme in “New Orleans” is that you should put forth the effort to find out about your culture's history. While the theme of “Indian Boy Love Song(#2) is that you should, try your hardest to become close to your elders, don’t be distant

Globalization and transnational interconnections between nations’ economies, the flow of people, goods, and ideas have sparked a wake of scholarship and ethnographies that seek to record these rapid changes. Globalization is transforming previously isolated communities into transnational communities; these interconnections gain the attention of scholars that concentrate on studying the materialist impact of globalization or immigration in relation to the binary between developed and developing nations

audience can be ranged from the child of an immigrant to a doctor and offers an authentic and rich portrayal of Chinese history through her conflicting experience of her Chinese and American cultures. In the essay “Straw into Gold: The Metamorphosis of the Everyday” (1984), Sandra Cisneros, nationally known Mexican-American author, uses an informal tone and fragment sentences such as “ I’d never seen anybody make corn tortillas. Ever” (1226) to help create a voice

Mac Foster Mrs. Brown Adv 11th Lit 15 December 2016 Gary Soto Gary Soto, a Mexican-American author, was born in 1952 in Fresno, California. His parents were both Mexican-American. Soto did not expect a lot from his life; he imagined he would "’marry Mexican poor, work Mexican hours, and in the end die a Mexican death, broke and in despair’" (Lee). Instead, he became a great writer of poems and short stories. James Sullivan describes Soto as “one of the most important voices in Chicano literature”