ENGLISH 174 TAKE HOME MIDTERM
Due Friday, March 28th at 10 pm
I. ASSIGNMENT PROMPT
Description of Assignment: Compose an anthology of 10 quotations drawn from the materials assigned for the first five sections of the course (I-V). The anthology will consist of a preface, short commentaries on each quotation (4-6 sentences), and a conclusion. The anthology should be governed by a theme or orchestrating vision that offers a way to link together the diverse materials for this course. (You are also welcome to sub-divide the exam into two sets of themes, with five quotations for each theme.)
The best anthologies (those that will receive an A or A- grade) will be ones where the theme enables the student to inquire into the complexities of reading our own heart and the hearts of others.
Texts for the assignment: Draw one quotation from the writing of an author in each of the following ten sets of authors. Present the quotation and cite the text and page number of the quote (if the text has a page number). Then provide your critical commentary on the quotation. Note: You need not present the quotations in the order listed below. Indeed, it is best if you compose your own order for the presentation of quotes and commentaries.
1. Mark Brackett, Rebecca Solnit, Anna Deavere Smith’s “Talk to Me”
2. James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King Jr.
3. Sandra Cisneros (short stories), Ernest Hemingway (short stories)
4. Herman Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” Joyce Carol Oates, I’ll Take You There.
5. Father Greg Boyle, Keith Oatley, Lucy Johnson, Johann Hari
6. Audre Lorde, Robert Masters, Charles Duhigg, Justin Lioi, Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992
7. Thucydides, Seneca, Plutarch, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Abigail Adams, Benjamin Banneker.
8. Any text of your own choosing including texts marked on the syllabus for a favorite sentence (but not from texts used previously in this assignment).
9. Any text of your own choosing including song lyrics and movie lines (but not from texts used previously in this assignment).
10. Any YouTube selection from the Playlist for English 174
ADVICE: Choose a topic that is personally important and resonant to you, and feel free to write in your personal voice, selecting the topic and the readings--and responding to them--with a combination of heart and soul and mind. I want to see and feel you embrace your passions and curiosities and share your learning from life and your desire to learn and explore and experience more in life in the realm of emotions.
PLEASE NOTE: I WELCOME YOU TO DRAW UPON AND ADAPT YOUR PARAGRAPH RESPONSES FOR THE QUOTES AND COMMENTARIES IN THIS ASSIGNMENT.
Voice: You are welcome—even encouraged—to bring your personal voice into the writing for this assignment. In short, you can use “I” in your introduction and commentaries as well as the conclusion.
Heart: One way to develop a topic for this anthology is just to look into your heart and remember and reflect upon what readings had the most emotional impact --or “affect”--on you and find a way to write about them.
Analysis of the texts: Write a commentary on each quotation that is at least between 4-6 sentences in length. The commentary should be more than a paraphrase of the passage: it should seek to illuminate the significance of the passage and connect the passage to other passages through comparisons and contrasts.
The commentary should develop the theme or governing idea of the anthology as a whole. It is vital in these commentaries to explicate the passage first and foremost from the point of view of its author rather than to offer your personal opinion of it.
Consider the commentary an act of empathic listening and of comparative or contextual analysis. Seek to understand the passage in its own context rather than just declaring its personal significance to you. Comment on the language and specific details of the passage and make both comparisons and contrasts to other texts in the anthology.
The first sentence of the commentary should seek to locate the passage specifically within the context of the text from which it is drawn.
Note: It’s very helpful to make comparisons and contrasts between the authors and texts you cite in the commentaries, and the best exams will make such a comparison or contrast for the commentary on each quotation. Create an orchestration of the quotes that offers not just harmony among the quotes but dissonance or counterpoint.
MAKING CONNECTIONS OF COMPARISON AND CONTRAST AMONG PASSAGES AND LINKING COMMENTS TO A THEME WILL BE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT TRANSFORMATION OR ADAPTATION OF YOUR PARAGRAPH RESPONSES IF YOU DRAW UPON PAST PARAGRAPH RESPONSES FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT.
Conclusion: This conclusion should be a summary reflection about the project that also offers some personal opinion about the significance of the readings to you. In the Conclusion, you can also reflect about any change in your vision during this course about our emotional life or about any one emotion.
At the end of the Conclusion, please note your favorite single reading from the course so far with a very short explanation about why it was your favorite.
CHECKLIST:
TA Name: Please include the name of your TA on the first page
Title: Please give your Midterm a title (as the title is the first introduction of your thesis and first impressions count)..
Preface: Write a 1-2 page Preface to this anthology in which you introduce and explain the orchestrating theme or themes of this anthology—-the topics, concerns, issues, arguments that govern selection of the quotations you use to compose this anthology. The Preface can be a combination of a personal essay and a critical thesis. I welcome you to reveal in this preface both personal passion and curiosity.
Conclusion: (1 page). This conclusion should be a summary reflection about the project that also offers some personal opinion about the significance of the readings to you. Select and briefly explain the one reading you valued the most for your learning.
Proofread:
NOTE: Plagiarism and us of A.I. will not be tolerated. Do not draw upon any uncited sources for commentary on the reading. If I suspect plagiarism or A.I. use, I will quiz you during office hours on each text that I suspect you responded to with work copied or borrowed or if you used ChatGBT to generate comments. Remember: BrightSpace gives similarity reports.
II. GENERAL GUIDELINES AND ADVICE FOR MIDTERM
Anna Deavere Smith argues in Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines (2000) that words can be “the doorway into the soul of a culture.” She adds, “I set out across America, on a search for American character. My search was specifically to find America in its language. I interview people and communities about the events of our time, in the hope that I will be able to absorb America.... This is a country of many tongues, even if we stick to English. Placing myself in other people’s words, as in placing myself in other people’s shoes, has given me the opportunity to get below the surface—to get ‘real.’”
When you comment upon these texts, try to place yourself “in other people’s words” as if placing yourself “in their shoes.” Listen to what is said and what may be hidden between the lines, and comment upon both.
Consider also what might be revealed about a text by comparing and contrasting or juxtaposing its words with voices from other texts. The anthology should seek to create a conversation and debate among the texts.
Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight can serve as a model and inspiration for this midterm. Consider how she orchestrates the range of voices in this play from start to finish. Consider the voices she gives us first and second and last. In the play, each voice remains a monologue, but she arranges the voices to create juxtapositions and counterpoints.
You can orchestrate the 10 quotations as 10 characters in a dramatic conversation about our emotions. You can select quotations from different times and places and from different disciplines (e.g., literature, philosophy, politics, the social sciences, science). Consider how each quote you select can be looked upon as a character in play interacting with other quotes/characters.
Midterm Format:
Title of Anthology
Preface
1. Anna Deavere Smith, Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines (2000):
I set our across America, on a search for American character. My search was specifically to find America in its language. I interview people and communities about the events of our time, in the hope that I will be able to absorb America.... This is a country of many tongues, even if we stick to English. Placing myself in other people’s words, as in placing myself in other people’s shoes, has given me the opportunity to get below the surface—to get ‘real.’ (p. 12)
4-6 sentences of commentary
2. Sonora McKeller, “Watts-Little Rome” (1966):
Quotation
4-6 sentences of commentary
Repeat this format for 8 other quotes and commentaries.
Conclusion
III. GRADING RUBRIC FOR TAKE HOME MIDTERM
For me, I can do a quick scan of an assignment to get a strong first impression for the grade I will give.
-- An interesting title that suggests the student has a complex theme for the anthology.
--An A or A- anthology will almost always have commentaries 5-6 sentences in length. The B and below anthologies will use 4 sentences, most of them short or simple in structure.
--The A anthologies will make comparisons and contrasts between texts in every commentary and the A- anthologies will do it most of the commentaries.
--The A and A- anthologies will orchestrate the commentaries to develop a theme.
--The A and A- anthologies will make an effort to link each commentary to the theme and offer an analysis of the passage that seeks to understand the passage from the author’s perspective rather than being your own take or riff on the subject.
The take home exam will be graded holistically, but here’s something of a breakdown of the grading for the midterm.
--3 points for preface and thesis and 3 points for conclusion
--10 points for the quote/commentary section.
-- 9-10 points should be given in the commentary section for (1) a well-organized orchestration of the quotes, (2) linking each quote to the thesis or choosing ones that align with the thesis, and (3) commentaries that make comparisons and contrasts among the texts, creating an interesting, thoughtful conversation or debate among the voices.
I like to reward students for the originality of the thesis. Select a topic that you care about and that intrigues you.
For choosing a topic, I recommend students to review their paragraph responses for favorite ones they have made and ones that I might have responded to with enthusiasm.
Grading Scale for 16/48 Point Assignments:
48/16 A+
47/15.7 A+/A
46/15.4 A/A+
45/15 A
44/14.7 A/A-
43/14.4 A-/A
42/14 A-
41/13.7 A-/B+
40/13.4 B+/A-
39/13 B+
38/12.7 B+/B
37/12.4 B/B+
36/12 B
35/11.7 B/B-
34/11.4 B-/B
33/10 B-
32/9.7 B-/C+
31/9.4 C+/B-
30/9 C+
29/8.7 C+/C
28/8.4 C/C+
27/8 C
26/7.7 C/C-
25/7.4 C-/C
26/7 C-
25/6.7 C-/D+
24/6.4 D+/C-
23/6 D+
22/5 D
21/4 D-
20 and below: F
Themes and Topics for Midterm
Here are some sample topics from past anthologies:
--“Through the Looking Glass: Reading about Others to Develop Self-Empathy”
--“An Ode to Empathy: A Feeling Discovered through a Pandemic”
--“Pain: The Frustrating Sibling who is here to stay, so you may as well get along”
--“Silence in the Rush: Emotion in Moments of Quiet”
--“Kintsugi: In Defense of Suffering.”
--“An Ode to Sadness and Anger”
Additional Advice for Take Home Midterm: Themes and Topics
Give Me Drama. Ask Yourself Challenging Questions
In terms of selecting a topic for the midterm, I always tell the students that the topics and themes I find most interesting are those that surprise me or are not ones I would come up with myself. I also highly recommend you to select a theme for this anthology that has personal significance to you. The best anthologies are the ones that bring a personal voice--and your personal experiences--to bear on the readings. Find a way to write about what you feel deeply about inside your own soul and the readings that resonate the most within you,
In my own grading, I try to reward students for originality and degree of difficulty. Just as in the judging done in ice skating and gymnastics, you will score very well if you nail a conventional routine. But you will probably score ever better if you try a more difficult routine even if you don’t execute it flawlessly.
For the English 174 take home midterm, I encourage you to be creative and dramatic and challenging in your themes and topics and how you “orchestrate” the set of 10 quotes you select for your anthology. Below I’ve given some possible themes and topics. Please feel welcome and encouraged to adapt them or to come up with your own. Be creative in choice of topic and how you orchestrate the quotes (Your order for presenting quotes and commentaries does not need to follow the order in the prompt.)
Anna Deavere Smith’s structure and method in Twilight can serve in part as a model and inspiration for this midterm. Consider how she orchestrates the range of voices in this play from beginning to end. Consider the voices she gives us first and second and last and how she divides the play into sub-sets of topics or themes (ending with Justice). In her play, the voices never engage each other directly. Each one remains a monologue. But she arranges the voices to create juxtapositions and give us lots of drama.
Drama is grounded in conflict and debate and collaboration among voices. So is democracy. Your own arrangement of voices and commentary upon them should give us conflict and collaboration, collisions and mergers, similarities and differences, comparisons and contrasts among the mixtape or playlist of voices you assemble together. The commentaries should be concerned about explicating the quote from the author’s point of view and also linking it in comparisons or contrasts to other voices in the anthology. Why do you think she begins with the interview with Rudy Salas? Why does she end the play with the interview with Twilight Bey? Give attention to how you open and close your anthology.
Smith considers words to be a doorway into the soul of a culture, and she calls herself a student of words. She also, as an actress, engages in an act of empathy: she tries to get inside the words and soul and heart and mind of each character so we, as viewers of the play—and empathic listeners—can consider the events of 1992 from multiple perspectives, placing ourselves, as she does, in the skin and shoes of all the people whose words she incarnates or brings into the flesh on the stage.
Smith gives us several reasons in her Introduction for creating this play. One reason is, simply, to try to gain a better understanding of the conflict and collaborations--and contagions of emotion--that create what Thucydides would call a factional crisis in Corcyra during the Peloponnesian Wars and what Aeschylus would call a tragedy full of sound and fury and suffering and wisdom. In Twilight, Smith gives us, as she declares, no single, unifying voice to answer with clarity any question about why the riot (or rebellion or revolt or uprising) happened or how the people of Los Angeles (and the “audiences” outside of LA) responded to what happened on the stage of the streets. Instead she gives us a babel of voices. Our quest as readers and listeners is to make some sense of that babel or become intimate with that babel, listening to hear both likeness and difference, and always engaging in humanistic inquiry that asks how and why people respond to the same event so differently?
For the midterm project, one way to approach a topic or theme or orchestration of 10 voices is to give us a babel, a mix of voices, and then to use your commentaries on them to offer links between them and insight into each and how each might present a different take, a different perspective, on an emotion or any subject. The best questions to ask yourself about the readings will be those that have no easy answer or no conclusive answer. Present the 10 voices as 10 characters in a drama or a conversation about our emotions that is ongoing and that began in the era of Homer and Confucius and still continues in the laboratories of Psychology Departments and Cognitive Science Departments today and in the stories we can find in our politics and history and literature and in our residence halls and discussion sections.
Consider how you can select voices from the readings to offer answers to the following questions in the take home midterm anthology. Be careful: The commentaries on the quotes should not be your personal debate or argument or agreement with the quote. Instead, the commentary should be your effort to see the issue through the eyes and beliefs of the author of the quotation.
What Makes Us Stronger: Dealing with Emotions or Denying and Repressing Them?
Tears and Fury: What Can We Learn from Each? How do people respond to each for better or for worse?
Screams and Silence: What Can We Learn from Each? How do authors call upon us to puzzle out what gives rise to screams and cries and silence and muteness and fury and how do they explore how people respond to screams and silence?
Temperatures of the Heart: Who is Hot, Cold, Warm, Icy and Why? Where and when do we see changes of heart? What makes the change?
The Climates of Our Emotions: What Makes us Stormy, Sunny, Cloudy? How Do We Deal with Emotional Climate Change?
The Joy and Illumination of Listening to the Blues and to the Sadness and Anger and Darkness of Tragedy
The Political Color Spectrum of Hearts: Red and Blue (and Purple and Yellow) States of Emotion.
To what degree is the human animal a creature of sympathy and empathy and compassion? To what degree is the human animal a creature of self-interest? Is sympathy a weakness or a strength?
What Teaches Us More: Occasions of Sadness and the Blues and Anger or Moments of Happiness and Pleasure?
What are the experiences that teach us the most in life? What is the place of reading and listening to music and viewing art and film in this learning process? How can we learn from art?
Tears and Crying: Contemplating the Same but Different: Tears of Joy and Tears of Sadness? What makes us cry?
How and Where Do We Learn? Can We Learn from Fiction as well as History and Politics and from studying the “Real World” of Business as reported, say, in the Wall Street Journal?
Can’t Hold it Back Anymore? Let it Go! Or Hold it In? What choice is emotionally intelligent?
What Are the Best Images and Metaphors and Symbols of Our Emotions? Does an Arrow through a Heart suggest Happiness or Pain, a Wounding or a Walking on Sunshine? Create an anthology of your favorite metaphors used to portray various emotions.
Men and Women and Emotion: Is there a Difference? If so, how much?
The Stretch of Stories: What Happens When We Try to Relate to Characters that Are so Different from Us (or who we don’t like)? Can this gave us more insight—and even more joy--than relating to characters we like?
The Stretch of History: What Happens When We Time Travel into the Heart and Soul of a Different Place and Time? Can We Do It? How Can We Make it an Overseas Study Learning Experience? What if We Go to Places that Same Most Foreign and Distant from Us? Can we Find Sameness or Only Difference between us and foreigners and strangers and men and women in Classical Greece and Revolutionary America?
Apologies, gratitude, stonewalling, resentment, revenge.
An Ode to Sadness and Anger. Beethoven composed an Ode to Joy. Compose an Ode to Sadness and Anger. Consider how these emotions can be evaluated as “positive” as well as “negative” emotions.
Note: I’ve included in the Content section a long essay by Rebecca Solnit entitled “A Short History of Silence.” It’s from a recently published collection of essays by Solnit. I love this essay. It’s fascinating about empathy and the history of repressing emotion and breaking silence to articulate them. Solnit’s history is a feminist history of silence. She’s very concerned about the unequal distribution of power and wealth in society and whose voices have power and amplification in society and the relationship between political power and the power of the word and the power of listening. I urge you to read this essay as a provocation for coming up with topics and themes for your midterm as well as a model of how to write creatively and powerfully in a non-fiction essay.
Below I’ve included 3 complete anthologies I consider exemplary:
EXEMPLARY TAKE HOME MIDTERM PASSAGES (2022)
See More Rainbows by Seeking Clouds
PREFACE
Society has been conditioned to believe that emotions stand in the way of intelligent decisions. We have been told if we are emotional, we are weak. But what these authors explain is that expressing emotions is actually power. We must learn to dance in the rain. We cannot be scared of being vulnerable with our emotions, as they provide so much insight when shared with other humans. After all, when rain passes, there is a beautiful rainbow on the other side. However, the authors warn that these emotions must be acted upon alongside reason, as
acting solely upon emotion allows us to act irrationally. When wind becomes extreme it can create tornadoes that destroy everything in sight. Anger is a powerful emotion, but when directed at other people it can become bad. When
we allow others to manipulate our emotions through fear, anger can be dangerously misplaced. When unified under a manipulative leader it creates forest fires that are nearly impossible to control. When we are hurt, we can use this hurt to come together and make change. When snowstorms do happen, we can choose to build the snow up and create wonderful snowmen. We must not only listen to those expressing their emotions but seek out those who are ignored. When we hear thunder, we know lightning is coming and we wrongfully run away. Those who can, hop on a plane and find a warm location to stay safe. But what if we weren’t
scared of a storm, instead we listened to the noise of the storm and felt the rain on our skin. Only this way, we would get to appreciate the rainbow on the other side.
In order to see rainbows, we must first see clouds; If we refuse to see clouds or allow them to rain, we are left with a clear sky… but a lifeless, dying desert.
These author’s come together to warn us about dealing with our emotions properly, much like dealing with mother nature in a way that allows us to see its beauty.
I realize I love to see a rainbow, but I hate to be in a storm. But something so beautiful cannot be so easy to come by. If I want to find all the beauty in the world, I must seek out places where a rainbow can lie behind. I must find those who suffer and feel their pain, for this is compassion. Compassion has the power to truly heal, thus I can utilize the power of human connection—the greatest gift life has to offer.
“A person is a person through other persons.” - Desmand Tutu
ANALYSES
1. Mark Brackett “Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive” (2019)
“Creativity is the lifeblood of our culture and economy… Children have become less emotionally expressive… less likely to see things from a different angle.”
DANCE IN THE RAIN:
Mark Brackett explains that emotions have many benefits, especially stemming creativity and convergent thinking. Though in school this is often frowned upon as we are told to memorize and recall information, in the real world allowing our emotions opens an entire new world of knowledge to be found. Suppressing our emotions forces our humanity to die like in the case of Bartleby, and if we continue to teach this in school we will create an entire world just like The Dead Letter Offices full of copyists. Creative thought means utilizing our emotions to navigate through the clouds, not judge the rain and storms as they pass, and eventually reaching the rainbow. This is why it’s important to express our emotions, and learn to dance in the rain.
2. Martin Luther King Jr. “From Strength to Love” (1963)
“Dictators, capitalizing on soft mindedness, have led men to acts of barbarity and terror that are unthinkable in civilized society.”
BUILD SNOWMEN:
Martin Luther King Jr.’s sermon brings clarity to two timeless issues, tough mindedness and a tender heart. He disagrees with Abraham Lincoln in the powers of the mob. He believes that if done correctly, coming together through shared anger can be used to bring peace; however, this cannot be done with a soft mind. He blames race prejudice as a result of suspicion created by the passive acceptance of false propaganda, which he describes as soft mindedness. Like the YouTube video “Emotion and Reason” and Abraham Lincoln, in this
way he warns against allowing one's emotions to be manipulated. He believes if they can bring together tough mindedness and tenderheartedness, through nonviolent resistance they can create the change that they desire… we can create snowmen in a snowstorm if we choose to bear the cold
4. Herman Melville "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wallstreet” (1853)
“Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!”
DESERT:
When we refuse our emotions, we refuse the clouds and rainbows become impossible. If we treat ourselves like Wall Street treated Bartleby, we will all end up like Bartleby huddled at the base of the wall, knees drawn up, lying on our sides, with our heads touching a cold stone, “sleeping profoundly.” Our world will become dry and lifeless as we lose all signs of humanity. To be human is to connect with our heart, and like Mark Brackett explains, feelings are forms of information that we must access and figure out what it’s telling us. When these
emotions are not attended to like in Bartleby’s case, it is the act of silencing. Rebecca Solnit explains silencing as the most powerful form. of dehumanization.
3. Sandra Cisneros “Eleven” (1991) (p. 8)
“That’s when everything I’ve been holding in since this morning, since when Mrs. Price put the sweater on my desk, finally lets go, and all of a sudden I’m crying in front of everybody. I wish I was invisible but I’m not. I’m eleven and it’s my birthday today and I’m crying like I’m three in front of everybody.”
FIND SHELTER:
Unfortunately, when kids express their emotions, they are not
attended to. Crying is associated with being “a little girl” and sharing emotions in public is shamed upon, crying is supposed to be done alone. Like Brackett explains, kids have been trained to suppress how they feel especially in school. The teacher acted like everything was fine and ignored her cries and like Rebecca Sonit warns, she was silenced and left dehumanized. Like Greg Boyle describes, there is so much power in kinship and compassion, and this was all she needed to feel her age and enjoy her birthday. If one person simply acknowledged her rain, she would have not felt so much shame for her emotions that she wished to become invisible and hide.
5. Gregory Boyle “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion” (p. 75)
“Compassion isn’t just about feeling the pain of others; it’s about bringing them toward yourself.”
FEEL THE RAIN ON YOUR SKIN:
Greg Boyle shows Rebecca Solnit that those who are privileged can help those in pain through telling his stories with gang members. He explains true compassion, to not only listen, but to stand with them. This brings people onto the same level; this is solidarity and kinship. He explains that it is not enough to help those under the clouds. The clouds would just follow them, getting heavier and heavier as the water builds up until it becomes too heavy to bear. Instead, we must stand together under the same rain, this way we can truly be heard, and understanding can be created through empathy.
6. Anna Deavere Smith: Excerpt from “Talk to Me” (2000)
“My pursuit of American character is, basically, a pursuit of difference”
THUNDER AND LIGHTNING:
Anna Deavere Smith highlights the importance of not only listening but seeking out the voices of the unheard. There are so many people hidden among the clouds, all with different rainbows to reach on the other side. In her piece “Twilight” she compiles these voices to show history is not so black and white. The key to learning is not to accept truths at face value as Martin Luther King Jr. warns. American character is full of people with different experiences, and even if people gain the courage to tell their story, it only makes a difference if people listen with empathy. Thunder and lighting is nothing to be scared of if you actually seek to understand how it works.
7. Rebecca Solnit “A Short History of Silence” (2017) (p. 49)
“Men are not expected to engage in the empathic extension of identifying with a different gender, just as white people are not asked, the way people of color are, to identify with other races. Being dominant means seeing yourself and not seeing others; privilege often limits or obstructs imagination.”
GO ON VACATION:
Rebecca Solnit does not see “American culture” in the same light as Anna Deavere, as we are dominated by a white patriarchy that is too privileged and ignorant to seek out these voices. The majority of the white-male population of America will not care to listen to the voices of “Twilight.” The power of America, lies in the most powerful, the wealthiest, those who work on Wall Street and end up like Bartleby. Those who are angry and upset because they have been treated unfairly can speak out, but they will not even be heard by those who need to listen. By not listening, those speaking out end up dehumanized, and humanity is left to die. Those who are privileged enough choose to go on vacation during a storm while everyone else is left in danger.
8. Abraham Lincoln “On the Perpetuation of our Political Institutions” (1838)
“America was too strong and too isolated to be threatened by any outside force—the only danger of despotism came from the mob within.”
BEWARE OF FOREST FIRES:
Abraham Lincoln sees that the emotions of the American people are controlled by mob rule that is leading to the destruction of nature. This is exactly what the YouTube video, “Reason and Emotion,” warned. Abraham explains that the nation has forgotten reason, as they are perpetuating the political institutions by neglecting the rule of law because the constitution states that all men are created equal. He calls for boundless compassion to repair the nation, just like Greg Boyle preaches. He blames the mobs for the cause
of the Civil War, as mobs create storms too large to control. When these mobs are not stopped, emotion is misdirected and placed upon each other like forest fires that destroy everything in sight
9. Any YouTube selection from the Playlist for English 174: “Reason and Emotion” (1943)
“Yes, it’s madness. Reason has been enslaved, while emotions is the master–a mad
emotion, stripped of all reason, leaving nothing but ruin in its wake”
TORNADO WARNING:
Instead of warning suppressing emotion like Brackett or
Cisneros, this video warns against acting solely upon emotion. Though emotions can be so beneficial to making the right choice, when ditching all reason, it can become dangerous. When bad people have positions of power, like the example of Hitler, they try to instill fear to manipulate their followers into doing very irrational things. Sadly, this is common in today’s politics, and have been warned against since Abraham Lincoln in the civil war. Learning to control and direct emotion is essential in handling it properly. It is so important to use emotion
and reason together, otherwise a little bit of wind can become out of control into a dangerous tornado.
.10. Any text of your own choosing: James Baldwin “Sonny’s Blues”
“Listen, Creole seemed to be saying, listen. Now these are Sonny’s blues” (p. 139)
FIND THE RAINBOW:
James Baldwin shows what happens when we allow room for other clouds to rain, and how much this can open up about ourselves. Sonny’s older brother used to look down upon Sonny as Sonny followed a different path. Once Sonny’s older brother felt his own pain, he was able to understand Sonny’s, and from here, he was able to actually listen. Brackett explains just how powerful expressing your emotions can be, and when sharing these experiences with others, it can reconnect humanity. Sonny’s brother was finally able to understand his mother's pain, his fathers, and his own little girls. He found the rainbow on the
other side.
CONCLUSION
This project made me question pretty much everything. I live at a place of privilege, though I am a woman, I am white and have been financially secure my entire life. I have always believed myself to be an empathetic person, but do I truly stand with those who suffer? Sure, I volunteer and positively contribute to my community, but I don’t go out of my way like Rebecca Solnit did. If I look for it, I can open my eyes to so many new perspectives on this world and learn so much more. It might make me uncomfortable, but uncomfortable conversations are
where growth lies. To do this, I have to seek out more voices. Even the ones that are harder to hear and have been silenced for years. I can see so many more rainbows by simply seeking more clouds. These authors also emphasize the importance of how you listen, it must be with empathy. Like Gregory Boyles explains, it must not be from a place of superiority. Once Sonny’s brother
learned to stand with Sonny, he was able to understand his own “blues.” Of course, these authors also taught me how to handle my emotions. I cannot ditch reason
for emotion, but instead allow them to work together to make the right decisions. Emotions can be so beneficial when used in the right ways.
My favorite reading from the course so far is Herman Melville’s "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wallstreet” (1853) because it left me so confused. I didn’t understand Bartleby and I didn’t understand why he allowed himself to die. I thought about this story for weeks after I read it the first time. Since then, I’ve read it two more times. There is so much to learn from this story and I am so glad I got to read it. I now prioritize staying in touch with my heart every single day.
The most valuable story to understand the heart was for me, Aaron Lazare’s “On
Apology.” To apologize effectively, is to understand the psychological aspects that must be repaired when treating someone wrongly. This has taught me the complexities of the heart, and how it can be broken. From this I have gained an understanding of emotions that I can now apply into all of my relationships.
Beating Me Down to Build Me Up: The Backlash and Beauty of Pain and Anger
PREFACE
In American history's discourse, we are a country that has been driven off of one emotion: anger. Anger sparks wars. Anger triggers revolutions. It is what leads to revolts. Anger in the wrong action is what creates laws. Anger in injustice is what advocates for change. Although pain and anger are sentiments we often want to run away from or avoid at all costs, anger is one of the most inspiring emotions that we can learn from. In the lens of social injustice, the pioneers of previous generations were driven off of their anger. Since the arrival of the first Africans into America, they were introduced into a new land with hatred. For centuries, the mistreatment and belittling of Blacks in America– for no other reason than pigmentation, has planted seeds of resentment in the minds of those marginalized. While many allow the anger of injustice to preside over them, others choose to weaponize their pain
and make it meaningful. The strongest leaders advocate against injustice in an expression from their pain, instead of feeling stuck and constricting themselves to the perceptions that others hold of them. Without anger being the vehicle for change, several issues in America would remain unresolved today. In the following anthology of quotes from selected authors, we find a common theme of redefining anger. Once an emotion born out of ugliness, to one beautifully reflected. What
can we learn from our anger? How far can our anger take us to create something beautiful? You will learn through the following quotations that anger creates beautiful expressions. It is one of the most difficult emotions to understand and overcome, but that is what makes it so special. Let’s dig deep into the origins of anger from injustice, and what we can do with it.
1. Charles Duhigg- Why is America so Angry? (2018)
“Anger motivates us to undertake difficult tasks. We’re often more creative when we’re angry because our outrage helps us see solutions we’ve overlooked.” (Paragraph 13).
Charles Duhigg’s quote underscores the synopsis of this anthology of quotations. The emotion of anger drives us to new destinations. It puts us at our lowest and allows us to return to a higher state than our equilibrium once we fully endure it. Outrage drives humans to want to change and create a solution. Anger is one of the most underrated emotions because of its negative portrayal, but we often overlook the positive effects it leads us to. In the following quotes, we may find those ways in which anger drives us to creativity and new levels.
2. Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence (1995)
“A main function for sadness is to help adjust to a significant loss, such as the death of someone close or a major disappointment. Sadness brings a drop in energy and enthusiasm for life’s activities, particularly diversions and pleasures, and, as it depends and approaches depression slows the body’s metabolism. This introspective withdrawal creates the opportunity to mourn a loss or frustrated hope, grasp its consequences for one’s life, and as energy returns, plan new beginnings”
(7).
Sadness and pain are necessary emotions for getting through and finally reaching a better place. If individuals only were to stay in a state of joy and happiness, we would not truly understand what it means to be happy. Sadness is a beautiful emotion that helps us understand our pain. Although the saying, “You can’t have a rainbow without the rain” is a cliche, it taps into the emotional importance of feeling pain. As Daniel Goleman says, sadness gives the chance to plan new
beginnings: it tells us that pain is a transformative state. It is an emotional state that can make us better and grow.
3. Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream” (1963)
“We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: for whites only” (Line 15).
In the deep south of the Jim Crow Era, Dr. King’s experiences have been deeply horrific as institutionalized racism drove his anger to want to stir up the community in a poetic and inspirational way. His rage propelled him to write a powerful and persuasive speech. We learn that anger itself cannot be constructive. Instead, it is what you decide to do with it. It just happened that his resentment was emphatic enough to change the world. Concerning Daniel Goleman’s quote on the necessity of sadness and pain to grow, Dr. King’s passion-driven from resentment and pain
permitted him to forgive, make a change, and love his enemies. King’s sentiments lead to an understanding of how one can channel their anger of injustice to have others listen and also agree.
4. Dorothy Morrison, “Black California” (1970)
“Cause the sun don’t shine in Black California”
California– known as the state of sunshine is shadowed with reality as Dorothy Morrison expresses what it is like to be Black in California. Through a song that superficially sounds beautiful, it leaves you to hear the deep pain behind the melody. Mistreatment and unjustness are themes that can be sung in her voice. The song gives insight into the reality of what African Americans have to experience in California– as beautiful as it may appear.
5. Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener (1853)
“If he would but have named a single relative or friend, I would instantly have written, and urged their taking the poor fellow away to some convenient retreat. But he seemed alone, absolutely alone in the universe. A bit of wreck in the mid-Atlantic” (137).
My heart feels the pain in Bartleby’s life. We do not know his family or his life outside of work. He doesn’t go home to anyone and lives his life alone. In addition, he does not even have conversations with his coworkers. Bartleby’s depression and solitude make me reminisce on times in my depressive episodes. The difference is: I had people around me. But, I shut them out. To have no one or no support system--without a choice, pains my heart and makes me empathize with this character as to why he prefers not to do anything— even live. This quote shows the difference in how some can manage their pain. The pain Bartleby endures does not transform. into a positive emotion that changes his life circumstance. The power of overcoming vexation and pain is not a one-way street for all, for some, it requires a sense of togetherness and tenderness to get through.
6. Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart (2009)
“But to love the enemy and to find some spaciousness for the victimizer, as well as the victim, resembles more the expansive compassion of God. That’s why you do it” (67).
Following the analysis of Bartleby, we learn that a sense of togetherness is needed to overcome pain in some situations. A once negative emotion that can inhabit a being, can be resolved through love. Gregory Boyle tells us to dig deep into our hearts and empathize with one another. It is the most benevolent and godly-like action we can accomplish for one another.
7. Anna Deavere Smith- Twilight Los Angeles (1992)
“These police officers are just like you and I. Take that damn uniform. off of ‘em, they the same as you and I. Why do they have so much power? Why does the system work for them? Where can we go to get the justice that they have? Where?” (39).
Reading this excerpt from Twilight was difficult for me because police brutality is an issue I am so passionate about. I felt as if empathy was not even what I was experiencing reading these passages—instead it was a memory. In August 2015, the San Jose Police Department murdered my stepbrother AJ. It was a complete nightmare, I was too young to understand what had happened. My concerns
were covered up with a ‘suicide’ case. My family still suffers today from seeing his blood stains splattered on their front door. To believe your call to the police can deescalate the situation, and instead, they take away your family member, it is hard to ever side with the opposing force. Anger is the emotion we are prone to feeling once we encounter a loss to a miscarriage of justice. However, an optimistic community can spread awareness and share stories to avoid similar catastrophic events from occurring.
8. Frederick Douglass- What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? (1852).
“What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply” (9).
To keep the theme of injustice and anger from people of color, Douglass’s excerpt above stresses his rage for the treatment of Black slaves. He emphasizes that “America the Free” is not a tangible place for African Americans. How could they celebrate when they have no freedoms? His complete disgust in the way his people were treated and expected to celebrate the 4th of July was written so
others could understand the extent of hypocrisy. To read his work in the 21st century, feelings of frustration for injustice arise in my heart. Douglass's ability to evoke the feelings of those mistreated even years after freedom only shows his success in emotional intelligence and expressing the emotions of many.
9. YouTube Movies, LA 92 (2017)
In another act of social injustice, the LA 92 YouTube clip shows scenes from the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1992. During this showcase of police brutality, the next clips show the result of the riots which occurred after the city was notified justice had not been carried out.
The anger from the citizens in LA has caused them to burn down their cities to show their anger. A city that goes into flames from one side can be seen as a misuse of emotions and fury, however, we learn that America would not be its own country if we were to omit the use of social unrest, revolutions, and riots. To those in LA, their anger was heard. Although the city was devastated, it was one of the only ways rioters could feel seen and heard by the white man.
10. Ernest Hemmingway, Indian Camp (1925)
“He pulled back the blanket from the Indian’s head. His hand came wet. He mounted on the edge of the lower bunk with the lamp in one hand and looked in. The Indian lay with his face toward the wall. His throat had been cut from ear to ear. The blood had flowed down into a pool where his body sagged the bunk” (18).
Ernest Hemingway’s Indian Camp portrayed pain in unimaginable ways. The portrayal of suicide in the passage above is important to highlight because the Native American woman is bearing the same amount of pain bringing her child into labor. Hemingway seems to allude to birth and death as being one of the most excruciating processes. We begin life through pain, and end our lives through pain. The emotion in this text also shows racial tensions between the white man to Native Americans. Dr. Adams does not acknowledge the mother’s pain as she goes through childbirth. He says her cries are unimportant, and it only reminds me of my desire to become a doctor. The emotions in this text show a disregard for human life and the total pain that the Native Americans had to endure.
CONCLUSION:
The heart suffers many emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, fear. Although we believe happiness is the only vessel to live our best lives, we can not comprehend our happiness without the experience of anger and pain. Through the selected quotes of the anthology, we can see the literary art of articulating our emotions. We must carry out justice by expressing our anger. When the sentiments of anger are explored more in-depth, we can see the hurt these authors and
directors portray. Anger is a beautiful emotion. It has its backlashes, ugliness, and rage, but it is what propels us to evolve into our best beings.