Blog Prompts For Week 1 (Walker, Kingston, Erdrich, and Lahiri)

Dear students,

Below are some prompts that you may consider blogging in response to should you need some inspiration for this week's post.

1) In her poem "Be Nobody's Darling" Alice Walker suggests that being labeled an outcast is a positive and desirable identity. In an interview, when asked about this poem Walker went so far as to suggest that one cannot truly have freedom unless one becomes an outcast. Discuss Walker's poem in relation to one or more of the works we have read in class thus far. Would Maxine Hong Kingston, Louise Erdrich, or Jhumpa Lahiri agree or disagree with Walker's perspective on outcasthood?

2) Compare and contrast the ways in which women are viewed and treated in the short stories we have read thus far by Kingston, Erdrich, and Lahiri. Are women in these stories viewed as outcasts of society? If so, why? Do the stories in question challenge the idea that women are inferior to men?

3) Both Maxine Hong Kingston's "No Name Woman" and Louise Erdrich's "Fleur" feature strong characters whose stories are told by outside narrators (Kingston's telling of her aunt's story and Pauline's telling of Fleur's). Why might Kingston and Erdrich have chosen to tell their stories in this manner as opposed to having their central characters speak in their own voices? What purpose might this serve?

4) Identify a passage that captivated you as a reader from any of the works we have read thus far and practice the steps of close reading on it. Make sure to give adequate reference to which passage you are blogging in response to.

Happy blogging!

Jeff