Episode 2: Literary Lenses

Group Members: Chris Jacobs, Kaleb Harris, Raven Tanpranadi, Tony Nelson, Yasir Thomas

In our second episode, we explained three literary lenses used in the book The Road by Cormac McCarthy, so far. They are Feminist, Marxism, and New Historic lenses. We noticed there is a lack of women within the book and there isn’t much of a social class. The author doesn’t give us any hints as to why things are this way so we took it upon ourselves to point these out and find our own answers.

Book References:

• Page 195, a woman captured by three men (feminist lens)
• Page 57, the mom (mentioned in the first episode)
• Page 185, the dad about to get robbed (marxist lens)

Below the podcast is the logo and the podcast

My goals for this essay are: to get as much writing time as I can, try to exceed the requirements and not do the bare minimum Have my writing be clearer get my essay proofread and go deeper into ideas that need it. I’m most proud of my essay is the part when I talked about the article because I feel like I went into depth and explained.

This is a picture of refugees trying to cross into another country. There are barbed wires that go from the ground and past their heads. When you look into the distance, it seems like the wires never end as if it’s a maze and what you can see past that is just barren land. It looks as though the people have been walking for a while. The man on the far left in the front is trying to squint to see how much longer the walk is for them. The child in red at the back looks like he or she has no clue as to what’s happening. Everyone is walking in pairs of three, probably because their traveling as a group or there isn’t enough room for everyone to walk together. Another thing is that everyone is wearing jeans and jackets. It’s nothing too heavy that might slow them down but no one is carrying luggage.

When it comes to moving to another country, it’s all about the different opportunities that you can have. The legal way of moving to America, getting a green card or an immigrant visa, can take more than 10 years. Some of the different ways of getting a visa are getting a family petition or an employment sponsor. Even with these options, people still have to get different forms and money. Another thing is that not everyone gets approved or don’t have enough time. That’s when people have to resort to sneaking into a country, which is dangerous and could put them back into the situation they once were or worse. After arriving and settling migrants need jobs and money to support themselves and whoever else might’ve arrived with them. Unfortunately, most jobs don’t pay as much and don’t give migrants the same respect as everyone else. The main jobs that people usually associate with migrants are agricultural workers, construction workers, drivers, tailors, maids, and housekeeping. What people don’t realize is that as long as they’re citizens and have working papers and some money to start with, they can be whatever want. It’s not uncommon for migrant families to have their own business because they do have a lot to bring to society and our economy.

The article, Immigration Must Be Considered An Opportunity For America Not A Problem by Steve Case says, “Countries are either open and growing — absorbing new ideas, people and ways of doing things — or they are closed and falling behind, trying to defend the status quo, exclude outsiders and shut out new thinking.” This quote relates to my topic of opportunities because if countries continue to evolve and let the idea of immigration become normalized then people won’t have to come here both illegally and legally just to worry about getting deported or getting treated as less of a person. It might also the immigration process easier. People wouldn’t have to worry about the types of forms they have and when they might expire, and they wouldn’t need immigration lawyers.

The book that I’m currently reading, Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, starts off with a guy named Jende, who moved from Cameroon (Central Africa) to America with his wife and daughter, going to a job interview to be a chauffeur. He was able to get his job because a family member talked to the employer and recommended him even though Jende did have to lie about his work permit and driver’s license. A quote from page 17 says, “You think a black man gets a good job in this country by sitting in front of white people and telling the truth? Please, don’t make me laugh. I just didn’t want to tell you beforehand and get you even more nervous.” When moving to somewhere new, people should make sure that they have connections with others so that they can get job opportunities and things that would put them in a comfortable position.

In Exit West, the form of magical realism that the author used was portals for the people that needed it the most. There were numerous people that went through portals to go somewhere safer than where they originally were. Nadia and Saeed needed to leave their home country as soon as possible because of the ongoing violence and lack of resources that were there. In Chapter 6, they were successfully able to pass through a portal that took them to a restroom on the Greek island of Mykonos. I used this example because, without the portals, the refugees in the book would probably still be at wherever they came from.

In conclusion, opportunities are a huge part of migration. Without opportunities, most of us wouldn’t be where we are today.

Citations: “How Does the U.S. Refugee System Work?” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/how-does-us-refugee-system-work.

Case, Steve. “Immigration Must Be Considered an Opportunity for America, Not a Problem.” Vox, Vox, 3 Aug. 2016, https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2016/8/3/12362390/immigration-visa-policy-entrepreneur-immigrant-education-snapdeal-kunal-bahl.

Intro: The theme of my essay is about dropping out and stress from school. I wanted to write about something that other students could relate to something on a personal level and have it be somewhat entertaining. I’m proud of doing more than the minimum word count and having it not be a formal essay that people wouldn’t want to read. I made this entire essay off of procrastination and now it’s something that connects to the real world. For the next essay, I think I would have the paragraphs be shorter and not a sight for sore eyes. I want something that’s pleasant and easy to read.

September 12. Another ordinary day for me. I was sitting on the MFL, wondering what the day would be like. The train is already crowded, loud, and musty. I didn’t even know who was around me because people kept coming on and off the train. My day couldn’t have started any worse. For a few minutes, I continued to think that, until the english class writing assignment popped in my head. Ugh! Another writing piece. Of course, I don’t know what to write about and would wait until the last minute to do it. Should I write about the assignment itself or my surroundings? This year I wanted to be a changed student, doing my work on time and participate in class. But, it just never happened. Becoming a changed person takes time and can’t be done overnight, that’s one thing I failed to realize. On the first day of school, I thought I was gonna do my work, but my laziness kicked in. “Doors are closing.” The train operator said. I have about 30 more minutes before I get to City Hall and wouldn’t have a chance to write this paper, so what should I write about. When it comes to writing about myself I never know what to do. I think I know myself, but when it comes down to it, I don’t. To others, it probably won’t make sense, but to me it does. You should be able to think about yourself. When someone says to know your limits, you should but limits change every day. Now that a few minutes have passed and the train isn’t as noisy I can finally concentrate. My scene will be about my thoughts!

And that was how I started off my day. Writing a paper in less than 25 minutes trying to make it seem like I put effort into it, but I’ve already gotten to the point in my life where I no longer care about school. I’m ready to drop out of school and become an illegal exotic dancer and become famous or something. I think some people my age are at that stage too. No longer caring about school or the future, just living in the moment for the moment. Of course, I’m still going to continue to do my work because I do want to go to college and get my degree and have a career. Even if I was to stop doing my work, it would show on my report card.

During the last quarter of my freshman year, I had completely given up. Teachers kept assigning work until the last minute and I wasn’t willing to do it. In English class, we had to write an essay that used ethos, pathos, and logos. I did have a few ideas in mind when I started, but none of them were good enough to get a B on so, my English teacher at the time helped me come up with better ideas. The argument that I stuck with was “artists of the hip hop and r&b genre deserves as much respect as artists from others.” At the time, it sounded like a great idea but it wasn’t. I ended up bs-ing the whole thing because there wasn’t enough research and energy put into it. It also reflected on my report card. A grade too embarrassing to mention in an essay that no one is going to read. My mom and advisor were disappointed. I could tell by the tones of their voices and by their facial expressions. Moral of the story: bs anything you want as long as you’re able to face the consequences, unlike me.

Even while writing this essay I was ready to give up and write about anything. It’s something that we do in life, give up and forget or finesse.

High school is supposed to be the best and hardest part of our academic careers but we tend to focus on the difficult parts. It’s not fair to us that we’re forced to go to school and have people say “you’re here to learn not to have fun.” It’s not like we have a choice in the matter. We should have an option. If it was up to me, I would probably show up to school ⅘ days and have a job. It would be nice to say let’s just not go to school today and have fun.

Teachers like to say, I don’t like grading your homework, but continue to give us a lot of work. Here at SLA, we have 5 class periods and most of the teachers give us homework every day and it’s not even something we could do in 10 minutes. The stress and workload can cause students to drop out or become depressed depending on what’s going on in their life. Having this mentality can be a phase, not only for teens but for all students.