Sunday, March 19, 2017

Tortilla Curtain Assignment

The novel Tortilla Curtain contains a variety of fascinating themes. I hope that you enjoyed reading the book. Now, you have the opportunity to write a formal and fabulous essay on the book. You may use other sources, but your main source should be the book itself.
This should be roughly 3 pages, typed, double spaced. We will turn the essay into turnitin.com
The due date is March 28. Be sure to ask questions as you write.
Here are the possible topics. YOU WILL WRITE ON ONE OF THESE. If you have another topic in mind, by all means let me know and we can discuss it.
1.     What do walls signify in the Tortilla Curtain? Do they separate? Keep people in? Keep animals out? Help maintain identity? Give false security? What do walls signify? (and yes, you can user the present on this one)
2.     Animals are crucial to understanding the Tortilla Curtain. How does the author utilize animals in this book? Choose a few examples and discuss what they signify.
3.     Xenophobia is the fear and hatred of outsiders. Is the Tortilla Curtain about xenophobia? Why or why not? What is the problem of a nation being overly xenophobic? What is the solution to xenophobia, in this book and in the broader world today?

4.     The historian James Truslow Adams wrote, "The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement." Considering the Tortilla Curtain, is the American Dream still alive?
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GREETINGS AND BASIC COURSE INFO

!!!!NO MEETING THIS SATURDAY!!!! (we will meet later in the semester)

EMAIL: bschmoll@csub.edu


Greetings,

This course has some weekly assignments that you must keep up on. There are also a few other papers and books to read throughout the semester. But if you keep up with the weekly assignments on here, your writing will improve and you will put yourself in a great position to do well in this class!


These are time sensitive. You do not receive credit if you write them after the deadline(Saturday) each week. Furthermore, if you are in the habit of writing everything on Saturday you will not receive full credit. Why? There would be no time for others to interact with your writing. Write early; write often! Right? Right!

HERE IS THE WORK THAT MUST BE COMPLETED EACH WEEK...


FIRST, there's a blog entry (about 250 words) which will have you respond to a hopefully thought-provoking question. Each week, you must do the blog entry with enough time left in the week to be able to enter into dialogue online with your classmates. Write, reply, write more, reply more, and then write and reply more.


SECOND, there's a reading. There’s no blog entry associated with this. Just read.


THIRD, there's a written response to the reading. Your reading and writing on the blog must be completed by the SATURDAY (by midnight) of the week in which the reading falls. This entry should be a long paragraph. YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESPOND TO OTHER STUDENTS IN PART THREE EACH WEEK.