Native Son & Race/Civil Rights in America
For this writing we would like you to reflect on some ideas that you found compelling. In other words where
were you most engaged? Where were you asking questions? Where were you thinking about your life and
your experiences? Where were you curious?
Your job is to go there. Find the place(s) you were intellectually and/or emotionally connected and examine
them.
This piece is somewhat similar to your Philosophy papers you wrote earlier in the year yet this is more
rooted in the texts. You must interact with the texts in an intelligent and thoughtful manner. See this piece
as an opportunity for you to discuss and explore.
This whole piece needs some unity, some direction – it is a personal essay. See this as more
informal than a typical essay, more formal than a notebook entry. This piece is saying something,
revealing something, raising something.
In the act of writing and thinking you will make some deeper connections, raise more questions and
hopefully come to an important realization or two.
Once you have a direction, consider the multiple perspectives - what might Bigger say, Mary say, Baldwin
say, Mcintosh say, current American policy say, your parents say, etc.? By going to these places in the
writing and thinking process you’ll find be honoring how complex these issues are while allowing yourself to
discover greater understanding.
Really see this writing as an opportunity to use a window and a mirror. Where have you been invited in to
examine and see something that moved you? Then consider how that window may be an opportunity to see
something about yourself, your past understandings and beliefs, your “truths,” your world.
For example perhaps Mary was a character that you identified with in some way or that you did not like
the fact that Bigger could not treat her well in the car. Maybe you did not like that the class criticized her
for her innocence/ignorance.
So in your piece you might discuss Mary, those scenes, the actual text, your reaction, class reaction, and you
must explore your personal involvement with this idea. Then you may want to explore what Peggy
McIntosh’s ideas add and what James Baldwin adds to this or maybe go to the video of the DHS students
and discuss.
This piece is about you, America and ideas raised in our texts and our notes and discussion.
Your discussion must include Native Son and at least two other areas below:
Wright: Native Son, “How Bigger was Born”
“Emmett Till,” “Montgomery Bus Boycott,”
Martin Luther King, “Letter from Birmingham
“Little Rock,” “The Sit-Ins”
Jail,” “ I Have a Dream Speech” other quotes
Katrina audio from “This American Life”
and speeches
Brown v. Board of Education
Malcolm X: Video, Autobiography,
Deerfield Housing case
James Baldwin, “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to
Black Panthers, Dual Consciousness, Chicago,
his nephew”, “A Talk to Teachers” (early 1st
The Great Migration
semester)
Videos and projects from first semester final.
Peggy McIntosh, “Unpacking the Invisible
Consider the many themes from the novel.
Knapsack”
Do check out the class website.
Videos: “Desegregating the North Shore,” and
You can go all the way back to first semester.
from Eyes on the Prize these episodes: