Literature Critique Assignment- Unit End Assignment - Assigned Dec 8 &9 /20

You will be responsible for critiquing thoughts that appeared in Thomas King’s The Truth about Stories lecture series. Please use your notes to support your analysis and consider additional information as you explain your thoughts.   In your literature critique, you will be asked to consider quotes and explain using proper grammar, language conventions. It needs to be completed using essay format (approximately 2 to 4 pages in length).

INSTRUCTIONS

 I have outlined the assignment below and included a link to the assignment, which is highlighted in blue Lit Critique Assignment- Download and Save and Lit Critique Marking Scheme

I have also included a Google Doc form, which allows you to organize it into a 5 paragraph essay. 

5 paragraph essay form/ outline

1. Please use the google form to answer these questions to me with your name clearly marked on your assignment to get credit for your thoughts and ideas. 
2. Click submit once you have finished all the questions (essay format).
3. By using the Google form it will be emailed to me directly. 

Introduction – Paragraph 1

·         Tells your reader what to expect – the point you are trying to make (thesis statement)

·         Include any relevant background information to understand your stance/ perspective as a writer

·         Include the title of the lecture series and the name of the author

Paragraph 2:  You’ll Never Believe (p.1 ) seems to be about the beginnings of stories, and the personal responsibilities we carry.  We learn the story of his absent father and how he and his brother did not rate a mention to him, his second and third family didn’t even know about him and his brother. How his mom made her way up the ladder at work but had to keep quiet about it, as she was a woman. About how evil came into the world through story, but could not be called back – so be careful what you say. How the earth came to be on the back of a turtle, how otter found the mud, and how the Twins created the earth and river and lakes and trees.  Especially when he goes in-depth at how if we believe one way to be right – we are blind to the possibilities of other stories/experiences. The talking  animals.  The shared  creation of the world.

Quotables:

·         “It was, after all, a man’s world, and each step she took had to be made as quietly as possible, each movement camouflaged against complaint.” (3)

·         “For once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world.” (10)

·         “Tell a story, she told me. Don’t preach. Don’t try to sound profound. It’s unbecoming and you do it poorly. Don’t show them your mind. Show them your imagination.” (p.26)

 Paragraph 3: You’re not the Indian (p.31) is about image – the visual checkmarks on what people think Indigenous looks like, what we see it as, and how to balance that through the exploration of these stereotypes. Edward Curtis comes up, as his images have cemented a certain type of Indian in your head – the Vanishing Race, truly romanticized – and he spent 30 years of his life and other people’s fortunes on crossing our beautiful Turtle Island, looking for some Indians to photograph n their natural habitat. 

Quotables:

·         “That’s really what photographs are. Not records of moments, but rather imaginative acts.” (43)

·         “Pictures of me in my “Indian” outfit, pictures of me being “Indian,” pictures of me in groups of other “Indians.”” (p. 45)

·         “How will taking photographs of Native artists benefit Native people?” (57)

·         “I want to look Indian so that you will see me as Indian because I want to be Indian, even though being Indian and looking Indian is more a disadvantage than it is a luxury.” (59)

·         “What’s important are the stories I’ve heard along the way. And the stories I’ve told. Stories we make up to try to set a world straight.” (60)

 Paragraph 4: What is it about us that you don’t like (121) is the most political chapter – talking specifically about the Acts and Legislation regarding Indigenous Identity and lands. King begins with a Coyote story, of how the Coyote takes the feathers of the Ducks and blames the Humans and instigates a Feather War, for lack of better term, and no one is happy and the world changes. Then King educates the masses on how the land was taken from Indigenous people through legislation, which has two basic goals: “To relieve us of our land …. and to legalize us out of existence” (130). King notes that Indigenous people have both al legal identity and a cultural identity, and that we have to try to “protect” our legal identity.

Quotables:

·         “One of the most surprising thing about Indians is that we’re still here.” (128)

·         “People used to think these things, you know, and they used to say them out loud. Now they don’t. Now they just think them.” (147)

·         “But then who will sing for us? Who will dance for us? Who will remind us of our stories to the earth?” (151)

 Conclusion – Paragraph 5

·         Summarizes/ wraps up the main points that have been discussed in your critique

·         You may restate your thesis statement.

·         Do not bring in new information in your conclusion paragraph.