Multicultural Literature
“America’s children… need to cultivate an understanding of the world that considers with wide open acceptance both the uniqueness and the specialness of their own culture as well as the cultures of others” (Hayn & Kaplan 23)
"Books can make a difference in dispelling prejudice and building community: not with role models and literal recipes, not with noble messages about the human family, but with enthralling stories that make us imagine the lives of others. A good story lets you know people as individuals in all their particulatity and conflict; and once you see someone as a person- flawed, complex, striving- then you've reached beyond stereotype" (Hayn & Kaplan 149)
"Books can make a difference in dispelling prejudice and building community: not with role models and literal recipes, not with noble messages about the human family, but with enthralling stories that make us imagine the lives of others. A good story lets you know people as individuals in all their particulatity and conflict; and once you see someone as a person- flawed, complex, striving- then you've reached beyond stereotype" (Hayn & Kaplan 149)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
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Told through a combination of text and graphic image, this novel introduces readers to the life of a reservation Indian. The narrator, Junior, is not afraid to be honest about the harsh realities of alcoholism and abuse that are common in his community. He struggles with the very universal conflict of balancing his culture and background with the modern and stereotypical white "American" world he faces in school. This multicultural novel will open readers eyes to a potentially new culture. With its compelling and relatable characters, readers will also connect to the desire to be independent without abandoning ones roots.
Questions to consider:
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Told through a combination of text and graphic image, this novel introduces readers to the life of a reservation Indian. The narrator, Junior, is not afraid to be honest about the harsh realities of alcoholism and abuse that are common in his community. He struggles with the very universal conflict of balancing his culture and background with the modern and stereotypical white "American" world he faces in school. This multicultural novel will open readers eyes to a potentially new culture. With its compelling and relatable characters, readers will also connect to the desire to be independent without abandoning ones roots.
Questions to consider:
- Describe the attitude towards race in this novel. In what ways did Junior seem to reject his own race?
- What are the resolutions Junior comes to with regard to his race? How do you think his view of himself has changed?
- What effect did the images and cartoons have on the story? How did they make the story feel more/less real? Do they give information that the words do not?
- Describe the theme of hope. Who has hope in this novel? What gives them this hope? Who is hopeless?
- Create a journal entry for an important event in your life and use illustrations to enhance your story. These do not need to be hand drawn.
- Draw yourself as Junior does on page 58 of the novel. What two worlds would you be caught between? How would your two sides look different?
Call Me Maria by Judith Ortiz Cofer
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How do you choose between the home where you were born and the home you have yet to see? How do you choose between the culture that is already yours and the culture that could be? How do you choose between the mother who loves you and the father who needs you? Maria chooses to move to America with her father, leaving her mother and her Puerto Rican life behind. Maria finds a side of herself that she never knew existed, a side that speaks Spanglish and can navigate the New York streets. How can she be true to herself without betraying her cultural roots? This novel shows the universal struggle that teens face in finding themselves and discovering their cultural identity.
Questions to consider:
*****
How do you choose between the home where you were born and the home you have yet to see? How do you choose between the culture that is already yours and the culture that could be? How do you choose between the mother who loves you and the father who needs you? Maria chooses to move to America with her father, leaving her mother and her Puerto Rican life behind. Maria finds a side of herself that she never knew existed, a side that speaks Spanglish and can navigate the New York streets. How can she be true to herself without betraying her cultural roots? This novel shows the universal struggle that teens face in finding themselves and discovering their cultural identity.
Questions to consider:
- How does Maria change from the beginning to the end of the novel? Do you think she has learned to accept herself by the end?
- What is the attitude towards culture in this novel? What is the attitude towards race? Are they the same or different? Consider the scene where Uma and Maria want to look like the other (Cofer 45), the quote on page 78, "we are all made up of the same thing under our epidermis," the way Maria describes those who are similar/different from her, and any other relevant information you can find.
- What is Maria saying about her attitude towards language in her final poem when she writes, "each word I make mine is a pearl, a diamond, a ruby, I will someday string into a necklace and wear everywhere, as if I had been born rich in English" (Cofer 127)
- Write a letter to someone who you feel played an important role in shaping how you view yourself and your cultural identity. This can also be written as a poem or short narrative.