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Unit 1 Short Exercise
Read Sherman Alexie’s narrative essay, “Indian Education.” It does not
fit the standard structure for an essay, but rather divides his overall story
about his childhood years into a series of vignettes. In a way, each
vignette tells its own story, and all of those stories work together to become
a single narrative.
Once you have read “Indian Education,” answer the following questions:
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Think about the “lessons” in Alexie’s narrative. What
kinds of things did he learn? -
Why do you think Alexie chose to use vignettes instead of using
a more standard narrative format?Refer to Course Information
for the grading rubric. Using the first person point of view is allowed
in this exercise. The short exercise
will be approximately 2 – 3 full paragraphs long; consider a full paragraph to
average 7-10 sentences.Unit 1 – Narrative Essay
Due: Sunday 11:59 pm
Submit your
Narrative essay to the SafeAssign link below. Click on the link again to
view the resulting SafeAssign report.The Narrative essay
is the only essay where you can use “I”, because you are telling your own
story. There are five choices for the Narrative essay; please choose
one. Remember to use an APA formatted title page in order to label your
essay.Here are your
choices:
1.
Think of a time when you have had to overcome an obstacle in
your life. This could be related to an illness, a job, a difficult family
situation, etc. Describe the event and how you worked to deal with this
obstacle and overcome it. What did you learn from this experience?
2.
Think of your fondest childhood memory. What was it?
What makes this memory so special to you? Were there other people
involved? If so, did this event or series of events strengthen your
relationship?
3.
Think about a hard-learned lesson in your life. What was
the lesson? Describe the event/events that led up to this lesson being
learned. Were there other people involved? How did this lesson
change you?
4.
Think of a time when you have been very much out of your
element. This could be a time when you were in another country,
experienced being in the minority, etc. Describe the situation and how
you handled yourself. What did you learn about yourself from this
experience?
5.
Think about how you would describe your life to a person from
another country and culture. Think of all the “luxuries” we have or take
for granted. What habits, traditions, etc. would you include in this
description? Be as detailed as possible. Address your essay to that
person from another country and culture.
Be sure to include
all main events that happened in the story and follow the Narrative grading
rubric found in the unit readings.
