Nature: Non-Fiction
Genre: Essay
Sub-genre: - Autobiography / Native American
Nationality: - American
Time Period: - 20th Century / Contemporary
First read by Dr. Rearick: Spring 2001 // Fall 2002
Rated: A+
Location: - Dr. Rearick's Office /Heritage Bookstore
Used for: Expository Writing
Scripture which Comes to Mind:
Comments: Ms. Demarco-Torgovnick's essay about the portion of New York City where she grew up begins with an interesting comment: "The Mafia protects the neighborhood." This first sentence strains most readers with two conflicting images: the neighborhood (the house in which we grew up, mom, caring neighbors and childhood playmates) and the Mafia (thugs, organized crime, murder inc. violence). She knows this, and the fact that such a statement is common in her parents world is a strong introduction to the very core of her observations.
Torgovnick seems to be saying that for people within her home community there is no strain between neighborhood and Mafia. The place which she and her family call home protects what it views as precious by maintaining even violently what it sees as its traditions and assumptions. Thus, this adherence to the concept of things staying the way they have always been actually allows evil to flourish. The Mafia protects, black intruders are beaten and shot and old men hiss and curse an offending woman. This is a harsh observation to make of one's own home and family. Torgovnick says about writing the essay "I began to plan this essay to tell the world what I knew," but "I stopped midway, worried that my parents or their neighbors would hear about it" (7).
True or False
_____ In "It's All in How You Say It" Mickey Roberts,
a Native American,
describes her frustration when confronted with
a proprietor of a fair who
thought he was being open minded for hiring some
"professional Indians" to do dances.
Multiple Choice:
_____. Mickey Roberts, a Native American women,
comes across a descriptions of what in her history text book which is not
only false but also infers a negative suggestion about her people: A description
of (A) her tribe's rite of manhood, (B) the quality of Indian totem woodwork,
(C) the nature of a native american dried fish delicacy, (D) the quality
of Nooksack winter apparel.