Art Homework
Ms. Stillwagon
September 21, 2016
Read
the below passage from Collections “Quilt of a Country” that addresses our
theme of Identity as we read "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." Complete one of the levels below.
Level
1: Give 3 words that you thjink describes America’s identity best.
Level
2: Describe America’s identity in at least 3 sentences.
Level
3: Describe America’s identity. Explain how this identity is created.
America is held together
by a notion that all men are created equal, though everyone knows that most men
consider themselves better than someone. It was built of bits and pieces like crazy
quilts. Out of many, one. That is the ideal.
Children learn in social-studies class and in
the news of the lynching of blacks, the denial of rights to women, the murders
of gay men. It is difficult to know how to convince them that this amounts to
“crown thy good with brotherhood,” that amid all the failures is something spectacularly successful.
What is the point of this splintered whole?
What is the point of a nation in which Arab cabbies chauffeur Jewish
passengers through the streets of New York—and
in which Jewish cabbies chauffeur Arab passengers, too, and yet speak in theory
of hatred, one for the other? What is the point of a nation in which one part seems
to be always on the verge of fisticuffs with another, blacks and whites, gays
and straights, left and right, Pole and Chinese and Puerto Rican and Slovenian?
Other countries with such divisions have in fact divided into new nations.
Pride seems excessive, given the American
willingness to complain about whoever is new, different, unknown. But
patriotism is taking pride in this unlikely ability to throw all of us together
in a country and still be able to call
it by one name. When photographs of the faces of all those who died in the
World Trade Center destruction are assembled in one place, it will be possible
to trace in the skin color, the shape of the eyes and the noses, the texture of
the hair, a map of the world. These are
the representatives of a nation that somehow has one spirit. When it actually
works, it’s a wonder.
If you
have any comments or questions please leave them below!
Parent/Guardian
Signature: __________________________
Have a
wonderful night! J
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