Across Cultures : A Reader for Writers

by Gillespie, Sheena; Becker, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780321213181
• ISBN10: 0321213181
• Edition: 6th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-01
• Publisher: Longman

Summary

Short Retail Description: Designed to offer an appealing anthology where there is an increased interest in connections between and among cultures, Across Cultures, strives to promote understanding of diverse cultures among students. Designed to offer an appealing anthology where there is an increased interest in connections between and among cultures, Across Cultures, strives to promote understanding of diverse cultures among students. Each unit contains selections on American culture by American writers, selections by writers from diverse ethnic groups within the United States, and selections by writers writing from or about cultures elsewhere, thus placing American culture and its diversity into a context of world culture.

Table of Contents

Asterisks after titles identify student writings.
Rhetorical Contents	xvii
Preface for the Teacher	xxiii
Preface for the Student	xxvii
CHAPTER 1 WRITING, THE "WRITING PROCESS," AND YOU	1	(14)
Literacy Narratives	10	(2)
Composing Your Own Literacy Narratives	12	(3)
CHAPTER 2 FAMILY AND COMMUNITY	15	(74)
LUKE 10:29-37
The Good Samaritan	20	(3)
"But who is my neighbor?"
TOM MONTGOMERY-FATE
In Search of Balance	23	(5)
"I wish parenting was like riding a bike, or taping drywall, or playing a C scale on the piano-something you could master and remember."
DANA WEHLE
We Kissed the Tomato and Then the Sky	28	(7)
"This seventy-nine-year-old woman was a juggler extraordinaire, but a juggler's art is both exhilarating and unsettling to watch."
STEVE TESICH
Focusing on Friends	35	(4)
"It now seems to me that I was totally monogamous when it came to male friends."
MAXINE HONG KINGSTON
from White Tigers	39	(7)
"...I had to get out of hating range."
AMY TAN
Mother Tongue	46	(7)
"Lately, I've been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks."
MAHWASH SHOATS
Treasures	53	(5)
"This is what a child's trove of bright and diffused memories is made of-shared words and shared silences."
SHIRLEY GEOK-LIN LIM
Two Lives	58	(5)
"Oh Asia, that nets its children in ties of blood so binding that they cut the spirit."
LEWIS (JOHNSON) SAWAQUAT
For My Indian Daughter	63	(4)
"I didn't have an Indian name. I didn't speak the Indian language."
DANIT WEHLE
Noah*	67	(3)
"My life changed drastically when I was fifteen years old."
EMMA WUNSCH
Learning to Fly*	70	(4)
"Why do you kids keep listening to this old music? What's wrong with your generation?"
SHERMAN ALEXIE
The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me	74	(5)
"I loved those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life."
SUSAN G. MADERA
One Voice*	79	(14)
"That first, and last, semester at Brooklyn College was a dream that turned into a nightmare."
The Knowing Eye	84	(5)
CHAPTER 3 GENDER ISSUES	89	(66)
CHINESE FOLKTALE
Women	93	(3)
"The simplest thing is to bottle up your wife."
GREEK LEGEND
Apollo and Daphne	96	(2)
"Suddenly, she felt her feet become rooted in the earth."
PAUL THEROUX
The Male Myth	98	(4)
"I have always disliked being a man."
ROSE DEL CASTILLO GUILBAULT
Americanization Is Tough on "Macho"	102	(4)
"The American macho is a chauvinist, a brute, uncouth, selfish, loud, abrasive, capable of inflicting pain, and sexually promiscuous."
JERRY ROCKWOOD
Life Intrudes	106	(4)
"If we can't train the street fighters to be gentlemen, must we train the gentlemen to be street fighters?"
BRUCE WEBER
The Unromantic Generation	110	(12)
"Today I'm...a little more rational about what to expect from love."
BARBARA DAFOE WHITEHEAD
Women and the Future of Fatherhood	122	(7)
"Today, marriage and motherhood are coming apart."
DORSETT BENNETT
I, Too, Am a Good Parent	129	(4)
"The law of every state is replete with decisions showing that the mother is the favored custodial parent."
DENNIS ALTMAN
Why Are Gay Men So Feared?	133	(3)
"In many societies, the links between men are stronger than the relations that link them to women."
ANNA QUINDLEN
Gay	136	(4)
"At that moment he understood that it would be more soothing to his parents to think that he was a heroin addict than that he was a homosexual."
JASON BARONE
The Gravity of Mark Beuhrle*	140	(5)
"He has since moved to Cleveland, and while we are now able to get along, it's more of a friendly relationship than that of father and son. His words no longer carry any weight."
LESLIE NORRIS
Blackberries	145	(15)
"And the child began to understand that they were very different people; his father, his mother, himself, and that he must learn sometimes to be alone."
The Knowing Eye	152	(3)
CHAPTER 4 EDUCATION	155	(76)
CROW LEGEND
The Creation of the Crow World	160	(3)
"This land is the best of the lands I have made..."
DEBORAH TANNEN
Gender in the Classroom	163	(7)
"My experience in this class has convinced me that small group interaction should be part of any class that is not a small seminar."
JAMES BALDWIN
If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?	170	(4)
"A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled."
CHANG-RAE LEE
Mute in an English-Only World	174	(4)
"In the first years we lived in America, my mother could speak only the most basic English, and she often encountered great difficulty when she went out."
JOSÉ TORRES
A Letter to a Child Like Me	178	(6)
"Most of all, you should learn that it's you who are responsible for your future."
ROLANDO JORIF
Thinking*	184	(3)
"Freedom, I learned, was a secret and it meant being all alone in the crowd."
TOM MONTGOMERY-FATE
The Rain Makes the Roof Sing	187	(7)
"God is rain? Is somebody trying to tell me something?"
TONI CADE BAMBARA
The Lesson	194	(9)
"And Miss Moore asking us do we know what money is, like we a bunch of retards. I mean real money ..."
DORIS VILORIA
The Mistress of Make Believe*	203	(3)
"How many of you are ready to let your imagination take you off to distant mystical lands?"
ISABEL L. PIPOLO
Learning To Teach*	206	(3)
"It seemed like a wonderful opportunity not only to learn more about children and teaching, but also to really make a difference in someone's life."
Literacy Narratives	209	(14)
PAULE MARSHALL
from Poets in the Kitchen	210	(9)
"...they talked-endlessly, passionately, poetically, and with impressive range. No subject was beyond them."
VINCENT CREMONA
My Pen Writes in Blue and White*	219	(12)
"Learning to see things from these two different points of view has a dramatic effect on the way I communicate."
The Knowing Eye	223	(8)
CHAPTER 5 WORK
GENESIS 3:1-9
The Fall	231	(2)
"You shall gain your bread by the sweat of your brow/until you return to the ground."
CHIEF SMOHALLA as told by Herbert J. Spinden
My Young Men Shall Never Work	233	(2)
"Men who work cannot dream and wisdom comes in dreams."
GARY SOTO
from Living Up the Street Black Hair	235	(8)
"There are two kinds of work: one uses the mind and the other uses muscle."
ELLEN ULLMAN
Getting Close to the Machine	243	(7)
"I once had a job in which I didn't talk to anyone for two years."
BARBARA EHRENREICH
Warning: This Is a Rights-Free Workplace	250	(5)
"What we need is nothing less than a new civil rights movement-this time, for American workers."
R.K. NARAYAN
Forty-Five a Month	255	(7)
"There shouldn't be anything more urgent than the office work; go back to your seat."
LALITA GANDBHIR
Free and Equal	262	(8)
"He was convinced that he would not get a job if Americans were available..."
MICHAEL GNOEFO
A View of Affirmative Action in the Workplace*	270	(12)
"The time is right for another step in the evolution of American society."
The Knowing Eye	273	(4)
CHAPTER 6 TRADITIONS	277	(58)
AFRICAN LEGEND
In the Beginning: Bantu Creation Story	282	(2)
"In the beginning, in the dark, there was nothing but water."
QUICHE-MAYAN LEGEND
Quiche-Mayan Creation Story	284	(2)
"Before the world was created, Calm and Silence were the great kings that ruled."
JOHN KING FAIRBANK
Footbinding	286	(7)
"...it was certainly ingenious how men trapped women into mutilating themselves..."
NATIVE AMERICAN MYTH
The Algonquin Cinderella	293	(4)
"...the wicked sister would burn her hands and feet with hot cinders..."
TONI MORRISON
Cinderella's Stepsisters	297	(4)
"I am alarmed by the violence that women do to each other: professional violence, competitive violence, emotional violence."
N. SCOTT MOMADAY
The Way to Rainy Mountain	301	(6)
"Her name was Aho, and she belonged to the last culture to evolve in North America."
YAEL YARIMI
Seven Days of Mourning*	307	(5)
"...I find myself torn apart between the home I am trying to establish with my American husband, and the great, rich and embracing tradition I have left in my land of birth."
SALMAN RUSHDIE
from Imaginary Homelands	312	(5)
"It may be argued that the past is a country from which we have all emigrated, that its loss is part of our common humanity."
SHIRLEY JACKSON
The Lottery	317	(8)
"...the whole lottery took less than two hours...to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner."
MARK FINEMAN
Stone-Throwing in India: An Annual Bash	325	(15)
"I have seen people with eyes bulging out, ears sheared off, noses broken, teeth shattered, skulls and legs fractured to bits."
The Knowing Eye	330	(5)
CHAPTER 7 CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS	335	(68)
SENEGALESE MYTH
The Falsehood of Truth	340	(3)
"Go tell the king that a man is here who can raise people from the dead."
JEWISH FOLKTALE as told by Moses Caster
The Wise Rogue	343	(2)
"On the way to the gallows he said to the governor that he knew a wonderful secret, and it would be a pity to allow it to die with him..."
JAY FORD
20/20 Hindsight*	345	(9)
"The more knowledge I attained of Kenya and the more I left my English at home and spoke Swahili or another tribal language, the more cultural doors opened to me."
JIM FUSILLI
Becoming American, by Degrees	354	(6)
"The idea of American character came to me as it did to most people my age: through the mass media."
GARRETT HONGO
Fraternity	360	(6)
"I was hated one day, and with an intensity I could not have foreseen."
TANEISHA GRANT
To Speak Patois*	366	(4)
"At fourteen years old, I thought I knew everything there was to know about everything worth knowing-life, people, and relationships."
LINDA STANLEY
Passion and the Dream	370	(5)
"They have come from so far with so many hopes to this city, the possessors of the same brave American Dream that all immigrants to America have dreamed."
BRENT STAPLES
Black Men and Public Spaces	375	(5)
"My first victim was a woman-white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties."
MICHAEL T. KAUFMAN
Of My Friend Hector and My Achilles' Heel	380	(4)
"This story is about prejudice and stupidity. My own."
TTM O'BRIEN
The Man I Killed	384	(6)
..."Tim, it's a war. The guy wasn't Heidi-he had a weapon, right? It's a tough thing, for sure, but you got to cut out that staring."
Literacy Narratives	390	(10)
GLORIA NAYLOR
What's in a Name?	390	(4)
"So there must have been dozens of times that the word 'nigger' was spoken in front of me before I reached the third grade. But I didn't 'hear' it until it was said by a small pair of lips that had already learned it could be a way to humiliate me."
KENNETH WOO
Konglish*	394	(13)
"But how can a typical Korean-American have a gift of writing poems? It made no sense."
The Knowing Eye	400	(3)
CHAPTER 8 CHOICES	403	(58)
SWAHILI FOLKTALE
The Wise Daughter	407	(2)
"Eat, you three fools."
AMANDA STELLMAN
Flowers*	409	(2)
"Hatred had no power over her. Only the good find love."
HANA WEHLE
Janushinka	411	(6)
"...Also the lights in the nursery were turned out, the curtains drawn. The chuckle of Janushinka was silenced."
JOSEPH STEFFAN
Honor Bound	417	(5)
"And I firmly believe that if I had been willing to lie about my sexuality, to deny my true identity, I would have been allowed to graduate."
PETE HAMILL
Winning Isn't Everything	422	(6)
"Winning isn't the only thing in love, art, marriage, commerce, or politics; it's not even the only thing in sports."
RICHARD RODRIGUEZ
To the Border	428	(6)
"They were men without women. They were Mexicans without Mexico."
MARCUS MABRY
Living in Two Worlds	434	(4)
"Living in my grandmother's house this Christmas break restored all the forgotten, and the never acknowledged, guilt."
RAMON "TIANGUIS" PEREZ
The Fender-Bender	438	(4)
"If you'd rather, we can report him to Immigration, the cop continues."
SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS
Homeplace	442	(7)
"Claims for the virtues of moving on are familiar and seductive to Americans, this nation founded by immigrants and shaped by restless seekers."
GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
One of These Days	449	(5)
"Now you'll pay for our twenty dead men."
YAMIT NASSIRI
Flight by Night*	454	(13)
"Yet accepting American values has not made me forget my own customs and traditions."
The Knowing Eye	458	(3)
CHAPTER 9 POPULAR CULTURE	461	(66)
ANNE NORTON
The Signs of Shopping	467	(8)
"Shop windows employ elements of sarcasm and irony, strategies of inversion and allusion."
KATHLEEN CARLIN
You Become What You Wear	475	(3)
"It was stigma time. Some of the children we encountered stared, pointed, and laughed; adults gave us long, incredulous looks."
ROBYN MEREDITH
Big Mall's Curfew Raises Questions of Rights and Bias	478	(6)
"Young people and adults agree that the teenagers can be obnoxious. They race down the halls in groups, scattering shoppers in their paths. They use foul language when shouting to their friends two floors above. Some even drop food or spit over the railings, aiming at shoppers below."
SYLVESTER MONROE
Hollywood: The Dark Side	484	(6)
"Television's biases are so blatant that media scholars and the few outspoken activists within the industry are becoming increasingly vocal in calling for change."
BENJAMIN DEMOTT
Class Struggle in Hollywood	490	(7)
"Treating class differences as totally inconsequential strengthens the national delusion: that class power and position are insignificant."
STEPHEN KING
Why We Crave Horror Movies	497	(4)
"If we are all insane, then sanity becomes a matter of degree."
JAY FORD
What Is Hip Hop?	501	(6)
"...Hip Hop is a historical journal of people who are often left out of white American historical texts."
EMMA WUNSCH
Closer to Fine: My Parents' Music and Mine*	507	(5)
"I had so many questions and the Indigo Girls were the first band that seemed to have questions too."
ROBERT SCHOLES
On Reading a Video Text	512	(6)
"If baseball is still the national pastime, it is because in it our cherished myths materialize-or appear to materialize."
BARRY PETERS
Arnie's Test Day	518	(4)
"So Arnie and his parents spent three hours at the hospital, where Arnie read People magazine instead of Introduction to Physics while waiting for the doctors to report Grampa's condition."
The Knowing Eye	522	(5)
Rhetorical and Cultural Glossary	527	(8)
Geographical Index	535	(4)
Credits	539