Contents by Strategies and Modes

(8)

To the Instructor

xxviii

(3)

To the Student

xxxi

1 Discovering Ourselves in Writing

(55)

The Writing Process and Self-Discovery The writing process is introduced, including prewriting and journal-keeping techniques.

(7)

Stages of the Writing Process

(1)

Strategies for Prewriting

(6)

Thematic Introduction Writing is presented as a process of self-discovery that is rooted in personal experiences and the unconscious mind, including dreams, childhood memories, and everyday events.

(2)

Readings

(39)

Langston Hughes

"Theme for English B" (poem) The poem's narrator, a student from Harlem, writes a paper for his English class that explores his relationships to his nation, his community, his white instructor, and himself.

(2)

William Stafford

"A Way of Writing" (essay) A modern poet begins his definition of writing as "receptivity," a process through which we learn to trust our impulses and intuitions.

(3)

Peter Elbow

"Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing" (essay) A professor of English distinguishes two parts of a writer's thinking process.

(6)

Annie Dillard

"Aim for the Chopping Block" from the Writing Life (essay) A writer describes how in a dream she learned to split wood--and to turn a vision into a book.

(4)

Stephen King

"The Symbolic Language of Dreams" (essay) This popular writer discusses how writing often resembles a dreamlike state and how writing helps him to solve problems.

(7)

Tim O'Brien

"The Magic Show" (essay) Casting the writer into the role of magician of the imagination, O'Brien believes that writers shine "light into the darkness of great human mysteries."

(8)

Amy Tan

"Mother Tongue" (essay) A writer looks at the way her relationship with her chinese mother has defined and directed her sense of language and her voice as a writer.

(5)

Theodore Roethke

"The Waking" (poem) The poem's narrator gives us unique insights into the crucial connections between the waking and sleeping and the conscious and unconscious mind.

(2)

Ted Hughes

"The Thought-Fox" (poem) The poem's speaker captures the mysterious process of creating a poem through the metaphor of a fox's symbolic night time journey.

(2)

Student Writing

(5)

Susan Helfter

"Who Am I When I Write?" (essay) This student explores the inner sources of her emerging identity as a writer.

(2)

Joyce Chang

"Drive Becarefully" (essay) This student explores her complex feelings about how her identity has been shaped by speaking correct English at school while her mother speaks Chinese or "broken English" at home.

(3)

Chapter Writing Topics

(2)

2 Discovering Ourselves in Reading

(44)

Responding to Reading Through Writing Reading is introduced as a process of self-discovery. The stages of prereading, personal and interpretive responses to readings, and critical reading are discussed.

(3)

Prereading Early Reading

(1)

Personal and Interpretive Response

(1)

Critical and Evaluative Response

(1)

Thematic Introduction Each of the selections presents a unique perspective on the way people read and interpret texts; each selection also reflects on the ways that reading plays a part in the development of the reader's inner life and imagination.

(1)

Readings

(32)

Wallace Stevens

"The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm" (poem) A poet explores the way a reader merges with a text while reading on a quiet evening.

(2)

Pete Hamill

"D'Artagnan on Ninth Street: A Brooklyn Boy at the Library" (essay) A journalist and novelist reminisces about his childhood spent at the Brooklyn library, where he learned about the world and the power of his imagination through his voracious reading.

(5)

Richard Wright

"The Library Card" (essay) A well-known advocate of civil rights writes about his inner awakening through the knowledge he gains reading the works of social writers of his time.

(5)

Margaret Atwood

"Reading Blind" (essay) A novelist discusses the lifelong benefits of reading aloud to children and telling them stories.

(4)

Elizabeth Bowen

"Out of a Book" (essay) This writer emphasizes the deep and enduring significance of the inner resources that books provide.

(6)

Jorge Luis Borges

"The Book of Sand" (story) This story leaves us thinking about the nature of truth, knowledge, and reality as they have been recorded and continue to be revisioned in books.

(4)

Denise Levertov

"The Secret" (poem) A poet thanks two young readers who think they have found "the secret of life" in a line of poetry.

(3)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Kubla Khan: or, a Vision in a Dream" (poem) This complex poem explores the dreamlike nature of the creative process.

(3)

Student Writing

(6)

Maria Pitcher

"The Bookstore" (essay) In response to Bowen's essay, this student explores the positive and long-lasting effects of her love for reading as a child.

(3)

Lissy Goralink

"The Sandstorm of Time and Knowledge" (essay) This student argues that Borges's story is about an inner journey to self-knowledge.

(3)

Chapter Writing Topics

(2)

3 Memories from Childhood

100

(61)

Narration, Memory, and Self-Awareness Narrative techniques are presented, including prewriting activities for narrative writing, creating character and dialogue, handling point of view, and refining style and language.

100

(4)

Making Associations

100

(1)

Focusing and Concentration: The Inner Screen

101

(1)

Dialogue and Characters

101

(1)

Main Idea or Dominant Impression

102

(1)

Drafting and Shaping the Narrative

102

(1)

Revising the Narrative: Point of View and Style

102

(2)

Thematic Introduction Memories, especially the vivid, dreamlike memories of early childhood, are seen as an important source for personal insight and writing.

104

(1)

Readings

105

(50)

Philip Levine

"Starlight" (poem) The speaker in the poem reflects on his memory of a moment in childhood when he discovered both his father's depth of feeling and his own emotional life.

105

(2)

Lewis Carroll

"Advice from a Caterpillar" (dream narrative) Through her descent into a dream world, a young girl develops insight and control over the psychological and physical changes she is undergoing.

107

(6)

Stephen Jay Gould

"Muller Bros. Moving & Storage" (essay) Using an example from his own experience, a scientist explains how our observations and our memories can play tricks on our minds and distort reality.

113

(5)

bell hooks

"Writing Autobiography" (essay) An African American writer shares the creative process of mental recall that led to the writing of her autobiography.

118

(6)

Maya Angelou

"The Angel of the Candy Counter" (essay) Angelou tells of her humiliating childhood visit to a racist dentist, and of how she was able to help herself by constructing a fantasy of power and control.

124

(5)

Patricia Hampl

"Memory and Imagination" (essay) A writer defines the memoir and compares it with fiction writing, concluding that she writes "in order to find out what [she] know[s]."

129

(10)

Alice Walker

"Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self" (essay) Through her daughter's love and understanding, the writer comes to see beauty in a scar that has haunted her since her own childhood and to value her inward vision.

139

(7)

Judith Ortiz Cofer

"Silent Dancing" (essay) A woman born in Puerto Rico explores memories of her childhood growing up in Paterson, New Jersey.

146

(7)

Eavan Boland

"The Source" (poem) The speaker of this poem writes about her memories of her mother as she invites her readers to think about how and why one comes to understand the past better through reliving memories.

153

(2)

Student Writing

155

(4)

Corinne Kiku Okada

"Namesake" (essay) A student explores her mixed feelings about a mentally disabled aunt with whom she shares the same first name.

155

(2)

Tin Le

"Enter Dragon" (essay) A Vietnamese immigrant describes an experience from his childhood in which he used a fantasy of power to overcome the humiliation of his classmates.

157

(2)

Chapter Writing Topics

159

(2)

4 Dreams, Myths, and Fairy Tales

161

(59)

Comparing and Contrasting: Strategies for Thinking and Writing Comparing, contrasting, and evaluating are seen as related processes that are fundamental to the ways our minds organize and make sense of reality.

161

(4)

Prewriting for Comparison

162

(1)

Outlining and Transition

162

(1)

Evaluation

163

(1)

Logical Fallacies of Comparison and Contrast

163

(2)

Thematic Introduction These readings suggest that becoming aware of the patterns of both traditional and modern myths can help us to understand the cultures that have shaped our own and to differentiate the values of the past from those that we now uphold.

165

(1)

Readings

166

(25)

Nikki Giovanni

"ego-tripping (there may be a reason why)" (poem) An African American speaker creates heroic powers for herself in her dream and fantasy life: "My strength flows ever on."

166

(4)

Joseph Campbell

"The Four Functions of Mythology" (essay) An expert on world mythology describes how myths reconcile us with our awareness of good and evil, provide us with images of the universe, validate a social order, and shape us psychologically.

170

(5)

Carl Jung

"The Importance of Dreams" (essay) A psychologist shows how archetypal symbols that occur in myths help us to organize our unconscious life.

175

(8)

Leslie Marmon Silko

"Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination" (essay) A Native American writer explains why oral story-telling is at the heart of the Pueblo's vision of creation and life.

183

(8)

Portfolio of Creation Myths These myths from cultures around the world celebrate the mystery of creation and embody core values and beliefs in imaginative stories of the origins of the world, its creatures, and human beings.

191

(5)

Genesis 2:4-23 (Old Testament of the Hebrew Bible)

191

(1)

"The Chameleon Finds" (Yao-Bantu, African)

192

(1)

"Dreaming People" (Malayan Pygmies)

193

(1)

"Spider Woman Creates the Humans" (Hopi, Native American)

194

(2)

Two Versions of Pygmalion

196

(9)

Thomas Bulfinch

"Pygmalion" (myth) In the classical version of the Pygmalion myth, a statue becomes the perfect wife.

196

(1)

John Updike

"Pygmalion" (story) A writer perceives the story of a modern divorce and remarriage as ironically resembling the classical myth.

197

(2)

Bruno Bettelheim

"Fairy Tales and the Existential Predicament" (essay) A child psychologist argues for the importance of fairy tales for the emotional development of children because they imaginatively acknowledge the importance of integrating the good and evil that exists within the human spirit.

199

(6)

Two Versions of Cinderella

205

(8)

The Brothers Grimm

"Aschenputtel" (story) The German version of this classic fairy tale emphasizes the punishment of the stepsisters.

205

(5)

The Algonquin Cinderella

(adapted by Idries Shah) (story) Beauty is presented as an inner quality in this spiritual Native American folktale.

210

(3)

Student Writing

213

(5)

Caitlin Liu

"Hsao-suen: A Chinese Virtue" (essay) A student compares her childhood reading and her "adult" view of a Chinese folktale, while at the same time contrasting Chinese with American values.

213

(2)

Josh Groban

"Two Myths" (essay) A student writer compares two creation myths from different cultures and draws conclusions about the values of each culture.

215

(3)

Chapter Writing Topics

218

(2)

5 Nightmares and Obsessions

220

(75)

Definition: Word Boundaries of the Self The formulation of logic and public as well as subjective definitions of complex terms are explored.

220

(3)

Public Meanings and Formal Definition

220

(1)

Stipulative and Personal Definitions

221

(1)

Contradiction

222

(1)

Thematic Introduction The readings in this chapter explore some of the ways in which nightmares, fantasies, and obsessions can influence our decisions and actions.

223

(2)

Readings

225

(53)

W. S. Merwin

"Fog-Horn" (poem) Using the symbol of the foghorn, a poet examines the power of our unconscious minds.

225

(3)

Franklin Galvin

Ernest Hartmann

"Nightmares: Terrors of the Night" (essay) Dream researchers define and distinguish between nightmares and "night terrors" to explain which types of people are more likely to have frequent, vivid nightmares.

228

(9)

Mary Shelley

"Introduction to Frankenstein" (essay) An author explains how a nightmare helped her to generate the key images and ideas that were to become the famous novel Frankenstein.

237

(5)

Cynthia Ozick

"On Excellence" (essay) A writer defines and examines the origins of her own obsessive perfectionism in life and in her writing.

242

(3)

William Styron

"The Roots of Depression" from Darkness Visible (essay) Through the presentation of his own struggle and examples of the lives of other artists and writers, Styron demonstrates that there is a connection between depression and creativity.

245

(5)

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"The Yellow Wallpaper" (story) A story about a mother's postpartum depression asks the reader to reflect on the relationships between self-understanding, creativity, obsessive fantasies, and madness.

250

(14)

John Cheever

"The Enormous Radio" (story) In this story a housewife becomes obsessed with the lives and fantasies of the people in her building, which are transmitted to her through a magical radio.

264

(9)

Edgar Allan Poe

"The Tell-Tale Heart" from Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (story) The narrator is obsessed with his victim's evil eye and continues to hear the beating of his victim's heart even after he has murdered him.

273

(5)

Student Writing

278

(15)

Adine Kernberg

"I'll Tell It You Called" (story) A student's answering machine assumes a personality of its own and begins to control her life.

278

(3)

Sharon Slayton

"The Good Girl" (essay) A student defines and explores the obsession with being good that has governed her life.

281

(4)

Mason Tobak

"Gender Oppression, t. i. d." (essay) This response to The Yellow Wallpaper by Mason Tobak, M.D., who specializes in emergency room psychiatry, offers a fresh perspective on the causes of the narrator's obsessive behavior.

285

(8)

Chapter Writing Topics

293

(2)

6 Journeys in Sexuality and Gender

295

(61)

Causality and the Inward Journey Good causal reasoning can lead the reader and the writer closer to understanding and to developing explanations for the changes, which are sometimes dreamlike, that are experienced through reading and in life.

295

(3)

Observing and Collecting Information

296

(1)

Causal Logical Fallacies

297

(1)

Thematic Introduction Readings in this chapter explore many of the ways in which an individual's dreams and fantasies are influenced by his or her sexuality and gender roles.

298

(1)

Readings

299

(48)

Plato

"Aristophanes' Speech in the Symposium" from Symposium 14-16 (essay) Aristophanes' Speech presents a complex philosophy of love that is rooted in beliefs that are different from those in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

299

(4)

Sigmund Freud

"Erotic Wishes and Dreams" (essay) The founder of modern psychoanalysis presents his classic theory of the dream as a way of working through, in disguised form, our repressed erotic wishes.

303

(4)

Virginia Woolf

"Professions for Women" (essay) A novelist discusses the ways that gender roles can inhibit the creativity and voice of a woman writer.

307

(5)

Maxine Hong Kingston

"No Name Woman" (essay) Confused by her mother's stories about the role of women in Chinese village life, a young Chinese American woman reflects on the meaning of her aunt's suicide.

312

(10)

Julius Lester

"Being a Boy" (essay) An African American writer reflects on his childhood, when he was forced to define himself in rigidly masculine ways.

322

(4)

Scott Russell Sanders

"The Men We Carry in Our Minds" (essay) This writer discusses how he felt about the role models he had growing up in a working-class community.

326

(3)

Gloria Naylor

"The Two" (story) The lesbian partners experience conflicts that are typical in traditional relationships, while also having to handle the stress caused by what their neighbors say and think about them.

329

(8)

Ernest Hemingway

"Hills Like White Elephants" (story) The dialogue between the young couple reveals their different expectations of relationships and love.

337

(4)

Pablo Neruda

"The Dream" (poem) The speaker in this poem explores how his dreams help him to reconcile with his lover after a brief separation.

341

(3)

Chitra Divakaruni

"Nargis' Toilette" (poem) A poet evokes the inner world of a vailed Muslim woman.

344

(3)

Student Writing

347

(7)

Rosa Contreras

"On Not Being a Girl" (essay) A young woman from a traditional Mexican American family examines the difficulty she had in convincing her family to accept her redefinition of the traditional role of the Latina woman.

347

(4)

Julie Bordner Apodaca

"Gay Marriage: Why the Resistance?" (essay) A student explores the causes for the lack of acceptance of gay marriage.

351

(3)

Chapter Writing Topics

354

(2)

7 The Double The Other

356

(66)

Argument and Dialogue The argument essay is presented both as a type of dialogue between aspects of the writer's self and as a dialogue between the writer and his or her audience.

356

(5)

Traditional Argument

356

(1)

The Dialogue

357

(1)

Dialogue and Prewriting

357

(1)

Prewriting and the Audience

358

(1)

Defining Key Terms

358

(1)

Evaluating "Facts"

359

(1)

Feelings in Argument

359

(2)

Thematic Introduction Readings explore different ways that an individual's personality can become divided and how such inner conflicts can be expressed.

361

(2)

Readings

363

(53)

Judith Ortiz Cofer

"The Other" (poem) A woman explores her "other," a sensual, uninhibited part of her personality that also reflects her cultural roots.

363

(1)

John Updike

"Updike and I" (essay) This popular novelist explores the duality of his nature in the contrast between his everyday social self and his writer self.

364

(3)

Marie-Luise Von Franz

"The Realization of the Shadow in Dreams" (essay) A psychoanalyst discusses ways in which the unconscious "shadow" side of our personality reveals itself to us in dreams and myths and discusses how we might move toward reconciliation with the shadow self.

367

(4)

Hans Christian Andersen

"The Shadow" (story) The rivalry between a wise scholar and his manipulative, cunning shadow suggests how precarious our control over our own lives can be.

371

(10)

Robert Louis Stevenson

"A Chapter on Dreams" (essay) Stevenson discusses how he used characters from his dreams and his unconscious mind to create his stories.

381

(3)

Robert Louis Stevenson

"Henry Jekyll's Full Statement of the Case" from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (story) Dr. Jekyll's letter, found after his suicide, reveals the dualsided nature of personality and warns of the dangers of tampering with human nature.

384

(12)

Shelby Steele

"Being Black and Feeling Blue" (essay) An African American professor examines the pessimistic anti-self in black people that can keep them from succeeding in life.

396

(11)

Fran Peavey (with Myrna Levy and Charles Varon)

"Us and Them" (essay) A long-time activist argues for a new approach to community organizing and political action that avoids "demonizing" the opposition.

407

(6)

Theodore Roethke

"In a Dark Time" (poem) The speaker in this poem faces his shadow self and climbs out of his fear.

413

(3)

Student Writing

416

(4)

Susan Voyticky

"Mixed-Up" (essay) A college freshman reflects on how her mixed ethnic identity has affected her self-concept.

416

(2)

Albert Liu

"The Artist and the Engineer" (essay) Using an inner dialogue, this student writes about his internalized conflict between his logical and creative mind, showing how it is affecting his expectations for his future.

418

(2)

Chapter Writing Topics

420

(2)

8 Society's Dreams

422

(70)

Research Writing The stages of writing a research paper are presented, with an emphasis on the importance of maintaining a sense of personal voice and individual style.

422

(4)

Finding a Topic

423

(1)

Timetable and Process

424

(1)

Your Voice and the Voices of Your Sources

424

(1)

Purpose and Structure

424

(1)

Language and Style

424

(2)

Thematic Introduction Readings examine the impact of political propaganda and the mass media on our dreams, fantasies, myths, and self-concepts.

426

(2)

Readings

428

(52)

Stephen Dunn

"Middle Class Poem" (poem) A poet creates a disturbing portrait of the dreams of a nation haunted by distorted images from the "news of the world."

428

(2)

Anthony Pratkanis

Elliot Aronson

"Pictures in Our Heads" from The Age of Propaganda (essay) Social psychologists explore the way that the views we hold of the world around us are conditioned by the images of reality presented by the electronic media.

430

(5)

George Orwell

"Winston Was Dreaming" from 1984 (fiction) This excerpt from the classic anti-utopian novel explores our deepest fear--that one day the media will help those in political power to control our minds and lives.

435

(6)

Terry McMillan

"The Wizard of Oz" (essay) A young woman explores her evolving imaginative and emotional relationship to a classic film that she viewed over and over again as a child.

441

(9)

Frank Baum

"The Magic Art of the Great Humbug" from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (fiction) In this episode the Wizard's identity is revealed to Dorothy.

450

(8)

Gary Soto

"El Radio" (story) This light-hearted story suggests that romantic popular songs can sometimes help parents and teenagers to share their dreams.

458

(7)

Louise Erdrich

"Dear John Wayne" (poem) The speaker of this poem asks readers to question the fantasies that they hold about the settling of the Western frontier and the role of Native Americans.

465

(3)

Gish Jen

"Challenging the Asian Illusion" (essay) This Asian American writer is critical of the media's stereotyped presentation of Asians and Asian Americans.

468

(5)

Umberto Eco

"The City of Robots" (essay) An internationally acclaimed writer and scholar argues that fake American theme parks like Disneyland enshrine the hollow values of our culture.

473

(7)

Student Writing

480

(10)

Terri Sevilla

" `The Little Princess' and Me" (essay) A student who grew up in the 1950s explores the influence that watching old Shirley Temple films on television had on her sense of personal power and self-esteem.

480

(3)

Amanda Morgan

"When Beauty Is the Beast" (research paper) A first-year college student argues that cultural standards of beauty promote unattainable body image ideals that are detrimental to women's self-esteem and their physical and psychological health.

483

(7)

Chapter Writing Topics

490

(2)

9 Dreams of Vision and Prophecy

492

(51)

Creativity, Problem Solving, and Synthesis Barriers as well as useful strategies for creative problem solving and synthesis writing are explored and evaluated.

492

(4)

Habit Versus Risk

493

(1)

Reason Versus Intuition

493

(1)

Developing Self-Confidence: Learning to Trust Your Own Process as a Writer

494

(1)

Evaluation and Application

494

(1)

Synthesis

495

(1)

Thematic Introduction The inward journey concludes with vision and prophecy, as we learn to use our creative abilities to solve problems and to visualize and shape alternatives to the world as it is now.

496

(2)

Readings

498

(36)

William Blake

"The Tyger" (poem) This poem asks us to think about what kind of God could create both the good and evil parts of the human spirit.

498

(1)

Cathy Song

"Heaven" (poem) An Asian American boy dreams of heaven and imagines it as the China he has heard about from his relatives.

499

(3)

Annie Dillard

"A Field of Silence" (essay) A woman living in solitude on a farm turns away from the intensity of an "unendurable" vision of stillness and spiritual presence.

502

(4)

Black Elk

John G. Neihardt

"The Great Vision" from Black Elk Speaks (essay) A Native American youth has a vision that culminates in an insight into an alternative future for himself and for the Indian nation.

506

(7)

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I Have a Dream" (essay) Using powerful biblical language, a minister and civil rights leader presents a vision of peace, justice, and racial harmony.

513

(3)

Terry Tempest Williams

"The Clan of One-Breasted Women" (essay) Concerned about our future, this nature writer questions the morality of U.S. nuclear bombing in the Utah desert since the early 1970s.

516

(7)

Linda Hogan

"The Voyagers" (essay) This essay encourages us to think about the type of record of our civilization we want to leave in our space ships.

523

(5)

E. M. Forster

"The Other Side of the Hedge" (story) In this utopian story a competitive, overworked young man awakens to find himself in a pastoral world where brotherhood and peace of mind, rather than progress and accomplishments, are valued.

528

(6)

Student Writing

534

(7)

Ivana Kim

"Dreams as Conscious Visions" (essay) A student explains her version of the "American Dream," a vision of achievement that gives direction and meaning to her life.

534

(3)

Ryan Wesley Bounds

"The New Enlightenment" (story) A student creates a satirical vision of a multicultural utopia.

537

(4)

Chapter Writing Topics

541

(2)

Credits

543

(6)