Advertising Part 2

I think that I'm going to do my research paper on Advertising. On my last paper I don't feel that I looked deep enough into it and I want to expand. I want to learn more about whats going on in that department and read up on current statistics. In the end I want to be able to prove how I feel about the topic.

UGH...research

For my research paper I'm going to extend my last paper on how teenagers are stereotyped in society by adults, how adults fear them, in Hine's essay "Goth's in Tomorrowland". However, to research further and in more depth, I'm going to look up all different kinds of teen stereotypes, not just Goths, and how these stereotypes affect society. I'm doing this to add variety and context to my paper,as well as having the opportunity to find more information for my paper. Let's hope it goes well!

Research Idea

As like everyone else I also do not feel that confident with what I want my topic to be. I guess im just not sure of all the information weve covered through out the semster and whether or not i will find enough research. The topic issues I have in mind are the Black English, Standards English controversey. I'm not sure what i'm going to talk about, but this is the topic I feel most comofortable researching

Final Paper

For my final paper I think I am going to use Barbara Ehrenreich's story Nickle and Dimed, and see how hard it really is to live on minnimum wage, while supporting children. I went to the library and got a few books out so I am going to look at them, but I don't know how well this will work out, so it may change.

Minimum Wage In Depth

I am going to to further my research from my last paper about minumum wage and how it needs an increase. I am going to look at my sources that i gathered from my last paper and try to expand on that to find more information to see if there is anything being done to raise minumum wage or if something has tried to be done but didn't get passed. This was a very interesting topic for me when I wrote my last paper and I had a lot of fun with it. I hope I am able to find the information I want and will be able to write 6-10 pages.

redneck dialect: a further study

for my research paper i will be further investigating and researching the redneck dialect while pushing this topic further with additional information about Appalachian Studies.
the format of my paper is not clear at this point, nor is my proposal or thesis question. however when more of my general research is complete, the paper itself should begin to come together quite nicely.

Research Ideas

For our research paper, I was thinking about expanding my first paper that we wrote for class, Language Analysis. For the first paper, we stuck to the "IS"s of the text, what the text actully said, point for point. But, for this research paper I was thinking about going a little more in depth, researching the authors sources and coming up with my own voice on Language Analysis.

Research Ideas

Well I am really not sure what I want to write about yet because I have not found anything that sticks out to me that I can see myself writing a good paper on. Maybe I will write about our very first piece of writing which involve culture and how it is ordinary. I could research more on that essay alone and then go into others and research on what is considered ordinary or not. But who knows...it's jsut an idea for now.

Research Topic

Well, the idea I wanted to do for my paper was very similar to E's. So yeah I've got nothing now. But here goes plan B:

I thought a lot of the articles in this portion of the course had a lot to do with identity. Some factor's affecting social standng that were pointed out in the articles had to do with wealth, outward appearance, race, familial country of origin, etc. So my problem is tieing all that together with a single question that could lead to some sort of thesis for a paper. I think I'll also have trouble with finding research relating to this sort of topic that isn't an editorial. Hooray.

Research Paper

Well, I'm not really sure what i'm gonna do my research paper on. But I think i'm gonna base it around discrimination and different social groups. So I'll read up on Goths in tomorrow land and the note passing stories. I think I'll be able to find alot of sources and I will be able to think back to highschool.

Research Paper

Just about the same as everybody else i am not sure what to write about, although i'm leaning towards the descrimination of the Goth's and other groups that would be similarly looked at the same way. I'm sure that there are many sources on the subject, and its very easy to just take a look on campus and see what groups of people hang together. High school would be a very close look at it because of its social segregations.

Research Topic(s)

I haven’t fully decided about what I’m going to do the research paper on, but my two ideas are propaganda or the misrepresentation of history. I was thinking about showing the importance of pictures but also the negative effects of them and that’s how I got the idea of propaganda. But I think it fits more with the articles about advertising. I would focus on how propaganda came about, different forms of propaganda and its effects on people. I got the idea of misrepresentation of history from the stories we read about the Indians. If I choose this topic, then I will go into all kinds of misrepresentation surrounding the Indians, Pilgrims, Africans and others within books, movies, and textbooks. Some examples of movies, Elizabeth, Alexander, Hidalgo. I will also focus on companies and authors who choose to re write history for the sake of entertainment (Frank Hopkins, Disney).

Topic for Final Paper

For this paper I am going to work off of the information from my last paper. In my last paper I worked off of Barbaba Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America". I focused on her information on minimum wage and homelessness and then found the updated version of the facts she gave. I used the same sources which Ehrenreich did and found new ones also. With this new paper, I plan to just take the research even farther and find out what people are saying about the topic. I want look into the debates and specific organizations to find new detailed information on the topics of minimum wage and homelessness.

Topic for my research paper

I think i'll look at the literacy aspect of this course again for my paper, specifically that used in internet forums. Some of these sites are very strict about the language used, the relevance to the topic, and the repetition of information, while others are next to impossibe to follow, yet valuable information can still be obtained there.

Civil Rights

This picture i feel is very significant to American History, it is one of the most memorable events in civil rights history. At the march on Washington is when Dr. Martin Luther King made his "I have a dream speech", which is one of the most decorated speeches in American History, it broke down barriers in our country. This era was very pivotal in the way we view things today. The crowd that gathered shows the change that was occuring at the time. http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/3571/mcms.html

Mahoney's ENG 023 Blog

http://thewall-usa.com/wallpics/gallery.htm
http://www.nps.gov/mall/mortar/mortar.htm#vive

As I was trying to decide what piece of American History to use for this blog I realized one of the most honorable and moving moments of my life was when I went on a class trip to Washington D.C. with my Vietnam History class in high school. We were chosen along with many other people to read 20 names off of the wall. As I was waiting anxiously in line a vet approached me and told me how two of his friends were on my list, I forget his name but I will never forget his face and expression as he asked to stand next to me so he could read those names and tell a brief story about the two soldiers who died in combat. The whole experience of going to the Vietnam Veterans Monument was crazy, it was one of the most moving events of my life as I watched people by me who were hugging and crying, Marines constantly passing one another and saying "semper fi" and so much more. It was a great experience and it showed me the emotional side of a war and what the people of that time are still dealing with today.

911

The historic event I chose to pick a picture to was the tragic attack done to the world tradecenter that occurred on September 11. The pictures on the website show some firemen and their devastating facial expressions, wondering how someone could do something so evil to harm such a large quantity of people. This incident is considered the worst terrorist act ever done in the history of the United States.
http://www.911pictures.com/photos_catalog.phtml?category=fire- Im sorry Professor mahoney, but i cant figure out how to put the actual link on here. Im a dumby and i cant help it. sorry about that again.

Research proposal

For my research paper I think I'm going to write about stereotyping. How teenagers are stereotyped by others, mostly adults. I want to discuss the different people who are stereoptyped and how it affects the youth. This idea is based off of Thomas Hine's "Goths in Tomorrowland." I'm hoping to get different views on the issue. The teens point of view and the adults view. Let me know if you have any comments or ideas because I'm not quiet sure if I'm going to get enough information to make 7 pages!

My Lai Massacre

The Ditch Photo
These photos are of the chilling events that took place in Vietnam, named the My Lai Massacre. In high school, I took a course on the Vietnam War and the photo above is the one memory I have of that class, as well as the one photo that generated the biggest reaction from the students. The My Lai Massacre was one event during the Vietnam War (others: Agent Orange, Tet Offensive, Cuban Missile Crisis, Kent State shootings) that created a distrust of US soldiers by those back home. On March 16, 1968 in the Son My (My Lai) village, US soldiers took many unarmed Vietnamese people, mostly women and children, put them into a ditch and executed them under the orders of Lt. William Calley. After numerous investigations and cover ups, the My Lai Massacre was not made public until November 12, 1969. Of the 26 men charged, only one, Lt. Calley was convicted or pre-meditated murder.

Woman and Gun

When I learned about this, I couldn’t believe it. To think that our troops would kill innocent people for revenge is sickening and the fact that they weren’t punished for their actions is worse. If you look closely, you can see the bodies of at least 3 children, two being babies. I realize that these photos are gruesome and shocking but I think it is important for them to be seen. We constantly criticize other countries for brutality and look what representatives of our country have done as well as what our country has done to rectify the situation. The picture below is the ditch as it is today and the women in the photo are survivors. These women survived by burrowing under the bodies of their family members and hiding from the soldiers. I think that the pain of the memories is evident on their faces.

Current Day Ditch

Sharp Shooter

This picture is from the battle of Gettysburg. It's a confederate sharpshooter in Devils Den. Devils Den is many rocks piled on top of each other in different formations. No one really knows how they were formed. On July 2nd the 2nd day of Gettysburg Battles the confederate and union army both fought here, not really a good place for ither side because there were so many rocks. When I look at this picture I think it's sad because you wonder what kind of life this guy left behind, did he have someone waiting back home. Did he really believe in what he was fighting for, if so why did he beleive in it so much he was willing to give his life?
http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/photos.htm

The Japanese American Internment

Jumping on the WWII bandwagon...

FDR was awesome. So awesome that he ordered all Japanese and Japanese Americans in the San Francisco area to live in internment camps in 1942. 62 percent of these people were US citizens. This picture was taken during a camp baggage check.

I think it's unfortunate that the Japanese Internment is one of the lesser known events of WWII - of course it is, it was a major screw up on the part of our government. Still I think it needs to be brought out into the limelight more as it can easily be connected to the issue of racial profiling today.

Image source: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/od9066ph.html

Pearl Harbor

I had this done before, but i didn't realize i saved it as a draft so it didn't show up today in class.




There was some information leading up to the attack of Pearl HArbor on Decmeber 7, 1941, but no one put all the information together. The Japanese attacked while all of the US officers were at church on Sunday morning. This attack brought the United States into the war. They attacked more then 200 planes on the ground, and 96 ships from the US fleet. The battleships Oklahoma, Maryland, and Arizona were all lost, along with 2,000 men.

Some History from my Home Town

http://boyertown-trolley.com/history.jpg

I wanted to do a bit of american history that was about my hometown of Boyertown Its about 20 miles SSE from here, and is very comparable to kutztown as far as size and surroundings, take this college away from Kutztown, and you have Boyertown.

The Boyertown Auto Body Works was one of the main industries in boyertown aside from a casket factory and knitting mills and a foundry. These industries have phased out and been replaced by plants owned by large corporations. Today the main plants in town are small branches Federal Mogul (automotive lighting) and Cabot Supermetals (a chemical plant).
Most of you are from PA or at least live here now, and probably have never heard the boyertown casket factory or auto body works. The only real issue i have with any of this is the loss of credit to the people who make these large corporations work, and the small businesses who may or may not become large ones.

I also miss the role my hometown used to play in the industries, today we monitor assembly pre-made parts into aftermarket(cheaper) lights for cars, instead of making from scratch the entire body of the car out of plain sheet metal.

So heres the american history part: I think this change in industry is typical of small towns across the nation. As the skilled labor of fabrication became automated, these small plants become less hands on, once important skills become totally invaluable for the most part. That what I would like to see: a better appreciation for skilled labor.


http://www.autoweek.com/images/articles/103260
this is just another pic of a truck whose body was made in a small plant in boyertown instead of a giant one with robots in Detroit.

Phillips vs. Neidichs

I was very confused when reading Christopher Phillips "Necessary Fictions: Warren Neidichs Early American Cover-ups". We all know that we do not know all the facts about what the Americans did to take Indians off their lands and move them onto reservations, and thats what Phillips tells us. Looking at the pictures from Warren Neidichs you feel a different sense of what really went on. Normally in history books we see pictures of Native Americans looking focused or sometimes sad/depressed. Never did I ever see a picture of Americans moving them out off of their land by blind-folding them and threatening to kill them. I wasn't really sure what else to get from the reading.

Fort Sumter

This is a picture of Fort Sumter. It was taken after its capture. This took place on April 14, 1861. This picture try's to capture all the damage that was done from the rebel bombardment of over 3000 shells. This was an extreme tragedy for many people and the image shows it.

Civil War*

Photo This image is of dead soldiers in the Wheatfield near the Emmittsburg Road in Gettysburg, PA. This image is from July 1863 and occurred during the Civil War. The Civil War was a conflict between the Northern states and the Southern states over establishing a new nation. Feelings such as sadness and sorrow are what first comes in mind when looking at this photo. The photo makes you wonder about each person and what kind of life they gave up to fight in the war. This picture stuck out to me for many reasons. One because in high school when I learned about the Civil War, I was never shown pictures like this. I always saw the action shots that were from the men fighting but this photo shows the aftermath of the war. The picture makes me think of silence. There are so many man laying on the grounds each with different lives they gave up to fight in this war. I think more people need to take time to actually look at the photo and think of what the men fighting for us are giving up for our freedom.

the american FLAG !

United States History is a very borad topic, so i decided to pick the american flag, this particular flag isnt just any pic. It is a flag graphicaly designed with mosaic pictures inside of it. Most of the pictures inside the flag are of hundreds of different photos of army life. The artist behind this work is Runaway Technology, they creat mosicas of many different things from a Newsweek magazine cover of Princess Diana to the Comecast remote to the American flag, each picture is made up of millions of tiny other pictures conveying a deeper meaning.

Don't Forget Child Labor

From The Hisroty Place, Lewis W. Hine

Child labor was a huge issue in the United States. Children would work 12 hours a day for six days a week with low pay and horrible working environments. Children in the United States worked under deplorable conditions until well into the mid-twentieth century. This picture from Hine is a boy who works in the mines. This boy looks filthy and well over exhausted. The mood that this picture creates is sad because when you look at him and see the expression on his face you can't help but feel bad for what this boy had to go through. Not only is mining physically stressful but it is harmful to ones health. Why were we so willing to throw our children out into the work world? During the time of child labor children did not recieve any type of education; therfore, many of them could not even read or write. How did we expect our children to make a better life for themsleves when we deprived them of the opportunity to gain a education.

The End of the Cold War

This is a photograph of Ronald Reagan speaking to East Berlin sometime during the later transitional periods of the Cold War. It was in this moment, Reagan demanded that Russia's leader, "tear down this wall!" The wall separating West Berlin and East Berlin/every other communist European country was created to show the democratic nations of the world that Communism could survive on its own, yet all "good" things must come to an end. During this time, the people of Russia and most of Eastern Europe were fed up with the Communist system, as well as not being fed. Essentially once the Soviet government had spent the vast majority of the country's money on bulking up the military and repressing their people into submission, they ran out of money and out of options. America, along with many many other nations decided enough was enough and it was time for these countries to join the world once again. Although Russia and some Eastern European nations are still struggling, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall is proof that its never too late to tear down the walls of ignorance, injustice, and inequality.

America's Longest War...

This here is a photo of a young Vietnamese girl receiving medical assistance during the Vietnam War. I chose a Vietnam War photograph because it was the longest, most devasting war in American History. The Vietnam War represented the longest military conflict between North Vietnam and the United States in which 58,000 Americans lost their lives, 304,000 were wounded and 4 million Vietnamese were killed. In this photo, you can see an innocent young child hurt and in pain in which, she was most likely caught in the line of fire and was wounded. This picture touched me the most because it was not a soldier injured but an innocent child. How can a war get so out of hand that a child becomes involved? It's a disgrace. I look at this picture and can almost feel the fear inside this poor child's eyes. She appears to be scared, very shooken up, and just in pain. This photo describes how one war can affect an entire group of people, especially children, the most innocent people in the world, who do not deserve to suffer in a time when a nation is in crisis because it is not their fault.

Representation of U.S. History

My photo is from The History Place: World War Two in the Pacific. It's a photo taken during World War II. It's a picture of a Catholic Navy praying in their "made up" church. They are praying for everyone they had lost in the intitial landings. I think it's a very emotional picture. It shows really how much the war has affected them, and the lives of others. It shows respect as well that they still had the time to sit down and pray for the ones they lost. It is evoking a feeling of grief and shows how meaningful the relationships with their fellow soldiers had been. It shows a feeling of respect for those who fought and risked their lives for the United States.

Photo of Skokomish

From the Edward Curtis Gallery.

Test page.

phillips and neidichs displaying indians

I really didn't get this assignment, Phillips writes about Indians and how they are different now from when they were very primative, basically like they commercialized their heritage. And about how Neidichs pictures don't give a clear sense about how events really happened and how we don't understand them, i agree with it in that we don't really get a clear picture from how they lived with the pictures in the books, it looks historic but the facts aren't concrete.

Indian History

Jane Tompkins "INDIANS": Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History", talks about the relationship between the Europeans and the Indians. She takes information from different researchers to try and gain more information for herself to try and figure out what is fact and what is fiction. In the end she does not really seem to have any clue abou the information that she gained. It just seemed she had no point to her research and she did not get any where with what she was trying to prove.

Indian's ...What Indians ?

Over the years the relationship between native Americans and new Englanders has become some what vague. Some new Englanders acknowledged the Indians and used them as a source to build up colonies, this type of story is something more commonly known today, especially with thanksgiving. Then there is the other side, the other type of settler that doesn't acknowedge the Indians and saw the land as "theirs" to live on and build colonies. Most literary pieces written about Indians and puritans is biased and normally takes the side of a puritan showing the community to be in unity with each other. This is where Tompkins brings up some good questions, was the puritans unity a positive quality in development ? And who's to say that the Indians were neither disciplined or visionary? Because these storys were developed so many years ago and by so many different people in different areas there is not going to be any easy facts about the realtionship between indians and puritans.

Historical Perspective and Gullibility

I don't think Tompkins brings anything new to the table with her opinions on the bias in history concerning Native Americans. Yes, the European settlers have a long history of screwing over this country's original inhabitants, and yes, there will always be a huge question mark about the accuracy of "first-hand" accounts. Unfortunately this raises concern for me over the accuracy about other parts of history. How can we know if what is written in our text books what actually occurred? How do we know if our sources are accurate? We don't. So we'll continue to blindly believe just about everything we read and history will probably be doomed to repeat itself regardless.

lack of facts on indian history

There have always been disputes between the early settlers of the New England area and the native indians where they settled, as to what type of relationship they had. Although many people weigh in on the subject it really amounts to your biased opinion at the time. The people studying the subject now look back to books wrote by the settlers then during their encounters and base our opinions off of theirs. Although their "real facts" are all different, there are no concrete ideas of their relationship. One says that they really didn't exist in his eyes, and the land was there for the taking, others claim that we destroyed their civilization and brought disease and discomfort to their lifestyle. Another opinion is that the English didn't do anything different that they did to their own people which was to exploit and take over. Jane Tompkins overall feels that she has no real defenite feeling of what actually happened because she does not have first hand experience from a non biased point of view, all records are tainted because of their situation when arriving and encountering the Indians.

who to believe..

"INDIANS": "Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History", by Jane Tompkins. In this reading Jane talks about all the conflicting stories about the European-Indian relations. Tompkins is not sure what to believe and not to believe, she tries to figure out which are facts and which are fiction. Tompkins research starts out with Perry Miller, then goes to Alden Vaughan, Francis Jennings, Martin and Hudson, Axtell and Heard, Rowlandson and Wood and Whitaker. Each of the authors had different things to say about the Indians and how they lived their lives. Tompkins soon realized that she had many different perspectives on the issue and not sure about the facts. Tompkins found she needed to just piece together the stories on European- Indian relations the best she could on what seemed reasonable to figure out issue of the Indians.

identity

In Grossberg's “Youth and American Identity,” he expresses the way he feels about America and how it has revolved around contradicting ones identity. What’s wrong with thinking or expressing the ways we feel? Everyone has the right to their own identity. Everything from the past can't get past on from generation to generation forever. Somewhere along the line there will always be people who feel a certain way about something. One's identity will always be contradicted because diversity will last forever and everyone has the right to identify themselves the way they want to be identified. Mary Gordon's story "More Than Just A Shrine" goes back to immigrants coming to the US. Americans felt some type of way about the diversity these immigrants had. The immigrants were strongly discriminated about their heritages. He goes to Ellis Island to find his identity and show the Ghosts on the Island he shared their beliefs and felt differently about the American ways.

Identity Huh...?

When I read both of these stories, the first thing that came to my mind was HISTORY. I hate living in the past, I like the present so much more. I found Grossberg's essay boring and drawn out. I never liked to follow those times because it was always so complicated to undestand. He just talked about youth as an american identity and that the U.S. has always been a nation without a center. Whats that? I thought thats Gordon's essay was better because it talked about real life stuff that I never knew and it was pretty interesting. I liked how she describes Ellis Island and what took place there and teh type of meaning that it held.

One Nation Defined

In reading "Youth and American Identity" and "More than just a Shrine" I realize that our nation is defined by the our citizens. Our country as a whole is very unique because of the background of all our people. In the early 1900's Ellis Island is the landmark that defined much of our culture with the sworm of people who came to persue freedom. It should not matter that our nation does not have a definitive answer to our identity because our Nation's identity lies within its borders, we are a country of freedom and the most powerful country in the world. Our country will continue to become stronger with the new immigrants who come to stay and our continuing emphasis on education. Therefore our country is defined as the United States of America because we are defined by our past and the continuing idea of freedom.

Wow Interesting stories!!

I just want to point out that I love reading real life stories, not that these were really real life...but they had to do with real life situations!

Okay! Mary Gordon's story was all about Ellis Island and the different type of things immigrants had to endure. She really made me more interested in Ellis Island. I found it interesting , although very discriminating, how people were marked with chalk with different letters that stand for heart disease or eye troubles I do however understand that, that was nessesary to make america the way that people thought it should be. It was sad to read that so many people were told they couldn't live in America and had to go back to whereever they came from, and because of that some of those people killed themselves.
Youth and american identity wasn't that interesting for me, but all in all okay. I really liked how this essay was set up and can remembering reading and enjoying these in highschool. I don't think anyone really knows what the future holds or what future generations of people will be like...we all think that people can only get smarter with time, but maybe the reverse is true. So I guess I believe what Grossburg's story is trying to say?.

developing a country.

Grossberg's essay is attempting to say how the nation in the post war years is putting the nations fate in the hands of the youth, the baby boomer generation. His questioning lays with how could they define the nation when they don't yet know how they want to shape the country. Basically we can't say what the future will ever look like because it is forever changing. I agree with this because nobody knows what the future holds, you can have an idea but there is no defenitive answer. Gordons essay puts down the people who started categorizing the immigrants coming into our country. And how she doesn't appreciate displaying their weaknesses writtin in chalk on their chests. She views it at biased because some were rejected from even entering due to diseases and other harmful traits. I don't agree with this point of view, this country's immigration policy was a great step into making America evolve. There are always downsides to progress, but so many people prospered there are always going to be those who were stepped on to make it possible.

American Identity.....

I found Grossberg's "Youth and American Identity" really boring. It just talked about youth as an american identity. That the United States has always been a country without a center, and that the United States is a nation of immigrants. I really had no interest in it or understood what the point of the text was. Gordan's "More than just a shrine" was more interesting because it related real life situations. It discussed how Ellis Island dehumanized immigrants. Putting letters on the immigrantas for certain illnesses kind of disturbed me. But it was something I never knew so I enjoyed reading it.

I found both of these text's hard to understand but from what i understood I liked Gordans text "More then Just a Shrine", better then Grossbergs "Youth and American Identity". I thought Gordans text was interesting, and it held my attention. It made me more intrested in Ellis Island and I learned about things that occured there that I never knew about. Grossbergs text I just did not understand the point. I think Grossberg was saying how future generations have to fufill Americas dream, and make younger generations the next leaders and role models. These two texts made me realize how different everyones backgrounds are, and how unique our country is.

Being an American..

"Youth and American Identity" by Lawrence Grossberg, describes how we want the future generations to become the American dream and become the best leaders of America. My only question is.. What is the American dream? Each generation becomes a better leader from the one before so can we ever really become the best? "More Than Just a Shrine" by Mary Gordon, I found this piece interesting. I never really knew much about Ellis Island and now after reading I am interested to go there. I am actually going to New York City this upcoming weekend and I want to go there and look at the things Gordon describes. I think its horrible that they use to stamp letters on people stating what problems they had. "E"- eye trouble, "K"- hernia, "L"-lameness, "X"- mental defects or "H"- heart disease. That is something that no one should have to be put through. Instead of rejecting them, they should have helped them with their problem!

National Identity?

Lawrence Grossberg's "Youth and American Identity" I found to be very boring. It was just going on about nothing. I don't have the attention span to read something like that, even if it is two pages long. All it talked about was youth as an American identity and that The United States is a country of immigrants. Mary Gordon's "More Than Just a Shrine" I found to be some what more interesting. It talked about historic events that I had never knew about. It was very interesting to see how they labeled the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island with letters to distinguish people with diseases and what diseases they had. It was something interesting to read since I had never read anything about it before.

Who ever said you Had to have a definable Identity?

Grossberg's "Youth and American Identity" is a perfect example of what America is. We are all immigrants who came to America to fulfill the famous American dream. Youth is looked at as the future of America which they are but why does their need to be a definition for everything. What's wrong with America not having an identity that can be written into words and put in a dictionary. Part of America is its randomness and its full and complete opportunity of one being themsleves and finding a way of succeeding. Grossberg has America defined as the future but that is as unclear as having no definition at all. Who knows what lies in the future. Mary Gordon's "More than Just a Shrine" was a little slow and less enjoyable but it also reflects upon Ellis Island in a meaningful way. She explains how we trace our families back to when they first came to America there on that Island. Ellis Island gives a sense of security and gives Americans the chance to go find who they are connected to.

A watched melting pot never boils

Reading Grossberg's essay "Youth and American Identity” reminded me of something my Sociology professor said the other day about how the baby-boomer generation is expected to be the last generation to surpass the previous generation’s success in terms of education, wealth and standard of living for awhile. I think Grossberg drove this point home to me indirectly by bringing light to this current generation’s lack of identity. I found Gordon’s article, “More than Just a Shrine” to be a pretty well written historical perspective piece on immigration to the US through Ellis Island.