Category Archives: Project #2

project 2

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Mahnoor Sheikh

Jody Rosen

Eng 2001-D536

 

Dear Hathitrust,

I am a college freshman at New York City College of Technology otherwise known as City Tech. I am in an introduction to fiction course where my classmates and I utilize your digital copy of Nella Larsen’s Quicksand in our lectures. It is a really a helpful source, I would like to thank you for making it available to students. It is especially helpful for students who are unable to buy a physical copy of the book and makes it much easier for everyone to be on the same page, pun intended, during lectures since passages from the text can physically be projected on the board and seen all around the class. My only criticism of your digital rendition is that it is not taking advantage of its full potential as a digital document. Almost everything is on the internet nowadays, and you are not the only free platform to provide literature to students. So to set yourself apart from other websites I suggest making your document interactive. Beyond allowing readers the ability to go over and copy lines in order to make siting the document easier. But to also include annotations within the story to clarify any potential confusion, much like the left pages in Shakespearean plays.

Since the language of that time was so drastically different and in those stories specifically many words, geographical and temporal aspects of setting and even actions had to be explained. For example in Romeo and Juliet in an early scene, between a capulet and montague,

 

“SAMPSON I do bite my thumb, sir.

ABRAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON (aside to GREGORY) Is the law of our side if I say “ay”?”

 

Upon first reading this without any clarification or subtext a student would be lost, but on the opposing page it is explained the feud between both families and the offensive meaning behind biting your thumb, being the equivalent of raising a middle finger at someone. The annotations would also be beneficial in explaining to people key references that require outside knowledge.

Another example could be found in Junot Diaz’s short story “How to Date a Brown Girl.” “Your brother once heard that one and said, Man, that sounds like a whole lot of Uncle Tomming to me. Don’t repeat this.” Not everyone will understand what makes this statement as offensive as it is because they do not understand that Uncle Tom has become a derogatory “epithet for an exceedingly subservient person, particularly when that person is aware of their own lower-class status based on race.” Which in this specific story cements the protagonist’s prior claim that he does not like black girls while also making him seem even less likeable that before.

Now in the scenario of being applied specifically to Quicksand, an annotation that I believe would be helpful to understanding Helga’s crisis of identity and feeling accepted would be one at the circus when the performers come out and sing the song “ Everybody Gives Me Good Advice.” Helga’s  discomfort at the circus/ her dismay to the at the performance are important for her to make the realization that Copenhagen could never truly be her home since she would be denying half of her own identity as a mixed race woman of color. This scene triggered me because I felt in the novel it did not explain well enough if these performers were black or if it was a sort of minstrel show involving black face. I also think in the annotation a link to the actual song would be helpful as well, along with examples of the type of dance since Helga described them as frolecking and prancing. Even an example poster art for clowns and how they were rendered. And just conducting themselves in bamboolish ways.

My point is simply that more information given to the reader allows them to draw more conclusion based off of the text and analyze it deeper their own way.

 

Annotation Example:

According to Martyn Bone the circus scene is actually based off of a time Nella Larsen went to ne herself and the shock she experienced witnessing black performers, and she even brings p the never mentioned in “Quicksand” the danish slavery and colonization of the time. And upon doing research into the song used it was described as a “coon song,” so there is a blatant derogatory treatment of black people for enjoyment in this scene.

 

Glossarys:

1.contentment, a state of happiness and satisfaction.“,Her old unhappy questioning mood came again upon her, insidiously stealing away more of the contentment from her transformed existence”

 

  1.  Vaudeville,a type of entertainment popular chiefly in the US in the early 20th century, featuring a mixture of specialty acts such as burlesque comedy and song and dance,a vaudeville house, in search of amusement on a rare night off.

 

Bibliography:

Nella Larsen – Charles R.Larson – Anchor Books – 2001

Afro-nordic landscapes: equality and race in northern europe Routledge – 2016

http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/146/041

https://www.google.com/search?q=everybody+gives+me+good+advice+poster+art&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj5sLe4l57bAhUBslMKHfGrCc8Q_AUICigB&biw=1536&bih=759#imgrc=OmTsoL48z_emDM:

Project #2 Business Letter

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Jorge Lopez

Professor Rosen

English 2001

5 May 2018

Project #2

 

Business Letter

 

Dear Hathi Trust,

 

I am currently working on a end of the semester project for my English Fiction class based around the reading “Quicksand” by Nella Larsen which was assigned to us to read, write and discuss about in class. Throughout the course of reading this book my class had many interesting discussions filled with ideas about different topics and themes that come up along reading the book, sharing their opinions about what they thought about Helga Crane and her situation. But one thing in particular that I noticed was that from time to time there would be confusion about a certain parts of the text, whether that be confusion on a certain word, what it means and what’s it relevance to the context of the passage, or confusion simply due to the lack of historical context in a particular portion of the reading. These issues were usually brought up during our class discussions and talked about to help clarify the meaning of the text in which the individual was confused about, although this is helpful I believe that it would’ve been even more beneficial to the student if they had access to a digital annotated edition of the novel which includes background information that someone can easily just click on and read more about what they are confused about or if they’re curious and just want to learn more and understand better about what was happening during that time period where the book takes place. Having an annotated digital version of the book that students can easily access can assist them outside of the classroom, as most of our heavy discussions took place in class it’s good to have something they can refer to outside of class in case they ever forget what was talked about. As part of my assignment I was tasked to break down the kinds of possible annotations that would prove to be useful, specifically two type of annotations, research annotations which will include anything and everything that will provide background information on the historical context of the story and glossary annotations which will provide the user with the ability to quickly learn what a unfamiliar word means and how it connects to the rest of the sentence, helping them understand why it was used the way it did. I will provide you with some examples of what I mean and what you should roughly aim for if you do decide to add annotations in a separate edition as well as a link to them so you can read them separately if you choose to.

 

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/roseneng2001s2018/category/research-annotation/

 

Research Annotation:

 

-Race is a recurrent topic in “Quicksand” by Nella Larsen. It’s one of the many factors that drives the story and influences what happens throughout, affecting how the character feels, the thoughts that run through their mind, and their overall behavior. Helga’s behavior and decisions were heavily impacted by this and is one of the reasons she couldn’t settle down in one place and would jump from one to another. She felt she didn’t fit in and was uncomfortable with herself, her identity. It can be seen in this particular part of the text, “These people yapped loudly of race, of race consciousness, of race pride, and yet suppressed its most delightful manifestations, love of color, joy of rhythmic motion, naive, spontaneous laughter. Harmony, radiance, and simplicity, all the essentials of spiritual beauty in the race they had marked for destructions.” as it highlights the topic of race, and at the time how there was an abundance of offensive racial beliefs, specifically towards blacks. When researching I found sites discussing how it was at the time, the viewpoints of whites and how it impacted blacks negatively. Blacks would be judged for the color of their skin, being called racial slurs and being seen as outcasts, not equal to everyone else as whites believed they were superior in every which way, which obviously led to many problems down the road as people were sickened by the discrimination.

 

Citation:

 

-Deshazo, Zach. “Racial Relations in the 1920s.” Prezi.com, 26 Mar. 2013, prezi.com/bc7npzsnzfhb/racial-relations-in-the-1920s/.

 

Here I discuss the significance of race and color in the book, and brought up how it’s relevant to what was happening at that time period, with discrimination and segregation. I also go on to mention how it connects to Helga Crane and how she doesn’t feel she fits in all throughout the story, jumping from one place to another in search for something that was within all along, personal acceptance. Having an annotation like this can help put the reader in the protagonists shoes, allowing them to see things from their point of view easier.

 

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/roseneng2001s2018/tag/word-8/

 

Glossary Annotation:

 

-Throughout the novel “Quicksand” by Nella Larsen many interesting vocabulary words appear that aren’t commonly used in day to day language. For example the word Grandeur which appears in chapter 12, when the author writes “Helga Crane felt no regret as the clifflike towers faded. The sight thrilled her as beauty, grandeur, of any kind always did, but that was all.” (Larsen 93). Grandeur (Noun) is defined as, splendor and impressiveness, especially of appearance or style. This word was used to express how beautiful the sight was, and it’s important to understand its meaning because it will throw off the entire sentence structure not knowing what it means since it’s kind of just thrown into the middle of the sentence. You miss out on the significance of the word and why it was used in that particular context, understanding it makes the sentence more rich and detailed which helps with visualizing what the author is trying to get across and with analyzing the text.

 

Citation:

-“Grandeur.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster,

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grandeur.

 

In this annotation I highlight a word that comes up in the beginning of chapter 12 of the reading, which isn’t commonly used often in your everyday conversation so I can see how it would be unfamiliar to a student while reading that sentence. I give a definition as well as discussing the context in which the word was being used so that the reader can better understand its relevance and enrich their vocabulary. All in all I think it would be very useful and convenient for readers to have a digital annotated version of the text in which they can look at if they choose to enhance their reading, I feel many students in my class would have appreciated such a resource and use it to help them with any work they were doing in or outside of the classroom.

 

Best,

 

Jorge Lopez

 

 

 

 

All Citations:

 

“Annotated Bibliography.” Homosexuality in the Media, ocw.usu.edu/English/introduction-to-writing-academic-prose/annotated-bibliography.html.

 

“Grandeur.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster,

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grandeur.

 

Deshazo, Zach. “Racial Relations in the 1920s.” Prezi.com, 26 Mar. 2013, prezi.com/bc7npzsnzfhb/racial-relations-in-the-1920s/.

Charlie Caron – Project 2 Letter

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Mike Furlough

Hathi Trust

 

Dear Mike Furlough,

For our Intro to Literature class we read Nella Larsen’s Quicksand, a version of which you host in your online collection. Many of my classmates used your particular version from the Hathi Trust website to follow along with the story and complete their work. One thing that occurred to me was that since they were using your website to read the story, they were missing some important features that are available to students that had hardcopy versions and downloaded ebooks. The physical copies allow students to highlight passages and make notes in the margins in case a student finds something of note or wants to return to a passage. The ebook versions typically allow a reader to digitally highlight pieces of the story, place bookmarks to easily return to a passage, and sometimes even allow the reader to select and search for interesting things directly from the reading client.

Your hosted pdf version of the book does not allow any of this. The closest thing would be for the reader to manually type out bits from the story and search for the terms in another tab. A solution that we’ve been discussing in my class would be an annotated version hosted on your website. Having the story pre-annotated would enhance and enrich a reader’s understanding of the story, especially during passages that are difficult for them to understand. What’s more, having the story annotated and those annotations edited would ensure that when a reader is being challenged by a passage they can be sure that the information provided to them is correct.

Two different annotation categories were suggested in my class: Research annotations and Glossary annotations. Each one would provide context within the annotated passage that would help the reader understand the story better in different ways.

Research annotations are used for the more involved topics that a reader might require a bit more background on. They can be used to provide information on historical or cultural events/practices that the reader might not be too well-versed in. For instance, an American high school student reading Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls likely isn’t familiar with some of the contemporary context of the world the story takes place in. They might not know much about the Spanish Civil War, or the social hierarchy of rural Spain in the 1930s that influences how the characters treat and react to each other.

To help illustrate the need for these notes I’ve prepared some samples of both Research and Glossary annotation types. For a research annotation I wrote about Naxos, the school Helga is teaching at during the beginning of the book:

Back in the 1920s, especially in the south, there was a strong sentiment against the mixing of races. This sentiment lead to institutionalized segregation in the form of Jim Crow laws. Basically, the laws allowed individuals and organizations to discriminate against minorities by keeping them separated from white southerners, and thus prevented them from receiving the same benefits available to whites. Sometimes the laws mandated this segregation, such as in the case of public transportation and public schools.

Here, I gave a short bit of context for the rest of the annotation. This paragraph leads into the next, which provides a bit more in depth info:

Jim Crow laws have been on the books since shortly after the end of the Reconstruction era (1863-1877). They not only sought to separate white and black southerners, but to hobble any possible government funding of black public facilities like libraries and schools. As a result, black southerners were not permitted to attend most schools and the ones that were available to them were woefully underfunded, and so the average education level of the population was quite a bit lower compared to the whites of the time. This lack of education was part of a vicious cycle in some states: black schools were underfunded, so black southerners were less educated, so very few blacks were able to pass mandatory tests for voter eligibility, so very few blacks could vote in local and state elections, and so black schools continued to be underfunded.

The final paragraph ties it all together and provides context and analysis to the story:

As a response to the chronic underfunding of public schools for black southerners and the resulting lack of education and disenfranchisement, wealthy donors began to fund private, all black schools. Naxos is an example of one of these private schools. “On her side of the door, Helga was wondering if it had ever occurred to the lean and desiccated Miss MacGooden that most of her charges had actually come from the backwoods.” This passage suggests that a majority of the children attending Naxos are from less privileged homes and are there on charity scholarships, providing further evidence that Naxos is one of these schools.

Read all together, the annotation illuminates the nature of the school and its historical purpose. Annotations like this are extremely common in historical texts since most of the modern-day readers aren’t going to be well versed in the relevant time period or setting. The other category of annotations, Glossary annotations, are equally useful. Some of the words used in Quicksand are dated and not used very much anymore. The two examples I use for my Glossary annotations are “jade” and “goose-step.” A jade is a woman who is ill tempered or quick to change emotions, but outside of this book I’d never seen the word used in that way. It’s just not said anymore, outside of student papers and snobbish internet comments. Goose-step is a word I’d heard many times before but had never really looked into the definition for and it was surprising to see it used in reference to the student traditions at Naxos. While looking into these words I began to take on a better understanding of the passages I read.

All the research I did helped me appreciate the setting and the historical context of Quicksand. Being able to simply click on a link within the body of the text and find learn these things without having to sift through 5 different websites and using my school’s library services would have been much quicker and easier for me. Future readers would almost certainly appreciate having the work done for them, as well. I urge you to consider adding annotations to your website in order to enhance the experience of the students who rely on it. Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Charlie Caron

Charlie Caron – Project 2 Annotations

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“This was, he had told them with obvious sectional pride, the finest school for Negroes anywhere in the country, north or south; in fact, it was better even than a great many schools for white children. And he had dared any Northerner to come south and after looking upon this great institution to say that the Southerner mistreated the Negro.”

 

Back in the 1920s, especially in the south, there was a strong sentiment against the mixing of races. This sentiment lead to institutionalized segregation in the form of Jim Crow laws. Basically, the laws allowed individuals and organizations to discriminate against minorities by keeping them separated from white southerners, and thus prevented them from receiving the same benefits available to whites. Sometimes the laws mandated this segregation, such as in the case of public transportation and public schools.

Jim Crow laws have been on the books since shortly after the end of the Reconstruction era (1863-1877). They not only sought to separate white and black southerners, but to hobble any possible government funding of black public facilities like libraries and schools. As a result, black southerners were not permitted to attend most schools and the ones that were available to them were woefully underfunded, and so the average education level of the population was quite a bit lower compared to the whites of the time. This lack of education was part of a vicious cycle in some states: black schools were underfunded, so black southerners were less educated, so very few blacks were able to pass mandatory tests for voter eligibility, so very few blacks could vote in local and state elections, and so black schools continued to be underfunded.

As a response to the chronic underfunding of public schools for black southerners and the resulting lack of education and disenfranchisement, wealthy donors began to fund private, all black schools. Naxos is an example of one of these private schools. “On her side of the door, Helga was wondering if it had ever occurred to the lean and desiccated Miss MacGooden that most of her charges had actually come from the backwoods.” This passage suggests that a majority of the children attending Naxos are from less privileged homes and are there on charity scholarships, providing further evidence that Naxos is one of these schools.

 

Works Cited

  1. Reese, W. (2010-01-04). History, Education, and the Schools. Springer. p. 145. ISBN 9780230104822.
  2. http://diverseeducation.com/article/3117/
  3. http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/white-only-1.html

 

“And about it all was a depressing silence, a sullenness almost, until with a horrible abruptness the waiting band blared into “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The goose step began. Left, right. Left, right. Forward! March! The automatons moved.”

Here, the term “goose step” is used to describe a military style march where the legs are kept straight and swung high between steps. The implication for this passage being that Naxos is overly strict to the point of erasing personal identity and enforcing a military like atmosphere between the students and faculty.

Source: “Goose-step.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 13 May 2018

“Having finally turned her attention to Helga Crane, Fortune now seemed determined to smile, to make amends for her shameful neglect. One had, Helga decided, only to touch the right button, to press the right spring, in order to attract the jade’s notice.”

“Jade,” used in this way, refers to a woman who is quick to anger or very picky. It’s an old term and has mostly fallen out of use. The “jade” in this passage is Fortune, who is depicted as a woman which you can see from the way “fortune” is capitalized in the passage. A more common way to refer to the personification of fortune is Lady Luck.

Source: “Jade.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 13 May 2018.

 

Project #2

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Justin Liang

ENG 2001 – D536

Prof. Rosen

Spring 2018

Project #2

Dear Hathi Trust

Hi Editors, my name is Justin Liang and I’m writing you this letter about a digital book your organization has. This book in particular is called Quicksand and I would like to say that you have done a really good job. The book really shows the struggle of Helga Crane in a period where people of color aren’t treated fairly. I would also like to say that the way you portray Helga not being satisfied in one area is really astonishing. But I do think that if you were to add a digital annotated edition of the novel it would really help readers really understand certain things mentioned in your book.`

Throughout your book it was pretty easy to know what was happening but trying to understand why certain things happened was the troubling issue. For example, in your book readers are confronted with the fact that Helga doesn’t feel comfortable staying in her own community due to her color.  This example can be taken from Chapter 7 Page 89 where Helga arrives in New York and has thoughts of turning back. This thought of turning back is due to the fact that people of color during this time weren’t treated right. I did some research on color and race during a time where people of color were being treated unfairly and found an article written by Sarah Thomson. In this article she talks about her reactions to your book and she says that “as we witness her trying and failing to transcend the issue of race in each community she inhabits”. This article helps readers understand what the issues were if you were a person of color living in a white community.

Another area that I think a digital annotation would help readers is when Helga reaches Harlem. We see that when Helga first comes to New York she wants to turn back due to her skin color. New York back then was mostly a white community, so she felt she wouldn’t fit in. But when she arrives to Harlem she is feels satisfied. Why? I did some research on Harlem and found out that it is a black community in Upper Manhattan. When I learned this, it solved my question to why she felt safer living in Harlem and not anywhere else in New York. Helga must have felt safer since she would be living in a black community and not a white community. I’m sure if you added this annotation to the digital copy of the book it would help readers understand why Helga Crane liked Harlem.

The last place I think a digital annotation would help readers is when Helga leaves Denmark to go back to Harlem. We know that Helga has been moving all over the place because she isn’t satisfied once she stays wherever she is for a while. This part of the story really made it hard to understand Helga. I always wondered why she would move when the things happening to her is good. In Harlem she was with a black community where she could feel safe. She also goes to Denmark and meets her white neighbors who like her. She was even going to be married to Axel! But she moves back to Harlem which confused me even more! So, I did some research to clear things up and help me understand Helga. In a summary I found on the internet it says that the reason she did not marry Axel and left Denmark was because she didn’t want to be away from the colored people forever. Reading this sort of made me understand why she would do that. I can relate to Helga because I wouldn’t imagine myself moving somewhere forever and not returning to where I originated. After reading the summary it helped me understand more of what was going on in Helga’s mind.

As you can see the use of a digital annotation can help readers understand the text more. When I was reading the book without annotations I couldn’t understand certain actions that Helga was doing. I didn’t understand why she wanted to turn back and not stay in New York. I found an article written by Sarah Thomson which helped me understand that colored people weren’t welcomed by white people during that time. When Helga stayed in Harlem it was weird because she was still in New York. I found some info on Wikipedia which helped me see that since Harlem was a black community it helped Helga feel safe. Finally, Helga leaving Denmark and not marrying Axel made me think why! I found a summary online and then found out that she wanted to be with her own people and not stay away from them. After finding these annotations it helped me understand your story and I hope that you will include a digital annotation edition of your novel so that other readers like myself can really understand your wonderful book.

Sincerely,

Justin Liang

 

 

project 2

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Linh Ngo

ENG 2001-D536

Prof. Rosen

Spring 2018

Project # 2

 

Dear Hathi Trust,

 

Helga Crane was always moving from one place to another throughout her whole life, in hope to search for satisfaction, and happiness. While reading the novel “Quicksand” Helga Crane migration to find her satisfaction, and happiness, is a symbolic to the Great Migration of six million African American during the 1916-1970. In the novel Helga move from Naxos to Chicago’s to New York, and even when she was in Copenhagen she was still unsatisfied. There were many reason to her unsatisfaction  living in these places.

While living in Naxos Helga find herself feeling so much anger and resentment, she hated the rules, and the school system, and she even said the Naxos is evil. Naxos is located in the south which can be refer to the Great Migration where most African American lived the south and migrated to the north due to economic problem, and segregation. Helga decided to leave Naxos she felt like it had grown into a machine. On page 9, Helga thoughts on Naxos was “It was now a show place in the black belt, exemplification of the white rain’s magnanimity, refutation of the black man’s inefficiency” which shows a huge sign of racism. In Naxos Helga felt powerless, she wanted a voice to speak out for her people, and even so the teacher or student wouldn’t dare to go against the naxos rules.

Helga decided to leave Naxos, and headed to Chicago and find work. On her trip to Chicago Helga had to travels by segregated train, and had to pay more than she need to just to have her privacy. This just show how poorly a biracial women like Helga was treated during the 1920. Even in Chicago it was hard for a mix race women like Helga to find a paying jobs. Although Chicago and New York Helga got to associate with middle class blacks, Helga still felt like she was not adopting the culture there. Goes to show that no matter where she went, she was always rejected by people and didn’t feel like she doesn’t belong there. These places did not give Helga satisfaction and the happiness she was searching for.

Migration plays a big part in the novel, as helga and many African American had migrated in search for a better life. On page 5, of the novel “Quicksand” written by Nella Larsen quoted “And he had dared any Northerner to .come south and after looking upon this great institution to say that the Southerner mistreated the Negro.” this statement was made by the “holy white man of god to the black folks” he’s claiming that Naxos is a place where African American are being treated well. According to my research on the great migration, six million African American living in the rural south, migrated to the city of the north. The migration was due to the unsatisfactory economic opportunities for jobs, and harsh segregation law.

Therefore the statement about the negro being well treated in naxos is not true at all. Naxos is a place where the negros would have to follow the rule of the whites, or get mistreated, this place is full of racism. According to the research on the Great Migration quoted “Southern blacks were forced to make their living working the land due to black codes and the sharecropping system, which offered little in the way of economic opportunity, especially after a boll weevil epidemic in 1898 caused massive crop damage across the South.” shows how poorly the African American were treated in the south.

glossary :

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/roseneng2001s2018/2018/04/30/inefficiency

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/roseneng2001s2018/2018/04/30/satisfied/

 

Outside Sources/ References:

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration

http://www.blackpast.org/aah/great-migration-1915-1960

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129827444

Project 2 Business Letter

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May 9, 2018

Jahanzeb Siddiqy

Eng 2001-D536

Hathi Trust Project:

Dear editor, my name is Jahanzeb Siddiqy and I attend the New York City College of Technology. I have read the digital edition of Quicksand was made available online thanks to your organization. I am writing to propose that a digital annotated version of Quicksand also be made available to the audience. I have found that having access to external information sources while reading a work provides the audience with additional insight and helps the reader view the work from a more realistic perspective.

An example of this would be in Quicksand, which is set mostly in America during the early 1900s, a period in which racism and segregation was prevalent in society. Throughout the book, many references to racism and laws which suppress African Americans are made, however, if the reader does not have access to how exactly this influenced African Americans during that time, it makes it difficult to understand the Protagonists point-of-view.

For example, in the first chapter of Quicksand, the protagonist finds the speech of a white preacher greatly repulsive. This was due to him saying, “And he had dared any northerner to come south and after looking upon this great institution to say that the southerner mistreated the negro. And he had said that if all Negroes would only take a leaf out of the book of Naxos and conduct themselves in the manner of the Naxos products there would be no race problem, because Naxos negroes knew what was expected of them.” In his speech, he also urges Negros not to be Avaricious and to have contentment with what they are given. Although the reader gets a general idea of the preachers sense of superiority in the text, it still remains unclear as to what causes this sense of superiority and why Helga seems to find this as a personal insult. However, if one looks to the Jim Crow laws, which can be found in my annotations here, it is clear that this was during a time in which laws were being passed which suppressed African Americans and other people of color, and under the guise of ‘seperate but equal’ facilities, ended up depriving people of color from proper facilities. A result of these laws were that it was made difficult for people of color to ever come out of their cycle of poverty and some whites would continue to view themselves as superior to colored people.

If one takes into account this external information, it is evident that such a speech delivered by a white man at a school for colored people would lead the colored people to feel offended. As can be seen, having access to a digital annotated version made it easier for the reader to connect with characters within the story.

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my proposal. I look forward to to hearing from you soon.

-Jahanzeb Siddiqy.

Project 2 annotation Frock

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Frock

noun

1. a woman’s or girl’s dress.

2. a loose outer garment, in particular.

“Uncle Poul could say casually in the presence of interested acquaintances: “um, pretty scarf”—or “frock“— “you are wearing Helga. Is that the new one Olsen helped you with””

 

Project 2 Glossary Term

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Contentment: A state of happiness and satisfaction. (Oxford Dictionary)

The preacher at Naxos in chapter 1 also spoke of contentment. He wanted the students at Naxos to be grateful and satisfied with their current state of affairs. This in turn would allow the whites to continue segregating and oppressing them with no opposition.