Blog Post Five: Chike's School Days, The Deep River, and To New York.
What makes a name important? What makes a culture stand out? What are the consequences of assimilating to other cultures that are different from your own? Examples of literature that explore these are Chike’s School Days by Chinua Achebe, The Deep River by Bessie Head and the poem To New York by Leopold Sedar Senghor. I think, for all of these, I would emphasize the themes of how the roles of culture and the beautiful and sometimes unfortunate effects of those changes and/or assimilation into a culture and their traditions. I think for teachers in a classroom setting, Chike’s School Days is a good example of how the mixing of cultural beliefs and customs can sometimes cause strife among the members. I think, if I were to align the story with the teaching standards in Arizona, I would have the students analyze how the characters interact with each other and how that influences the text. I would then ask the students if they or any of their family members are coming or have come f...
