FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE (Magoulick – 2315) – (student generated questions, answers, writing & grammar)

General Ideas / Issues

  1. Compare and contrast:
    1. Compare & Contrast the reasons that Irish, Chinese, Japanese, and Jewish people left their homelands.
    2. How have the laws treated the Chinese, Indians, Jewish, and Japanese Americans differently? Similarly?
    3. Discuss the way(s) various cultures came to the US and how their struggles compared.
    4. Compare and Contrast the different viewpoints of MLK and Malcolm X in regards to the Civil Rights movement.
    5. Compare the art of two different groups.
    6. How was the treatment of Native Americans by Whites similar to the treatment of African Americans by Whites?
    7. Compare and contrast the coming to America experiences of the Japanese and the Chinese (or compare/contrast any two groups’ experiences here).
  2. Throughout the semester we have studied the concept of the “other” that White, European Americans stereotyped several races [and cultures] with. Using events discussed and stories read, consider how this label of “other” may or may not exist today versus how it prevailed in the past.
  3. What are some of the repercussions for the White community due to a lack of “forward thinking” and not incorporating other cultures more readily and easily into our society?
  4. How does “manifest destiny” apply to all the ethnic groups we have discussed in this class?
  5. Write a paragraph about one of the readings for this half of the semester. Discuss how the reading portrayed the idea of “other”?
  6. Explain the concept of “passive resistance.”
  7. Write a Haiku
  8. Discuss the competition that arose between some races as they immigrated to America and the outcomes.
  9. Choose one story of those we read and explain the meaning of the story while also giving the background of the story.
  10. Explain the reasoning behind most migration to the U.S.
  11. Which group of immigrants or “other” had had the hardest or easiest time being accepted and assimilated into the American culture and society? Why? Explain.
  12. What are the “four freedoms” that FDR said America stood for?

 African Americans

  1. Although they still faced battles…many African Americans migrated North in the early 20th century to which two cities? (Answer: South Side Chicago and Harlem, NYC)
  2. Why do you think so many African Americans moved to big cities?
  3. What came to be known of the “Negro capital of the world”?
  4. Which African American leader of the Harlem Renaissance said “the color of our skin is beautiful” and that Africa had a glorious past? (Answer: Marcus Garvey)
  5. When was the Harlem Renaissance?
  6. Discuss the conditions in Harlem in the 1920’s (before and after the depression).
  7. What year was MLK assassinated? (Answer: April 4,1968)
  8. On what date did MLK give his “I have a dream” speech?
  9. What year was the “Brown vs. the Board of Education” trial? (1954)
  10. What writer said “I’m a Negro and beautiful”? (Langston Hughes)
  11. Why was the government more willing to work with MLK as opposed to Malcolm X?
  12. Discuss 2 important incidents of the Civil Rights Movement and explain what happened.
  13. Which President signed an executive order creating jobs for thousands of blacks in the defense industry, which caused riots and violence by whites?
  14. What is the main theme of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker?
  15. Why did Dee change her name in “Everyday Use”?
  16. Give dates, people and places that helped to start the Civil Rights Movement. Use examples from stories and history (explain the feelings from the White and African American perspectives)
  17. What were some key events that took place during America’s Civil Rights years?
  18. In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” why was it so important that Momma stood up to Dee and gave Maggie the quilts?
  19. Describe the key events, players, and dates surrounding the bus boycotts.
  20. What changes the “invisible man’s” attitude about the old couple’s eviction?

 

Chinese Americans

  1. What did the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 enforce?
  2. How did the Chinese help America become great?
  3. What is “Gold Mountain” and what did it have to do with early Chinese immigration?
  4. Where did pasta (noodles) originate?
  5. Discuss some problems faced by the Chinese while building the Central Pacific Railroad (Answer: they were forced to build through winter; people died from avalanches, starvation and accidents).
  6. Which US President warned of a “Chinese problem”? (President Hayes)
  7. Discuss what Chinese Americans went through to get to America and to make a life here.
  8. What was the Chinese Exclusion Act? When was it passed and what effect did it have?
  9. List some things the Chinese gave to the world. (Gun powder, china dishes & over-population)
  10. What was the most common type of business started by the Chinese?
  11. What year did Chinese railroad workers go on strike? (1869)
  12. In Kingston’s “The Grandfather of the Sierra Nevada Mountains” what is the main character Ah Goong’s state of mind? Discuss some events that may have led to his psychological demise.
  13. What contribution did the Chinese give to the Americans in California?
  14. What were the names of the two groups or clans formed in Chinatown in the late 1860’s and what did they do for the Chinese immigrants?
  15. How and why does Lindo (the main character) try to make herself more “American” in Amy Tan’s “Lindo Jong: Double Face”?

 

Irish Americans

  1. The Irish religion before the invasion of Ireland by Britain was Pagan. What were some Pagan traditions?
  2. What is the “Order of St. Crispin”?
  3. What were living conditions like for new Irish immigrants to America 100 years ago?
  4. Upon arriving in the U.S., where did most Irish women find jobs?
  5. What was life like for most Irish women who emigrated here?
  6. Why did so many Irish women come?
  7. Why were the Irish so easily integrated into American culture compared to the other groups we’ve studied?
  8. What did the Irish bring to our culture?
  9. What event in 1845 devastated the lives of many Irish?
  10. What does WASP stand for?

 

Japanese Americans

  1. Discuss the effect(s) of concentration camps on Japanese Americans, their literature and art.
  2. Discuss why Japanese people wanted to come to America and the problems they faced when they did.
  3. What were the consequences Japanese Americans had to face after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941?
  4. How did treatment of Japanese in Hawaii differ from treatment of Japanese on the mainland of the US?
  5. What are the first and second generations of Japanese American immigrants called in their own language? (Issei, Nissei)
  6. Describe the style of art that Margaret Adachi created, name at least one of her pieces of art and describe how she used her style to create that piece of art. (Answer: she used everyday objects and transformed them into artwork. Her art, “Trunk” used tree trunks that were stacked on top of one another to suggest the human body (trunk) but also could be considered a tree trunk.)
  7. In his poem, to what does Lawson Fusao Inada compare the Japanese internment camps? (Constellation)
  8. What do you think was Ichiro’s (from “No No Boy”) reason for allowing his mother to think that he had fought for Japan? How did his brother Taro fit into this?

 

Jewish Americans

  1. Where did Jewish women work in the early 1900’s that was dangerous and cramped?
  2. What were the conditions at sweatshops?
  3. What Big event caused the workers to go on strike? When?
  4. Jews left Russia and other parts of Europe to escape persecution and came to America because it was the “land of the free.” Give at least two events or examples of ways the Jewish still received persecution and racism after coming to America.
  5. What is a pogrom? And who were typically the victims?
  6. Who played Klezmer music and what characterizes it?
  7. What were some ways Jewish immigrants tried to assimilate?
  8. How was Jewish immigration unique compared to that of many other groups?
  9. Discuss the various aspects of Jewish-American history paying close attention to the working conditions they had to abide by.
  10. Give examples of Jewish American ways to assimilate to American culture in order to keep from being a “greenhorn.”

 

Native Americans

  1. What is the name of the leader of the Ghost dance of the Native Americans?
  2. Tell of the Battle at Wounded Knee.
  3. When was “Wounded Knee II” and what did it signify?
  4. What was the significance of the Ghost Dance?
  5. What color were the muslin shirts worn by the Native Americans in the Ghost dance?
  6. Discuss the new economy and include information on the “five civilized tribes.”
  7. When did the census bureau declare the frontier no longer existed? (1891)
  8. Describe the major events of Ayah’s life in “Lullaby.”
  9. What does Lipsha think about Grandpa’s reason for shouting in church in Erdrich’s “Love Medicine”?
  10. What are some signs of Native Americans cultural renewal today?

 

READINGS to be covered on the test (see syllabus for more details)

African Am.:                 Mosaic: Ellison, King, X                           Norton: Walker

Chinese Am:                 Mosaic:  Far, Kingston & Tan 

European Am:               Mosaic: Panunzio, Flynn, & Rolvaag

Japanese Am:               Mosaic: Okada, Kubota, Yamamoto, Inada

Jewish Am:                   Mosaic: Yezierska

Native Am:                   Mosaic: Silko & Erdrich                 Norton: Momaday & songs

[Note: Since we ran out of time to cover Chicano part II, that will not be covered on the exam]

 

SLIDES on Native American, Chinese American, Japanese American and African American art

MUSIC from Jewish American, Japanese American, and African American groups

VIDEOS: Joy Luck Club (excerpt), MLK’s “I have a dream” speech, excerpts from Malcolm X

PROJECTS may also be a source of information that you may draw upon for evidence in your essay answers.

 

Readings, art, music, and films from the whole semester may also be used in response to the essay, but you will not be specifically tested (in short answers or extra credit) for anything from before the midterm.

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