e-Portfolio Presentation

As a Marine Affairs major with an English minor, it is important to reflect back on my coursework and identify the skills I have gained from the english courses I have taken and see which elements of the or the learning outcomes I have met with only having a minor. I have always enjoyed the unique way that the classes I have taken have required me to think and analyze readings in a way that I would not normally do with my science based courses. I feel that throughout my four years of taking English courses I have effectively completed most if not all aspects of the learning outcomes of the English department. This framing statement will identity how I have met those learning outcomes and which projects or assignments I have completed and in what ways they fit the components of the learning outcomes.

Read Texts Closely & Think Critically  

This is something that I have recognized as being one of the most important of the learning outcomes from this department and one that I feel confident I have met most aspects of. One example of this learning outcome being met is in my current course work in Professor Tuttle’s course “Who and What is an American?” which has allowed me to conduct two close readings of texts read.

Twain wrote that if the false Tom Driscoll, or Chambers, “…were white and free, it would be unquestionably right to punish him…but to shut up a valuable slave for life, that was quite another matter”. (Twain, 144-145). This quote comes at the end of the novel when after 23 years of impersonating the true heir to the Driscoll estate, Chambers is sold down the river because of his value in the institutional system of slavery. The judges of the murder trial did not care that he killed a man, they were more focused on gaining the lost value from their erroneous inventory, aka Chambers (Twain, 144). This example supports the presentation that slavery still existed in communities in the South long after reforms such as the Reconstruction period. Twain demonstrates that even though people, such as Roxy and her son, were so close to escaping the system, they could never have avoided being sold down the river while slavery was still engrained and practiced in society. 

The close reading that I will focus on that I feel exemplifies this learning outcome is my close reading of Mark Twains “Pudd’nhead Wilson” from Pudd’nhead Wilson and Other Tales. In this close reading I analyzed the socially persistent practices of slavery in the 19th century and how Twain uses his story to exemplify that even after the reforms in the south, this socially constructed issue still existed. I had to utilize textual information from the text to back up my claims and work to analyze those quotes to further support my thesis. I really had to think about how I could craft a strong argument in only a paragraph which was extremely beneficial. While this example of critical thinking is very fresh in my mind, prior to this course I also gained and practiced this skill in Professor Franks course Topics in British Literature: Becoming a Child. The assignment that I had to use the skill of critical thinking was in my one of my final exam papers that was focused on pastoral myths, the myth is written into various stories to fit with the social ideal of living in a world where there is still a sense of innocence and serenity that coincides with a simpler life. My essay focused on seeing how this idea can be found within Laura Ingalls Little House on the Prairie and L.M Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. Again this assignment allowed me to think further beyond the these two novels being just well loved stories. I had to read closely and think beyond the intended meaning of the stories. I had to learn how I would support the pastoral myth being seen by using information from the text and looking for its deeper meaning. Below is an excerpt from my essay which helps to highlight the connection I have made. 

Today’s society we are constantly longing for a place where we can separate ourselves from the unrest that occurs daily. Laura Ingalls childhood out on the prairie wasn’t always a peaceful or stress free time, but it was a time where technology or the capability to know what was going on outside of their lives did not exist. One of the peaceful nights is depicted in a quote by Laura as; “The night was full of music, and [I] was sure that part of it came from the great bright stars swinging so low over the prairies” (51). This quote again speaks to the peaceful and nostalgic life that literature containing the pastoral myth allows the reader to experience and envy…While connecting to the readers social ideal of a world of peace and protection that pioneer life or life in a small town would bring, they unknowingly were writing stories that used a child’s perspective on the world that developed this myth. Adults will always be fascinated by an author’s ability to craft a story that invokes an innocence about the world as well as a child’s response to nature.

Demonstrate a Comprehensive Understanding of Literature in English

This learning outcome is another really important one that I feel like through my course work I have met the different elements of. One of the pieces of this learning outcome, understanding literature as a culturally and historically embedded practice, is a skill that I was able to gain through my work in Professor McHugh’s Indigenous Film and Literature. For my midterm essay I chose to support the claim that for some indigenous groups, living on a reservation and protecting the traditional way of life may prove to be better then integrating with the rest of society due to the constant discrimination felt by the tribes. For this essay I was able to use the sources of literature such as Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven to support my thesis. I was able to show that even though the short stories contained within the book are mostly fiction, they are based upon the horrible reality that continues to face tribal groups everyday, the lack of understanding and respect brought by the white world. The course as a whole showed me that literature is able to play an important role in providing an engaging story, some based on true events and others on fiction, that can be directly related to historic events and practices in the world. Below is an excerpt from the essay where I have chosen to focus on the short story from the book titled “The Approximate Size of my Favorite Tumor”. 

Jimmy and Norma decide to play along with what the officer was saying leading to the officer threatening to arrest them for “…reckless driving, resisting arrest, [and] threatening an officer with physical violence” (166). The officer had clearly made up all of those reasons because he had a prejudice towards indigenous peoples and viewed them as automatic trouble makers in society. This example shows the oppression that indigenous people face in the outside world and why so many would prefer to stay on a reservation to avoid this. It is disappointing that so many people of non-indigenous ancestry act this way towards Native Americans. They do not take any time to understand their culture and traditions. It seems as if when people decide to live off the reservation for a time, they leave behind their culture and traditions because it is not wanted or welcome in the outside world. This is another reason as to why it is better for North American indigenous peoples to stay on their reservation in order to maintain their culture and traditions.

Another course that this particular learning outcome, and the element of relating literature to other fields of inquiry, can be seen through my work in Professor Franks course Victorian Monsters. For this class the biggest project that we were tasked with creating was a Commonplace Book. A place where, digitally and physically, we could engage with the texts we were reading and bring in our own personal interests in connection. For this entry I found a really interesting primary source from the 1800’s discussing mental illness and one incident of someone with a dual personality. I connected this back to the character of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and it was very similar to the way in which he was characterized. This allowed me to bring in another field of interest and connect it back to the literature.

Communicate Effectively 

This learning outcome, although it seems like the most explanatory of them all, is still important to reflect and see which areas of my coursework and assignments in my english courses that I was able to work on this skill. All of the already stated examples of coursework would fit this learning outcome as well. In my close reading’s in Professor Tuttle’s course  I have been able to develop and support claims about literary texts. In both of Professor Frank’s courses of Topics in British Literature and Victorian Monsters, the essays that I have written are examples of where I have been able to articulate my ideas into coherent essays. This part of the learning outcome has definitely been improved upon throughout my coursework as I have become a more confident and able to better explain my ideas in my essays. A great example of this is looking at the first essay ever written at UNE in English Composition and comparing a more recent essay from last year in Victorian Monsters. To start I will look at the opening paragraph of my first essay in Eng. Comp. 

In society today, people have the tendency to avoid discussing topics that do not directly pertain to them. This is the case when it comes to the topic of mental illness and the negative things somehow attached to it.  People don’t seem to want to acknowledge the fact that mental illness exists and affects millions of people. It’s one of those many shamed topics Anne Hallward is determined to have discussed. Once people begin to talk more about mental illness they will start to understand just how challenging it is to live with. This idea connects to Helen Epstein’s goal of social cohesion within a community. Epstein’s meaning of social cohesion is “…the tendency of people to talk openly with one another and form trusted relationships” (Epstein 116). Anne Hallward and Helen Epstein’s techniques of informing the public on topics that are uncomfortable would help to eliminate people’s tendency to ignore mental illnesses existence. 

My thesis for this essay isn’t the best and I can see, and surprisingly remember, that I struggled with introduction’s to essays as I found it difficult to articulate my ideas to make them coherent. Looking at an essay from an english course taken my Junior year I am able to identify how I have grown in my ability to communicate my ideas in the introduction and create a strong thesis statement. Though I recognize that these two essays differ greatly in content I feel as though the comparison shows the growth I have taken as writer and in communicating my ideas. I can also say that in comparison to my essay written for english comp. I most likely did not plan out in an outline what I wanted to write. So I have improved upon and now for mostly every essay start with an outline of my ideas and how they will fit into each paragraph. Therefore I have now, through my advanced course, worked gained the skill of writing as a recursive process. 

Throughout Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre, the main character of Jane embarks on what seems like a never ending journey to understand where and what her true purpose and usefulness in life is. In trying to understand her role in society Jane must recognize certain societal limitations, such as her class, and how these will impact her self-discovery journey. As a woman and a governess, Jane must find the will to persevere the challenges these societal roles placed upon individuals in 19th century England. The role of a governess, as stated in Sally Shuttleworths article “Jane Eyre and the 19th-century woman”,  meant that “…they were neither one of the servants, nor one of the family, and was often treated with contempt by both sides” (Shuttleworth). Jane expressed in the novel that women should be allowed to use their talents and not be confined to the home (Shuttleworth), therefore Jane assuming this role of the governess may appear as a shock to someone reading the novel as this is not a position of freedom, but a position of service. Jane’s journey of understanding which of these roles she wished to embody is one that causes a pattern of escapism and confinement to occur, which some may say is a parallel to other Victorian novels.

Conduct Research in Literary & Cultural Studies

This learning outcome is one that has been met through my work in Indigenous Film and Literature and currently in my LIL 420 capstone project. In Indigenous Film and Literature for my final project I was able to combine the literary works read in the class in connection with information researched from the Maine Women Writers Collection. The topic of my essay as the need for respecting indigenous peoples voices and how they have been mistreated and misrepresented by society and government for hundreds of years. The archival information taken from the library archives was focused on the primary documents of tribal representative and advocate of the Penobscot Tribe in Maine, Donna Loring. Below is an excerpt from my final paper and how I utilized the documents from the archive. 

In the state of Maine, a woman by the name of  Donna M. Loring played a major role in acting as a tribal representative for the Penobscot Nation from1998-2003 as well as again from 2007-2008. She was an advocate for helping to achieve the rights that indigenous groups deserve to have in the state government. She also acted as a voice for her tribe and wanted the state to recognize that they too were citizens of the United States and that they should be treated as fairly and justly as their fellow citizens. Loring wrote, as well as collected, hundreds of documents that look into many of the cases brought to the Maine legislature. One particular set of documents were surrounded around a bill that was being put forth by the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes for a Casino to be built and run by the tribe in Maine. The immediate reaction to this bill  by the government of Maine was that they were completely against it and would not let any form of gambling into the state. Several of the documents that Loring collected regarding this issue examine both sides of the argument for a casino to be built in Maine and exposes how the tribes were treated during this process. 

This was a really unique experience because I took this class the second semester of my first year and I was able to access this incredibly unique collection of primary documents, something that I have never experienced in a class since. Using these sources I was able to further my statement about how indigenous groups continue to not have a seat at the table in making decisions that would directly impact them. This interest in this pervasive issue of society discriminating against indigenous groups led me to wanting to expand the project for my Arts & Humanities capstone. Again this project has required me to do additional research which I have used the library database for. My new chosen topic of the issue of respecting and acknowledging tribal sovereignty when it comes to the rights of the Penobscot Tribe in Maine. I have been able to incorporate new source material while keeping some of the similar idea I held from my original project in IF+L. Overall I feel as though these two projects as well as my other assignments such as the Commonplace Book, have allowed me to gain the all of the components of this learning outcome. 

Concluding Thoughts

I found that it was extremely beneficial for myself to look back at my english course work and see how my professors assignments have allowed me to complete some if not all of the learning outcomes. I have found that it wasn’t as difficult as I had previously thought it was to pinpoint which assignments fit the outcomes. It turns out that mostly all of the assignments I have identified fit at least one part of the learning outcomes. This was a great exercise and shows me just how much work I have been able to complete in my four years at UNE.