Reflection

Where do I start? This paper by far out of all the other assignments pulled me on a rollercoaster but it was worth it. In the beginning, I knew I wanted to write about the immigrant experience in “Call it Sleep” and in “The Loudest Voice”. However, I was struggling with creating a research question for because “Call it Sleep” did have the evidence to support my argument, making me want to change “Call it Sleep” for something else. This was where I conversed with Dr. Kratka about this issue, and she helped me with swapping “Call it Sleep” with “Eli the Fanatic” and helping to develop a research question which was How did post World War II affect American Jews in America? I started planning out the evidence that I was going to use, notes about each text and developed a thesis statement which was that through cultural assimilation, Jewish Americans in America face a cultural disparity between Jewish Culture and American Culture. After this I drafted my first essay. When drafting I was struggling with which evidence should go in each order. This was yet another start of me wanting to change something, which was my thesis. I went back to Dr. Kratka again for some advice but with some of the feedback that she gave it made me consider switching on of the text again, “The Loudest voice” for “Rosa”. I considered this change at the time because after talking with Dr. Kratka she pointed out my research question which was about the holocaust. For “Eli the Fanatic” the setting took place after the holocaust unlike in “The Loudest Voice”. The week before the paper was due, I focused on creating a final draft for my paper. On the weekend I reviewed the feedback received from my peer reviewer and from Prof.N. Both of their feedback helped me a lot with thinking about tweaking what I wanted to write. One important feedback from Prof.N helped me a lot which was “Your argument in this essay should take the different struggles these characters faced into account and what can be gleaned from those struggles about what the Jewish community was going through at the time”. This helped me to develop the idea that in both text the community has some influence over their struggle with cultural identity. I revised my thesis from through cultural assimilation, Jewish Americans in America face a cultural disparity between Jewish Culture and American Culture to the influence of one’s community begs to question their religious identity and faith through the pressures of assimilation. With this I was able to write out what I had planned. I also met with Prof.N after class the week the essay was due because I emailed her over the weekend about the struggles, I was facing with my paper but by that time I already had an idea of what I wanted to write. We talked over her confusing about my revised thesis and then when I explained he helped me compose a new research question which was How much influence does the community have vs individual temperament? This was a huge help because it helped me to think critically of the dynamic that the pressures of community have on an individual’s faith.