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Multicultural literature humanizes and empowers individuals and groups of people by representing those who usually do not have a voice in society, thus providing them with a sense of validity and inclusion in the community. why that's a good thing/benefit to society

> set up lack of empathy in american culture
> self-centered by nature

house on mango street:
> shows strong women who are not happy with their lives, even when society makes it seem like being married and having children is the ideal life
- give examples of women & quote from novel
> shows how the people on Mango Street are not as dangerous as other people make them out to be
- quote from novel

the bluest eye:
> shows how men are not necessarily the ones with the most responsibility
- Mrs. Breedlove scenes with Cholly
> shows the perspective of someone the rest of society refuses to try to understand
- Cholly's history and the affect it had on his actions as a grown-up
> shows how not all little girls want to live up to America's beauty standards
- include scenes & quotes from Claudia when she talks about the dolls/Shirley temple

conclusion:
> quotes from ted talk

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In "Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer" by Murphy Paul, the author analyzes the ways in which "deep reading" improves people morally and socially. Because there are no hyperlinks and online distractions in books, Paul notes that the reader gets the full experience of reading fiction, and thus "increasing [his or her] real-life capacity for empathy." In conclusion, the author argues that deep reading, or "spiritual reading," is a rare, yet important activity people, especially children, should partake in.

In the article "Should Literature Be Useful?," author Lee Siegel argues that people's empathy is not always affected benignly by reading fiction. He says that deep reading and being exposed to the novel characters' true emotions could both improve the reader's sense of empathy and "could well turn a person inward, away from humanity altogether." Finally, in his conclusion, Siegel emphasizes the fact that even though reading fiction might affect one's empathy, the best thing fiction does is nothing specific; its properties are "countless and unquantifiable," which is what gives it its freedom and joy.

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"'Tell me,' the vet said, suddenly calm. 'Why have you been interested in the school, Mr. Norton?' 'Out of a sense of my destined role,' Mr. Norton said shakily. 'I felt, and I still feel, that your people are in some important manner tied to my destiny.' 'What do you mean destiny?' the vet said. 'Why, the success of my work, of course." pg. 94

This passage shows that Mr. Norton sees himself as a "white savior" who is helping black people, when in reality, he is actually keeping them from making progress.

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"They betray you and you betray the black people. They tricking you, mahn. Let them fight among themselves. Let 'em kill off one another. We organize--organization is good--but we organize black. BLACK!" pg. 373

By participating in the Brotherhood, the narrator was fighting injustice alongside white people who he thought had the same good intentions. On the other hand, Ras the Exhorter believes that to truly make change happen, only black people should ban together.

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"Never. After tonight I wouldn't ever look the same, or feel the same. Just what I'd be, I didn't know; I couldn't go back to what I was--which wasn't much--but I'd lost too much to be what I was. Some of me, too, had died with Tod Clifton." pg. 478

This passage describes the narrator's feelings after finding out what the Brotherhood's actually mission was. He realized that the organization never cared about making a change in the community, they just wanted to attract followers to the organization.

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- Even though the members of the Brotherhood make it seem as though they love and support the narrator, they are only using him for their personal benefit

- While the narrator is fighting alongside white people to bring about change, Ras the Exhorter and his followers want to bring only black people together to fight

- Mr. Norton wants the African-American students to think that he is helping them progress, but really he is keeping them on the track that the white men in power want them to be on

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"I had only one desire: to dismember it. To see of what it was made, to discover the dearness, to find the beauty, the desirability that had escaped me, but apparently only me. Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs--all the world had agree that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured.. I could not love it. But I could examine it to see what it was that all the world said was lovable." pg. 20-21

Even though everyone around her sees blonde-haired, blue-eyed white girls as beautiful, Claudia can not understand what makes them so much more lovable than her. She hates the American standard of beauty and refuses to succumb to it.

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"It was in the spring, a very chilly spring, that Aunt Jimmy died of peach cobbler." pg. 135

"Cholly, moving faster, looked at Darlene. He hater her. He almost wished he could do it--hard, long, and painfully, he hated her guts." pg. 148

These two passages give glimpses into the life of Cholly as he grew up. The loss of his aunt and his traumatizing experience with Darlene and the two white men shaped the man he would become. Ultimately, these experiences contribute to his decision to rape and impregnate Pecola.

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"'Not until you get me some coal. If working like a mule don't give me the right to be warm, what am I doing it for? You sure ain't bringing in nothing. If it was left up to you, we'd all be dead...'" pg.40-41

This passage shows that because Cholly never does anything to help the family, Mrs. Breedlove has to take care of all the responsibility.

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- Cholly, even though he is the man of the house and should take on the responsibilities that come along with that, Mrs. Breedlove is most times the one who does what is necessary to make sure the family has everything it  needs

- Cholly does do very bad things, but his life story played a major role in the way he turns out to be as a grown man

- Regardless of how pretty other girls thought Shirley Temple and blonde dolls with blue eyes were, Claudia despised them both because of the silent demands they made for her to become more of the American version of beauty

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- Female

- African-American

- White-washed society

- Growing up (child to teenager)

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- African American

- Male

- White-washed society

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- The white man does nothing but helps other races progress.

- Those that one surrounds themselves with always have that person's best interest at heart

- All black people use the same means to bring change into the community

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- All little girls want to achieve the standard of beauty American has set for them

- Men are the heads of the household and take care of most of the responsibilities

- People commit evil acts because they are simply bad people; they have no true reason for doing it

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"Sometimes I hated the ghosts for not letting us talk; sometimes I hated the secrecy of the Chinese." pg. 183

Kingston knows that her silence is caused by both aspects of her identity. There are many secrets her Chinese side has to keep, and there were things she can't say around American people because it risks her and her family being sent back to China. As a result of both of these factors, Kingston remains silent.

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"It was when I found out iI had to talk that school became a misery, the silence became a misery. I did not speak and felt bad each time that I did not speak. I read aloud in first grade, though, and heard the barest whisper with little squeaks come out of my throat. 'Louder,' said the teacher, who scared the voice away again. he other Chinese girls did not talk either, so I knew the silence had to do with being a Chinese girl." pg.166

Even though the American teacher and students probably think she just does not want to talk, the narrator, along with the other Chinese girls, literally can not talk around them.

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"They cooked enough food to cover the dining room and kitchen tables. 'Eat!' Brave Orchid ordered. 'Eat!' She would not allow anybody to talk while eating. In some families the children worked out a sign language, but here the children spoke English, which their parents didn't seem to hear." pg.123

This passage demonstrates Brave Orchid's reluctance to giving up the traditions she took part in when she was in China, regardless of what the American families were doing.

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- Brave Orchid still maintains Chinese traditions and rituals in her household, even though she and her family live in America

- The Chinese girls in the class are silent because they do not feel comfortable speaking English around the other American students

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- Female

- Chinese-American (double identity)

- Family history (story of aunt

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- Immigrants who move to America will adopt the customs and values of American people

- Those who do not speak do so because they want to

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"Those who don't know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we're dangerous. They think we will attack them with skinny knives. They are stupid people who are lost and got here by mistake. But we aren't afraid. We know the guy with the crooked teeth is Davey the Baby's brother, and the tall one next to him in the straw brim, that's Rosa's Eddie V., and the big one that looks like a dumb grown man, he's Fat Boy, though he's not fat anymore nor a boy." pg. 28

The white people in the city are afraid of those in Esperanza's neighborhood simply because they are of a different race. However, Esperanza knows that that fear comes from a lack of knowledge of the "other" and the white people use stereotypes to provide that "knowledge" as a result.

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"I could've been somebody, you know? my mother says and sighs. She has lived in this city her whole life. She can speak two languages. She can sing an opera. She knows how to fix a T.V. But she doesn't know which subway train to take to get downtown. I hold her hand very tight while we wait for the right train to arrive. She used to draw when she had time. Now she draws with a needle and thread, little knotted rosebuds, tulips made of silk thread." pg. 90

Esperanza's mother is able to do a wide variety of things and could've done those things had she not gotten married and had children. Now, she is house-bound and does not get to do the things she enjoyed doing in her life before being trapped.

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"Sally is the girl with eyes like Egypt and nylons the color of smoke. The boys at school think she's beautiful because her hair is shiny black like raven feathers and when she laughs, she flicks her hair back like a satin shawl over her shoulders and laughs... The stories the boys tell in the coatroom, they're not true." pg. 81-82

Esperanza explains in this chapter that the boys like Sally because of her beauty, but Sally does not give them a second thought. However, solely because of the way she dresses, the boys make up stories about her which, as the reader can assume, paint her as a "bad girl."

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- Sally, who would be considered a girl who dresses "sexually," dresses for herself and, when Esperanza first meets her, does not care about whether or not boys pay attention to her

- Many women on Mango Street are married with children, but they acknowledge that they could have made more of themselves. However, after getting married, they had to give up their dreams.

- Esperanza says that people outside her neighborhood have the wrong idea of the people that live in it.

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- Female

- Mexican

- Adolescence through teenage years

- Upbringing (Mango Street shapes who Esperanza becomes)

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- Non-white people, Mexican in this case, deserve to live in the slums of the city.

- Girls that wear make-up and "sexual" clothes do so in order to get boys' attention

- Poorer neighborhoods that are mostly occupied by non-white people are dangerous

- Women who marry and have children are content with their lives