Stoner-March2023

Paper #3 Topics:
José Olivarez’s Citizen Illegal
Write a four-to-five-page essay on one of the following topics. Make sure you have an arguable thesis that outlines the goal of your essay and that lends itself to an original reading of the literature. To support your ideas, provide specific evidence from Citizen Illegal.

Use MLA citation format and include a works cited page.
*Note: You will be required to include 3-4 total quotations from two secondary sources.
You may choose one from a list I provide, and you will be required to find the other on your own.
Please do not add in the secondary texts until after your own ideas and insights about the primary text are secure and clear.

1. Citizen Illegal is a book rich in odes and celebrations, especially of Olivarez’s Mexican American culture. Choose at least two examples of an ode or celebration and, using your secondary sources, analyze their implications within the book as a whole.

2. Why do you think Olivarez ends Citizen Illegal with the lines “‘Guapo,’ I say. It is my new name. It is my old name. / It is my only name”? Support your answer by analyzing at least two poems from the collection concerned with names and self-definition, drawing on your secondary sources.

3. Citizen Illegal centers on Olivarez’s struggle between two cultures as the US-born son of Mexican immigrants. Analyze at least two moments in the text where Olivarez considers attempting to assimilate into white, dominant American culture, along with your secondary sources. In your reading, why does he resist assimilation?

4. Create your own topic: There are many themes within Citizen Illegal we’ve only had time to touch on, including complex family relationships, classism, and Olivarez’s relationship with the divine. If you think you have a good idea for an original paper, write a working thesis and email it to me by 8pm on Wednesday, March 22.

RD 1:
(annotated bibliography, intro + first 2 body paragraphs): Due Monday, 3/27 (two typed copies)

RD 2: (all but conclusion):
Due Wednesday, 3/29 (one typed copy)

RD 3:
(add conclusion and secondary texts): Due Monday, 4/3 (one typed copy)

Final Draft
(remember Honor Pledge, WC logs, and all rough drafts): Due Wednesday, 4/5
If you do not submit your partial drafts before your final paper, you will be docked half a letter grade. All essays must be in proper MLA format (1-inch margins all around, 12 pt., Times New Roman font, have your name, my name, our course name, and the due date on the top left of the paper, and have your last name and page number at the top right (use the “page number” feature on word) corner of each page.