Diana Nguyen

ENGL 112B: Dr. Warner

December 06, 2006

Shaping Personal Identity in the Face of Societal Expectations

Typically, utopias and dystopias refer to a location: a utopia is a place filled with happiness and prosperity, whereas a dystopia is the former�s antithesis (Donelson & Nilsen, p.90); however, the definition of a utopia or a dystopia can be broadened to encompass a more diverse meaning. Today, many young adults are fraught with the struggle to discover themselves while being bombarded by many external societal influences, at the forefront of which is appearance and behavior. In this sense, teens share a common anxiety to fit in with their peers and attain a sense of belonging�they wish to be a part of the utopia of societal expectations.

The unit will utilize different types of media to convey the message that personal identity should be shaped according to each individual, not according to what society thinks is �cool.� The centerpiece of this unit will be Nathaniel Hawthorne�s The Scarlet Letter, and it will be paired with various young adult works that convey similar themes of social acceptance and rejection. In pairing The Scarlet Letter with a young adult work that students can relate to, they will garner a greater understanding and appreciation of the classic novel.

The intention of this unit is to closely examine the utopia of societal expectations and how it influences and shapes a person�s identity in both positive and negative ways. In examining music, literature, art, and film, students will analyze many different examples of people and characters that face similar struggles with personal identity. Although some external influences can prove to be positive, it is important to stress the value of carefully analyzing certain situations before completely surrendering to them. After completing this unit, students should be better prepared to make difficult decisions that will shape who they will become.

I. Launching the Unit

A. Pass out lyrics to Fiona Apple�s �Extraordinary Machine.� Then, play the song and have students read along as the song plays.

1. I certainly haven�t been shopping for any new shoes

-And-

I certainly haven�t been spreading myself around

I still only travel by foot and by foot, it�s a slow climb

But I�m good at being uncomfortable, so

I can�t stop changing all the time

I notice that my opponent is always on the go

-And-

Won�t go slow, so�s not to focus, and I notice

He�ll hitch a ride with any guide, as long as

They go fast from whence he came

-But he�s no good at being uncomfortable, so

He can�t stop staying exactly the same

Chorus:

If there was a better way to go then it would find me

I can�t help it, the road just rolls out behind me

Be kind to me, or treat me mean

I�ll make the most of it, I�m an extraordinary machine

I seem to you to seek a new disaster every day

You deem me due to clean my view and be at piece and lay

I mean to prove I mean to move in my own way, and say,

I�ve been getting along for long before you came into the play

I am the baby of the family, it happens, so

-Everybody cares and wears the sheep�s clothes

While they chaperone

Curious, you looking down your nose at me, while you appease

-Courteous, to try and help-but let me set your mind at ease

(Chorus)

-Do I so worry you, you need to hurry to my side?

-It�s very kind

But it�s to no avail; I don�t want the bail

I promise you, everything will be just fine

If there was a better way to go then it would find me

I can�t help it, the road just rolls out behind me

Be kind to me, or treat me mean

I�ll make the most if it, I�m an extraordinary machine

(Apple 2005)

2. Class Discussion:

a. Before the discussion begins, examine some key �power lines� in the song, noted above in bold.

b. What are societal expectations? Have students provide their definitions and examples. Write some of their responses on the board.

c. What is the singer�s attitude about conforming to societal expectations? Why do you suppose she feels the way she does?

d. What is your attitude about conforming to societal expectations?

e. Do societal expectations have an affect on who we become? Are the outcomes positive or negative?

B. �PostSecret� Poem

1. �PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard� (Warren 2006).

2. Show some examples of postcards that deal with personal identity or societal expectations and have a brief discussion about the messages on the postcards.

a. What is the nature of a secret? Why do people keep secrets?

b. How do you think the artists feel about their secrets? Are they ashamed? Happy? Sad?

c. Why do you think the artists feel like they had to keep those secrets?

3. Have students write an anonymous �PostSecret� poem about their struggles with either societal expectations or personal identity. Students can decorate the paper, but it is not necessary. Encourage students to be free and artistic with their work and remind them that it is strictly anonymous (even to the teacher!) Display the poems around the classroom.

C. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

1. Before the students begin The Scarlet Letter, give them some background information about Nathaniel Hawthorne. Doing so will stress the importance of background information prior to reading a text.

2. At this point, students should begin reading The Scarlet Letter. As a class, discuss the important points of the novel and emphasize the unit�s themes of societal expectations and personal identity:

a. Refer back to PostSecret: What is the nature of secrets? Why do people feel compelled to keep them inside?

b. Refer back to �Extraordinary Machine�: How do society�s expectations shape who we eventually become?

1) Dimmesdale

2) Chillingworth

3) Hester

4) Pearl

c. What type of society is the story set in?

d. Why was Hester shunned from the community? What is her secret?

e. Is Hester ashamed of her scarlet letter? Is she ashamed of Pearl?

f. Why doesn�t Dimmesdale confess his secret? Is he ashamed? Is he afraid of suffering the same fate as Hester? Why or why not?

g. How are Hester and Dimmesdale different? How are they the same?

h. What is Hester�s attitude towards the community? Does she care about being shunned?

i. Is the town�s reaction to Hester and Dimmesdale�s sin positive or negative? Are the overall outcomes positive or negative?

j. Do you think Hester is an �extraordinary machine�? Why or why not?

3. Ask students to think about �sins� that students could possibly commit at school that would result in the student being �shunned.� Have the students do a quick-write or a short essay on this topic.

D. Other Possible Centerpiece Works for this Unit

1. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

a. Set in the author�s girlhood hometown of Lorain, Ohio, it tells the story of a black, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. Pecola prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America. In the autumn of 1941, the year the marigolds in the Breedloves� garden do not blood, Pecola�s life does change�in painful, devastating ways (taken from back cover).

2. Native Son by Richard Wright

a. Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic (taken from back cover).

3. The Crucible by Arthur Miller

a. Based on historical people and real events, Miller�s drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town�s most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence (taken from back cover).

II. Extending the Unit

A. After students read and discussed The Scarlet Letter in class, break them up into six different reading groups (about 5-6 students/group). Each reading group will be responsible for reading one of the six young adult works list below:

1. Am I Blue? edited by Marion Dane Bauer

a. A collection of short stories that focuses on adolescents and sexual identity (Warner 187).

2. Life in the Fat Lane by Cherie Bennett

a. Lara is 16 and everything in her life seems to be perfect; she�s the perfect weight and size, she�s dating a perfect guy, and she has the opportunity, though only a junior, to become homecoming queen. Lara is also in a very dysfunctional family, though she isn�t truly aware of the dysfunction until she develops a rare syndrome, Axell-Crowne, which causes her to gain an inordinate amount of weight. Now her mother, obsessed with physical beauty, and her father, who thinks all Lara needs is willpower, practically disown her. Lara also experiences the taunts and ridicules that others who are overweight face and she no longer wants to be Lara (Warner 188-89).

3. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

a. Jerry Renault, a freshman at Trinity High School, is ordered not to sell chocolate during the school�s annual chocolate sale, but then he refuses on his own. He has lost his mother to cancer, and now lives with his father, who cannot get over the loss of his wife. Jerry�s refusal to participate leads to him being beaten up in a fight arranged by the �Vigils,� a student group similar to a college fraternity (Warner 192).

4. Love Rules by Marilyn Reynolds

a. Lynn Wright is 17, beginning her senior year at Hamilton High. Her best friend, in fact, �soul mate friend,� Kit Dandridge has something so important to share with Lynn that Kit won�t talk about it over the phone�they have to meet at �their tree.� Lynn learns that Kit is lesbian and struggles to keep their friendship. Lynn also begins dating an African American and finds herself �on the outside looking in� because she is interracial dating. Conan, her new boyfriend, struggles also to tell his family he is dating a �white girl.� Kit, Lynn, and Conan learn a good deal about the hate that their peers can show and about how they can best support diversity in each other (Warner 207).

5. Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick

a. Max, a boy who is large for his age and frequently ridiculed for his physical size and lack of intellectual ability, narrates this book. In addition, Max bears a striking resemblance to his father, a man imprisoned for killing Max�s mother. Kevin Avery, alias �Freak,� who has a giant mind and a deformed, dwarfish body, befriends Max (Warner 206).

6. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

a. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of �Stargirl, Stargirl.� She captures Leo Borlock�s heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first. Then they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal (taken from back of book).

B. After students have finished reading their novels, the groups must work together to create a book report. Students will also need to create a presentation for the class. They can assign individual jobs to each student, or work together as a team. The book report/presentation must include:

1. A visual of the presentation (PowerPoint, transparencies, poster boards, etc.)

2. A brief biography of the author

3. A summary of the story

4. An analysis of the book�s themes with relation to the themes of the unit (personal identity, societal expectations)

5. An explanation of how the book�s themes tie in with the themes from Hawthorne�s The Scarlet Letter.

III. Closing the Unit

A. Film Screening

1. Film is a great way to help students visualize the pressures of societal expectations. With this in mind, choose one of the films below to screen in class as a supplement to the readings.

a. Thirteen

1) At the edge of adolescence, Tracy is a smart straight-A student--if not a little naive (it seems...she smokes and she cuts to alleviate the emotional pain she suffers from having a broken home and hating her mom's boyfriend, Brady.) When she befriends Evie, the most popular and beautiful girl in school, Evie leads Tracy down a path of sex, drugs and petty crime (like stealing money from purses and from stores). As Tracy transforms herself and her identity, her world becomes a boiling, emotional cauldron fueled by new tensions between her and her mother--as well as, teachers and old friends (www.Amazon.com 2006).

b. Gattaca

1) Gattaca Corp. is an aerospace firm in the future. During this time society analyzes your DNA and determines where you belong in life. Ethan Hawke's character was born with a congenital heart condition which would cast him out of getting a chance to travel in space. So in turn he assumes the identity of an athlete who has genes that would allow him to achieve his dream of space travel (www.Amazon.com 2006).

2. The class can discuss the film�s themes in relation to the themes from the class and the books, or�

3. The students can do a quick-write about the films.

a. What were some of the themes in the film?

b. How did societal pressures motivate the characters to behave the way they did? Was the outcome of their actions positive or negative?

c. How does this tie in with The Scarlet Letter and the book you read for your book report?

B. Other Closing Activities

1. Students can think about their �PostSecret� poems from the beginning of the unit and do a 1-2 pg. quick-write about how their perspectives have changed or stayed the same.

2. Have students perform one act of non-conformity. Then, have the students write a journal entry about the experience:

a. How did the experience make you feel? Were you ashamed? Liberated? Did you feel silly? Did you like it? Dislike it?

b. How did others react?

c. Remind students that the act of non-conformity must be legal and safe, and if necessary, they must receive parent permission.

3. Show the class an episode of the television show, Daria.

a. The students can do a quick-write how Daria combats social conformity. What are her motivations? Are her actions positive or negative? Ultimately, is she her own person?

Works Cited

Apple, Fiona. �Extraordinary Machine.� Extraordinary Machine. New York: Sony BMG Music

Entertainment. 2005.

Bauer, Marion Dane, ed. Am I Blue? Coming Out of Silence. New York: HarperCollins

Publishers (1994).

Bennett, Cherie. Life in the Fat Lane. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young

Readers, a division of Random House, Inc. (1998).

Cormier, Robert. The Chocolate War. New York: Random House Children�s Books, a division of Random House, Inc. (1974).

Daria. Dir. Jerry Popowich. DVD 2001.

Donelson, Kenneth L. and Alleen Pace Nilsen. �Fantasy, Science Fiction, Utopias and

Dystopias.� Literature for Today�s Young Adults. USA: Pearson Custom Publishing (2006).

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press (1998).

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York: Penguin Books (2003).

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Penguin Books (1994).

Gattaca. Dir. Andrew Niccol. DVD, 1998.

Philbrick, Rodman. Freak the Mighty. New York: First Scholastic Signature (2001).

Reynolds, Marilyn. Love Rules. California: Morning Glory Press (2001).

Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, a Division of Random House, Inc. (2000).

Thirteen. Dir. Catherine Hardwicke. DVD 2004.

Warner, Mary L. �Books about Identity, Discrimination, and Struggles with Decisions.�

Adolescents in the Search for Meaning: Tapping the Powerful Resource of Story. Maryland, Toronto, & Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. (2006).

Warren, Frank. PostSecret. <www.postsecret.blogspot.com> 2006.

Wright, Richard. Native Son. USA: Perennial Classics (1998).