Engl. 112B.01 - Warner Gabriele Sanchez

Unit of Study December 10, 2008

Brains & Bravery over Beauty & Brawn

A Biographical Unit of Study on Self-Image & Overcoming Obstacles

This unit of study is aimed at student in grades 9 and up who are beginning to deal more seriously with issues of their own identity and what it will mean as they move closer to adulthood.

Canonical Book:

Angelou, Maya: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

In this first of five volumes of autobiography, poet Maya Angelou recounts a youth filled with disappointment, frustration, tragedy, and finally hard-won independence. Sent at a young age to live with her grandmother in Arkansas, Angelou learned a great deal from this exceptional woman and the tightly knit black community there. These very lessons carried her throughout the hardships she endured later in life, including a tragic occurrence while visiting her mother in St. Louis and her formative years spent in California--where an unwanted pregnancy changed her life forever (amazon.com).

This book inspires readers to overcome external oppression by reaffirming their own humanity. It also shows the importance of support, in this case in the form of family, persistence, and having a dream.

Velvet Underground and Nico – "I'll Be Your Mirror"

(www.lyricsdownload.com)

I'll be your mirror
Reflect what you are, in case you don't know
I'll be the wind, the rain and the sunset
The light on your door to show that you're home

When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands
'Cause I see you

I find it hard to believe you don't know
The beauty that you are
But if you don't let me be your eyes
A hand in your darkness, so you won't be afraid

When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands
'Cause I see you

I'll be your mirror

Christina Aguilera – "Beautiful"

(www.lyricsdownload.com)

Every day is so wonderful
Then suddenly, it's hard to breathe
Now and then I get insecure
From all the pain, I'm so ashamed

I am beautiful, No matter what they say
Words can't bring me down
I am beautiful, In every single way
Yes words can't bring me down
Oh No, So don't you bring me down today

To all your friends you're delirious
So consumed in all your doom
Trying hard to fill the emptiness
The piece is gone, Left the puzzle undone
Ain't that the way it is

Cause you are beautiful, No matter what they say
Words can't bring you down
Cause you are beautiful, In every single way
Yes words can't bring you down
Oh No, So don't you bring me down today

No matter what we do
No matter what we say
We're the song inside the tune
Full of beautiful mistakes

And every where we go
The sun will always shine
And tommorrow we might awake
On the other side

Cause we are beautiful, No matter what they say
Yes words won't bring us down
And we are beautiful, In every single way
Yes words can't bring us down
So don't you bring me down today

Shakespeare, William: Sonnet 18

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

Discussion:

- What does it mean to love one's self? How is this different from feeling better than others?

- What are some of the traps we can fall into when we think badly of ourselves? How can we keep them from becoming beliefs?

- Why is it important to love ourselves before we love others?

Grealy, Lucy: Autobiography of a Face

At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a potentially terminal cancer. When she returned to school with a third of her jaw removed, she faced the cruel taunts of classmates. Vividly portraying the pain of peer rejection and the guilty pleasure of wanting to be special, Grealy captures with unique insight what it is like as a child and young adult to be torn between two warring impulses: to feel that more than anything else we want to be loved for who we are, while wishing desperately and secretly to be perfect (amazon.com). This book is full of open honesty that should be refreshing, inspiring, and illuminating to all young adult readers. It is full of "power lines" due to the on-going challenges that the author faced.

Menzie, Morgan: Diary of an Anorexic Girl

Morgan Menzie takes readers through a harrowing but ultimately hopeful and inspiring account of her eating disorder. Her amazing story is told through the journals she kept during her daily struggle with this addiction and disease. Features include: daily eating schedule, journal entries, prayers to God, poems, and what she wished she knew at the time (amazon.com). Based on the author's own real-life struggle, it includes how an her eating disorder affected all areas of her life. It gives a broader sense of the consequences of having an eating disorder.

Important Note: When looking for a book on eating disorders, there are many good true stories out there. Some are so vivid and exact, though, that they have been used as "how to" guides on eating disorders. One example is Marya Hornbacher's Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, which may be better reading for a concerned adult.

Nikkah, John: Our Boys Speak: Adolescent Boys Write About Their Inner Lives

Just eight years out of high school, clinical psychology graduate student Nikkah knew from personal experience the falsehood of the cliche that young boys who do not willingly talk about themselves have very little going on in their minds and their lives. So he contacted 5000 schools across the country, asking boys to write down their thoughts and experiences, in poems, stories or autobiographical essays (amazon.com). Focus could be on the sections entitled "Free To Be," "Outside Looking In," "Song of Sorrow," and "Between Worlds."

Sonnie, Amy: Revolutionary Voices

While the work is wildly diverse, all of it speaks to the isolation and fear of being queer and young. Fear, though, is not the overriding emotional tone to this collection. The contributors exhibit a belief in themselves, a well-placed youthful confidence that speaks as loudly as the most poignant writing (amazon.com). This is a lively collection of honest stories, poems and artwork from gay, lesbian, and bisexual young adults.

Shandler, Sarah: Ophelia Speaks: Adolescent Girls Write About Their Search For Self

A clever response to Mary Pipher's bestselling Reviving Ophelia. Shandler reveals telling portraits of teenage girls in this book, a compilation of essays, poems, and true-grit commentary from a cross section of teenage girls, throughout the country. The topics covered run the gamut, but they include parental expectations, racial relations, and faith, among others. Sadly, eating disorders are an all-too-popular topic (amazon.com). Other topics include the importance of friendships and mothers, and pregnancy.

Schutz, Samantha: I Don't Want To Be Crazy

In this "memoir in verse," Schutz comes to terms with an anxiety disorder that surfaced and plagued her throughout and after her college years. Readers accompany the author from the summer after high school, through college, on a semester abroad in Paris, and into her first job after graduation. Typical early-adulthood issues such as boyfriends, sex, drinking, grades, and family are woven throughout her struggle with physically and mentally debilitating panic attacks. The author had the courage and wisdom to seek professional help and embarked on a long and often bumpy road to treating her disorder (amazon.com).

Works Cited

Angelou, Maya (1983). I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Bantam.

Grealy, Lucy (1994). Autobiography of a Face. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Menzie, Morgan (2003). Diary of an Anorexic Girl. Thomas Nelson.

Nikkah, John (2000). Our Boys Speak: Adolescent Boys Write About Their Inner Lives.

St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition.

Shandler, Sarah (1999). Ophelia Speaks: Adolescent Girls Write About Their Search For Self. Harper Paperbacks; 1 edition.

Sonnie, Amy (2000). Revolutionary Voices. Alyson Books.

Velvet Underground and Nico – "I'll Be Your Mirror"