Please help...desperate

[lisafaustina]

I'm doing the Identity and Belonging context and I'm so bad at English, I belong in ESL. can you guys help me pull out 3 major ideas for my 3 body paragraphs for these essay topics? and how you can relate texts to these topics... i'm doing Witness, Growing Up Asian and Catcher In The Rye.
Oh and do you always have to have a rebuttal paragraph?

1. Our sense of identity can never be constant.
2. An individual's desire to belong is sometimes motivated by fear.
3. A strong sense of identity should enable us to embrace difference.
4. Our sense of who we are is based largely on our feelings about who we are not.

please just give me simple, straightforward ideas... just remember i cant handle a wide range of vocabulary LOL
Thank you

oh and what do you guys think that this year's topic will generally be about? i know noone would know, but any predictions based on the previous exams ? :S

[98.40_for_sure]

Just some random ideas you can expand on. (i apologise if they're crap ) I haven't read Asian in Oz but i'm doing witness and catcher.

1) - society's dynamic identity, whereby conformance is necessary to obtain a sense of belonging (catcher's phoniness, and how Holden has several identities comprised within his psyche due to his inability to adapt)
- our identity is influenced by our ambient environment/displacement (witness is very good example for this, as Book adopts portions of Amish lifestyle through his experience and exposure to their community)
- cultural and family upbringing (can be exemplified with Witness' Amish)

2) I would break this topic up into separate bits and then connect them in a later paragraph
- explain human desire to belong (we are gregarious, need connections etc) you can use Maslow's hierarchy of needs as external evidence
- explain fear: cause of conformity, alienation, self-image etc
- explain how fear leads to belonging, or lack thereof
This prompt doesn't really relate to witness, however you could contrast the gloomy philadelphian slum with that of bright amish life. Catcher could be used to talk about Holden's fear of maturation, and how that stops him from seeking belonging.

3) Like topic 2, i would break this up
- explain what a strong sense of identity is (Amish' collective identity is very rigid, as opposed to contemporary "english" lifestyle)
- expand on what difference is (individuality, diversity etc)
- link the two

4) This topic is nice, very wide and hard to stray off-topic.
- talk about how we discover our identity in a positive way (through affiliations, self-exploration etc) ; Book discovered the world outside of his familiar zone and epitomises the amish way of life. Conversely, rachel lapp also acknowledges life outside of her shell
- talk about the bad ways in which we can also discover ourselves (alienation, psychological trauma) ; holden's emotional desolation leads him to discover reality by the end of the novel, that maturation is an inevitable process. he also finds connection to phoebe, the only person he can relate to
- overall how we are defined, that is it mainly through experiences and understanding

Hope that gives you some ideas to write about. Good luck

[lisafaustina]

Thank you. so what is john book's culture? is it contemporary English lifestyle like you said? i thought he was american LOL

[98.40_for_sure]

Yeah he's american, but the Amish call americans "English" for some odd reason (*shrugs*).
You can call it a variety of things such as mainstream american society, contemporary english culture, secular american society, philadelphian slum etc
Take your pick

[lisafaustina]

Thank you for your help, i appreciate it

[98.40_for_sure]

My pleasure. If you need any help, don't hesitate to PM me. There aren't many people on here that do identity & belonging with the same texts as you.

[lisafaustina]

^_________^