Portfolio Self
Assessment
Throughout the entire FIQWS course there were various of prevalent themes about immigration, and family struggle that was interesting to write about and was very introspective for myself. After certain essays like essay #2 made me grateful for generations before my own that had to be immigrants or 1st generation. Certain parts of stories and movies we watched made evidence gathering easier for certain topics of my essays, because some certain topics that kids with immigrant ties have gone through in their lives. As far as my experiences as a writer, getting peer reviews from certain people was interesting as in high school I never had to do peer reviews for my essays. A few of my friends have helped with my thesis, and making my writing more clear and concise. This made my writing from paper #1 to paper #2 better in different ways. I had an easier time gathering evidence for “Call It Sleep” because I spent more of my time trying to gather quality evidence and provide more as well. Learning to spend more thought on how I format my paragraphs in my writing is something I will use in future papers throughout college.
Essay #1 Reflection
My first essay was not my best work since I spent more time than I should have summarizing Call It Sleep. Instead of going more in depth on the story material. I tried to give some of my personal ties to the story but it wasn’t very detailed. The best part of my essay is the conclusion about immigration in my life. I wanted to explore my experiences going into the essay but I waited until the conclusion paragraph to give my own thoughts. The better option is to sprinkle bits and pieces throughout my writing, this would make the conclusion more cohesive. I was also hesitant to go in depth into my relationship with immigration, and my family’s struggle with it as it’s a fairly personal topic. Due to the difficulty prior generations of my experienced. As similar to David I was not proud of my heritage or religion for most of my lifetime.
The peer review allowed me to get a slightly different lens, which was helpful for my writing. As well as how someone else interprets my paper, rather than myself as people perceive things differently.
Essay #2 Reflection
I enjoyed the process in my second essay because we had the freedom to choose our own topic. So I choose a topic I was familiar with and a story that mirrored it well. Being able to relate with David’s struggles made it the perfect story to use. My topic made it easier to search for evidence because it was enjoyable to read due to the relatability. I also ended up changing parts of my thesis at times.
Being able to properly connect literature to real world experience is a skill that I was able to practice when writing this essay. As the struggles of immigrant households is something that certain peers and I have experienced. The appreciation for my roots and religious heritage increased after writing about David’s experience to mine.
The main difference would be how much evidence I put into the story, I felt like I did a better job up backing up certain claims in the second essay versus the first. As the freedom to choose my own topic made it easier to look for better more applicable evidence.
The most challenging part was how I formatted my essay with my claims. This was due to the fact that my evidence sometimes overlaps with different claims. Making different claims run into similar paragraphs at times. Which sometimes can get confusing to write, but also isn’t a terrible thing since it ties together my thesis well.
The only change would be some parts I may repeat some of the same struggles David goes through, mainly because of the severity of the hardships he goes through in the novel.
Essay #3 Reflection
This essay was difficult for me because I had time trying to make my thesis arguable. We had to explore more than one story so gathering evidence was difficult as there was more material to look through. The thesis was hard to make completely arguable because of how complex of characters Neil and Brenda are. The American dream is also a very complicated topic that many people have different viewpoints on. Making It difficult to have a clear cut thesis that is arguing a point.
Something that went smoothly is how I explored the American dream through the different characters as they have different and similar struggles As well as how I tied immigration and gender roles into the main topic of the American dream, as these topics overlap
Essay #1
Amaan Jafery
9/18/2023
Prof Kratka+N
Acceptance
David’s fearfulness of others finding out he is an immigrant and jewish is something I can relate to for most of my life. I didn’t want other kids to find out I was muslim and spent most of my life rejecting my heritage and religion because I was ashamed to be a muslim. My parents married each other in 2001, then they had me as their only kid in 2004. Not particularly the best time to be a muslim or immigrant in america. Except my parents aren’t really immigrants in my eyes, my mother was born in 1970 and father in 1968. They both came here at an extremely young age before they even started school. My parents grew up, went to school, college, and fell in love all in america. They’ve lived their whole lives here, and because growing up they had to deal with immigrant parents, I have had an amazing life full of different experiences and the freedom to follow my dreams. My mother was the eldest daughter so she didn’t get any freedom and was extremely sheltered all the way to college. Her mother(my grandmother) has a very traditional viewpoint on how women should act. She got an arranged marriage at 18 years old, then gave birth to my mother, then immediately emigrated to America with my grandpa. She would always tell me to not live in a bubble like how she did when she was a teenager. So I got that social freedom that my mother never got. My father was always under pressure from his father going through school. He knew he had to get a high paying job because my grandfather’s degree in India didn’t mean anything in the states. When he came to America he had to work odd jobs for a long time to support his family. He would tell me stories about how his face would be covered in dirt and he would have a pipe in his mouth on break, and he would tell me the feeling of what “hard work” actually is. My father wanted to go to law school but his dad made him major in engineering at Ohio State, because he wanted his son to make money. Eventually halfway through college my dad switched his major then ended up going to law school. My father and grandfather’s relationship is somewhat reminiscent of David and his fathers relationship but not as extreme. My dad is scared of disappointing his dad, similar to David. My grandfather was extremely tough on my dad trying to not make him a “failure” in his eyes. Which is how David feels his father views him. These struggles helped me not be ashamed about my heritage and religion. But it wasn’t always like that as I brought up earlier. Growing up I was conflicted about my identity because I was more of a typical white American kid than a brown muslim immigrant. Friends of mine to this day still say I sound like a white dude which made me feel weird. I grew up neglecting my heritage because muslims in America had such a bad reputation of being terrorists and killers. I repressed that part of my identity because of how I would hear people talk about muslims. It took a school year of living on my own to really find my heritage and religion, and in Maine of all places, and for some reason as David grows up I can see him heading off to college in touch with his Jewish side and doesn’t take for granted how important it is for a happy life. David’s story is extremely similar to mine and my fathers story, and I believe that when he is no longer a kid he is going to have the same change that I had about a year ago, and his sense of identity will be a lot more whole. I can imagine David going off to college knowing who he is because of the struggle he went through as a young kid.
Essay #1
