Robert Frost wrote an interesting poem called “Out, Out”. This poem is about a chainsaw and how it takes a boys life. Really it is not easy to see what Frost wants you to learn from this poem. No one besides him really knows this. However I believe Frost is trying to show us something about how life was when he wrote this. You have to understand that Frost wrote this poem in the first quarter of the 20th century. A time after a lot of things were going on in

It is not until I looked a little deeper into the questions that I realized there was a little more to it. I also took it a little further and added my own question. Since these works are so important in understanding American Experience and American Identity, why don’t more people read these works? Most of these works I have never seen until this year. These works, though many are several years old, are still shaping are Identity today. I looked at four writers who wrote in the 20th century. Poverty, Depression, War, Stereotyping are some major issues that concern us everyday. They are also four topics that these writers all touched on and gave us great information about. For this reason they can be vital in working to improve these issues along with many more. My argument is this. America has been faced with these issues in the past. Writers like Frost, Jacobs, Kingston, Song, and McKay have voiced there concerns through there writings. They have showed us alternatives and how they negatively affect people. If more people would have taken the time to read and appreciate these works, I don’t think these problems such as poverty, stereotyping, war would be nearly the problem they are today. So I take this opportunity to thank these writers. I thank them for giving me a better understanding of history. Most importantly a better understanding of who I am and what America is. Thank you, and I don not dare forget you.

The second question you posed was, How are these works relevant to our understanding of the American experience and American Identity? I first read this question and kind of wondered because it seemed to easy and obvious to answer. These works are direct example of experiences in the history of America. Is there a better way to learn about an issue, than to learn from somebody who actually experienced it. This is what you get with most of these writers. Jacobs gives you firsthand experience as a slave. McKay gives you firsthand experience as a black man in America during the 1920's and 30'3. Kingston gives you an idea of what it was like to be a Chinese woman and a Chinese woman in America. Frost talks about the affects different events had on people who lived through them. Song also gives you personal experiences in her life. Although Song’s “The White Porch” is not as major a topic as some of the other ones I looked at I thought it was important because although she is Korean American and is expected to be different she writes about things that can pertain to anyone.

So you pose the first question, Why are these works so important that we dare not forget them? This world as seen some glorious days in its history. Unfortunately it has seen many dark days as well. Slavery, War, The Great Depression, are just a few. If people never wrote on these events and during these times, would we really have the knowledge of them today. More importantly would we know how they affected the citizens or the anybody involved. I am going to say no. I do not mean writings like you see in a textbook. I mean Literature. Like all the readings we have looked at. These are the works that we cannot forget. They are vital in the way we live today. So many of these issues are still affected us. We have had a victory in getting rid of slavery, and we are past the Great Depression. But without these works woul

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