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330Redefining America: 2001 to the Present1. Analysis. In On Native Grounds, American writer and critic Alfred Kazin wrote, %u201cThe greatest single fact about our modern American writing is our writers%u2019 absorption in every detail of their American world together with their deep and subtle alienation from it.%u201d Choose at least three works from this chapter and analyze them through the lens of Kazin%u2019s observation.2. Connections. Write a letter to your imagined teenage child about the future of the United States as you predict it will be. Consider the strengths of the nation in light of today%u2019s challenges. Offer advice that will sustain this young person through whatever they are experiencing. Cite at least two of the texts you%u2019ve read in this chapter along with insights from your own experience.3. Argument. In his 2015 speech on the 50th anniversary of %u201cBloody Sunday%u201d in Selma, Alabama, President Barack Obama asserted, %u201cTwo hundred and thirty-nine years after this nation%u2019s founding, our union is not yet perfect, but we are getting closer.%u201d To what extent do you believe that at this moment in our nation%u2019s history, we are %u201cgetting closer%u201d to the idea of %u201ca more perfect union%u201d? Use your knowledge of history and current events along with at least two of the texts in this chapter to develop your position.4. Argument. The following quotation is from %u201cThe Propaganda of History,%u201d a chapter in Black Reconstruction in America (1935) written by W. E. B. DuBois, a Black American intellectual, historian, and civil rights activist:Nations reel and stagger on their way; they make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable? What %u201ctruths%u201d do you believe should be acknowledged as part of our shared heritage in order to move confidently forward? Include at least three of the texts you%u2019ve read in this chapter to explain and support your position.5. Speaking and Listening. In his first inaugural address in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln asked Americans to be led %u201cby the better angels of our nature%u201d:We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, where again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. Develop a speech to be delivered to your classmates or your school at large in whichyou urge your audience to remember %u2014 and enact %u2014 the spirit of Lincoln%u2019s addressas you face the challenges of this era. Use at least three of the texts from this chapter in your speech.Suggestions for WritingCopyright %u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.