Many of the selections that I read shared common themes as to the different technical methods that they used to prove their points. Of them, I liked the poems the best. I, of course, am impartial due to the fact that I am a poet and love poetry more than I am a short-story writer or enjoy short stories. I have a short attention span, so it is difficult for me to stay focused on more than one, shortly phrased comment. I thought that they also employed numerous parallel devices through their perspective of writing and through specific techniques.

A common theme for both the stories and the poems was that of the, for lack of a better word, name-dropping. Each tribe had different words in their native tongue to describe nature. Many used this to point out their strength in their beliefs and their heritage. This helped establish a pride for each tribe and a greater understanding of the integrated English langua

I think that this poem really opened my eyes to all the questions that we have for a person who is unlike ourselves, and, how insulting it can be to those people. I think that, being as outgoing as I am, that I have, in the past, tended to do the same thing. To some extent, the poem is a perfect example of a rebuttal to any comment made without knowing the person first. This includes comments about weight, age, height, body size and shape, ethnicity and race, gender, and even cultures defined by modern social music. I liked her short responses to the unheard speaker. In some way, I can relate because I have piercings and tattoos that people always ask me about, ?Oooh, did that hurt?? However, I cannot entirely relate because I chose my body?s image. She, on the other hand, did not choose hers. She could not cover hers up or take hers out.

Certain aspects of Native American culture seem to be overplayed in the short stories. I enjoyed most of them,

Some common words found in the essay are:
American Selections, Native American, Fall Near, native american, , native american culture, american culture, short stories, helped establish, ties nature,
Approximate Word count = 652
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)