Analyzing Personal Essays

AP English Language and Composition

“Question 2”-style essay

(A Comparative Rhetorical Analysis of Two Personal Essays: “On Seeing England for the First Time” by Jamaica Kincaid and “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin)

You will read and annotate two personal essays—“On Seeing England for the First Time” by Jamaica Kincaid and “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin—both of which articulate the essayists’ struggles to deal with the effects of ethnocentric* injustices and cultural hegemony** on their lives.

In her essay, Jamaica Kincaid grapples with the effects of British colonialism on the Caribbean island of Antigua before it became independent from Great Britain in 1981; in his essay, James Baldwin grapples with the effects of racism on his family in mid-twentieth century America. In both essays, the writers deal with the repercussions of one group of people being treated as inferior by another group of people who exercise social, cultural, and economic dominance. What happens inside a person who is made to feel inferior? How can a person push back against the feeling of inferiority in a way that combats the dominant, oppressive culture without also destroying oneself?

In a well-organized, well-developed essay compare and contrast the ways the two writers use rhetorical strategies to convey their evolving responses to the complex role ethnocentrism* and cultural hegemony** play in their lives.  

*Note: For the purposes of this essay, these may be the two most useful definitions of ethnocentrism: “the belief in the inherent superiority of one’s own ethnic group of culture” (dictionary.com) and “the attitude that one’s own group is superior” (Merriam-Webster).

**Note: Cultural hegemony exists when one group—a ruling social class, a prevailing culture, a dominant race, or an imperialist nation—exerts a controlling influence over all aspects of a culturally diverse society it is part of or a “cultural colony” it is separate from.

Due dates:

Read and annotate the prompt and the two essays by class time on Wednesday, October 8.

Write a complete first draft of the essay by class time on Tuesday, October 14.

Self-assess, peer-assess, and revise to create a final draft by Thursday, October 16.