One of the reasons I really am "into" American Literature is because the settings of many stories are easily available for me to visit! As much as I enjoy reading about Germany or Africa - I may never get to travel there.
Please use this discussion area to post your most memorable U.S. destination. We will try to read stories that originate from all over the United States, and it's amazing to find out where people have travelled. In this class - YOU will have much more prior knowledge to bring to the table than ever before! Please use your destination as the title of your post - that way, we all can easily see and comment. You have the chance to earn up to THREE extra credit points for thoughtful posts and/or extended responses to others' posts.
Let me give you an example of what I mean by thoughtful:
Last year, I stood on the exact same earth as Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and all the victims of the Wounded Knee Massacre. To many drivers wizzing by on the lonely highway near the Red Cloud Indian School, it was simply another desolate hill that blurred into the next. But to me, all I could think about were the haunting words I read from Black Elk Speaks: "I did not know then how much had ended." I was reduced to tears...and deep, deep regret and sorrow.
My time in South Dakota, the Black Hills and Yellowstone were amazing. I was so grateful I could take the stories I had read and taught and actually walked the footsteps described. It's hard to describe - but if you ever get a chance - go to the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre, where hundreds of Cheyenne/Lakota were outnumbered and killed. Then travel up to the battle site of Custer's Last Stand - where, about a decade prior to Wounded Knee, U.S. cavalry were bested in the Battle of Little Bighorn. The memorials stand in very stark contrast. I'll share photos of both sites with you as the quarter advances.