1) Post a title for your midterm paper that sums up the topic of your paper, including the title and author of the work you're analyzing.

Lebanese Identity Crisis as Seen in Lawrence Joseph’s “Sand Nigger”

2) In one or two sentences, sum up the thesis of your paper.

I believe the narrator cannot decipher if being Lebanese is a source of pride or shame. Although he witnesses the positive aspects of Lebanon itself and living in a Lebanese household, he cannot escape from a world of hostility -- whether it be the civil war in Lebanon or racial discrimination and hatred that has trickled down into the streets of Detroit.

Title- Do we have a choice?
Thesis- Gibran writes the lamentation of the Lebanese people in order to answer the question of wheter or not we choose our own fate

Extinguishing Culture and Philosophy

On Rihani's "Book of Khalid"

My thesis is that Rihani uses Khalid to show the impossibility of mixing cultures, through the paradox that in order to have free thought Khalid keeps adopting other peoples' beliefs and philosophies, and each time he does this he abandons or destroys his previous beliefs.

An Analysis of Freedom, Understanding, and Contradictions in Gibran's "The Madman"

The paradoxes reveal that society’s expectations only confine mankind, and freedom can only be discovered within one’s self. The poem in its entirety is a contradiction, a contradiction which expresses with depth and subtlety the complexities of freedom and truth.

TITLE:
"Hope? A Twinge of Living": Reconciling the Concept of Hope in Mikhail Naimy's "Rotating Tombs"

Ok so that's my title. I hope you like it. The thesis of my essay states that Mikhail Naimy's poem "Rotating Tombs" is not merely a poem regarding the cyclical nature of life, but rather it is a poem written to reflect Naimy's interpretation of the idea of "hope" and whether or not it is a worthy notion for those who are living. I apologize that this is a little late, but I had a hard time accessing the site, but all the complications are cleared up now.

TITLE:
"Hope? A Twinge of Living": Reconciling the Concept of Hope in Mikhail Naimy's "Rotating Tombs"

Ok so that's my title. I hope you like it. The thesis of my essay states that Mikhail Naimy's poem "Rotating Tombs" is not merely a poem regarding the cyclical nature of life, but rather it is a poem written to reflect Naimy's interpretation of the idea of "hope" and whether or not it is a worthy notion for those who are living. I apologize that this is a little late, but I had a hard time accessing the site, but all the complications are cleared up now.

The search for One's True Identity

(that it tentatively the title of my paper...)
I am doing my paper on Lawrence Joseph's "Sand Nigger." The arguement that I am trying to make is that the speaker in the poem feels like he cannot really connect with his Arab roots while he is living in America.

Etel Adnan's use of water imagery, as one of many images and cultural references in Beirut Hell Express, symbolizes her vision of a coming revolution. She predicts that dryness, associated with modernity, corruption, and mortality, will be swept away by a great flood, destroying modern institutions while offering nature – and perhaps humanity with it – a rebirth.

My paper is on "Sand Nigger" by Lawrence Joseph
Although this work has such a controversial and racial title it has little to do with racism at all. To me Lawrence Joseph is portraying how hard it is to keep one's cultural ties to their country of origin in America.

I will be writing on the two possible interpretations of the sea, which is personified in Abu Madi's poem of the same title. In one respect, the sea could be said to represent the old world--or Lebanon--in that it is the source of creation/the motherland and in another way, the sea could represent the source of life itself.
The conflict here is largely an identity crisis/question of origin and destination. Both of which have roots in the Arab-American struggle for a place in society, and both of which can be tied to a higher spiritual quest.

Im doing my paper on "Rotating Tombs" by Mikhail Naimy.
thesis statement: Naimy is making the point that the rotation of life and death is not fueled by hope but set by fate.
I havent thought of a title for my paper yet, im still working on it.

Khalil Gibran "Dead Are My People"
Paper title: I haven't really thought of a title yet, but something along the lines of "Gibran's Stages of Loss"

It is my belief that Gibran's poem "Dead Are My People" is a depiction of the stages of mourning. Each section of the poem and each emotion represents a different stage. And much the same as real life, often times the stages are repeated. My paper is set to analyze and expose the stages and emotions throughout Gibran's poem.

A Quest for the Truth

My paper is about the existential questions that Abu Madi raises in his poem. He uses the sea to explain his arguments and express his fears, ultimatly to discover the meaning of life.

Success in Rihani's "The Book of Khalid"

Rihani establishes in the first pages of "The Book of Khalid" that success in the New World should be measured in terms of the blending of Arab and American cultures. Then he goes on to imply that this blending is only possible on paper, not in reality. He also defines success in terms of money. In the end it seems that, with such conflicting definitions of success and failure, success in the new world actually depends on an individual's character and their determination to succeed.

title: fishing for answers

OK, so i know that is just a horrible title, but it will have to do for now. my paper is about how abu madi makes a parallel between "the sea" and god. It is also about how he answers all of the questions asked in the poem. so there.

Heritage Lost: A Daughter’s Story

While some argue that there is no distinct difference between the children of Americans and the children of immigrants, I believe that immigrant children experience a greater sense of loss because they may literally or emotionally lose their ties to their family and cultural heritage. These children may be the last in their family lineage to have any association (through food, language, etc.) with the family’s heritage. In her poem "Rest in Love," D.H. Melhem shares the experience of an American-born child losing her mother and her connection to the old country.