#14 - Global Reference, Main Point

[cgs174]

Hi!!

I found this to be the hardest question in this passage, mainly because of how few answers were clearly objectionable. I quickly ruled out C) and E) but found D) B) and A) to all be plausible answers with overlapping content. My prephrase for the MP of this passage was that early Native Americans made autobiographies that carried different understandings of the self than European autobiographies and utilized different mediums than European autobiographies.

This prephrase seemed to align with all three choices and I had a very hard time seeing why one was really preferable to the other two and ultimately choose B) when pressed for time. I know there must be a reason but I honestly can't see it.

Thanks for the help!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi cgs,

First, I think your prephrase was a great first step. Notice what the focus of your prephrase was---it wasn't on the European systems or scholars, but rather the Native American forms as compared to the European assumptions and attitudes about self. Now, let's break down those answer choices!

Answer choice (A): This one is focused on the scholars and how wrong they traditionally have been. While the author does talk about assumptions by European scholars, that is a small part of the overall point of the passage. The passage is more focused on describing the actual forms and traditions of Native American autobiography.

Answer choice (B): This answer choice is close. But again, the main point isn't about autobiography in general---it's very focused on the Native American forms and traditions.

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer. It correctly focuses on Native American traditions, and only on European/other cultures in the ways that Native American forms were different and unique from the European forms.

Hope that helps!

[elite097]

This question is not clear as the main point is just telling about various forms of autobiography applicable to Native americans. there is no focus on any form of comparison and muultiple choices seem plausible

[Robert Carroll]

elite097,

The main point is not just about that - the author constantly compares European autobiography to Native American autobiography. The author is not just telling us about a particular genre, but always comparing that genre to the expectations for that genre of European writers and readers. That makes sense, in fact - before reading this passage, the author seems to assume (probably correctly) that a lot of what the passage discusses would not have been considered autobiographical, because "autobiography" has too limited in the context of many Europeans. There absolutely is a comparison! Every paragraph except the third compares. So that's a good thing about answer choice (D) and a bad thing for any answer lacking it. Can I help with any other specific answer, except the ones Rachael has already explained?

Robert Carroll

[cd1010]

I'm having trouble parsing out the differences between C,D, and E, all of which seem to revolve around the differences between early native american forms of autobiography vs european forms.

Among the three, E is perhaps the most obviously wrong one because of the phrase "thus less easily recognizable as personal history". I thought this was implied in the passage, since the passage writes at length about other evidence of personal history that we wouldn't normally think of autobiographically (Ex. tattoos), but this isn't necessarily the primary focus. Is this reasoning correct?

Is C wrong because of the phrase "in their depictions of an individual’s relation to society"? And bc the phrase isn't precise enough? However, I'm unsure about this because I feel like this is exactly at the heart of the issue of the concept of an autobiography (i.e. relationship between self and society)

[Jeff Wren]

Hi cd,

Actually, Answer C is wrong for a completely different reason. Answer C contrasts "the Native American life histories collected and recorded by non-Native American writers" (my emphasis) with "European-style autobiographies."

This is the wrong comparison. What the passage contrasts is the early (for example, before Europeans arrived) Native American forms of autobiographies with the European model of autobiographies. The "as-told-to-life histories" that are discussed in paragraph one are the histories that were collected and written by non-Native American (i.e. white) European settlers. These were not really much different from the European model of autobiographies, which is why the author doesn't like them (see lines 6-14). In other words, since these were written by European settlers based on stories told to them by Native Americans, the European writers organized and wrote them with their ideas about what an autobiography is supposed to be based on the European model.

The real difference in the passage is between Native American ideas and forms of autobiographies with European ideas/forms (including the ones written by the European settlers about individual Native Americans).

As for Answer E, that is just a detail in the passage and not the main point. It is just one of the many reasons why the Native American views of autobiography differ from the European views. Also, the statement "less easily recognizable as personal history" is incomplete. It should clarify that they are less easily recognizable as personal history based on "our" Western/European ideas of autobiography. Presumably, to Native Americans, they would be easily recognizable as personal history.