Spare Parts Handout

HMXP 102H (Fall 2017)

Dr. Fike

Issues to discuss: Find a partner and select one or two questions you would like to discuss as a whole class. Be sure to consider the questions on the back of this handout as well. Together with your partner, do some brainstorming of things you would like to share. Write these down in your notebook.

1.  What is the significance of the book’s title? Does it go beyond the mechanical? Significance?

2.  Regarding Hispanics, what bias do the media project? How does SP illustrate such bias?

3.  Page 49 anticipates the slogan “Make American Great Again,” but here doing that requires welcoming immigrants. What are your own thoughts on American greatness?

4.  SP illustrates the idea that people ostracize, tease, and persecute those who are different. Why do humans do that?

5.  SP invites you to ask yourself what you are good at doing. What activity allows you to feel intellectual engagement and fun at the same time? If “Follow your bliss” is a guiding principle, are you majoring in the right subject?

6.  The political debate boils down to fairness. Is it fair to deport persons who are American except on paper? On the other hand, is it fair for American citizens to subsidize immigrants’ illegal presence in the U.S.? How are we to resolve this conflict?

7.  What is the “moral” of SP? What message do you take away from reading it?

8.  Page 180 gives us the image of “piles of shrimp [that] had been washed ashore.” What does Davis’s tone seem to be here and throughout the book? Does it bother you that SP contains liberal bias insofar as it is sympathetic to children brought to the U.S. illegally?

9.  How do you respond to the politics described on page 191? Do you support or oppose the DREAM Act, mentioned on page 211? Are Pat Buchanan and Joe Arpaio heroes or villains?

10.  Consider the effect that different fathers have in the book: Lorenzo’s, Oscar’s. How is Freddie a kind of father, and is the U.S. government a father figure in some way?

11.  Page 24: Bob Vila says, “At some point you have to consciously choose your identity, and I chose to be an American kid.” How did this process work for the four boys, and is it the case with you too?

12.  Why did WU pick SP as its common book instead of, say, Pat Buchanan’s anti-immigration book? SP is highly liberal: do you think that WU is trying to influence your political view?

13.  What can SP teach WU students about college-level academic work, proper academic behavior, and right living?

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Groups Presentation: Spend some time today in class working on your group presentation, which will take place at our next class session.

Group 1 (Friedman): You will want to find places that refer to capitalism and wages. Does SP illustrate the idea that capitalism is a rising tide that floats all boats?

Group 2 (McIntosh, Loury): What evidence of white privilege do you find in SP? Does SP make you aware of white privilege or of your privileges as a U.S. citizen?

Group 3 (Donne): How does “Meditation 17” apply to SP and suggest the “moral” of the story?

Group 4: Apply the “Declaration of Independence,” “The Bill of Rights,” and “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights” to SP. Do you think that these documents suggest a resolution to #6 above? See especially pages 33 and 52. For the “Declaration of Independence” see page 50.

Group 5 (Camus): Is SP a version of “The Myth of Sisyphus”? In what ways are the two stories similar? How are they different? What interpretation of the book emerges?