Diving into historical and cultural contexts

A reminder of the military culture and of Henderson's husband Miles.

Wow has it been three weeks already? Let me just say, it has been three weeks of pure exhaustion. Our Writing 38B class has learned a myriad of rhetorical strategies to incorporate into our writing to help make our text more enriching. This week we have learned about the importance of historical and cultural contexts, and we are also on the verge of finishing Artis Henderson’s memoir, Unremarried Widow. In fact, we were recently assigned a draft in which we all had to choose one historical and cultural context from Henderson’s memoir, Unremarried Widow. While reading the memoir, I’ve noticed many different features regarding the cultural contexts. For instance, the difference between the culture of civilians and the military is drastically dissimilar. In my draft, I wrote about the indifferences of how the military approaches the process of death versus how civilians do. Civilians crave a more sensitive way of processing the death of their loved ones, but the military has a strict procedure that almost seems ‘Insensitive.’ Learning about the different historical and cultural contexts has helped broaden my perspectives on certain situations. The contexts has also play a significant role on expanding my knowledge. Understanding the context plays a significant factor in the literary world, so being able to process the contexts can help shape you into a better reader and writer. It’s fascinating to understand why some morals help shape your point of views on certain issues. By participating in class through group work or by focusing on the class assignments and learning new concepts, I can feel myself slowly becoming part of an academic discourse community. Being part of an academic discourse community will allow me to gain a better understanding of the contexts of literature and benefit my skills as a writer and reader. Developing my skills will also benefit me with my academic ethos which will help me with credibility. Learning to understand all these rhetorical concepts will assist all of the students in Writing 39B gain credibility and the skills that are needed to become a better reader and writer!

An expert of my draft based on historical and cultural contexts.

A symbol of death