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Date introduced: 10/15
First draft due: 10/23–24
Final draft due: 11/1–2
In a narrative, recount the experience of a family member who participated in one of the countless movements of American history. The movement can be physical—immigration to this country or migration within the country—or it can be metaphorical—i.e. a political or technological movement.
This is a piece of historical fiction. You are rooting your story in real history: a real time and a real place. Many of the details of your story will come from the research you have done as a historian, both the primary source research you have done on your family through interviews and the collection of artifacts, as well as the secondary source research you have conducted as part of your IRP.
For most of you, your character will be a real historical person, perhaps even someone you personally know. Some of you, on the other hand, will create a “hypothetical relative”—a family member who certainly could have existed at a given time and in a given place, but the details of whose life you do not have for any number of reasons. Either way, no matter how many or how few verifiable details you have to go on, you must breathe life into your character with realistic, emotional detail. This paper will demand your skills as a creative writer.
The story can be told in any style, about a family member from any generation. There is only one parameter: you must tell a story from the first person point of view. It doesn’t necessarily have to be through the eyes of the main character, but your story must be told with the pronoun “I.”
Ultimately, this story will serve as the basis for the dramatic monologue that you will perform on Exhibition Night.