Maryam Adel

Dr. Timothy Moran

HON 1000

12 November 2017

Essay #1 Who Are We? Reflection

The first essay of the course is by far my favorite one. I am usually used to writing essays

that are argumentative or analytical, and they are usually less creative and less fictitious.

However, it was nice to write a narrative-style kind of paper. The research for the paper was also

fun yet informative. I had never known that there was a Hungarian community in Delray during

1910s-1950s. Moreover, creating my character was not difficult. However, I still wanted to

create a character that showcased difficulties many immigrants, especially immigrants who were

women, faced at the time. Thus, Rozsa and her family were brought to life. Rozsa is the kind of

person I would have loved to meet if she was real and I had lived at the time. She struggles with

assimilation but she is also strong, and is always there for her husband Erik and two children

Vince and Aliz. I tried documenting not just her struggles, but also the struggles Erik, Vince, and

Aliz faced in their work places and assimilating into their community.

The readings from the course were helpful. Learning about Detroits history at the time

helped me put in context the lives of the characters I created. The term Democratic Social

Space, while not explicitly used in my essay, was something that I took into consideration when

writing my narrative.