EWRT1A-61: reading response 5

Reading Response 5
Bernard Cooper “A Clack of Tiny Sparks…”
Choose one or come up with your own focus.

• The piece begins and ends with Theresa Sanchez. Why is Theresa so important for Bernard Cooper? What does she represent for him?

• Bernard Cooper was a teenager in the 1960s. Do you think things have changed much for homosexual teenagers in the years since? Please refer to specific parts of Cooper’s memoir in your response.

• Connect the ways Cooper’s true identity is repressed to the ways Jackson Katz says boys’ identities are repressed in the Tough Guise video. Look for similar causes.

• Compare and/or contrast Cooper’s experience with what Anzaldúa or Walker writes about. Look especially at assets. Does Cooper have the kind of help to find his true identity that Anzaldúa or Walker describes? Explain.