The Ethics of an Upbringing
Guiding Question
What are the ethics of writing about a place? What qualifies someone to tell a story?
Overview
In Velma Wallis’s book Raising Ourselves we learn about her rough childhood. She does not hold anything back in the excerpt we read during class. She shows us her perception of how growing up in Fort Yukon, Alaska was with the drugs, alcoholism, and violence. After reading the excerpt we saw how brutal life was in the past when Fort Yukon was not a very safe place to live. Velma wrote this book unsparingly, telling her life story of growing up in rural Alaska with plain-spoken truth. Yet at the same time telling a story about a sensitive topic like this can be controversial.
Quotations to Consider
Guiding Question
What are the ethics of writing about a place? What qualifies someone to tell a story?
Overview
In Velma Wallis’s book Raising Ourselves we learn about her rough childhood. She does not hold anything back in the excerpt we read during class. She shows us her perception of how growing up in Fort Yukon, Alaska was with the drugs, alcoholism, and violence. After reading the excerpt we saw how brutal life was in the past when Fort Yukon was not a very safe place to live. Velma wrote this book unsparingly, telling her life story of growing up in rural Alaska with plain-spoken truth. Yet at the same time telling a story about a sensitive topic like this can be controversial.
Quotations to Consider