Exhibit of 1-minute Elevator Speeches in Cornerstone 102, taught by Dada Docot at Purdue University
By Om Gupta
In this short speech, I present a poem I wrote interpreting the primary ideas conveyed in Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings. I talk about one of the two themes referenced in that poem: a sense of being an outsider that many Americans belonging to minority communities are familiar with. I show the prevalence of this idea even across the very diverse works we have studied in this class by talking about how it comes up in Terese Marie Mailhot’s Heart Berries and the film Reel Injun.
by Nic Diaz Butron
This video shows some of my favorite things I did in class as well as one short reflection for the audience.
by Lucas San Martin
In my 1-minute elevator speech I tried to demonstrate the similarities in the dehumanization of the protagonist in Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” who is shown no mercy nor empathy from his family and Reel Injun’s demonstration of how Native Americans were represented as “savage” and uncivilized in Hollywood movies.
by Kabir Batra
In this elevator speech, I talk about how people struggle with their cultural and personal identity. I reference the story Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and the film Reel Injun by Neil Diamond. I show the illustration and meme I created for the class.
by Justin Wang
My Elevator Speech summarizes my answer for Weekly Response 1, which asks us if we would walk away from the city of Omelas, to which I responded “No” using several real life examples. I drew connection between The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas and Minor Feelings and my response.
by Jose Lara
My speech links my illustration for Kafka’s Metamorphosis with his own work and Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings.
by Siqi Zhou
I mentio two books in this speech. They are ” Metamorphosis” and “American is not the heart”. I talked about my thoughts and funny experiences when I read the story.
by Jakob Slason
In my speech, I compare the setting of the Omelas to our own world through the The Wretched of the Earth, and The Real Injun. In doing so, I hope to show how the setting of Omelas, as cruel as it is, can sometimes mirror some aspects of our own world.
by Alex de Lascurain
In my elevator speech, I showcase my first reflection we did this year, which was about the short narrative of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. I refer to both this narrative and the documentary Reel Injun, by director Neil Diamond. I connect the miserable life of the suffering child to that of the exploited Native American actors and actresses depicted in the documentary.
by Akash Lavu
My speech delves into the works of Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas and Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth. I talked about my analysis of Omelas and answer the impossible question of leaving paradise. I also related Omelas to colonialism which has been our history.
by Ashni Sonawala
My two favorite texts this semester were Metamorphosis and Minor Feelings. I particularly enjoyed the writing style of both the authors which made both the stories so riveting and captivating.
by Thilak Babu
This speech talks about what I have learned in this class in the past 4 months and also talks about how it changed me as a person. Although I mention only Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong in my speech, my weekly response regarding Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot is also showcased in the background.
by Tianyu Zhang
My elevator speech explores a view that agony and joy may be a zero-sum game.
by Vishnu Lagudu
My elevator speech talks about how the privileged society treats the unprivileged. It draws a unique connection between Omelas and Metamorphosis.
by Kotekar Annapoorna Prabhu
I talk about gaslighting in communities and culture, focusing on themes from Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong, and the cognitive dissonance it brings about. I also compare this to what colonialists did to the indigenous population to try to gain control of them. I referred Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth.
by Adanna Eze
In this short speech, I talked about how people have seen something wrong and decided to speak about it through their books or videos. I connected Minor feelings by Cathy Park Hong, the Reel Injun video and the two ted talks in the video.
by Lynne Kim
In my elevator speech, I mainly talked about the human’s most basic nature, self-centeredness. I linked this human nature to our society and the issues that arose among the short stories we have read.
by Zhicong Lin
In this video, I present my best work: America is not the Heart of Elaine Castillo. Mainly focusing on immigration issues, I compare the context of the story with book Minor Feelings and Cathy Park Hong.
by Ashwin Kidambi
This is a short speech about the broad aspect of reality based on colonizers and the city of Omelas while showing my essay answering the question of whether I would leave Omelas. I refer to the text about Omelas and The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon.
by Ethan Valera
In this video, I present my best work: a drawing of my interpretation of Cathy Park Hong’s definition of “minor feelings.” I focus on themes of identity, primarily the distortion and erasure of one’s identity and racial experiences, found in Cathy Park Hong’s book, Minor Feelings, and Terese Mailhot’s memoir, Heart Berries.
by Malcolm McClymont
This elevator speech summarizes how we have analyzed loss of identity and distortion of identity through the stories we have read. It focuses primarily on Kafka’s short story “Metamorphosis” and Mailhot’s novel “Heart Berries.”
by Vishal Urs
This is a small speech that briefly highlights the best works and learning experiences of this class. I refer to the themes and benefits obtained from this class while depicting a few of my responses through the assisting presentation.
by Bernardo de Araujo Alvarenga
This elevator speech tries to make sense of the short story “Would you walk away from Omelas” in light of real life events. It compares the context of the story with Fanon’s work and the book Minor Feelings.
Cornerstone 102 
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