I found Harvey’s piece to be incredibly interesting, and important in a modern context. Questions such as “who are we” do not receive much direct attention from leaders, yet implicitly, it is one of the most pressing issues of our time. My immediate thought when considering this question is how much it impacts American’s thinking on immigration. Those who oppose free movement often refer to some national identity that must be preserved, yet if they truly considered who we are as a country, such as the fact that Latino’s make up 1/3rd of the American population, their opinions may change. The need for reflection is also incredibly relevant in modern contexts. It is incfedibly necessary to review our past and make sure that we have genuinely improved as a society. If issues of the past are not fixed, history is bound to repeat itself. This instills a bit of fear within me as we begin the ’20s with a pandemic, high levels of global nationalism, and economic downturn. yikes.

Reading Bezio’s piece next, it is clear that we can teach of our mistakes and where society needs improvement through stories. When discussing this piece on slack, I was blown away by the notion that all literature has a meaning to be derived. Bezio focuses much on fiction as well, which is especially intriguing. When looking at children’s stories, this shows how powerful storytelling really can be. We ought to make an effort towards exposing young children to implicitly powerful lessons. This may better prevent the continuation of implicit biases, and the denial of our true history.