Tomas Jimenez and Sharon

English 1040: Reading Popular Culture

Summer 2022

Wed May 18th

Writing Quiz #2
5%
60 minutes

In university, we often think of writing as siloed, meaning we tend to do it in isolation. However,

some of our best writing comes from working with others throughout the process, whether this is
running ideas by our peers or meeting with a tutor at the Writing Centre. Today’s quiz is about
collaboration in writing.

In pairs, we’re going to engage in the writing process in response to the writing question below.
Together, come up with an idea, develop an outline, develop a thesis, select evidence from the
text, and craft a short 5-7 sentence paragraph. Work together to overcome your writing errors.
Make sure to include the names of all group members, the in-text citations, and a Works Cited
page. Leave all drafted scribbles and ideas on your final document; we want to see how you got
from brainstorming to a final polished draft. At the end of the 60 minutes, please have one group
member upload one document to the Writing Quiz 2 Brightspace folder.

WQ#2 will be marked on brainstorming and collaboration during the writing process (2.5%) and
the final polished draft (2.5%).

- The hair eaters

- Colonizers because like zombies, who eat almost anything and everything, colonizers
don’t damage the land they just want to wipe out the population living there or assimilate
them into being like them

- Quotes:

- Pg 16: “Ive seen a pack of hair eaters. I’ve seen a pack of Hair Eaters down a pack of
bison in slush. The lead bull flipped in the air as the opposing Hair Eaters forked to cut
him off. As he flipped in the air, two were upon him ripping and tearing at his belly and
balls

- We wish luck. The future is a curse…. Like zombies who are hungry all the time this
relates to the colonizers greed for land, money etc

- Never ending cycle

- Zombies eat all the meat. Relates to colonizers taking all that’s valuable in the land theyre
colonizing etc
Writing Question:

Richard Van Camp’s short story, “On the Wings of this Prayer,” is generally considered
to be a zombie story, but the word “zombie” rarely appears, which is the case of many zombie
texts. Instead, we have a variety of names for these creatures as well as other characters and
groups in the story. These names are somewhat exclusive and unique to Van Camp’s story.
Select one name and develop an argument about what that name suggests. No research is needed
and is actively discouraged. There is no right answer; this is all about how you interpret the name
and the way it’s used in the story.

In the short story, “On the Wings of this Prayer,” Van Camp uses zombies and more specifically,
“Hair Eaters” as a metaphor for the greed and violence colonizers exerted on Native Americans,
and how throughout history many generations of Native Americans have seen their lands been
repeatedly affected by colonizers. Van Camp alludes to how native peoples could have lived
their entire lives in fear and in control of colonizers, never escaping the cycle of violence and
oppression; he writes, “We wish you luck. The future is a curse. There are no human trails left. I
was born running from them as they are born starving and hunting for us.” (Van Camp 16). He
uses this quote almost as a message, possibly from a Native elder to a young native, warning him
of what is to come; a never-ending cycle of violence. He also mentions the colonizers lack of
respect for anything but their own greed, “I’ve seen a pack of Hair Eaters down a pack of bison
in slush. The lead bull flipped in the air as the opposing Hair Eaters forked to cut him off. As he
flipped in the air, two were upon him ripping and tearing at his belly and balls.” (Van Camp 16)
Van Camp describes in graphic detail to allude to the colonizer’s brute force and how they could
kill anyone who opposed them, and strip the land of all its valuable raw materials, fur and nature.