Lit

Question 1

“America” by Claude McKay
1. America’s predicted future?
2. Poem’s contradictory nature?

Answer 1

1. America is going to fall
2. He is treated with hatred by America, yet he loves America

Question 2

“If we must die” by Claude McKay
1. Speaker’s intended audience?
2. Type of death desired?

Answer 2

1. African Americans
2. a noble one

Question 3

“Tropics in NY” by Claude McKay
1. Overall tone?
2. Poem’s inspiration/irony?

Answer 3

1. Nostalgic
2. His inspiration is from an urban fruit stand far away from the tropics.

Question 4

“Native Son” by Richard Wright
1. Critical reactions towards protagonist?
2. Elements of Naturalism+Modernism?
3. What’s the “White Blur”?

Answer 4

1. Bigger murders someone so who can truly call him a protagonist.
2. Bigger is lower class in a higher class area, the consequences he gets are because of his race, It focuses on the dark parts of what could happen in real life (Natural), the white blur was symbolism, its a stream of Bigger’s conscious (Modern)
3. White people’s everlasting threat to the black population.

Question 5

“Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes
1. Musician symbolizes?
2. Tone shift

Answer 5

1. depression
2. in awe to sad and depressed

Question 6

“Harlem” by Langston Hughes
1. Harlem’s place in the world?
2. Mood in 1930s Harlem?

Answer 6

1. On the edge of hell= the worst place
2. bitter because of the past problems reoccurring in the present.

Question 7

“I, too” by Langston Hughes
1. How is Walt Whitman connected?
2. What is the speaker’s attitude?

Answer 7

1. His poem titled: “I Hear America Singing”
2. Strong and angry as he wants to be recognized by America

Question 8

“How it Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston
1. When does Hurston first feel colored?
2. What is Hurston’s personality: why?

Answer 8

1. at her boarding school in Jacksonville
2. Strong-willed because the people before her fought for her to have the abilities and potential she has.