Semester 2 Final Flashcards
Where can you find the juvenile and sophisticated narrator in Wright’s use of dramatic literature?
Juvenile narrator can be found in the dialogue, while the sophisticated narrator can be found in the stage directions
What was Richard’s first test at the school in Greenwood and why?
Fighting. Domination is his safety, because once he dominates, he doesn’t have to fight anymore
Who published the newspapers that Richard sold in Chapter 5?
The Ku Klux Klan
How did Richard find out who was publishing the papers and why did he not know before?
He found out through an old man asking him if he knew what he was selling. He didn’t know before because he didn’t read the actual paper, just the fiction works in the paper
Richard went “…from shack to shack, plantation to plantation,…” to sell what? How did he help his customers and coworkers?
Insurance. He could help his customers and coworkers because he could read and write
Why didn’t Richard’s grandfather receive his disability pension from the Civil War? Why didn’t he know that the war was over?
He was illiterate, so he couldn’t read that someone spelled his name wrong when they signed his pension papers. He also couldn’t read in the newspapers that the war was over due to illiteracy
Anaphora
Repetition of a group of words at the beginning of a paragraph
How does Richard use anaphoras to help him through difficult times in his life? What are the three times he uses an anaphora as a balm to soothe his pain?
Richard uses poetic prose, or anaphoras as a balm to help him through tough times. He uses these when he burns the house down and is almost beaten to death by his parents, when Ella is fired by his grandmother, and when his dog is crushed to death
What is a touchstone? What was the touchstone of David’s fraternity?
A quality test. The touchstone of David’s fraternity is when the boys price genuine brotherhood by trashing white people e
What was the “Voodoo of Hell’s Half Acre”?
Richard’s first published newspaper series
Tantalizing
Tempting, but unattainable
What year was Richard chosen to be valedictorian of his class?
1925
What did Richard have to do to get to write his own speech?
He has to verbally fight the principal to have the right to write his own speech, unaltered by school officials
Pensive
Thoughtful
When the women was dragged crying and bleeding from the rear of the store, why was she the one to be arrested?
Drunkenness. The woman didn’t pay her bill, so she was taken to the back room, where she was beaten and raped. The police arrested her from “drunkenness”
In chapter 9, Richard was hit over the head with an empty whiskey bottle because…
He didn’t say “sir” when he responded yes to a white man’s offer to go buy a drink together
When the movie theater employee asked Richard, “are you with us?” what was he talking about?
He was asking Richard if he would help them double sell the tickets so they could get twice the commission. The box office sold the tickets, the ticket takers took them, pocketed them, and resold them
In chapter 2, Aunt Maggie was not allowed to see his body or claim his assets. Who was she not allowed to see?
Uncle Hoskins. He was a very successful business man who refused to give up his business to the white men. He later paid for that with his life
In chapter 2, Richard says that “…an attitude of antagonism or distrust of Jews was…”
Cultural heritage. All black Christians hated Jews because of their role in the crucifixion
Melancholy
Pensively sad
What was Richard trying his hardest to hide from the white folk?
His feelings. They will either hold it against you or use it against you
Turpitude
Depravity
“She rose and hobbled to me on her paralytic legs and kissed me.” Why did his mother do this?
Because Richard won his fight with granny about employment
What genre does Wright use to portray “…the talk of the black boys…at the crossroads”?
Dramatic literature
