Choose FIVE questions out of nine and write a short answer (1-2 paragraphs). (Don’t answer all the questions – I will feel so sorry for you if you do all of that extra work!). Be specific and give examples.
James Joyce, “Eveline,” (1914): https://www.lonestar.edu/departments/english/joyce_eveline.pdf
(1) Why can’t Eveline get on the boat? What do you think it takes to leave your country?
Ernest Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants” (1927): https://faculty.weber.edu/jyoung/English%202500/Readings%20for%20English%202500/Hills%20Like%20White%20Elephants.pdf
(2) Why does Jig say she’ll have an abortion if she doesn’t really want one?
Grace Paley, “The Loudest Voice” (1959): https://www.whatsoproudlywehail.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Loudest-Voice-Grace-Paley.pdf?x65350
(3) Mr. and Mrs. Abramowitz have a debate about assimilation. Who do you agree with?
Maya Angelou, “Graduation,” (1969): https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZWdycHMub3JnfG1zbGFncmFuZGVncmhzfGd4OjI4YmVjMjNkY2YxNzIxYmQ
(4) Can you describe an experience of feeling like you were carrying the hopes and dreams of your community?
Paul Lawrence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask,” (1913): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44203/we-wear-the-mask
(5) If you feel that you wear a mask, can you describe it?
Countee Cullen, “Incident,” (1925): http://holyjoe.org/poetry/cullen.htm
(6) Can you relate this incident to a painful or traumatic incident in your own life? Explain.
Lucille Clifton, “homage to my hips” (1987):
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49487/homage-to-my-hips
(7) “Homage” is praise — write your own version of this poem based on a part of you that you want to praise.
Langston Hughes, “I, Too,” (1926)
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47558/i-too
(8) If you, too, are claiming a place in America, try writing your own version of the Langston Hughes poem.
Rhina P. Espaillat, “Bilingual/Bilingüe,” (1998):
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46542/bilingual-bilingue
(9) If you are bilingual, is there anything you can relate to in Espaillat’s poem?
Sample Solution
