Discussion
Answer all the questions:
Question #1
Explore what is meant in “Cane” by “the chorus of the cane” and “through a canebrake that was ripe for cutting, the branch was reached.” Don’t stop at a literal examination.
Question #2
Explain what Hurston means by “The game of keeping what one has is never so exciting as the game of getting.” Can you draw parallels to American history? How about contemporary America? Think broadly (race, wealth, power, politics, etc.).
Question #4
(Sui Sin Far) Examine the reference to “the making of American ‘fudge’ “in “Mrs. Spring Fragrance”. What might this reference or symbolize on a figurative level (not the literal confection)?
Question #5
(Chestnutt) Explore the possible implications of: “And she was very black,– so black that her toothless gums, revealed when she opened her mouth to speak, were not red, but blue.”
No outside sources only use what I give you.
Book Name: Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volume 2. Shorter Edition 8. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012.