A writer can use numbering to sort information chronologically.
locate major areas of the world.
show different kinds of data at once.
orient the reader by identifying an image.

- "the answers are a and b.  

when cullen speaks of planting while others reap, and standing "abject and mute," he is speaking about the racial injustices present in american society. as these injustices have changed over time, the american identity  has also shifted. those changes are, in turn, reflected in american literature."

i’m alive so yes and the author is a technique idiom