What does the birch symbolize in this excerpt?
your mere puny stripling, that winced at the least flourish of the rod, was passed by with indulgence; but the claims of justice were satisfied by inflicting a double portion on some little tough wrong-headed, broad-skirted dutch urchin, who sulked and swelled and grew dogged and sullen beneath the birch.
(from the legend of sleepy hollow by washington irving)
a. injustice

b. justice

c. hardship

d. punishment

The birch symbolizes Punishment in this excerpt

Explanation:

These lines talk about how the punishment will be applied to the ones that misbehave and do disrespectful things over the ones that are extremely afraid of what punishment could be, in the except it is also stated that the ones that receive the punishment will get a double portion of it. It represents the action of spanking the misbehaved kids

- "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."

the answer is a hoped this