Read the passage from "The Pursuit of Happiness." The woman on the far side of the desk looks at the floor,
Her head full of Ireland
and the potatoes that blackened and curled and rotted away.
We grew only sadness there
She wants to say.
But this she whispers instead:
'I have come to work as a chambermaid"
And the Important Person stamps her papers without hearing the rest.
"To scrub floors and wash linens until my hands are red and raw,
and I have polished happiness for my child
So she can become a teacher
with hands the color of cream."
Why does the author include a description of potatoes in this passage?
A. to explain the work the woman intends to do
B. to persuade the reader to avoid eating potatoes
C. to persuade the reader to support local farmers
D. to explain why the woman left Ireland for America

D. to explain why the woman left Ireland for America

Explanation:

the answer would be c

in the short story the slip-over sweater by jesse stuart, the main character and narrator shan is friends with grace, an intelligent girl he has known since childhood and with whom he used to be in love.

at the beginning of the story, shan believes he’s no longer in love with grace, but loves jo-anne instead. in order to buy a slip-over sweater and have jo-anne wear it so that the other students would know she loved him too, shan takes a loan at the bank.

while jo-anne is wearing shan’s sweater, his friend grace starts to wear another popular boy’s one, roy’s sweater. because of that, the other students begin to pay attention to grace and compliment her perseverance and effort. they admire her for walking 5 miles to school every day, despite the weather, and still getting the best grades. shan, who knows all of that for a fact, says, as the narrator, ‘and i knew she had the durability and the toughness of a storm-battered mountain oak.’ he compares his friend’s strength – not only physical, but also of character – to an oak tree, whose wood is known for being sturdy.

as the story goes on, shan changes his behavior out of concern for the debt he has to pay at the bank. his new girlfriend jo-anne never asks him what is wrong nor offers any sort of . instead, she breaks up with shan for not being as fun as she thought he was supposed to be. grace, however, not only asks about shan’s problem, but him make the money he needs. shan can’t but notice how different the girls are and what a wonderful person grace is.   even though he used to find jo-anne prettier at the beginning of the story, he now says, ‘grace was as beautiful as our mountain was in april, prettier than a blossom of wild phlox or a mountain daisy.’ his comparing grace to a mountain or something that exists on a mountain (such as a mountain oak or daisy) certainly has important meaning since shan loves the mountain and everything about it and he knows the mountain thoroughly. shan also loves and knows grace as completely as he does the mountain.