Graded Assignment 3.08 Unit Test: Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance

You will need to turn this test in to your teacher. You must complete it by the due date to receive full credit on this test. REMEMBER THAT THIS IS AFTER SLAVERY, PLEASE DON’T INCLUDE THAT IN YOUR ANSWERS.

Total score: of 100 points

(Score for Question 1: ___ of 30 points)

QUESTION 1: “We Wear the Mask” and “Sympathy”

Type your answers in the boxes below:

“We Wear the Mask”

Question: What causes the pain of the people who wear the mask? Type your answer below.

Question: Why do the people in the poem not change their situation? Type your answer below.

“Sympathy”

Question: What causes the injuries to the bird in the cage? Type your answer below.

Question: Pull a line from the poem that shows the bird’s suffering and type it here.

Question: Why does the bird in the poem not change its situation? Type your answer below.

(Score for Question 2: ___ of 30 points)

Question 2: “Any Human to Another”

Type your answers in the boxes below:

What is the theme of Countee Cullen’s “Any Human to Another”? Remember, theme is the overall message the author is conveying to you. Type your answer below.

Find an example of figurative language in the poem: (examples: personification, simile, metaphor) Type your answer below.

Explain what the figurative language does for the poem. Type your answer below.

(Score for Question 3: ___ of 40 points)

Question 3: You chose the poem to write about. Make sure to type which poem you are going to discuss.

What role do justice and fairness, or the lack of it, play in the poems you have read in this unit? Choose one poem to answer the question below.

Do you see justice or injustice? Type your answer below and then explain who and where you see in the poem you have chosen.

1. The pain of the people who wear the mask is caused by the legally-imposed slavery and the lack of opportunities for freedom.

In "We Wear the Mask" and "Sympathy," Paul Laurence Dunbar laments the unfortunate condition of black Americans traded in slavery as cartels.

2. The people in the poems remained helpless to change their situation amidst constitutionally-sanctioned slavery until the Fourteen Amendment. The constitutional sanctions created slavery as a kind of property ownership.

3. In "Sympathy," the cause of the injuries sustained by the bird in the cage is its confinement amidst endless struggles for freedom.

Brutal slavery with racial discrimination and segregation hoisted on the African-Americans was like a caged bird condition. They long for liberty that does not come.

4. A line from the poem that shows the sufferings of the bird is as follows: "I know why the caged bird beats his wing Till its blood is red on the cruel bars."

5. Could a caged bird open the bars of iron that caged it? The bird cannot change its situation because it lacks essential freedom.

Thus, "We Wear the Mask” and “Sympathy” demonstrate that the prison of slavery was not a choice for the blacks.

6. The theme of Countee Cullen's "Any Human to Another" is the need to share in the sufferings, griefs, sorrows, and joys of others. Nobody should become an emotional island. That situation could suffocate, especially when one plays from one extreme of the sharing spectrum.

7. An example of figurative language in the poem is "Your grief and mine Must intertwine Like sea and river." This expression is a simile.

A simile compares two things or persons using such comparative words as "as" and "like," while a metaphor states that one thing is the other. For example, "Obi is a lion," and not "Obi behaves like a lion."

8. Using such beautiful figurative expressions in the poem enlivens the readers, passing the message without too many words or their realistic meanings.

9. The role that the lack of justice and fairness play in "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar is that injustice and unfairness also gradually murder the practitioner. This means that injustice and unfairness are not fair to the performer. They injure not only the wrongdoer's conscience but their freedom and liberty. The slave-owner or master is also a fellow slave.

For instance, when a person encounters a group of mentally-depressed individuals, you have the feeling that their leader must be mentally-deranged also. According to an African adage, it takes a madman to escort some mad persons to the marketplace.

Thus, we can conclude that when everybody enjoys liberty and pursues happiness, society is better for it than otherwise.

Learn more about justice and freedom at