1. Identify the author and title of the passage 2. Identify how the passage fits in the African American literary tradition (what historical era and/or literary period), 3. Explain the content (what’s going on) and context (how does it fit into the larger work from which it is excerpted) 4. Comment on a theme or subject of the work as illustrated by this passage. (Do not paraphrase.) 5. Make sure that your responses take all aspects of the passage, including literary forms or techniques, into account. A) “The rat squeaked and turned and ran in a narrow circle, looking for a place to hide; it leaped again past Bigger and scurried on dry rasping feet to one side of the box and then turned to the other, searching for a hole. Then it turned and reared upon its hind legs.” B) “‘. . . I tell you that we are determined to return to Cuba with our slaves and there see justice done, Cinquez— or let us say ‘the Prince’ –Cinquez shall die’ The deep immortal human wish, the timeless will. Cinquez its deathless primaveral image, life that transfigures many lives. Voyage through death to life upon these shores.” C) ″‘Well, Sonny,’ I said, gently, ‘you know people can’t always do exactly what they want to do—’. ‘No, I don’t know that,’ said Sonny, surprising me. ‘I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?″ D) “I’d like to hear five recordings of Louis Armstrong playing and singing “What Did I Do to Be so Black and Blue”—all at the same time. Sometimes now I listen to Louis while I have my favorite dessert of vanilla ice cream and sloe gin. I pour the red liquid over the white mound, watching it glisten and vapor rising as Louis bends that military instrument into a lyrical sound.” E) ″‘Now, its all gone. Gone . . . Ef Ah run erway, Ah ain got nothing. Ef Ah stay n fight, Ah ain got nothing. It don’t make no difference which way Ah go. Gawd! Gawd, Ah wish all them white folks wuz dead! Dead, Ah tell yuh! Ah wish Gawd would kill em all!” F) ″Let a new earth rise. Let another world be born. Let a bloody peace be written in the sky. Let a second generation full of courage issue forth; let people loving freedom come to growth. Let a beauty full of healing and strength of final clenching be the pulsing in our spirits and our blood. Let the martial songs be written, let the dirges disappear. Let a race of men now rise and take control.″ G) “Our forefathers came to these shores and faced a harsh and wild country. They came here with a stifled dream in their hearts, from a land where their personalities had been denied, as even we have denied the personality of this boy.” H) “When he went out the door he didn’t look back. If he had he would have seen the flickering blue flame under the shiny coffee urn being extinguished. The line of men who had stood behind him lingered a moment to watch the people drinking coffee at the tables and then they left just as he had without having had the coffee they wanted badly.” I) “We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.”
