Abolition and Women’s Rights Movements, Part 1 — Quiz
Question 9 • Language Arts 11
Read the excerpt from "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. What is the effect of the repetition of “your”?
Answer
A
It reminds the reader of the speaker’s identity.
B
It reinforces the speaker’s feeling of separation.
C
It suggests a dialogue between speaker and audience.
D
It indicates that the speaker is addressing a large crowd.
Explanation
The repeated “your” keeps contrasting the audience’s celebration and ideals with the experience of the enslaved person, referred to as “him.” This emphasizes that the Fourth of July and its promises of liberty belong to the audience, not to him, reinforcing the speaker’s sense of separation. The passage directly addresses the audience, but the repetition chiefly highlights this divide.
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