Author's Style and Layers of Meaning in Cane — Quiz
Question 8 • English Language Arts 11
Read the excerpt from "Fern” in Cane. She sprang up. Rushed some distance from me. Fell to her knees, and began swaying, swaying. Her body was tortured with something it could not let out. Like boiling sap it flooded arms and fingers till she shook them as if they burned her. It found her throat, and spattered inarticulately in plaintive, convulsing sounds, mingled with calls to Christ Jesus. Which statement best describes Toomer’s use of figurative language in this excerpt?
Answer
A
A simile compares Fern’s feelings to “boiling sap.”
B
Alliteration in “convulsing,” “calls,” and “Christ” mimics the sounds Fern made.
C
Hyperbole is used to describe how Fern moves after falling on her knees.
D
A metaphor describes how Fern’s body is burned.
Explanation
The word “like” signals a simile: Fern’s intense, unexpressed feelings are compared to boiling sap flooding through her body. The comparison helps convey how powerfully the emotion affects her. The passage does not say her body is literally burned, and the sound pattern in “convulsing,” “calls,” and “Christ” is not the main figurative device described.
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