I, too, am America: The Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement — Test
Question 3 • English Language Arts 11
Read the excerpt from Black Boy . He asked easy, drawling questions about me, his other son, his wife, and he laughed, amused, when I informed him of their destinies. I forgave him and pitied him as my eyes looked past him to the unpainted wooden shack. From far beyond the horizons that bound this bleak plantation there had come to me through my living the knowledge that my father was a black peasant who had gone to the city seeking life, but who had failed in the city; a black peasant whose life had been hopelessly snarled in the city, and who had at last fled the city—that same city which had lifted me in its burning arms and borne me toward alien and undreamed-of shores of knowing. Which statement best describes how Wright’s cultural perspective influences his decision to forgive his father?
Answer
A
Wright’s cultural perspective causes him to feel betrayed and angry with his father for his past behavior.
B
Wright’s cultural perspective causes him to regret the way he treated his father when Wright was a child.
C
Wright’s cultural perspective helps him forget the way his father behaved when Wright was a child.
D
Wright’s cultural perspective helps him understand the difficulties his father faced throughout life.
Explanation
Wright reflects on the hardships that shaped his father’s life: his father was a black peasant who went to the city seeking a better life, failed there, and eventually fled back to the plantation. Understanding this difficult history leads Wright to pity and forgive him. Choice A best describes this perspective; the passage does not say Wright forgets his father’s behavior or regrets his own.
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