James Baldwin's Take on the Effects of Prejudice — Quiz
Question 1 • English Language Arts 11
Read the excerpt from Notes of a Native Son . He was not a young man when we were growing up and he had already suffered many kinds of ruin; in his outrageously demanding and protective way he loved his children, who were black like him and menaced , like him; and all these things sometimes showed in his face when he tried, never to my knowledge with any success, to establish contact with any of us. Which best explains why Baldwin chooses the word “menaced”?
Answer
A
to illustrate the trickery the children perpetrate
B
to emphasize the cruelty the children endure
C
to prove that the children are frequently bothered
D
to suggest that the discrimination is imagined
Explanation
“Menaced” means threatened or endangered. Baldwin says the children were “black like him and menaced,” linking their shared race to the danger and hostility they faced. The word therefore emphasizes the cruelty they endured, not trouble they caused or imagined discrimination.
AI-written and checked against the verified answer.