Read the excerpt from Notes of a Native Son . A few hours after my father’s funeral, while he lay in state in the undertaker’s chapel, a race riot broke out in Harlem. On the morning of the 3rd of August, we drove my father to the graveyard through a wilderness of smashed plate glass. Baldwin describes a personal event taking place amid a riot to

Baldwin places his father’s funeral—a deeply personal loss—against the backdrop of a race riot and the smashed glass left in its wake. This juxtaposition shows how racial prejudice and violence intrude on and damage individual lives, rather than merely expressing amazement or detachment. The best choice is D, “symbolize the destructive impact racial prejudice has on individual lives.”

AI-written and checked against the verified answer.