Read the excerpt from Notes of a Native Son.In that year I had had time to become aware of the meaning of all my father’s bitter warnings, had discovered the secret of his proudly pursed lips and rigid carriage: I had discovered the weight of white people in the world. I saw that this had been for my ancestors and now would be for me an awful thing to live with and that the bitterness which had helped to kill my father could also kill me.Which best expresses the connection that Baldwin makes between the historical context of racial prejudice and the physical effects it has on his father?
Answer
A
His father’s premature death reflects the rapid disappearance of racial prejudice in early 20th-century America.
B
His father’s immunity to stress reflects the immunity of Black Americans to the effects of racial prejudice.
C
The tension in his father’s body reflects the tension between oppressor and oppressed in early 20th-century America.
D
The weakness in his father’s body reflects the weakness of the riot against discrimination in Harlem.
Explanation
Baldwin links his father’s rigid posture and bitterness to the burden of living under racial prejudice. He says that the bitterness caused by this burden helped kill his father, so the physical tension in his father’s body reflects the larger tension between those who oppress and those who are oppressed. Choice C expresses that connection; the excerpt does not suggest that prejudice was disappearing or that his father was immune to stress.
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