(1) Characterize Langston Hughes’ disdain for Jim Crow mannerisms in “Harlem” and “Merry-Go-Round.” Apply his warning to prose predictions in Richard Wright’s Black Like Me and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.
(2) Contrast Hughes’ ear for native dialects with Countée Cullen’s preference for polished literary lines and Mari Evans’s standard English.
(3) Determine the source of rage in Hughes’s poems “Notes on Commercial Theater” and “Harlem,” August Wilson’s play Fences, and Toni Cade Bambara’s short story “Blues Ain’t No Mockin’ Bird.”
(4) What does the image of night symbolize in “Dream Variation”?
