Essay Questions

What transpired during the “Easter shopping trip”? - “Cora Unashamed”

As Hughes expounds: “But before the boy came back (or Mr. Studevant either) Mrs. Art and Jessie went to Kansas City. "For an Easter shopping trip," the weekly paper said… After ten days, Mrs. Art and her daughter came back. But Jessie was thinner and paler than she'd ever been in her life. There was no light in her eyes at all.” Conspicuously, Jessie was bullied to halt her pregnancy. Her explicit concession to Cora alongside the corporeal indications of dimness, insensibility and skinniness deduce that the impetus of the expedition was to abort Jessie’s baby to exterminate the chances of her ever wedding the Greek, who her mother reckons as unbecoming.

What would you explain Jessie’ departure? - “Cora Unashamed”

Langston Hughes clarifies: “A week passed. They tried to make Jessie eat then. But the food wouldn't stay on her stomach. Her eyes grew yellow, her tongue white, her heart acted crazy. They called in old Doctor Brown, but within a month (as quick as that) Jessie died.” Unmistakably, Jessie succumbed to melancholy and undernourishment. The forfeiture of her baby disheartened her whereas the repudiation corporeal nourishment depreciated her substantively rendering her too frail to persist.

How does parental stimulus impact Jack’s ideology and resolution? - “Passing”

Jack’s mother underhandedly supports Jack’s white supremacy canons: “But I don’t mind being “white”, Ma, and it was mighty generous of you to urge me to go ahead and make use of my skin and good hair.” Jack’s recall construes that his mother’s socialization inured him to abhor his blackness and lionize his whiteness instantaneously. Perchance, if Jack’s mother had accustomed him to take be gratified for his blackness, he would not have committed to ‘pass’ as white. Jack’s mother champions toxic internalized racism that she imprinted in Jack’s mindset. Perhaps, beholding her son's delight in whiteness fulfills her unconscious urge to be white, so Jack relishes the whiteness visions on her behalf.