What do you know about this era in American history?
Research and answer: Use evidence from the text to support your opinion.
Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
When and where does his story take place? What do you know about this era in American history?
Describe Booker’s childhood. Give specific examples from the book.
What were some of the barriers to getting an education that newly freed slaves faced? Give specific examples from the book.
B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk
In Chapter II, Du Bois defines the government’s actions of emancipating the slaves as a “tremendous undertaking.” What evidence does Du Bois provide through his historical analysis of Reconstruction and the Freedmen’s Bureau that the “Emancipation Proclamation seemed but to broaden and intensify the difficulties; and the War Amendments made the Negro problems of to-day”?
What are the accomplishments and failings of the Freedmen’s Bureau, according to Du Bois?
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper
What are the advantages and limitations of first-person point of view?
What can you infer about the narrator and her ideas about marriage based on her remarks? Explain.
Why is the narrator writing in secret? Explain.
What do the details of the room suggest about its function? Explain.
“…and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” Book of Proverbs
This passage alludes to the Bible, what is the narrator saying about the wallpaper through this quote?