X

Question 1

“Croons”: Soft, comforting tone – like speaking to a child

“Say cheese”: Normally joyful – linked to fun, photos

Twist: Innocent phrase becomes sinister – “say race”

Effect: Highlights how race defines her experience

Tone: Infantilising, unsettling – masks deeper harm

Theme: Everyday racism disguised as normal interaction

Answer 1

Say “race”, the photographer croons

Pastoral (PT III

Question 2

“Again”: Repetition – stuck in cycle of performing Blackness

“Blackface”: Suggests forced identity, not her full self, she feels she is performing her blackness

“Us”: Collective experience – generational trauma

“Flash freezes us”:

“Freezes”: Trapped, silenced, stuck in time

Alliteration/sibilance: Harsh, claustrophobic sound

Tone: Hostile, aggressive – minority experience under scrutiny

Answer 2

I’m in / blackface again

Pastoral (PT III

Question 3

Rhetorical question: Asked by white poets – why would she hate the South?

Her response: Complex feelings – South is painful but home

Civil War link: History of racism, deep-rooted pain

Assumption: Expectation she should hate the South, but she doesn’t

Reoccurring theme: South as motif in anthology – reflects her complicated relationship

Black experience: The South is home, but historically unsafe for Black people

Answer 3

You don’t hate the south?

Pastoral (PT III

Question 4

SUMMARY

Answer 4

Atlanta, Georgia: Primarily Black city, contrasts with white invasion into Black spaces

Pastoral: Refers to Old South’s agriculture, linked to slavery and forced labor

Dream Poem: Narrates her fears, desires, and realization of racial difference with her white father

Photograph symbolism: Flashlight (white) contrasts with her Blackness, highlighting racial difference

Blackface: Racial appropriation – Black people couldn’t perform, stereotypes used

Her experience of race: Navigating white social circles, especially in white writing communities

Fugitive Poets: All-white, old South poetry movement, some with racist views

Her father, Eric: White poet, expressed regret about family, held racist views
- called her a “Crossbreed child”: Racist, dehumanizing term from her father’s poem

Pastoral (PT III

Question 5

THEMES

Answer 5

identity, injustice, american south, childhood

Pastoral (PT III