Essay Questions

What represent the fires mentioned in the poem "Heritage’’?

In the poem mentioned above, the narrator thinks about her people and about everything they had to endure in time. The narrator mentions how she wants to sit by a ‘’heathen fire’’ and listen to the chanting or the songs coming from those sitting near the fire as well. The ‘’the heathen’’ fire mentioned here is an allusion made towards the religions beliefs black people had before they were taken slaves and moved to another country. In almost all cases, the black slaves were forced by their masters to give up their religious beliefs and superstitions and to accept Christianity as their religion and as the true religion. This caused a lot of pain for many black slaves who, in addition to being made slaves and no longer being free, had to give up their way of life as well.

Why are coins associated with death in the poem "Lines Written at the Grave of Alexander Dumas’’?

The coin and the association with death which is mentioned in the poem is derived from an ancient myth about death and the ancient burial practices. In the past, it was believed that after a person died, their soul traveled from the land of the living to the land of the dead on a boat. Upon reaching the shores of the land of the dead, the souls had to pay a fee to be let through. Otherwise, those dead souls would be condemned to roam the lands forever. Because of this, many relatives of those who died used to put coins in the mouth of the deceased person or on the eyes of the dead person.

Why does the narrator focuses on hair in the poem "Secret’’?

Hair has an important place in black history, both for those who became slaves and for those who remained back on their native lands. When slaves reached the lands where they will have to live for their rest of their rest of their lives, many slaves had their hair cut off by their masters as a way of oppressing them. after slavery was outlawed, many black men and women tried to fit in with the rest of the white society and would do everything they could to appear more white, changing their hair with various chemicals to make it appear straight. In many ways, the black people linked their identities with the way they wore their hair. Because of these factors, the narrator makes hair the central theme and chooses to focus on it in the poem mentioned above.