“Aunt Sue’s Stories” is a 1926 poem by Langston Hughes. In the poem, the speaker indicates that the stories Aunt Sue tells are based on Aunt Sue’s personal experiences, saying that _____
Which choice most effectively uses a quotation from “Aunt Sue’s Stories” to illustrate the claim?
Explanation
Context: A claim about Langston Hughes's 1926 poem "Aunt Sue's Stories" says the speaker indicates that Aunt Sue's stories come from her own experience. Choose the option whose quotation illustrates it.
Answer: A) a listening child "knows that Aunt Sue / Never got her stories out of any book at all, / But that they came / Right out of her own life."
Why? The lines rule out the alternative source, "any book at all," and name the real one, "Right out of her own life," which is precisely the claim.
Traps:
- B) Describes the people in the stories mingling with the sound of her voice, an effect of her telling rather than a statement of where the stories come from.
- C) Offers dark shadows that "cross and recross" the stories, an image of their mood and content.
- D) Places the telling on "Summer nights on the front porch," which fixes when and where she tells them, not where they came from.