1a. What does the planter fear?
2a. How much seed has the speaker sown?
3a. Who is gathering what the speaker sowed and "what the orchard yields"?
4a. Identify what you think the theme of the poem is.
5a. Do you agree that the speaker deserves to be better compensated for his work? Why, or why not?
1b. What does the speaker mean when he says "I planted safe against this stark, lean year"?
2b. What does the speaker have to show for all his hard work?
3b. Why do the speaker's children "feed on bitter fruit"?
4b. Summarize in your own words what the speaker wants.
5b. How does the tone of "A Black Man Talks of Reaping" compare to the tone of "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"? How do Bontemps and Hughes differ in their views of the African-American experience?
Speaker.Who is the speaker of the poem? What is the speaker's experience with reaping? How might his view of reaping be different from that of a white man?
Rhyme. Make a chart showing the rhyme scheme of "A Black Man Talks of Reaping." The first stanza has been done for you.
1. Imagine that you are the speaker. Write a journal entry expressing what your children have and what you want them to have. Use your own paper as necessary.
2. Imagine you are one of the speaker's children. Write a letter to your father expressing the life lessons you have learned from watching him work. Use your own paper as necessary.
3. The speaker uses farming as an allegory for the labor market. Write a paragraph explaining how African Americans have fared differently from whites in the American economy.
Capitalization. Rewrite the following sentences, inserting correct capitalization.
1. An important literary movement of the twentieth century took place in upper manhattan.
2. There was an explosion of african-american artists, writers, and performers.
3. The harlem renaissance had as much to do with building community as with promoting the arts.
4. Although Arna Bontemps was born in the south, his writing identified him with this movement.
5. He won the jane addams children's book award in 1956.
Researching Tenant Farming. Research the history of tenant farming in the South. Use the following Research Log to record your findings. Then, on your own paper, write a composition comparing the experiences of African-American tenant farmers to the experiences of the speaker in "A Black Man Talks of Reaping."
Notes on the History of Tenant Farming in Southern U.S.:
Sources Used:
