Answer 2 of the following questions for the final exam. Please use a blue book.

1. What are the details of the spiritual geography of Baldwin's adolescence as presented in the first part of "Down at the Cross"? How are they related to his advice to his nephew in "My Dungeon Shook"? And how, in your opinion does this relate to John in GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN? What was the young James Baldwin running from and what was he seeking in his turn to religion as a fourteen-year-old boy in Harlem in your opinion? Elaborate. Use specific details from the texts to support your claim.

2. What is Baldwin's purpose in prefacing the long "public" essay-letter on the Nation of Islam with his shorter, personal letter to his nephew in THE FIRE NEXT TIME?
What is Baldwin's attitude toward the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad? How does that attitude relate to his previously expressed observations on race relations and racial discrimination?

3. “Folks with positive self-esteem know that there are a number of factors that shape and inform our emotional well-being. We know that while race and racism may over-determine many aspects of our lives, we are still free to be self-determining. Many young black folks who are full of self-doubt and lacking in self-esteem fixate on race in a way that is demoralizing and dehumanizing. To a grave extent they project all their problems onto the landscape of racism because it is the easy target. Though race is a vital aspect of our identity as African Americans, we cannot know ourselves fully if we look only at race. Looking at ourselves holistically, seeing our emotional well-being as rooted both in the politics of race and racism as well as in our capacity to be self-defining, we can create the self-esteem that is needed for us to care for our souls. In the black church of my youth we would sing the lyrics "is it well with your soul, are you free and made whole." Our continued survival as African-American people, in solidarity with nonblack allies in struggle, demands that we care for our souls so that we can be whole and complete. If we begin with self-esteem our success is assured. Well-being will be our destiny.” The words above are bell hooks’. Elaborate on how hooks’ opinions in ROCK MY SOUL intersect with one or more of the other texts we have read this semester. Remember to use specific details from the texts to support your claim(s).

4. What are some similarities and/or differences that you see in the poems of Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks? You can examine their aesthetic sensibilities, their politics or any other pertinent issue you deem worthy of elaboration. Use specific details from the texts to support your claim(s).

5. If you see 2 or more of the texts from a Marxist critical point of view, please tell me why this is the case. Elaborate and use specific details from the texts to support your claim.

6. Janie in THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD undergoes a spiritual journey much like Baldwin’s John in GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN. Both characters struggle against the status-quo belief system of those that surround them. What forms of awakening or self-actualization do they undergo, and what are some similarities and/or differences that you noted?