GRE Reading Comprehension

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Source: 91年

In Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry does not reject integration or the economic and moral progress of the American dream; rather, she remains loyal to this dream while looking, realistically, at its incomplete realization. Once we recognize this dual vision, we can accept the play's ironic nuances as deliberate social commentaries by Hansberry rather than as the "unintentional" irony that Bigsby attributes to the work. Indeed a curiously persistent refusal to credit Hansberry with a capacity for intentional irony has led some critics to interpret the play's thematic conflicts as mere confusion, contradiction, or eclecticism. Isaacs, for example, cannot easily reconcile Hansberry's intense concern for her race with her ideal of human reconciliation. But the play's complex view of Black self-esteem and human solidarity as compatible is no more "contradictory" than Du Bois' famous, well-considered ideal of ethnic self-awareness coexisting with human unity, or Fanon's emphasis on an ideal internationalism that also accommodates national identities and roles.

Question List: 1 2 3 4

In which of the following does the author of the passage reinforce his criticism of responses such as Isaacs' to Raisin in the Sun?

  • A The statement that Hansberry is "loyal" (line 3) to the American dream
  • B The description of Hansberry's concern for Black Americans as "intense" (line 13)
  • C The assertion that Hansberry is concerned with "human solidarity" (line 15)
  • D The description of Du Bois' ideal as "well-considered" (line 17)
  • E The description of Fanon's internationalism as "ideal" (line 19)

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