Reading comp PrepTest 123 · Section 1 · Question 8

Topic: Humanities

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • Background on Cullen and his work/influences; Cullen’s view
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Definition of “Harlem Renaissance”:
    • Movement of African American writers, musicians, and artists in the 1920s
  • Cullen’s view:
    • Wanted his poetry to be romantic and universal, beautifully expressed
    • Focused on European forms; lots of Christian imagery
  • Examples of European forms in Cullen’s work:
    • Sonnets, quatrains, couplets, and conventional rhyme
  • Cause-and-effect relationship, according to the author:
    • Cullen’s classical allusions and Christian imagery were probably caused by his university education, Methodist upbringing
  • Author’s attitude: “were mostly likely” (Line 15)

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Critics (both sides); Cullen’s response
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Pro-Cullen critics’ view:
    • Cullen was skillful within European verse
  • Example of Cullen’s skill, according to pro-Cullen critics:
    • “The Ballad of the Brown Girl” used artfully captured the atmosophere of century-old English ballads
  • Anti-Cullen critics’ view:
    • The European form not right for racial issues, and Cullen switched between aesthete and racial issues
  • Example of poems that aren’t fit for exploration of racial issues, according to Anti-Cullen critics:
    • “Uncle Jim” and “Incident”
  • Comparisons, according to Cullen:
    • Interest in romantic poetry compatible with racial issues
    • Distinction between solely political poetry and his work, which reflected his idetnity as an African American

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • Author on Cullen’s development later on
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Comparisons in Cullen’s work:
    • Fewer references to racial issues and more on religion in later work
    • But didn’t abandon racial issues
  • Examples of increased religion in Cullen’s later work:
    • “The Black Christ” and “Heritage,” which focused on broader issues of suffering/redemption
  • Author’s attitude: “Nonetheless” (Line 54)

Main Point: Critics were split on Cullen’s use of European verse to explore racial issues, but Cullen viewed the combination of the two as reflecting his identity, and while he focused more on religious themes in his later writing, Cullen never abandoned a focus on racial issues.

Lines 6-10 - Cullen’s view on his poetry

Lines 10-11 - Cullen’s style

Lines 18-19 - Pro-Cullen critics

Lines 23-25 - Anti-Cullen critics

Lines 33-36 - Cullen’s response to criticism

Lines 42-44 - The author’s overall view of his later work

Lines 54-58 - The author’s opinion on this later work

Rebutting Critics: One of the more common Meta-Structures in Humanities passages is where the author defends a certain artist from criticism. Here, the author starts with a description of Cullen’s poetry and influences (Paragraph 1) before exploring criticism of that poetry (Lines 18-33). The author then discusses Cullen’s defense against the negative criticism (Lines 33-41), though the author doesn’t take an explicit side in that debate. Then, the author discusses Cullen’s later work (Lines 42-54). It’s not until the end that we get the author’s opinion on the criticism and Cullen’s response to it — that Cullen remained committed to the importance of racial issues (Lines 54-58). While this opinion doesn’t directly undermine the criticism that European poetic forms weren’t a great fit for discussing racial issues, this is the author’s opinion, and so it constitutes the main point in this passage. As we wrote it out above, we included all of the myriad viewpoints, but the author’s opinion at the end of the passage is the only element that needs to show up in a Main Point question’s correct answer.

Examples: In Paragraphs 2 and 3, the author presents examples of poems that back up various opinions on Cullen’s work. Line 20 introduces an example of a poem praised by some critics, while Line 25 and Line 28 introduce examples cited by the critics who brought up issues with Cullen’s work. The author uses two examples in Paragraph 3 to back up the contention that Cullen increasingly focused on the religious dimension of his poetry in his later work, though it still showed the importance of racial issues. While none of these examples is very extended, they do show up so frequently that we should expect them to be referenced in a few questions.

As we noted in our discussion of the Meta-Structure, the author’s failure to take a stance that directly contradicts the criticism leveled against Cullen is a subtlety in this passage that will likely be reflected in answers. The author limited their opinion to that last paragraph, which wasn’t about how Cullen’s style and content meshed, but rather about his commitment to discussing racial issues in his poetry. Let’s keep that in mind for any question addressing the author’s viewpoint.