Unit 3 Progress Check: Themes of Conflict, Identity, and Escape

B. Mrs. De Ropp is a strict person who fails to appreciate Conradin's creative spirit
Reasoning: The description of Mrs. De Ropp as "necessary and disagreeable and real" suggests that she is a strict person who would not appreciate someone like Conradin, who thrives on his creative spirit.

C. retreating to the security of an interior world
Reasoning: Conradin's retreat into his imagination, in "the disused tool-shed of respectable proportions," is the primary way that he copes with his situation.

E. discovers meaningful solitude
Reasoning: Conradin does seem to discover meaningful solitude in the tool-shed. The narrator indicates that "within its walls Conradin found a haven."

D. It fulfills Conradin's imaginative ideal because he is able to transform it into "a god and a religion" (paragraph 3).
Reasoning: The polecat-ferret provides an appealing outlet for Conradin's imaginative sensibility.

B. develops the idea that Conradin finds joy in acts that would be displeasing to Mrs. De Ropp
Reasoning: The "exchange" reinforces the pleasure that Conradin takes in acts that would displease Mrs. De Ropp, such as purchasing "a large polecat-ferret" for his secret hideaway.

B. "Such few pleasures as he could contrive for himself gained an added relish from the likelihood that they would be displeasing to his guardian, and from the realm of his imagination she was locked out—an unclean thing, which should find no entrance" (paragraph 2)
Reasoning: Conradin's imagination offers him a realm where his guardian is "locked out—an unclean thing, which should find no entrance." In the fantasy realms he creates for himself, he is able to make his decisions independent of an authoritative figure's oversight.

E. She realizes that her race and gender will make it difficult for her to achieve her goals.
Reasoning: Although the speaker has disguised her race, she is not confident that she can maintain this disguise. She indicates in lines 15-28, "Do I deceive / anyone? Were they to see my hands, brown / as your dear face, they'd know I'm not quite / what I pretend to be." Yet her more immediate concern is her realization that her gender will keep her from being hired for an office position: "no one needs a girl" (line 9). She understands that both her race and gender will make it difficult for her to achieve her goals.

B. That she had mistakenly believed that these skills would be sufficient to get her a job
Reasoning: The speaker had mistakenly believed that her skills would enable her to find work. She "kept thinking" they would "secure / for [her] some modest position."

A. the harsh reality of her situation
Reasoning: The juxtaposition emphasizes and reinforces the harsh reality of her situation as a Black woman who leaves her rural home to make a better life for herself but discovers that the city has nothing for her.

E. past life and true identity are always present
Reasoning: The wash pots and the irons of the laundresses that "call" to her emphasize the speaker's sense that her past life is a permanent part of her identity.

D. regarded speech like Miss J—'s as a means of self-improvement
Reasoning: These lines suggest that the speaker regarded imitating Miss J—'s speech as a means of self-improvement. She wanted to become educated like Miss J—.

A. social commentary using a historical period
Reasoning: The poem presents specific details of an individual speaker's experience—e.g., her realization that "no one needs a girl" (line 9) and the necessity that she pass as a white woman in order to look for a job—that highlight wider issues of race and gender. Because the poem was written in the year 2000 and is set in 1910, it can reasonably be inferred that the historical speaker's experiences are intended to present an indirect commentary on current social concerns, namely workplace discrimination based on race and gender.

C. will tell the "truth" in a way that his audience can accept
Reasoning: Tom's claim suggests that he will tell the "truth" in a way that his audience can accept. He will provide a "pleasant disguise" for what might be a harsh reality.

A. reinforce the notion that the play is part of a "world of reality" (paragraph 5) that will be reconstructed from "memory" (paragraph 4)
Reasoning: The specific references to an earlier time and actual places reinforce Tom's notion that the play is a "world of reality" constructed as a "memory play."

C. waiting and fulfillment
Reasoning: The gentleman caller is described as "the most realistic character in the play, being an emissary from a world of reality"; Tom also says that he represents "the long-delayed but always expected something that we live for."

B. It prompts Tom to admit that he is prone to attaching figurative meaning to characters.
When describing the "gentleman caller," Tom admits that he is prone to attaching figurative meaning to characters, describing himself as having "a poet's weakness for symbols" and explicitly says that he is using even the "gentleman caller," the "most realistic character in the play," as a symbol for "the long-delayed but always expected something that we live for."

E. The void created by the father's absence serves as an important character itself.
Reasoning: The description of the father introduces the idea that there is a void created by the father's absence that is ever present and filled with meaning for the family.

E. Tom's description of the gentleman caller and his reference to the postcard from Mazatlan
Reasoning: The gentleman caller is described as "the most realistic character in the play, being an emissary from a world of reality that we were somehow set apart from," suggesting that the family had escaped, for better or worse, from reality. The father's "picture postcard from Mazatlan, on the Pacific coast of Mexico" that just says "Hello—Goodbye!" suggests that he escaped his familial responsibilities.