The values of identity and freedom are not unique to particular times and places. As Hughes expresses in "Dream Variations," all humans want to be able to develop their identities in freedom. What is required of a society to enable each individual to be true to his or her identity and be free to live by that identity?

When i was young enough to still spend a long time buttoning my shoes in the morning, i'd listen toward the hall: daddy upstairs was shaving, in the bathroom, and mother downstairs was frying the bacon. they would begin whispering back and forth to each other up and down the stairwell. my father would whistle his phrase, my mother would try to whistle, then hum hers backi drew my buttonhook in and out and listened to it -know it was "the merry widow." the difference was, their song almost floated with laughter. how different from the record, which growled from the beginning, as if the victrola were only slowly being wound up. they kept it running between them, up and down the stairs where i was now just about ready to run clattering down and show them my shoes. what is the effect of the parallelism used in the above excerpt? it establishes the rhythm of a duet to echo the song. it expresses the same ideas. it mirrors opposite ideas. it is a paradox.

Read lines 44 - 47 from the poem "your laughter and answer the question, deny me bread, air, light, spring, but never your laughter for i would die

Read these lines from stanza 5 of the poem, “they shot wook kim” and answe the question. hung in the air/over that petroleum morgue that night. what does the use of the phrase “petroleum morgue” best suggest? an atmosphere of chemical detachment an unsettling place of ultimate rest a dark street containing a lifeless body an area containing putrid substances and smells