Exercise 3

● Exercise 3 ●

Focus on the use of modifiers in the following passage from “The Talented Tenth” by W. E. B. DuBois. Look carefully at the adjectives he uses to characterize the present moment as well as the past. Consider how the use of repetition and parallel structure adds to the impact of adjective clauses and adverbs. How do the modifiers contribute to the dramatic effect DuBois builds?

And so we come to the present—a day of cowardice and vacillation, of strident wide-voiced wrong and fainthearted compromise; of double-faced dallying with Truth and Right. Who are to-day guiding the work of the Negro people? The “exceptions” of course. And yet so sure as this Talented Tenth is pointed out, the blind worshippers of the Average cry out in alarm: “These are exceptions, look here at death, disease and crime—these are the happy rule.” Of course they are the rule, because a silly nation made them the rule: Because for three long centuries this people lynched Negroes who dared to be brave, raped black women who dared to be virtuous, crushed dark-hued youth who dared to be ambitious, and encouraged and made to flourish servility and lewdness and apathy. But not even this was able to crush all manhood and chastity and aspiration from black folk. A saving remnant continually survives and persists, continually aspires, continually shows itself in thrift and ability and character.

Question

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Exercise 3: Focus on the use of modifiers in the following passage from “The Talented Tenth” by W. E. B. DuBois. Look carefully at the adjectives he uses to characterize the present moment as well as the past. Consider how the use of repetition and parallel structure adds to the impact of adjective clauses and adverbs. How do the modifiers contribute to the dramatic effect DuBois builds?