LITERATURE QUESTIONS
AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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The name of a restaurant the pool players cannot enter.
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A metaphor for colossal lies they have been buried with.
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A metaphor for the pool players who are trying to dig out of their neighborhood.
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The name of a pool hall.
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Detailed explanation-1: -As the subtitle to “We Real Cool” announces, the poem is spoken by seven “Pool Players” at the “Golden Shovel, ” a pool hall. The seven speakers spend the poem describing themselves: what they do and who they are. They are delinquents, they skip school, hang out late, and get in fights.
Detailed explanation-2: -This pool hall holds seven young men who speak the majority of the lines in the poem. The name, The Golden Shovel, holds significance because shovels are used for manual labor, including gravedigging. The golden quality of this shovel, in contrast, indicates great worth, importance, and aesthetic beauty.
Detailed explanation-3: -The “golden shovel” could be the name of a place they play pool at (like a tavern or casino), or a name for the cue stick. It seems to be symbolism for the fact that they are burying their problems “with a golden shovel”, but their problems can’t stay buried forever.
Detailed explanation-4: -’The Golden Shovel’ is the name of a pool hall where Brooks’ poem ‘We Real Cool’ is set. She says of the poem, ‘I wrote it because I was passing by a pool hall in my community one afternoon in school time. And I saw therein a whole bunch of boys – I say here in this poem seven – and they were shooting pool.
Detailed explanation-5: -The name of the pool hall, the Golden Shovel, signifies the shortness of the life of a Black youth. The golden part of the title implies that these pool players are young; they should be in school instead of in a pool hall.