In his short story “the man who was almost a man,” why does richard wright use a southern dialect to present the thoughts and speech of his characters? a. wright wants the tone of his story to be more playful and fun. b. wright wants to enhance the realism of the story for the audience. c. wright wants the audience to know that his characters are average. d. wright wants to his northern readers to understand a southern dialect.

The correct answer is B. Wright wants to enhance the realism of the story for the audience.

The short story "The Man Who Was Almost a Man" was published in 1961. The technique of faithfully portraying the way the characters talk, their accent and informality, had been used to enhance realism much before that date. An example would be the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, who already employed such style in his writing in the 1920's - for instance 'S'alright' instead of 'It's alright.'

That is what Wright does in the short story. Dave - an African-American who works at a farm - and the other characters have a very specific dialect. From its faithful representation in the story, a lot can be noted by the reader without much explanation being necessary: from the way they talk and the things they talk about, the time and setting, the social and historical context can be inferred. The very first dialog in the story is an example of that:

"Howdy, Dave! Whutcha want?"

"How yuh, Mistah Joe? Aw, Ah don wanna buy nothing. Ah jus wanted t see ef yuhd lemme look at tha catlog erwhile."

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)

mark twain, real name samuel langhorne clemens, was an american writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. among his novels are the adventures of tom sawyer and its sequel, the adventures of huckleberry finn, the latter often called "the great american novel". wikipedia