Questions for Dust Tracks on a Road
Name _____________________________________ Hour ____
Foreword
1. How does Angelou feel toward white writers who try to write the black experience? How do you
know? Cite and explain.
2. What is Angelou’s tone in this passage? Use word choice to support your answer, especially what
descriptions she uses vs. the ones she doesn’t use.
3. Explain the Hughes poem.
4. Where on ix does Angelou reiterate her point about white writers? What does she say?
5. On pages x-xi, especially the first paragraph on x, what is puzzling about Zora’s stories? List at
least three things.
6. How does Hurston’s footnote add to the question of her purpose and audience?
7. What seems to be Angelou’s attitude toward Hurston as a writer? CITE.
Chapter 1
1. Rhetorical Device. Explain the simile in the first sentence. What is being compared? What is the
effect? For example, why not say “like the budding roses”?
2. Author’s Purpose. Why is it important that we know “something about the time and place where
[Hurston] came from”?
3. Author’s Purpose and Inference. What seems to be Hurston’s purpose in writing this book?
4. Rhetorical Device. What image is brought to mind with “the continuous roar of the crashing of
ancient giants of the lush woods, of axes, saws, and hammers”? (p. 3)
5. Rhetorical Device and Tone. What looks like it “had been laid out by a playful snake”? How
does this reveal the author’s attitude toward her town? (p. 4)
Chapter 2
1. Rhetorical Device. What effect does the following phrase have on the tone of the opening of
chapter 2: “Into this burly, boiling, hard-hitting, rugged individualist setting…”? What is being
described? How does it enhance the description of the man “who resolved to put down roots”?
2. Textual Evidence. List 5-6 contrasting (i.e., positive vs. negative) traits of John Hurston (Zora’s
“Papa”), using descriptions/phrases that show.
Example:
Negative
“marching her into the house with the muzzle
of his Winchester at her back” –seems possibly
abusive
Positive
“Papa heard of the threats
against Mama…she better
not bring the mess up”—
protective of his wife
3. Textual Evidence. What kind of child is Zora? How do you know? Cite text.
4. Author’s Purpose. Summarize the story of Uncle Jim and Aunt Caroline and explain the purpose
of the anecdote.
5. Rhetorical Device: Details. If you hadn’t figured it out by now, what details confirm the poverty
that the Hurstons lived in?
Chapter 3
1. Tone. How does Hurston establish a playful tone in the opening paragraphs?
2. Rhetorical Device: Humor. Explain how Zora gets her name.
3. Rhetorical Device. In the second to last paragraph of the chapter, find the inversion. What is it
explaining and what is the effectiveness in keeping the explanation short?
Chapter 4
1. Tone. How does Hurston establish a humorous tone in her explanation of the conflict between
her curiosity and adults’ lack of desire to answer questions?
2. Rhetorical Device: Idiom. Explain the idiom: “making myself a crow in a pigeon’s nest.”
3. Textual Evidence. List what else is learned about Zora’s personality in this chapter. Cite text.
4. Author’s Attitude. Cite at least 2 phrases that explain how Zora feels about the white man who
helped birth her.
5. Author’s Purpose. What is the purpose of telling the anecdote about the judge who finds the
“plaintiff ten dollars”? How does it further reveal her feelings toward the white man?
6. Inference. Why do you think the white man remains unnamed?
7. Inference and Author’s Purpose. How does their description of the two women visitors reveal
her attitude or feelings toward them? Explain how a change of description could render the
opposite effect?
8. Rhetorical Device. Before the women talk to Zora, how does the narrator build suspense?
9. Rhetorical Device and Inference. Discuss how details and Zora’s reaction are used to contrast
her poverty with the apparent wealth of the two women.
10. Textual Evidence. Cite three passages that show Zora’s discontent with her situation (rather
than her simply saying “I was not content”).
11. Rhetorical Device. Explain the effect of “I nibble sweet oat talks and listened to the wind
soughing and sighing through the crowns of the lofty pines.” Rewrite using the most boring
sentence you can come up with.
Chapter 6
1. Rhetorical Device: Details. How is the opening of this chapter different from the others? How is
the absence of detail beneficial to the mood?
2. Tone. How is the tone in this chapter different that prior chapters? What has made this change?
Cite text.
3. Rhetorical Device. What is the effect of personifying death over having a simple explanation?
4. Textual Evidence. What details does Hurston share about her father that reveal her admiration?
Why, despite this, does she not feel close to him?
5. Author’s Purpose. Explain the following sentence on p. 69; “The one who makes the idols never
worships them, however tenderly he might have molded the clay.”
Chapter 7
1. Textual Evidence. Discuss two incidents that show the stepmother’s character. What kind of
person is this woman? Be specific (for example she’s mean is not specific enough).
2. Author’s Purpose. How does Hurston explain her attack on the stepmother that some people
may otherwise consider the actions of a maniac?
3. Textual Evidence. What is the reaction of the church people to the fight? How does the reaction
further reveal the stepmother’s character?
4. Rhetorical Device. Identify the flash forward from school in Jacksonville and then the flash
backward? What is the effect of placing the story of the stepmother in between rather than
keeping in chronological order?
5. Mood. How does the narrator turn the mood playful after the violence of the prior story?
6. Setting. How does Zora identify with her surroundings on the return to Eatonville?
Chapter 8
1. Rhetorical Device and Tone. How does Hurston describe poverty? What is the effect of using
this figurative language? What tone does it set for the opening of the chapter?
2. Inference. For the third or fourth time, Hurston describes her father’s appearance and demeanor
while with the stepmother as his wife. Why is this important? What do you think was going on in
his mind?
3. Setting and Rhetorical Device. On p. 99, what is the significance of the sunset?
4. Rhetorical Device. On the bottom of p. 100: “I will not say that I was poorly dressed, that would
be bragging.” How is this understatement and what is the effect?
5. Rhetorical Device. What does Hurston mean (p. 104) when she says, “I...had the map of Dixie
on my tongue”?
Chapter 9
1. Textual Evidence. Although Hurston has described her child self as troublesome to some people
because of her personality, how do we know that these same qualities have gained her much
favor. Cite incidents in this chapter and prior. Cite at least 4 total.
2. Tone and Textual Evidence. Using specific text, describe the tone of this chapter.
3. Textual Evidence. What does the interaction with the pressman reveal about Zora’s character?
4. Conflict. What overarching conflict is revealed through the haircut refusal incident? Explain Jim
Crow.
5. Literary Allusion. How does Hurston relate to what Booker T. Washington “said once”?
6. Literary Device. How does the metaphor of the steering gear explain “Papa”?
Chapter 11
1. Tone. Describe the conflicting tone in the opening two paragraphs of the chapter. Use specific
textual references.
Afterword
1. Inference. Fill out the following chart. You will have to make some inferences.
Praises
Criticisms
2. How does Gates feel about Hurston’s writing and how do you know?
3. List the accomplishments of Hurston’s literary career.
Chapter 12
1. Citing from the “Afterword” and this chapter, explain, in at least a paragraph, how Hurston’s own
words help the indictment from some critics that she was not helping the African American cause
and in a sense demeaning the cause.