Question

things that mattered. the dead man mattered, the new life mattered, blackness and whiteness did not matter; to believe that they did was to acquiesce in one’s own destruction. hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated and this was an immutable law.
which sentence best explains how the use of parallelism in the excerpt supports baldwin’s purpose?

a. it emphasizes what baldwin thinks matters and doesn’t matter.

b. it uses contrasting ideas in the same sentence to emphasize their differences.

c. it employs a story - like structure to draw attention to theme of hatred.

d. it repeats the word folly to emphasize the mistakes white people have made.

Explanation:

• Option A: The excerpt uses parallelism with phrases like "the dead man mattered, the new life mattered, blackness and whiteness did not matter" to highlight what Baldwin considers important (matters) and unimportant (doesn't matter), so this matches the effect of parallelism here.
• Option B: The parallelism isn't mainly about contrasting ideas to show differences but about emphasizing what matters/doesn't matter.
• Option C: The excerpt doesn't have a story - like structure, and the focus of parallelism isn't on drawing attention to hatred through a story - like structure.
• Option D: The word "folly" isn't repeated in the excerpt, so this option is incorrect.

Answer:

A. It emphasizes what Baldwin thinks matters and doesn't matter.