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1. In “The Dead of September 11,” Morrison alludes to a famous speech. What speech does she allude to and what is the purpose of this allusion?

Morrison alludes to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Her purpose is to lend the weight and authority of Lincoln to the present occasion and to suggest that like Lincoln at Gettysburg, she believes the focus should be on the dead, not on her speech.

2. In “The Foreigner’s Home,” what point is Morrison making with her discussion of The Radiance of the King?

Morrison uses this book to illustrate how an African author depicts Africa and African peoples. She uses this as a contrast with the way that European and white American authors have historically depicted the same topics. Her point is that African authors center African people as subjects, while non-African authors tend to treat them as objects.

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