Hart has degrees in literature and creative writing and focuses her published writing on literary themes. In this essay, Hart discusses the various methods the author uses to portray the overall themes of division and separation.

From the title of "Black Boy" to the final scene in Kay Boyle's short story, the reader is conscious that this is a story about prejudice. But Boyle creates this tale of prejudice not by harping on the evils of racism but by building images of separation and division in every scene in her story. With her careful creation of metaphor and allusion, she subtly weaves her theme into her descriptions of nature and the mannerisms and thoughts of her characters. She sets both her characters and her readers on a collision course with that invisible dividing wall between white people and African Americans that exists in the narrator's world. Through...