In Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif,” I annotated the moments where the character Twyla describes Roberta’s appearance as well as her mother, Mary’s, appearance. In reference to race, Morrison leaves the reader to imagine what Twyla and Roberta look like; even if we know one is black and one is white, it is not very clear throughout the story. The two places I annotated, where Roberta was described in the story, can make the reader guess her race from their own biases, but they are vague enough for them to be applied to the opposite race being thought of. In those particular moments, one is from when they were little and one…

For “The Soul Selects Her Own Society,” I understood it in the way that we, ourselves, select who we choose to engage with and let in. Not just into our lives but into our hearts and, quite literally, as the poem says, our souls. When Dickinson states, “Then — shuts the Door —””To her divine Majority —””Present no more —” made me think of someone closing the door on others who try to come into their “soul” or space. That whoever you already let in is enough for you. Dickinson’s use of the metaphor of one’s soul being a door greatly helped me come to this conclusion. For “The Brain…