Essay Questions

How does the author build the theme of slavery in ‘Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora’ by Sheree Thomas?

In ‘Goophered Grapevine,’ the book largely focuses on the lives of enslaved people and how they are used as material possessions by the enslavers. When the enslaved person eats goophered grapes unwillingly, he abruptly starts to age, and his master is not happy with the new developments. Later he sells the aging man to another enslaver at a lesser profit. The plantation owners manipulated enslaved people and sold them at premium prices when they were healthy. Therefore, slavery emerges as a key theme in the book because it enlightens readers on the difficult conditions that enslaved people were subjected to during the early centuries.

Why did God banish Lilith from his creation to create Eve from Adam's rib, as Jeffers narrated in 'Sister Lilith'?

The book largely focuses on the human creation story, and the author uses biblical allusion to make the book intriguing. God realized that creating Lilith to live with Adam was a great mistake because they were both equal, and no one was under the other in terms of authority. Therefore, God decided to banish Lilith to create Eve from Adam's rib to make her submissive to Adam. The interesting section of this creation is that Adam is a black man. At the same time, Eve is a white woman, which is paradoxical and also emblems the American society, which is biracial.

How does the issue of racism manifest in ‘The Space Traders’ by Bell?

Bell’s ‘Space Traders’ is a fiction book set in the future to depict the reintroduction of racism. The book focuses on the interaction between human beings and aliens. The aliens have introduced new technologies in America and intend to eliminate all people with black skin. To achieve their mission, the aliens give the new technology and gold to the American government in exchange for the dark-skinned people. Therefore, the alien evolutions directly tackle the prevailing theme of racism in the future.