English Department Final Exam
Fall 2021
Due Date:
By the end of Friday, Dec. 17
In the early 1930s, the poet Langston Hughes wrote a poem called “Tired,” in which he said:
I am so tired of waiting,
Aren’t you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?
Let us take a knife
And cut the world in two –
And see what worms are eating
At the rind.
Last month, Bloomberg News reported that just three men in the U.S. – Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett – have more money than the 165 million Americans who make up the bottom 50% of the population.
They also reported that 40 million Americans need food stamps to eat, and that 25% of homeless people actually have regular jobs.
It is a fact that Cuba has a significantly longer life expectancy than the U.S.
More than half of all Americans do not have even $400 available for emergencies.
Write an essay where you connect Langston Hughes’ poem “Tired” to the economic facts listed below his poem.
- Connect these two texts by using your personal ideas, observations and experiences.
- There is no page length requirement. Write as much as you need to.
Submission Instructions:
- Type your essay as a regular document and then send it to me as an email attachment: Jonathan.Scott@bcc.cuny.edu.
- As soon as I receive it, I’ll reply to your email and let you know that I got it. It will be graded the next day.