Which of the following most clearly illustrates stream of consciousness
style?
o
a. he cautiously picked up the envelope, opened it, and started to
read the letter. his eyes widened as he started to make sense of
the words.
o
b. the thunder crashed, the rain poured, and i wondered where i left
my umbrella. i certainly don't want to get wet on this cold day.
o
c. you step into the building and walk to the reception desk. the
receptionist isn't there. you look to the right and to the left,
wondering what to do next.
o
d. it's raining outside, and i don't want to get wet. that's terribly
uncomfortable. kind of like this seat. i should move. it's such an
important day

The correct naswer is D.

Explanation:

Stream of consciousness is a style of writing that shows thoughts and feelings as they pass through the mind of the character. It's a flow of ideas, disorganised with no clear or complete structure. It's used to give the reader the idea that he/she is in the character's mind.

In the example given in the question, it shows the person's reactions about getting wet. His/her line of thought is: It's raining, he/she doesn't want to get wet because that's uncomfortable. Then, all of a sudden he/she stops talking about rain and mentions a seat. The person likes that seat but he/she should move. All of a sudden, he thinks that it's an important day. We don't know why. This shows different random thoughts and feelings that reflect the character's thought process. Besides, there's lack of grammatical constructions. An example of this is the phrase Kind of like that seat.

All in all, in this example you can find a "stream" of ideas that comes to the mind of the narrator and he writes them down as they come, disorganized and written with no conventional structures.

- "the answers are a and b.  

when cullen speaks of planting while others reap, and standing "abject and mute," he is speaking about the racial injustices present in american society. as these injustices have changed over time, the american identity  has also shifted. those changes are, in turn, reflected in american literature."