What do you need to know in order to look up a word in the dictionary?

the correct answer is:

this is an example of the writer telling through description rather than showing through dialogue.

sometimes writers like to explain explicitely what's happening instead of adding dialogues of the situations., which is the case in this passage,

- "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."