Question

In paragraph 3 of “A Quilt of a Country,” what does Quindlen suggest by using the words conundrum, conflict, and divide (Define the words on the handout; this will not count toward the seven sentences.) when talking about how successfully the United States lives up to its ideals? How do these words reinforce the author's tone toward her subject?

Answer 1

This is the part of paragraph 3 that contains the mentioned words:

This is a nation founded on a conundrum, what Mario Cuomo has characterized as  "community added to individualism." These two are our defining ideals; they are also in  constant conflict. Historians today bemoan the ascendancy of a kind of prideful apartheid  in America, saying that the clinging to ethnicity, in background and custom, has  undermined the concept of unity. These historians must have forgotten the past, or have  gilded it. The New York of my children is no more Balkanized, probably less so, than the  Philadelphia of my father, in which Jewish boys would walk several blocks out of their  way to avoid the Irish divide of Chester Avenue. (I was the product of a mixed marriage,  across barely bridgeable lines: an Italian girl, an Irish boy. How quaint it seems now, how  incendiary then.)

Answer and Explanation:

Definition of the words:

Conundrum: a difficult problem; a confusing question; a puzzle.

Conflict: a disagreement; a dispute or quarrel; an incompatibility.

Divide: when used as a noun, it refers to the hostile split between two groups.

Answer to the questions:

In this paragraph, Quindlen uses the words conundrum, conflict, and divide to refer to the history of America as one that has always been confusing and difficult. However, her purpose is to defend the idea that, though confusing and difficult, America still lives up to its ideals. She uses the extended metaphor of a quilt to explain that America is formed by all sorts of people from all over the world - just take a look at her parents. America and the quilt are both formed by patching together dissimilar parts. Even though there is a clear division, an evident difference between each part, they are kept together by a thread - or by ideals, when it comes to the country.

Therefore, using those words makes Quindlen's tone more impactful and drastic. But, again, she is using them to remind readers - and historians - that America has always been a conundrum, a messy gathering of different origins and cultures. It is not a recent phenomenon, and it is not what will truly divide the people. In times of war, in having a common enemy and shared ideals, people find their thread.