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Symbols
In Pride, the poems that Zuri Benitez writes symbolize her immediate, intuitive emotional reactions. As such, they contrast with her college essay, which ultimately comes to symbolize her less immediate, more considered, more analytical conclusion about her life and situation. Early in the novel, Zuri calls her immediate experience of her beloved neighborhood Bushwick “all poetry” and explains that she “pull[s] those words together [to] try to make sense of it all.” Thus, from the first, the poems that she writes represent her reactions to the world around her, in particular her attempts to process her personal experiences.
Yet over the course of the novel, it becomes clear that while some of Zuri’s poems express correct conclusions about life, others express snap judgments that turn out to have been misguided. For example, early in her relationship with neighborhood teenager Warren, Zuri writes a poem titled “Boys in the Hood” that expresses her perception of Warren as attractive, known, and safe because he comes from the same cultural background and place as she does. Yet later, Zuri discovers that Warren is a villain who widely shares “sexy” photos of the girls with whom he has romantic relationships, humiliating those girls and ruining their social lives. Her assumption that she and Warren shared positive values turns out to have been totally false.
This is not to say that Zuri’s poems expressing incorrect judgments are “wasted,” however. Toward the novel’s end, when Zuri finally succeeds in writing her college essay, she reflects that the process of composing “broken words” in her poetry eventually allowed her to see the coherent whole that she expressed in her essay. Thus, Zuri’s poems represent the raw stuff of her experience—her immediate, intuitive emotional reactions—that she gathers together and analyzes to make sense of life, while her college essay symbolizes that she’s come to a complete, thought-out understanding of the things she previously processed through her poetry.
Zuri’s Poems and College Essay Quotes in Pride
The Pride quotes below all refer to the symbol of Zuri’s Poems and College Essay. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapters 1–5 Quotes
I pull back the curtains to greet my little corner of Bushwick and Jefferson Avenues, my very own way of stretching out my arms and yawning at the morning sun. This is where I see words swim in and around my neighborhood like dust from overhead train tracks. It’s all poetry. So I pull those words together and try to make sense of it all: my hood, my Brooklyn, my life, my world, and me in it.
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Pride’s narrator, teenage Bushwick native Zuri Benitez, has just woken up early in her summer vacation from school. When Zuri decides to “greet” her neighborhood in the morning, describes her sense-impressions of Bushwick as “poetry,” and admits that she uses words to “try to make sense of it all,” the novel communicates several important characterization points about her. First, Zuri loves her neighborhood, takes pride in it, and sees it as a source of artistic inspiration. Her love and pride are evident precisely in the inspiration she derives from Bushwick, exemplified by the poetic simile she uses to describe the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus
“You think this will make a good topic for my essay to get into Howard?” I ask. “How to save the hood?”
“It depends on how you frame it. What’s your angle, your thesis statement? What are you trying to say?”
I pause for a moment, thinking about my hood and how even though families grew up and changed, things essentially stayed the same, until now.
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Teenage Bushwick native Zuri wants to attend flagship HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities) Howard University and plans to write her college essay over the summer between her junior and senior years of high school. Early in the summer, she asks Janae, who just completed her freshman year at Syracuse University, whether “how to save the hood” would “make a good topic” for the essay. As Zuri has repeatedly expressed worries that rich newcomers to Bushwick will drive up rents, property taxes, and prices, thereby driving away Bushwick’s original residents, she is clearly thinking about “how to save the hood” Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspic
Sometimes love is not enough to keep a community together. There needs to be something more tangible, like fair housing, opportunities, and access to resources.
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Zuri, staring out her apartment window at her Bushwick neighborhood, ponders how “resources,” in addition to “love,” are necessary for a thriving community. Inspired, she pulls out her laptop and begins her college essay about gentrification—but she can’t go more than a few sentences without deleting what she’s written, and eventually she gives up, writing a poem that expresses her more immediate feelings instead. Zuri’s first tentative stab at writing her college essay reveals two things. First, though her own feelings about gentrification are deeply negative, she knows that “resources” are necessary to a healthy community and as such implicitly Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci
Chapters 6–10 Quotes
“Is this . . . your thing? Art festivals in parks? Like, how come you don’t go to the park to play ball or something?”
He smirks. “You don’t leave that little corner of your neighborhood too often, do you?”
I lean back to get a good look at him. He stares at me, but he blinks first. “Just so you know, in this hood, you’re just like everybody else. The cops and all these white people will take one good look at you and think you’re from Hope Gardens Projects no matter how many tight khaki shorts or grandpa shoes you wear.”
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Janae and Ainsley have dragged their respective unwilling younger siblings Zuri and Darius along to a concert in Maria Hernandez Park. After Zuri and Darius get into a testy conversation about the racially mixed but White-fronted band playing the concert, Zuri demands to know what Darius’s “thing” is, asking whether he genuinely likes art festivals and why he doesn’t “play ball” in the park instead. Implicitly, Zuri is once again questioning Darius’s racial authenticity as a Black teenager, suggesting that he is suspect or worthy of her disdain because he fails to adhere to certain stereotypes about young Black men’s Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et. Voluptas suscipit alias. In
“You want me to be a rapper while you’re a baller so we could be a dynamic duo stereotype?”
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Zuri has been passing the time composing a poem while she and her friend Charlise, a talented basketball player who has won an athletic scholarship to Duke University, wait for a basketball court to become available outside their school. When Charlise asks why Zuri doesn’t rap instead of writing poetry, Zuri responds sarcastically that if Charlise was a “baller” and Zuri was a “rapper,” they’d be a “dynamic duo stereotype.” By implication, Zuri is annoyed because she feels that Charlise is racially stereotyping her, suggesting that because she is Black/Afro-Latina, she ought to use her facility with words for rap, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qu
Chapters 11–15 Quotes
There’s no one here who knows me. There’s no one from the hood who’ll spread a rumor about me getting on the mic to spit some corny rhyme about love or the hood or my sisters. The last time I shared my poems in public was for the after-school performance in June, and even that was only for the kids who had taken that poetry class.
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After taking the bus to D.C. to attend a campus tour and information session for prospective students at Howard University, Zuri goes to an open mic at famous D.C. bookstore Busboys and Poets and signs up to recite one of her own poems. Zuri’s willingness to perform her poetry publicly in D.C. but not at home helps illustrate how change can be a positive phenomenon for Zuri despite her personal fear of it. Though Zuri loves and takes pride in her neighborhood of Bushwick, she clearly also feels socially constrained by her neighbors’ perceptions of her. She worries that anyone Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui digniss
Chapters 21–25 Quotes
You’ve got this whole white audience
Watching this fight like some sport
So to whom do I pledge allegiance
To my heart or to this war?
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Zuri and Darius have just broken up over their different class backgrounds and relationships to Blackness when Zuri sees photos on her phone of Warren flirting with Zuri’s 13-year-old sister Layla at Carrie’s party. When Zuri shows Darius the photos, the two immediately put aside their differences to go rescue Layla. Zuri locates Layla and extricates her from the party while Darius starts a fistfight with Warren. After Zuri and another partygoer break up the fight, Zuri mentally composes a poem in which she expresses both her gratitude to Darius for his protectiveness and her discomfort at his willingness to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corpor
Chapters 26–30 Quotes
I don’t write a poem after all, but poetry helped me get my feelings out. My broken words helped me make sense of everything, so that when I pieced them back together in an essay, my truth was clearer.
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After developers buy the Bushwick apartment building where Zuri has lived her entire life, a buyout that will require Zuri’s family to leave their increasingly expensive neighborhood for a cheaper one, Zuri is finally able to write the college essay about gentrification that she has been struggling with for most of the novel. Previously, when Zuri attempted to write her essay, she usually ended up composing a poem that “helped [her] get [her] feelings out” instead. This passage suggests that Zuri’s poems, her “broken words,” were not the same thing as her considered “truth”—but her poems were a necessary precursor Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero si
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Zuri’s Poems and College Essay Symbol Timeline in Pride
The timeline below shows where the symbol Zuri’s Poems and College Essay appears in Pride. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapters 1–5
...asks whether “how to save the hood” would make a good topic for her application essay to Howard. When Janae says that depends on what Zuri is trying to communicate, Zuri...
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...Bushwick even if the neighborhood is fundamentally “made of love.” She impulsively begins her college essay on that very topic. After writing, revising, and deleting several sentences multiple times, she instead...
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...On Monday, Zuri is sitting on her front stoop, making no progress on her college essay about Bushwick, when Janae exits the apartment building looking nicely made up. When Zuri presses...
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...she asks Janae whether Janae is ready to go, claiming she needs help on her essay. As Ainsley and Darius walk the sisters out, Carrie asks whether Zuri is in summer...
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Chapters 6–10
Chapter 8. Zuri, sitting near the basketball courts at her school, has written a poem, “Boys in the Hood,” about the possibility of a romance with a neighborhood boy. Charlise...
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...neighborhood is watching them. Thinking about Janae’s relationship prospects and her own, she writes a poem called “Pride Comes before the Fall (Haikus).”
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Chapters 11–15
...and walks away as Janae starts crying. Janae flees the party. Later, Zuri writes a poem called “Pretty Rich Boy” about income inequality.
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...Zuri puts on an available white skirt and dances. In her mind, she composes a poem called “Dance of the River Goddess” about the moving, spiritual experience.
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...flopped sadly in the Benitez sisters’ bedroom when Zuri asks her whether Howard might accept poems instead of a standard essay. Janae says no, claiming that Zuri must express herself straightforwardly...
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...basis.” During the history lecture, Zuri begins by taking notes—but she ends up composing a poem that is a letter to Howard’s founder, Oliver Otis Howard, about the opportunity that Howard...
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The first poets who perform are mediocre. When it’s Zuri’s turn, she recites a poem, “Girls in the Hood,” about growing up female in a neighborhood where “invisible walls” and...
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Chapters 16–20
...he kisses her. She’s shocked but full of “gooey, sticky sweetness.” Mentally she composes a poem, “Haikus,” about feeling like lemonade, “sour” and “sweet.”
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Chapters 21–25
...Carrie brings them water. Zuri thanks Carrie sincerely, and Carrie smiles. Zuri mentally composes a poem about how she doesn’t need a boy to protect and defend her—but she appreciates a...
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Chapters 26–30
Chapter 27. Zuri reads a poem she composed for Madrina at Madrina’s funeral. Afterward, Mama hosts an enormous meal out of...
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Chapter 28. Zuri writes her college essay for Howard in the public library on Bushwick Avenue. She reflects on how writing poems...
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