For blacks, what was Pittsburgh like in the 1930's?

Even the insistent cough of the woman next to him wasn't enough to draw his eyes away from the tiny type of the ancient book its pages were brittle and felt like they could crumble at the slightest disturbance he noticed the musty odor if each page as he carefully it over.

The interaction between joanna and triburcio can best be described as a) heated b) apathetic c) despondent d) hopeful

In a short story the narrator's word choice