Question

Heritage plays role x with regard to marriage in Howell’s novel, while in Larsen it plays role y, allowing the man to accept African American women in the former, but reject her in the latter.

this was how my teacher edited it but he said something like
:See how if you fill in role x and y you become more specific? It’s a good topic overall, though.

what does role x and y mean

Answer 1

What would you put in each place? What would you substitute for "role x" and "role y"?

Answer 2

Heritage plays a positive role with regard to marriage in Howell’s novel, while in Larsen it plays a negative role, allowing the man to accept African American women in the former, but reject her in the latter.

does this work?

Answer 3

Will it be clear what you mean by "heritage"? It's such a broad term, I'm not clear on it.

Larsen's

... but reject them ...