Literary argument
A character against a society's expectations
- Units 3 and 6
- 6 points
- About 40 minutes
You get a literary idea, such as a conflict between old and new, and pick a novel, story or play you know well, from your own reading or a list of about 40 works. Then you write an essay arguing how that idea contributes to an interpretation of the work as a whole, without just summarizing the plot. On the exam: Free-response question 3 of 3 in Section II (3 essays in 2 hours, 55% of the exam score); about 40 minutes suggested; 6 points: thesis 1, evidence and commentary 4, sophistication 1.
The question
Suggested time: 40 minutes, including planning. There is no passage: you choose the work and write about it from memory. Pick a novel or play you know well enough to discuss specific scenes, choices and details.
Suggested time: 40 minutes
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The essay
6 pointsMany works of literature place a character in a community with firm expectations about how people of a certain class, gender, race or background should behave. A character's resistance to those expectations, or failure to meet them, can reveal what the community values and what it costs. Choose a novel or play in which a character resists or fails to meet the expectations of a society. You may use a work from your own reading or one from the list below. Write an essay that analyzes how the character's relationship with those expectations contributes to an interpretation of the work as a whole. Analyze rather than retell the plot. In your essay: • State a thesis that answers the prompt with a defensible interpretation. • Give specific evidence from the work that supports your line of reasoning. • Explain how that evidence supports your line of reasoning. • Use grammar and punctuation that make your argument clear. Suggested works: The Age of Innocence The Awakening The Bluest Eye Brave New World Bread Givers Brooklyn The Color Purple Death of a Salesman A Doll's House The Handmaid's Tale The House of Mirth Invisible Man Jane Eyre The Joy Luck Club The Kite Runner Madame Bovary Middlemarch The Namesake Native Son Never Let Me Go Pachinko Passing Pride and Prejudice A Raisin in the Sun The Scarlet Letter Sula Their Eyes Were Watching God Things Fall Apart Wide Sargasso Sea
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