AP® English Literature and Composition review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/lit/units/3)
Unit 3
Weighted by genre, not by unitLonger Fiction or Drama I
Unit 3 moves to novels and plays, where characters have room to change and conflicts can build over a whole book. You also write your first full essays, learning to turn a claim into a defensible thesis and develop it with evidence and commentary.
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Flashcards (30)Practice questions (49)English Literature must-know sheetFree-response questions on this unit
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- Prose fiction analysisGlaspell's Trifles: what the kitchen means6 points · about 40 minutes
- Literary argumentTorn between obligation and desire6 points · about 40 minutes
- Literary argumentAn object whose meaning changes6 points · about 40 minutes
- Literary argumentA character against a society's expectations6 points · about 40 minutes
Big ideas
- Characters act from desires, values and expectations
- A change, or a refusal to change, can carry a work's meaning
- Setting includes the society characters live in
- Conflict drives longer plots and exposes values
- A thesis is an interpretation you can defend
Full unit reviews
Longer videos that cover the whole unit. Good for a first pass or a final review.
Topics
- 3.1: Expectations, motives and a character's perspective
- 3.2: Characters who change and characters who don't
- 3.3: Setting as a social, cultural and historical world
- 3.4: Significant events in a longer plot
- 3.5: Conflict: internal, external and tangled together
- 3.6: From a claim to a defensible thesis
- 3.7: Building a line of reasoning with evidence and commentary
In longer works you learn to explain why characters act as they do: what they want, what they expect, and what other people expect of them. A character's perspective can be shaped by background, relationships and circumstances, and strong characters are often pulled in more than one direction.
Key terms
- motivation
- perspective
- values
- expectations
- complexity
A few quick questions on this topic, with the answers explained.
Some characters change in important ways over a story (dynamic characters), while others stay basically the same (static characters). A change can be outward, like losing money or health, or inward, like a new way of seeing things, and one often leads to the other. Either way, a change or a lack of change can show what the work is saying.
Key terms
- dynamic character
- static character
- character development
- round character
- flat character
- epiphany
A few quick questions on this topic, with the answers explained.
In a novel or play, setting is more than a time and a place. It also covers the world around the characters: their social class, customs and beliefs, and the moment in history. You learn to explain how that world puts pressure on characters and shapes their choices.
Key terms
- setting
- social context
- cultural context
- historical context
- values
A few quick questions on this topic, with the answers explained.
A long plot has many events, but some matter much more than others. You learn to identify the significant ones, such as turning points, the climax or a subplot that mirrors the main plot, and explain how each changes the characters or the story's direction.
Key terms
- significant event
- turning point
- climax
- subplot
- resolution
A few quick questions on this topic, with the answers explained.
Conflict is a clash between opposing forces, either inside a character or between a character and another person, a group, society or nature. In longer works conflicts often overlap, and how they play out shows what the characters, and the work, value.
Key terms
- conflict
- internal conflict
- external conflict
- tension
- competing values
A few quick questions on this topic, with the answers explained.
A thesis is the claim your whole essay defends: an interpretation someone could reasonably disagree with, not a fact or a summary. It can preview your reasoning, but it doesn't have to list devices or points.
Key terms
- thesis
- defensible claim
- interpretation
- prompt
- literary argument
A few quick questions on this topic, with the answers explained.
A line of reasoning is the chain of claims that leads your reader, step by step, to your thesis. Each body paragraph needs specific evidence plus commentary that explains how that evidence supports the claim and connects back to the thesis.
Key terms
- line of reasoning
- evidence
- commentary
- topic sentence
- unity
A few quick questions on this topic, with the answers explained.