AP® Literature and Composition Syllabus
Course Overview
I do not teach the same novels or Shakespearean dramas outlined here each year,
but I do use comparable material. I will substitute, add or delete depending on the
atmosphere and/or interests of the class. Students will respond to the same type of
essay prompts regardless of the novel, play, or poem.
Our year is divided into 9-week quarters. Students will write a minimum of three
papers and/or timed essays and have one major unit exam per quarter. Prompts
and short answer essays are worded to reflect the language of the AP Literature and
Composition Exam. All reading, with the exception of plays and poetry, is done
outside of class.
All students understand and interpret literature differently because of their various
backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge when reading a selection. I encourage
each student to express his or her own belief or interpretation. My only
requirement is that they support their opinion with textual evidence. Students
should learn to clearly defend their position to others by the end of the course.
For each essay that the students write, I provide comments that
display how students can vary sentence structure, improve diction,
and illustrative details. Students are familiar with the Jane Schaffer
model of paragraph structure, so we take what they know about
commentary and detail and build on those concepts throughout the
year. I teach them to create a paragraph that contains commentary
supported by detail from the text, observation, or experience.
We discuss before and after every reading or writing assignment. I
start the year by discussing style (diction, detail, syntax, figurative
language, etc.), voice, and structure in general. As we read and
write throughout the year, I counsel with individual students on the
strengths and weaknesses of their own essays. For each novel, we
focus on various elements so that students will better understand
them. I also discuss the AP Rubric that I will use throughout the
year. We analyze what an essay must contain to earn the higher
scores. I show them examples of good papers from past students to
demonstrate varied syntax, effective or moving diction, textual
evidence that aptly supports the thesis, effective transitions, etc.
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I have created handouts from Literature for Composition and
Prose Style for each student to use throughout the course. I have
also created a reference guide of literary terms, rhetorical devices,
and grammar rules to use daily. We will focus on revision,
annotation, audience and purpose, developing a thesis, syntax, and
many other aspects of writing in order to develop a mature writer’s
voice.
This course is designed to comply with the curricular requirements described in the
AP English Course Description.
I have attached an AP Rubric for grading essays, which I modify to meet the
expectations of individual prompts. I have also attached the AP Contract that I
require all student and parents to sign. In addition, I pledge my commitment to the
course.
Required Texts and Materials:
Many of these novels are available in the school library, but I encourage students to
purchase a personal copy because annotation is essential in understanding and
analyzing literature. While reading each novel, the students are required to create
their own legend to identify any notations they make. We discuss at the beginning
of each unit or novel all of the literary terms and rhetorical devices that will be
studied. I provide them with examples, and we practice close reading strategies
with passages throughout the year. Students should always look for detail, diction,
syntax, imagery, figurative language, etc. I also ask that each student identify the
themes, motifs, and symbolism in a particular work. I do not identify them before
reading because the students should become adept at recognizing these elements
independently. Class discussion will reveal pertinent symbolism and themes.
Possible list of novels and dramas:
Invisible Man—Ellison
Heart of Darkness—Conrad
Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear—Shakespeare
Jane Eyre—Bronte
Things Fall Apart—Achebe
Short Story Unit—as selected from Perrine
Poetry— as selected from Perrine and Norton
Research novel from selected novels
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Handouts from Prose Style as used in a unit
Handouts from Literature for Composition to supplement writing responses
Handouts for Poetry Focus Statements
AP Style multiple choice question from Applied Practice and Released questions
Course Syllabus
1st Quarter
We begin the first nine weeks with a study of style. I use Prose Style: A
Contemporary Guide to demonstrate clarity, specificity, sentence variety, and
developing sound sentences. I use papers from students I have had in previous
years to demonstrate examples of varied and/or sophisticated syntax, effective word
choices, and appropriate supportive details. We also take weak, bland sentences
and transform them into more sophisticated sentences. I also provide the students
with a handout that they are to keep throughout the year for easy reference. It
includes definitions and examples of syntax (chiasmus, parallelism, anaphora,
subordination and coordination, appositives, etc). We will refer to this packet on a
daily basis. Throughout the year, I display how they can take the sentences from
their own writing and elaborate, combine, eliminate, and/or rearrange sentences to
create a richer ―voice.‖
Poetry 180—
o Students will write poetry focus statements using the following rubric. Poems will
be posted on my website with a due date. Focus statements must be typed and
turned in. Students will grade the focus statement of a classmate, rating them
according to the rubric. The student will then revise and rewrite 5 of their
statements for a test grade. These statements serve to enhance thesis statements
for prose and poetry essays that they will encounter in the AP Literature and
Composition Exam.
o Poetry Focus statement Rubric:
PFS Checklist Poem: _________________________________
1. _______ includes the title of the poem and the name of the poet (spelled and
punctuated)correctly
2. _______ is written in the “literary present tense”
3. _______ specifies the narrative situation of the poem (who, what, when, where, why)
4. _______ includes thoughtful, but concise indication of theme
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5. _______ identifies the tone(s) of the poem (These may be differing, but
complimentary. Shifts in tone may be identified as well.)
Short Story Study
Stories selected from Perrine include, but are not limited to:
Richard Connell--―The Most Dangerous Game;‖ Tobias Wolfe--―Hunters
in the Snow: Thomas Wolfe-- ―The Child by Tiger;‖ Alice Munro—―How I
Met My Husband;‖ Richard Wright—―The Man who was Almost a Man;‖
Graham Greene-- ―The Destructors;‖ Willa Cather--―Paul’s Case;‖
Ernest Hemingway-- ―Hills Like White Elephants;‖ Albert Camus-- ―The
Guest;‖ Shirley Jackson-- ―The Lottery;‖ Flannery O’Connor --
―Greenleaf;‖ Frank O’Connor—―The Drunkard;‖ McKnight Malmur--
―The Storm;‖ Edgar Allan Poe-- ―The Cask of Amontillado;‖ James
Thurber--―The Catbird Seat;‖ O. Henry-- ―A Municipal Report;‖ Susan
Glaspell-- ―A Jury of Her Peers;‖ Nathaniel Hawthorne—―Young Goodman
Brown;‖ Edith Wharton—―Roman Fever;‖ F. Scott Fitzgerald—―A New
Leaf;‖ Chinua Achebe—―Civil Peace‖
Questions to consider: 1. Explain how suspense is used in one of the following stories: ―The Most
Dangerous Game,‖ ―Child By Tiger,‖ ―The Storm,‖ ―The Cask of Amontillado,‖
or ―A Jury of Her Peers.‖ How does it create the mood, develop a theme, or
bring meaning to the story? Provide specific examples from the text.
2. The short story ―Child By Tiger‖ alludes to William Blake’s poem ―The Tiger.‖
Evaluate how the poem relates to the theme of the story. Also, analyze how it
relates to the passage to which Dick’s Bible was opened. Provide specific
examples from the story.
3. On the surface ―The Destructors‖ is a story of action, suspense, and adventure.
At a deeper level it is about delinquency, war, and human nature. Determine
what the story says about human nature in general. Provide specific examples
from the story, history, or personal experience.
4. Evaluate how setting serves as a symbol in ―Hills Like White Elephants.‖ Include
textual references to validate your answer.
5. Existentialism holds that man has no predetermined nature and that he defines
himself through his choices. Explain how this belief is presented in ―The Guest.‖
Analyze how each man’s choice defines his character.
6. Analyze how the title subtly sheds light on a deeper meaning in two of the
following stories: ―The Storm,‖ ―‖A Jury of Her Peers,‖ ―The Most Dangerous
Game,‖ ― Child By Tiger,‖ ―The Catbird Seat,‖ ―The Lottery,‖ or ― Hills Like
White Elephants.‖ You might want to consider elements such as irony,
symbolism, setting, or theme.
7. The central conflict of both ―A Municipal Report‖ and ―A Jury of Her Peers‖ is
resolved by murder. What does each story offer in the way of analysis of the
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psychology or morality of murder? Is there a justification for Caesar’s murder of
Caswell or Minnie’s murder of John? Use specific references to the texts.
8. In ―A Jury of Her Peers,‖ ―The Storm,‖ or ―Greenleaf,‖ how does one
object/event symbolize the inner turmoil of a character? Identify the object/event
and completely analyze its symbolic meaning within the story. Include textual
evidence to support your opinion.
Novel Study: Invisible Man—Ralph Ellison
Students are assigned to read approximately 4-5 chapters per week. They
are to identify symbols, motifs, and themes independently, annotate their
text to indicate their thoughts, and bring these thoughts to the class
discussion. Students must prove their opinion with textual evidence. They
must also consider the discussion questions posted on my website. As a
class we consider these questions as they apply to historical and current
times. During the course of the reading, students will write 2-3 timed essays
analyzing a passage from the novel. At the end they will have an
opportunity to choose their best response, edit it, and submit it for grading.
Discussion topics include, but are not limited to:
Evaluate the narrator’s concept of being invisible.
Analyze the social comments that Ellison makes in the first 10 chapters.
Analyze the function and meaning of blindness.
Evaluate how light imagery is used in the first 10 chapters.
Analyze the elements of moral and emotional ambiguity.
How have the Founder and Booker T. Washington become invisible men
according to the author?
Analyze how Dr. Bledsoe is indicative of prejudice.
Explain the motif of masks.
Analyze the beginning of the narrator’s journey.
Evaluate Bledsoe’s betrayal of the narrator.
Analyze the idea of purity throughout the first 10 chapters.
Analyze the concept of rebirth in Chapter 11.
Evaluate the use of stereotypes in Chapter 11.
Evaluate the use of allusions in Chapter 11.
Analyze the idea that the narrator’s time with Mary represents a second
childhood in Chapter 12.
Evaluate how he begins to embrace his heritage in Chapter 13.
Analyze the narrator’s speech at the eviction.
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Evaluate the Brotherhood and Brother Jack.
Evaulate the foreshadowing in the episode at the coin bank.
Analyze the extended metaphor in the speech at the rally in Chapter 16.
Evaluate idea of blindness and invisibility in Chapters 11-16.
Explain the symbolism of the ―mask‖ used in Chapters 18-19.
Compare and contrast the ideology of the college and the Brotherhood.
How do they promote blindness and invisibility?
Analyze how invisibility is used and presented in Chapters 18-19. Evaluate
what the narrator discovers about visibility.
Evaluate how Tarp still symbolically and/or literally wears the chain. How
does this apply to the African American culture as a whole.
Analyze the incident of Tod Clifton’s death. Make sure to discuss the
symbolism of the dolls and the events that take place.
Evaluate the idea of betrayal in Chapters 20-21.
Analyze the symbolic meaning of the puppets. Consider how this applies
to society as a whole.
Explain the narrator’s purpose and message in Tod Clifton’s eulogy.
What rhetorical devices are used in the speech to convey this message?
Explain the paradox between the Brotherhood and the idea of individual
freedom. How does this apply to the narrator’s experience with the
college?
Evaluate how the Brotherhood perpetuates racism through its ideology,
reaction to Clifton’s death, and its treatment of the narrator.
Analyze the symbolism of Jack’s glass eye.
Explain how Rinehart, though never physically present in the novel,
symbolizes the true invisibility that the narrator can never achieve.
Evaluate how the narrator becomes visible to himself.
Analyze the epiphany the narrator experiences at the end of the novel.
Analyze the symbolism of the narrator’s briefcase throughout the novel.
Read the prologue and the epilogue. Though they mirror one another,
they contrast. Analyze how the narrator’s focus and thoughts throughout
the novel have evolved, changed or disintegrated.
Essay topics include, but are not limited to:
Read the passage from Chapter 8 of Invisible Man which begins
“The next morning I took an early subway” and ends “This was
New York” (pgs. 164-168). Then, in a well-organized essay,
discuss the narrator’s attitude toward New York and his new life
and the rhetorical devices (such as diction, point of view, and
selection of detail) that the author uses both to convey this
attitude to the reader and to shape the reader’s perspective
toward the narrator and his situation.
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In many works of literature, contrasting places play an important
role in developing the ideas or themes of the work. Choose two
or three locations which are prominent in Invisible Man, and, in a
well-organized essay, discuss how these contrasting locations
help develop one or more of the themes of the novel.
One of the fundamental ideas presented in Invisible Man is that
people tend to “look through” or not see as fellow humans those
whom they consider to be inferior (whether socially,
economically, intellectually, or racially). In a well-organized
essay, discuss whether you believe this observation that people
“look through” those they perceive to be inferior is accurate,
drawing upon the novel, observation, or experience to support
your position.
2nd Quarter
Study of Shakespearean Tragedy Macbeth—Students will read the play aloud acting out the parts and hearing
the language. As we read, the class will discuss motif, themes, puns, and the
elements of drama present in the play. Throughout the reading, students
will analyze individual passages and use the close reading strategies to
identify elements of syntax and other literary devices. Again, students will
write a total of three essays for these two plays. First, they will analyze a
passage from both dramas. We will look at the selection as a whole group.
I break them into groups to discuss and highlight certain aspects of the
passage. One group might have figurative language and diction and another
might focus on syntax and detail provided and/or omitted. As a class, we
analyze all the elements. After responding to the first prompt, I evaluate
each student’s essay and provide examples of how to better the syntax,
diction, and structure of the essay. The first essay is never a grade as I
always give them an opportunity to practice responding to the various
prompts.
Paper and discussion topics include, but are not limited to:
o Discuss how Banquo serves as a foil to Macbeth. Support your
opinion with evidence from the play.
o Analyze the character of Lady Macbeth.
o Analyze Macbeth’s character before the murder of Duncan. After
the subsequent murders, does Macbeth’s character change or
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transform? If you believe he does, explain your opinion with
evidence from the play. If you believe he does not experience any
change, explain your opinion with evidence from the play.
o Consider Macbeth’s culpability. Do you believe that he is
completely a victim of the Witches’ prophecy and Lady Macbeth’s
urging? Or, does Macbeth carry out his own desires? Support your
opinion with textual evidence.
Hamlet—Students will also read this play aloud as a class. We will employ
the same strategies used in reading Macbeth.
Paper and discussion topics include, but are not limited to:
o Analyze Hamlet’s madness. Do you believe that he is truly mad or
does he deceive those around him? Is there a point where the
feigned madness turns into a reality?
o Analyze the diction, syntax, imagery, etc. in Hamlet’s soliloquy from
Act III, scene i. Discuss his state of mind. Why does he consider
this option?
King Lear—Students will read this play independently as they now have a
deeper understanding of Shakespearean tragedy.
Essays: Students will respond to Macbeth and Hamlet in in-class, timed
essays. Students will also develop a formal, persuasive essay encompassing
all three tragedies. They will have two weeks to develop a thesis statement
and complete the paper. Throughout the process, they will submit a thesis
statement for approval. If the student needs to strengthen the statement,
this gives me an opportunity to counsel with the student and discuss ideas,
support, evidence, etc. They must also submit an outline for review, so I
can provide comments on the direction, clarity, or lack of support for the
thesis.
Novel Study: Heart of Darkness—Joseph Conrad
Students are given two weeks to read each of the three parts of the novel.
After each part we will discuss and write a timed essay. The first two will be
passage analysis. Students must focus on diction, detail, syntax, and other
rhetorical strategies used by Conrad. The final essay will be a longer
response to the novel as a whole. Students will have a week to develop a
thesis and obtain the textual evidence to support their argument. As a class
we will discuss the correlation between the two novels we have read during
this quarter. Students will write a total of three essays for this novel. First,
they will analyze a passage from the first few chapters. We will look at the
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chapter selection as a whole group. I break them into groups to discuss and
highlight certain aspects of the passage. One group might have diction and
another might focus on syntax. As a class, we analyze all the elements.
After responding to the first prompt, I evaluate each student’s essay and
provide examples of how to better the syntax, diction, and structure of the
essay. The first essay is never a grade. When we begin a unit or novel, I
always give them an opportunity to practice responding to the various
prompts, so that I can help the students improve sentence structure,
illustrative details, and word choice.
Paper and discussion topics include, but are not limited to:
o What leads people to commit evil actions?
o Is evil inherent in all people?
o Choose one setting from the novel, and explain its symbolism and
the role it plays in developing one of the novel’s themes.
3rd Quarter
Independent Research Paper
Students will select a novel from the following authors, playwrights, and poets:
Chinua Achebe; Dante Alighieri; Jane Austen; Samuel Beckett; Berthold Brecht;
Charlotte Bronte; Emily Bronte; John Bunyan; Albert Camus; Lewis Carroll; Miguel de
Cerventes Saavedra; Geoffrey Chaucer; Anton Chekov; Joseph Conrad; Daniel
Defoe; Charles Dickens; Alexander Dumas; George Eliot; T.S. Eliot; Henry Fielding;
Gustave Flaubert; E.M. Forester; Gabriel Garcia-Marquez; William Golding; Oliver
Goldsmith; Thomas Hardy; Homer; Victor Hugo; Aldous Huxley; Henrik Ibsen; Ben
Johnson; James Joyce; D.H. Lawrence; Christopher Marlowe; Somerset Maugham;
John Milton; George Orwell; Alan Paton; Harold Pinter; Alexander Pope; Samuel
Richardson; Sir Walter Scott; William Shakespeare; George Bernard Shaw; Mary
Shelley; Laurence Sterne; Robert Louis Stevenson; Bram Stoker; Tom Stoppard;
Jonathan Swift; William Thackery; J.R.R. Tolkien; Ivan Turgenev; Evelyn Waugh;
H.G. Wells; Oscar Wilde; Virginia Woolf
o Students receive this list of authors during the second nine weeks. They
must select their novel, have it approved by me, and then begin reading and
taking notes independently.
o Students will write an 8-10 page paper using critical essays and other
material to support a self-selected thesis. Throughout the unit students
must consult with me each week to determine feasibility of thesis
statement, outline, and rough draft. When students submit the rough draft,
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they will spend approximately one week conducting peer review and edit
sessions. I will also review and edit each paper. The final draft of the paper
will be due at the end of the nine weeks.
Poetry Study—poems selected from Perrine and Norton
Throughout our study of poetry, the class will focus on the elements of
poetry: connotation, denotation, imagery, figurative language, allusion,
tone, syntax, and musical devices.
Students will learn to read the poem and identify how the devices
utilized in each poem contribute to the overall meaning of the poem.
Students will respond to a variety of prompts. In the beginning,
prompts will address one poetic technique, and then each will include
multiple devices. Students will have many opportunities to write and
have the responses evaluated by peers. I include several activities for
the students to write as a group in response to a poem. We will have
group discussions about the syntax, interpretation of the poem, and
effectiveness of each of the groups’ responses. I will also evaluate
individual student papers to help improve their responses to poetry.
The last essay in this unit will be graded based on the techniques we
have studied.
We will also continue the Poetry 180 Focus Statement activities. We
will also use this technique with poems on previous AP Exams and
those in the textbook.
Division of poetry studied:
o Renaissance Poetry—Sonnets: Shakespearean, Petrarchan, and Spenserian
o Metaphysical Poetry—Donne, Johnson
o Cavalier Poetry—Herrick, Suckling, Lovelace, Marvell
17th
and 18th
Century Literature—
o Puritan Literature
Milton—excerpts from Paradise Lost
Bunyan—excerpts from Pilgrim’s Progress o Pepys—excerpts from his Diary o Defoe—excerpts from Journal of the Plague Year
In this unit, students will study the historical events which prompted these
authors to write in a particular manner or which influenced their views.
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Prompts from AP Exams (1971-2011)
o 1971 "Elegy for Jane" (Theodore Roethke) Write an essay in which you describe the speaker's attitude toward his
former student.
o 1972 "The Unknown Citizen" (W. H. Auden) In a brief essay, identify at least two of the implications implicit in
the society reflected in the poem. Support your statements by specific references to the poem.
o 1973 No poem
o 1974 "I wonder whether one expects. . . " (No poet listed) Write a unified essay in which you relate the imagery
of the last stanza to the speaker's view of himself earlier in the poem and to his view of how others see poets.
o 1975 No poem
o 1976 "Poetry of Departures" (Philip Larkin) Write an essay in which you discuss how the poet's diction (choice of
words) reveals his attitude toward the two ways of living mentioned in the poem.
o 1977 "Piano" (two poems by D. H. Lawrence) Read both poems carefully and then write an essay in which you
explain what characteristics of the second poem make it better than the first. Refer specifically to details of both
poems.
o 1978 "Law Like Love" (W. H. Auden) Read the poem and then write an essay discussing the differences between
the conceptions of "law" in lines 1-34 and those in lines 35-60.
o 1979 "Spring and All" (William Carlos Williams) and "For Jane Meyers" (Louise Gluck) Read the two poems
carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you show how the attitudes towards the coming of spring
implied in these two poems differ from each other. Support your statements with specific references to the texts.
o 1980 "One Art" (Elizabeth Bishop) Write an essay in which you describe how the speaker's attitude toward loss
in lines 16-19 is related to her attitude toward loss in lines 1-15. Using specific references to the text, show how
verse form and language contribute to the reader's understanding of these attitudes.
o 1981 "Storm Warnings" (Adrienne Rich) Write an essay in which you explain how the organization of the poem
and the use of concrete details reveal both its literal and its metaphorical meanings. In your discussion, show how
both of these meanings relate to the title.
o 1982 "The Groundhog" (Richard Eberhart) Write an essay in which you analyze how the language of the poem
reflects the changing perceptions and emotions of the speaker as he considers the metamorphosis of the dead
groundhog. Develop your essay with specific references to the text of the poem.
o 1983 "Clocks and Lovers" (W. H. Auden) Write a well-organized essay in which you contrast the attitude of the
clocks with that of the lover. Through careful analysis of the language and imagery, show how this contrast is
important to the meaning of the poem.
o 1984 No poem
o 1985 "There Was a Boy" (William Wordsworth) and "The Most of It" (Robert Frost) These two poems present
encounters with nature, but the two poets handle those encounters very differently. In a well-organized essay,
distinguish between the attitudes (toward nature, toward the solitary individual, etc.) expressed in the poems and
discuss the techniques that the poets use to present these attitudes. Be sure to support your statements with
specific references.
o 1986 "Ogun" (E. K. Braithwaite) Read the poem. You will note that it has two major sections that are joined by
another section, lines 21-26. Write an essay in which you discuss how the diction, imagery, and movement of the
verse in the poem reflect differences in tone and content between the two larger sections.
o 1987 "Sow" (Sylvia Plath) Read the poem. Then write an essay in which you analyze the presentation of the sow.
Consider particularly how the language of the poem reflects both the neighbor's and the narrator's perceptions of
the sow and how the language determines the reader's perceptions. Be certain to discuss how the portrayal of the
sow is enhanced by such features as diction, devices of sound, images, and allusions.
o 1988 "Bright Star (John Keats) and "Choose Something Like a Star" (Robert Frost) Read the following two poems
very carefully, noting that the second includes an allusion to the first. Then write a well-organized essay in which
you discuss their similarities and differences. In your essay, be sure to consider both theme and style.
o 1989 "The Great Scarf of Birds" (John Updike) Write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the
poem's organization, diction, and figurative language prepare the reader for the speaker's concluding response.
o 1990 Soliloquy ("Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown") from Henry IV, Part II (Shakespeare) In the
soliloquy, King Henry laments his inability to sleep. In a well-organized essay, briefly summarize the King's
thoughts and analyze how the diction, imagery, and syntax help to convey his state of mind.
o 1991 "The Last Night that She Lived" (Emily Dickinson) Write an essay in which you describe the speaker's
attitude toward the woman's death. Using specific references from the text, show how the use of language reveals
the speaker's attitudes.
o 1992 from The Prelude (William Wordsworth) "One summer evening (led by her) I found. . . were a trouble to
my dreams." In the passage below, which comes from William Wordsworth's autobiographical poem The
Prelude, the speaker encounters unfamiliar aspects of the natural world. Write an essay in which you trace the
speaker's changing responses to his experience and explain how they are conveyed by the poem's diction, imagery,
and tone.
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o 1993 "The Centaur" (May Swenson) Read the following poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you
discuss how such elements as language, imagery, structure, and point of view convey meaning in the poem.
o 1994 The following two poems are about Helen of Troy. Renowned in the ancient world for her beauty, Helen
was the wife of Menelaus, a Greek king. She was carried off to Troy by the Trojan prince Paris, and her
abduction was the immediate cause of the Trojan War.
o Read the two poems carefully. Considering such elements as speaker, diction, imagery, form, and tone, write a
well-organized essay in which you contrast the speakers' views of Helen. ("To Helen" by E. A. Poe and "Helen" by
H.D.)
o 1995 Read the following poem carefully. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze how the speaker uses the
varied imagery of the poem to reveal his attitude toward the nature of love. ("The Broken Heart" by John Donne)
o 1996 Read carefully the following poem by the colonial American poet, Anne Bradstreet. Then write a well-
organized essay in which you discuss how the poem's controlling metaphor expresses the complex attitude of the
speaker. ("The Author to Her Book" by Anne Bradstreet)
o 1997 Read the following poem carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain how formal
elements such as structure, syntax, diction, and imagery reveal the speaker's response to the death of a toad. ("The
Death of a Toad" by Richard Wilbur)
o 1998 The following poem was written by a contemporary Irish woman, Eavan Boland. Read the poem carefully
and then write an essay in which you analyze how the poem reveals the speaker's complex conception of a
"woman's world." (―It’s a Woman’s World‖ by Eavan Boland)
o 1999 Read the following poem carefully, paying particular attention to the physical intensity of the language.
Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain how the poet conveys not just a literal description of
picking blackberries but a deeper understanding of the whole experience. You may wish to include analysis of
such elements as diction, imagery, metaphor, rhyme, rhythm, and form. (―Blackberry-Picking‖ by Seamus
Heaney)
o 2000 The story of Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens and the enchanting but deadly song appears in Greek
epic poetry in Homer’s Odyssey. An English translation of the episode is reprinted in the left column below.
Margaret Atwood’s poem in the right column is a modern commentary on the classical story. Read both texts
carefully. Then write an essay in which you compare the portrayals of the Sirens. You analysis should include
discussion of tone, point of view, and whatever poetic devices (diction, imagery, etc.) seem most important.
o 2001 In each of the following poems, the speaker responds to the conditions of a particular place and time—
England in 1802 in the first poem, the United States about 100 years later in the second. Read each poem
carefully. Then write an essay in which you compare and contrast the two poems and analyze the relationship
between them. (―London,‖ 1802 by William Wordsworth and ―Douglass‖ by Paul Laurence Dunbar)
o 2002 Read the following poem carefully. Then, taking into consideration the title of the poem, analyze how the
poetic devices convey the speaker’s attitude toward the sinking of the ship. (―The Convergence of the Twain‖ by
Thomas Hardy)
o 2002 (B) The following poem is a villanelle, a form having strict rules of rhyme, meter, and repetition. Read
the poem carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the formal elements of the poem
contribute to its meaning. (―If I Could Tell You‖ by W. H. Auden)
o 2003 The following poems are both concerned with Eros, the god of love in Greek mythology. Read the poems
carefully. Then write an essay in which you compare and contrast the two concepts of Eros and analyze the
techniques used to create them. (―EPΩΣ‖ by Robert Bridges and ―Eros‖ by Anne Stevenson)
o 2003 (B) The following poem is taken from Modern Love, a poetic sequence by the English writer George
Meredith. Read the poem carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the poet
conveys a view of ―modern love.‖ (―Modern Love‖ by George Meredith)
o 2004 The poems below are concerned with darkness and night. Read each poem carefully. Then,in a well-
written essay, compare and contrast the poems, analyzing the significance of dark or night in each. In your essay,
consider elements such as point of view, imagery, and structure. (―We grow accustomed to the Dark‖ by Emily
Dickinson and ―Acquainted with the night‖ by Robert Frost)
o 2004 (B) Read the following poem carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the techniques the poet
uses to develop the relationship between the speaker and the swamp. (―Crossing the Swamp,‖ by Mary Oliver)
o 2005 The poems below, published in 1789 and 1794, were written by William Blake in response to the condition
of chimney sweeps. Usually small children, sweeps were forced inside chimneys to clean their interiors. Read the
two poems carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, compare and contrast the two poems, taking into
consideration the poetic techniques Blake uses in each.
o 2005 (B) Carefully read the two poems below. Then in a well-organized essay compare the speakers’
reflections on their early morning surroundings and analyze the techniques the poets use to communicate the
speakers’ different states of mind. (―Five A.M.‖ by William Stafford and ―Five Flights Up‖ by Elizabeth Bishop)
o 2006 Read the following poem carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the poet
uses language to describe the scene and to convey mood and meaning. (―Evening Hawk‖ by Robert Penn
Warren)
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o 2006 (B) Read the following poem carefully. Then write an essay discussing how the poet uses literary
techniques to reveal the speaker’s attitudes toward nature and the artist’s task. (―To Paint a Water Lily‖ by Ted
Hughes)
o 2007 In the following two poems, adults provide explanations for children. Read the poems carefully. Then
write an essay in which you compare and contrast the two poems, analyzing how each poet uses literary devices to
make his point. (―A Barred Owl‖ by Richard Wilbur and ―The History Teacher‖ by Billy Collins)
o 2007 (B) Read the following poem carefully. Then, write a well-organized essay in which you analyze the
techniques the poet uses to convey his attitude toward the places he describes. (―Here‖ by Philip Larkin)
o 2008 In the two poems below, Keats and Longfellow reflect on similar concerns. Read the poems carefully.
Then write an essay in which you compare and contrast the two poems, analyzing the poetic techniques each
writer uses to explore his particular situation. (―When I Have Fears,‖ by John Keats and ―Mezzo Cammin‖ by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
o 2008 (B) The following two poems present animal-eye views of the world. Read each poem carefully. Then
write an essay in which you analyze the techniques used in the poems to characterize the speakers and convey
differing views of the world. (―Hawk Roosting‖ by Ted Hughes and ―Golden Retrievals‖ by Mark Doty)
o 2009 The following speech from Shakespeare’s play Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey considers his sudden downfall
from his position as advisor to the king. Spokesmen for the king have just left Wolsey alone on stage. Read the
speech carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how Shakespeare uses elements such as
allusion, figurative language, and tone to convey Wolsey’s complex response to his dismissal from court.
o 2009 (B) The following poem, written by Edward Field, makes use of the Greek myth of Daedalus and
Icarus. Read the poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how Field employs literary devices in
adapting the Icarus myth to a contemporary setting. (―Icarus‖)
o 2010 Read carefully the following poem by Marilyn Nelson Waniek. Then write an essay analyzing how Waniek
employs literary techniques to develop the complex meanings that the speaker attributes to The Century Quilt.
You may wish to consider such elements as structure, imagery, and tone. (―The Century Quilt‖)
o 2010 (B) Each of the two poems below is concerned with a young man at the age of twenty-one, traditionally
the age of adulthood. Read the two poems carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you compare
and contrast the poems, analyzing the poetic techniques, such as point of view and tone, that each writer uses to
make his point about coming of age. (―To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age‖ by Samuel Johnson and
―When I was One-and-Twenty‖ by A. E. Housman)
o 2011 The following poem is by the contemporary poet Li-Young Lee. Read the poem carefully. Then write a
well-organized essay in which you analyze how the poet conveys the complex relationship of the father and the son
through the use of literary devices such as point of view and structure. (―A Story‖ by Li-Young Lee)
o 2011 (B) Read carefully the following poem by Robert Pack, paying close attention to the relationship
between form and meaning. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how the literary techniques used in this poem
contribute to its meaning. (―An Echo Sonnet‖ by Robert Pack)
Novel Study: Jane Eyre—Charlotte Bronte Students will read the novel independently and annotate the appropriate
material. After reading the assigned section of the novel, students will bring
any questions they may have about certain issues, and their annotated texts.
We will discuss literary elements such as diction, detail, imagery, themes,
and symbols etc. Students will write a total of three essays for this unit—two
of which will be graded. The first essay will provide the students with an
opportunity to edit, counsel with me and their peers, and finally rewrite in
an effort to continue to improve syntax, and use of textual evidence. I will
select two essays for the students to evaluate as a group based on the AP
Rubric. They must justify their reasoning with examples from the essay.
Other students will also have the opportunity to debate the assessment.
Paper and discussion topics include, but are not limited to:
In many works of literature, a central character is used to examine the
conflict between the emotions and the intellect, and the outcome of
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this conflict serves as a comment on the relative value of each. In a
well-organized essay, discuss the presentation of such a conflict in Jane
Eyre, and explain how the conflict and its resolution contribute to the
overall themes of the novel.
Some literary works are used by their authors to criticize the hypocrisy
of certain social institutions or beliefs of their time. In a well-organized
essay, using evidence from the novel to support your points, discuss
how this is true of Jane Eyre.
Be prepared to discuss elements of Gothic novel—isolation, darkness,
fear, supernatural, nature.
Be prepared to discuss Jane’s journey.
Analyze/examine the significance of:
Red Room, Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, Moor House,
Ferndean; color—red; fire and ice, madness, and omens,
darkness and storms.
Evaluate the significance of the names of the 3 places Jane lives in
Chapters 1-15.
Choose 3 archetypal patterns you saw in these chapters and analyze
them.
Explain the theme of hypocrisy in the first part of the novel.
Evaluate the relationships that affect Jane.
4th Quarter
Continue Poetry Study from Perrine and Norton Throughout our study of poetry, the class will focus on the elements of poetry:
connotation, denotation, imagery, figurative language, allusion, tone, syntax, and
musical devices. I will provide sample poems to discuss as a class which will
illustrate each of the elements.
Students will learn to read the poem and identify how the devices utilized in
each poem contribute to the overall meaning of the poem.
Students will respond to a variety of prompts. In the beginning, prompts will
address one poetic technique, and then each will include multiple devices.
o Romantic Poets—Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats
o Victorian Poets—Millay, Browning—Elizabeth Barrett and Robert, Hardy,
Housman
o Modern Poetry—as selected
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Novel Study: Things Fall Apart—Chinua Achebe Students will be assigned several chapters to read independently. As always,
they are expected to annotate and develop thoughtful questions for the class
discussions. Students will write three essays for the novel. The first essay
will provide the students an opportunity for me to review their response and
help strengthen the response. I will be focusing on the fact that the students
are varying sentence structure, and providing original illustrative details.
Paper and discussion topics include, but are not limited to:
Traditional societies are often thought to be generally
free of internal conflicts about values, and to be fixed and essentially unchanging over time. What aspects of
the society depicted in Things Fall Apart might resist those assumptions?
When the Europeans arrive in Okonkwo’s village, one
result is a new kind of government and a new kind of law. How do the new legal and governmental practices
and institutions differ from those that preceded them? Are the changes good, bad, or something more
complicated, and why?
Okonkwo’s self-understanding is deeply bound up with
his need to affirm and protect what he thinks of as his “manliness.” What are the main features of Oknokwo’s view of masculinity, and how does his view
relate to that of other important characters in the novel?
Evaluate the role of women in the novel.
Stories and storytelling play a central role in the novel
what are some of the most important aspects of that role, for instance, in the preservation of social customs, and the shaping of individual identities?
Okonkwo’s friend Obierika is described as “a man who
thought about things” (pg.125). What does Obierika think about, and how does that reflection ultimately put him at odds with Okonkwo?
An epic hero, like Odysseus, is typically set apart from other characters by his capacity to endure many trials
and tests. A tragic hero, like Hamlet or Oedipus, is typically a man of consequence brought down by an insuperable conflict, or through his own weakness.
Evaluate whether Okonkwo is an epic hero or a tragic hero, or is he a hero at all?
It is said of Okonkwo at one point that “Clearly his personal god or chi was not made for great things. A
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man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi. The saying of the elders was not true—that if a man said
yea his chi also affirmed. Here was a man who chi said nay despite his own affirmation” (pg. 131). Evaluate
the roles of fate and individual responsibility in the novel in light of the role that the Ibo notion of the chi plays throughout the novel.
An important assumption in the novel is the close
connection between an individual’s action and the communal fate of all. Okonkwo is told by the priest of the earth goddess, Ani, “The evil you have done can
ruin the whole clan” (pg. 30). Consider whether this statement explains why, strong willed as he is,
Okonkwo accepts without question the communal sanctions prescribed for his misdeeds?
Drama Study: The Importance of Being Earnest—Oscar Wilde
We will read the play as a class. Students will be encouraged to block
certain scenes and enact them for a deeper understanding. We will also
enact each scene with varying emphasis and body language to understand
the subtly of dialogue and how it is read.
Paper and discussion topics include, but are not limited to:
o Analyze how wit, satire, and humor are used to portray the
aristocracy, the literary world, and British manners and customs.
o Read passage for Question 2 (Lady Windermere’s Fan-Wilde) from
the 2006 AP exam. How does this passage compare? Analyze the
voice of Wilde’s characters. What is his comment on society?
o Consider the question of ―identity‖ in the play. Provide textual
support for your answer.
Preparation for the Exam: To prepare the students for the exam, I will start dedicating one day each
week to responding to prompts from previous years. Because we have a 90-
minute class period, the students can write 2 essays total in 80 minutes to
simulate the testing environment. These essays will be ―graded‖ with the
AP rubric provided with the released exam. I will evaluate the essays and
provide suggestions for improvement. Students will highlight passive voice
verbs, simple sentences, and other mistakes. Each student will have an
opportunity to improve the essay after analyzing the points of his or her own
essay that would not meet the standards for a 7, 8, or 9 essay. Each student
will submit one essay of his or her choice for grading.
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English Literature and Composition Texts:
Ferguson, Margaret, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy. The Norton Anthology
of Poetry. 5th
Edition. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2005.
Kennedy, X.J., and Dana Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry,
and Drama. 2nd
Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.
Perrine, Laurence, and Thomas Arp. Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. 6th
Edition. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1993.
Handouts and excerpts from:
Barnet, Sylvan, et al., eds. Literature for Composition: Essays, Fiction,
Poetry, and Drama. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2000.
Miles, Robert, Marc Bertonassco, and William Karns. Prose Style: A
Contemporary Guide. 2nd
Edition. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall,
1991.
.
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Advanced Placement Program
Expectations and Course Contract
Advanced Placement (AP) courses challenge and enrich motivated college bound
students to expand their education beyond the typical secondary program. AP
course work develops advanced skills and content background to prepare students
for college level work in Advanced Placement courses and on Advanced Placement
Exams. Success requires student’s commitment to the expectations of the AP
Program. Students will be expected to:
learn, analyze, synthesize, and manipulate knowledge and skills;
think critically;
budget time effectively and efficiently; expect a minimum of 60 minutes of
homework daily
develop successful study skills;
commit to a daily academic action plan;
engage in electronically-assisted research and/or communication;
develop advanced content vocabulary;
build subject specific portfolios;
utilize community and industry resources;
develop multi-media and oral presentation skills; and
commit to a contract supporting the expectations of the Advanced Placement
Program.
Success also requires support from all stakeholders: students, parents,
administrators, teachers, and counselors.
STUDENT: I agree to organize my time and effort to successfully complete the
English IV AP course. I have read the course description and agree to the
requirements of the class.
PARENT: I agree to be familiar with the English IV AP course requirements
and to help my son/daughter organize study time in support of class
assignments. I will notify the teacher immediately of any concerns that I have
relating to the English IV AP class or my child’s progress. I have read the course
description and agree to the requirements of the class.
TEACHER: I agree to teach the English IV AP class at a college preparatory
pace appropriate to the grade level as outlined by College Board. Students and
parents will be notified if assigned work and/or assessments are unsatisfactory.
EXIT POLICY: At the teacher’s discretion, students may be exited from an AP
class during the first grading period or at the end of the term, if they:
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fail in the first grading period;
fail to comply with terms of the contract.
HONOR CODE: This class will be conducted under an honor code. All students
will be expected to do their own work. Occasionally, students will be given
projects or exams that must be completed outside of class. If a student breaks
from this code, it may result in the student being removed from the class.
STUDENT:______________________ DATE:______________
PARENT:_______________________ DATE:______________
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AP Rubric for Essays
9 These essays are exceptionally well written, show unusual insight into
the topic, are very well organized, and support assertions with appropriate
examples. They remain focused on all aspects of the topic and present a unique
writer’s voice.
8 These essays are very well written, show clear understanding of and
focus on the topic, are well organized, and usually support assertions with
appropriate examples. They focus on all aspects of the topic and show a writer’s
voice. They may have a few mechanical errors, but only very minor ones.
7-6 These essays are well written, show an understanding of the topic, and
remain focused on almost all aspects of it. A few assertions may lack specific
examples, but the argument is clearly made. The writer’s voice is somewhat less
mature than that of an 8-9 essay, but it is still evident. There may be a few errors
in mechanics, but only minor ones.
5 These essays are for the most part well written, and usually remain
focused on the topic, but they fail to deal with all aspects of the topic. The
assertions that are made may be somewhat vague in relation to the topic or a bit
superficial in nature. The supporting examples may be missing occasionally or
not well related to the topic. There seems to be some evidence of a writer’s voice,
but not one of a unique nature. These essays are usually characterized by some
minor errors in mechanics.
4-3 These essays have some problems with organization and coherence,
tend to wander from the topic in places, and deal only with one or two aspects of
the topic, or with all aspects in only a superficial manner. The assertions that are
made are too general in nature and are often unsupported by relevant examples.
The writing demonstrates weak control of mechanics, and a writer’s voice is
lacking or inconsistent.
2 These essays fail to focus on the topic clearly, stray repeatedly from
the topic, or simply restate the topic without any analysis. There is poor
organization and focus in the writing, and the few assertions are generally
unsupported. The writing is characterized by errors in mechanics and grammar.
1 These essays fail to deal with the topic, lack organization and coherence, and/or
contain many distracting mechanical and grammatical errors.
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Open-ended Questions for Advanced Placement
English Literature and Composition, 1970-2011
1970. Choose a character from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you (a)
briefly describe the standards of the fictional society in which the character exists and (b) show how the
character is affected by and responds to those standards. In your essay do not merely summarize the plot.
1970 Also. Choose a work of recognized literary merit in which a specific inanimate object (e.g., a seashell, a
handkerchief, a painting) is important, and write an essay in which you show how two or three of the
purposes the object serves are related to one another.
1971. The significance of a title such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is so easy to discover.
However, in other works (for example, Measure for Measure) the full significance of the title becomes
apparent to the reader only gradually. Choose two works and show how the significance of their respective
titles is developed through the authors’ use of devices such as contrast, repetition, allusion, and point of view.
1972. In retrospect, the reader often discovers that the first chapter of a novel or the opening scene of a
drama introduces some of the major themes of the work. Write an essay about the opening scene of a drama
or the first chapter of a novel in which you explain how it functions in this way.
1973. An effective literary work does not merely stop or cease; it concludes. In the view of some critics, a
work that does not provide the pleasure of significant closure has terminated with an artistic fault. A
satisfactory ending is not, however, always conclusive in every sense; significant closure may require the
reader to abide with or adjust to ambiguity and uncertainty. In an essay, discuss the ending of a novel or play
of acknowledged literary merit. Explain precisely how and why the ending appropriately or inappropriately
concludes the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.
1974. Choose a work of literature written before 1900. Write an essay in which you present arguments for
and against the work’s relevance for a person in 1974. Your own position should emerge in the course of
your essay. You may refer to works of literature written after 1900 for the purpose of contrast or comparison.
1975. Although literary critics have tended to praise the unique in literary characterizations, many authors
have employed the stereotyped character successfully. Select one work of acknowledged literary merit and in
a well-written essay, show how the conventional or stereotyped character or characters function to achieve the
author’s purpose.
1975 Also. Unlike the novelist, the writer of a play does not use his own voice and only rarely uses a
narrator’s voice to guide the audience’s responses to character and action. Select a play you have read and
write an essay in which you explain the techniques the playwright uses to guide his audience’s responses to the
central characters and the action. You might consider the effect on the audience of things like setting, the use
of comparable and contrasting characters, and the characters’ responses to each other. Support your
argument with specific references to the play. Do not give a plot summary.
1976. The conflict created when the will of an individual opposes the will of the majority is the recurring
theme of many novels, plays, and essays. Select the work of an essayist who is in opposition to his or her
society; or from a work of recognized literary merit, select a fictional character who is in
opposition to his or her society. In a critical essay, analyze the conflict and discuss the moral and ethical
implications for both the individual and the society. Do not summarize the plot or action of the work you
choose.
1977. In some novels and plays certain parallel or recurring events prove to be significant. In an essay,
describe the major similarities and differences in a sequence of parallel or recurring events in a novel or play
and discuss the significance of such events. Do not merely summarize the plot.
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1978. Choose an implausible or strikingly unrealistic incident or character in a work of fiction or drama of
recognized literary merit. Write an essay that explains how the incident or character is related to the more
realistic of plausible elements in the rest of the work. Avoid plot summary.
1979. Choose a complex and important character in a novel or a play of recognized literary merit who might
on the basis of the character’s actions alone be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay, explain
both how and why the full presentation of the character in the work makes us react more sympathetically than
we otherwise might. Avoid plot summary.
1980. A recurring theme in literature is the classic war between a passion and responsibility. For instance, a
personal cause, a love, a desire for revenge, a determination to redress a wrong, or some other emotion or
drive may conflict with moral duty. Choose a literary work in which a character confronts the demands of a
private passion that conflicts with his or her responsibilities. In a well-written essay show clearly the nature of
the conflict, its effects upon the character, and its significance to the work.
1981. The meaning of some literary works is often enhanced by sustained allusion to myths, the Bible, or
other works of literature. Select a literary work that makes use of such a sustained reference. Then write a
well-organized essay in which you explain the allusion that predominates in the work and analyze how it
enhances the work’s meaning.
1982. In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake.Choose a work of literary merit that
confronts the reader or audience with a scene or scenes of violence. In a well-organized essay, explain how
the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work. Avoid plot summary.
1983. From a novel or play of literary merit, select an important character who is a villain. Then, in a well-
organized essay, analyze the nature of the character’s villainy and show how it enhances meaning in the work.
Do not merely summarize the plot.
1984. Select a line or so of poetry, or a moment or scene in a novel, epic poem, or play that you find
especially memorable. Write an essay in which you identify the line or the passage, explain its relationship to
the work in which it is found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness.
1985. A critic has said that one important measure of a superior work of literature is its ability to produce in
the reader a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude. Select a literary work that produces this ―healthy
confusion.‖ Write an essay in which you explain the sources of the ―pleasure and disquietude‖ experienced
by the readers of the work.
1986. Some works of literature use the element of time in a distinct way. The chronological sequence of
events may be altered, or time may be suspended or accelerated. Choose a novel, an epic, or a play of
recognized literary merit and show how the author’s manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of
the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
1987. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose
such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to
modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader’s or audience’s views. Avoid plot
summary.
1988. Choose a distinguished novel or play in which some of the most significant events are mental or
psychological; for example, awakenings, discoveries, changes in consciousness. In a well-organized essay,
describe how the author manages to give these internal events the sense of
excitement, suspense, and climax usually associated with external action. Do not merely summarize the plot.
1989. In questioning the value of literary realism, Flannery O’Connor has written, ―I am interested in making
a good case for distortion because I am coming to believe that it is the only way to make people see.‖ Write
an essay in which you ―make a good case for distortion‖" as distinct from literary
23
realism. Analyze how important elements of the work you choose are ―distorted‖ and explain how these
distortions contribute to the effectiveness of the work. Avoid plot summary.
1990. Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or
daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict
contributes to the meaning of the work. Avoid plot summary.
1991. Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two
houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the
work. Choose a novel or play that contrasts two such places. Write an essayexplaining how the places differ,
what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.
1992. In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of
the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to
confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as
much ―the reader’s friend as the protagonist’s.‖ However, the author sometimes uses this character for other
purposes as well. Choose a confidant or confidante from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write
an essay in which you discuss the various ways this character functions in the work. You may write your essay
on one of the following novels or plays or on another of comparable quality. Do not write on a poem or short
story.
1993. ―The true test of comedy is that it shall awaken thoughtful laughter.‖ Choose a novel, play, or long
poem in which a scene or character awakens ―thoughtful laughter‖ in the reader. Write an essay in which you
show why this laughter is ―thoughtful‖ and how it contributes to the meaning of the work.
1994. In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, is a significant
presence. Choose a novel or play of literary merit and write an essay in which you show how such a character
functions in the work. You may wish to discuss how the character affects action, theme, or the development
of other characters. Avoid plot summary.
1995. Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from
that culture or society because of gender, race, class, or creed. Choose a novel or a play in which such a
character plays a significant role and show how that character’s alienation reveals the surrounding society’s
assumptions or moral values.
1996. The British novelist Fay Weldon offers this observation about happy endings. ―The writers, I do
believe, who get the best and most lasting response from their readers are the writers who offer a happy
ending through moral development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere fortunate events -- a marriage or
a last minute rescue from death – but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with
the self, even at death.‖ Choose a novel or play that has the kind of ending Weldon describes. In a well-
written essay, identify the ―spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation‖ evident in the ending and explain its
significance in the work as a whole.
1997. Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other social occasions. Such
scenes may reveal the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a novel or play that
includes such a scene and, in a focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the
work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or another novel or play of literary merit.
1998. In his essay ―Walking,‖ Henry David Thoreau offers the following assessment of literature: In
literature it is only the wild that attracts us. Dullness is but another name for tameness. It is the uncivilized
free and wild thinking in Hamlet and The Iliad, in all scriptures and mythologies, not learned in schools, that
delights us. From the works that you have studied in school, choose a novel, play, or epic poem that you may
initially have thought was conventional and tame but that you now value for its ―uncivilized free and wild
thinking.‖ Write an essay in which you explain what constitutes its ―uncivilized free and wild thinking‖
and how that thinking is central to the value of the work as a whole. Support your ideas with specific
references to the work you choose.
24
1999. The eighteenth-century British novelist Laurence Sterne wrote, ―No body, but he who has felt it, can
conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both
obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time.‖ From a novel or play choose a character (not
necessarily the protagonist) whose mind is pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires,
ambitions, obligations, or influences. Then, in a well-organized essay, identify each of the two conflicting
forces and explain how this conflict with one character illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. You
may use one of the novels or plays listed below or another novel or work of similar literary quality.
2000. Many works of literature not readily identified with the mystery or detective story genre nonetheless
involve the investigation of a mystery. In these works, the solution to the mystery may be less important than
the knowledge gained in the process of its investigation. Choose a novel or play in which one or more of the
characters confront a mystery. Then write an essay in which you identify the mystery and explain how the
investigation illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
2001. One definition of madness is ―mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it.‖ But Emily
Dickinson wrote Much madness is divinest Sense- To a discerning Eye- Novelists and playwrights have often
seen madness with a ―discerning Eye.‖ Select a novel or play in which a character’s apparent madness or
irrational behavior plays an important role. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain what this
delusion or eccentric behavior consists of and how it might be judged reasonable. Explain the significance of
the ―madness‖ to the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
2002. Morally ambiguous characters -- characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them
as purely evil or purely good -- are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a
morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character
can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole.
Avoid mere plot summary.
2002, Form B. Often in literature, a character’s success in achieving goals depends on keeping a secret and
divulging it only at the right moment, if at all. Choose a novel or play of literary merit that requires a character
to keep a secret. In a well-organized essay, briefly explain the necessity for secrecy and how the character’s
choice to reveal or keep the secret affects the plot and contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
You may select a work from the list below, or you may choose another work of recognized literary merit
suitable to the topic. Do NOT write about a short story, poem, or film.
2003. According to critic Northrop Frye, ―Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human
landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be
struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments
as well as victims of the divisive lightning.‖ Select a novel or play in which a tragic figure functions as an
instrument of the suffering of others. Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought
upon others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.
2003, Form B. Novels and plays often depict characters caught between colliding cultures -- national,
regional, ethnic, religious, institutional. Such collisions can call a character’s sense of identity into question.
Select a novel or play in which a character responds to such a cultural collison. Then write a well-organized
essay in which you describe the character’s response and explain its relevance to the work as a whole.
2004. Critic Roland Barthes has said, ―Literature is the question minus the answer.‖ Choose a novel, or play,
and, considering Barthes’ observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises
and the extent to which it offers answers. Explain how the author’s treatment of this question affects your
understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
2004, Form B. The most important themes in literature are sometimes developed in scenes in which a death
or deaths take place. Choose a novel or play and write a well-organized essay in which you show how a
specific death scene helps to illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
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2005. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899), protagonist Edna Pontellier is said to possess ―That outward
existence which conforms, the inward life that questions.‖ In a novel or play that you have studied, identify a
character who outwardly conforms while questioning inwardly. Then write an essay in which you analyze how
this tension between outward conformity and inward questioning contributes to the meaning of the work.
Avoid mere plot summary.
2005, Form B. One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which
you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of
others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this
power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.
2006. Many writers use a country setting to establish values within a work of literature. For example, the
country may be a place of virtue and peace or one of primitivism and ignorance. Choose a novel or play in
which such a setting plays a significant role. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the country setting
functions in the work as a whole.
2006, Form B. In many works of literature, a physical journey - the literal movement from one place to
another - plays a central role. Choose a novel, play, or epic poem in which a physical journey is an important
element and discuss how the journey adds to the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
2007. In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present activities,
attitudes, or values of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a character must contend with some aspect
of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character’s
relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
2007, Form B. Works of literature often depict acts of betrayal. Friends and even family may betray a
protagonist; main characters may likewise be guilty of treachery or may betray their own values. Select a novel
or play that includes such acts of betrayal. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the nature of the betrayal and
show how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
2008. In a literary work, a minor character, often known as a foil, possesses traits that emphasize, by contrast
or comparison, the distinctive characteristics and qualities of the main character. For example, the ideas or
behavior of a minor character might be used to highlight the weaknesses or strengths of the main character.
Choose a novel or play in which a minor character serves as a foil for the main character. Then write an essay
in which you analyze how the relation between the minor character and the major character illuminates the
meaning of the work.
2008, Form B. In some works of literature, childhood and adolescence are portrayed as times graced by
innocence and a sense of wonder; in other works, they are depicted as times of tribulation and terror.
Focusing on a single novel or play, explain how its representation of childhood or adolescence shapes the
meaning of the work as a whole.
2009. A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations
beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning.
Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the
work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize
the plot.
2009, Form B. Many works of literature deal with political or social issues. Choose a novel or play that
focuses on a political or social issue. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the author uses literary
elements to explore this issue and explain how the issue contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Do not merely summarize theplot.
2010. Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that ―Exile is strangely
compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being
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and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.‖ Yet
Said has also said that exile can become ―a potent, even enriching‖ experience. Select a novel, play, or epic in
which a character experiences such a rift and becomes cut off from ―home,‖ whether that home is the
character’s birthplace, family, homeland, or other special place. Then write an essay in which you analyze
how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching, and how this experience
illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
2010, Form B. ―You can leave home all you want but home will never leave you.‖ -- Sonsyrea Tate
Sonsyrea Tate’s statement suggests that ―home‖ may be conceived of as a dwelling, a place, or a state of mind.
It may have positive or negative associations, but in either case, it may have a considerable influence on an
individual. Choose a novel or play in which a central character leaves home, yet finds that home remains
significant. Write a well-developed essay in which you analyze the importance of ―home‖ to this character and
the reasons for its continuing influence. Explain how the character’s idea of home illuminates the larger
meaning of the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.
2011. In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life ―is a search for justice.‖ Choose a character
from a novel or play who responds in some significant way to justice or injustice. Then write a well-developed
essay in which you analyze the character’s understanding of justice, the degree to which the character’s search
for justice is successful , and the significance of this search for the work as a whole.
2011, Form B. In The Writing of Fiction (1925), novelist Edith Wharton states the following: At every stage
in the progress of his tale the novelist must rely on what may be called the illuminating incident to reveal and
emphasize the inner meaning of each situation. Illuminating incidents are the magic casements of fiction, its
vistas on infinity. Choose a novel or play that you have studied and write a well-organized essay in which you
describe an ―illuminating‖ episode or moment and explain how it functions as a ―casement,‖ a window that
opens onto the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
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