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Writing for the APAvoiding Plot Summary in a Literature Essay

A frequent criticism you may receive on marked literature essays is that you have done too much “telling of the story”--in other words, rephrasing, paraphrasing or summarizing of the work’s contents. If you have been told, “Don’t tell me what happened; show me why it is important,” you may wonder how to do the latter without having done the former. And if you have been told, “Assume your reader has read the work,” you may wonder how you can possibly discuss a work without referring to specific statements or events within it. The following points should help you to distinguish between unnecessary plot summary and necessary analysis.

1. Some background information is essential for context. Even if everyone in the class is writing about Paradise Lost, you should not begin the essay by referring to “this poem.” Instead, specify title, author, and theme: for example, “Milton’s Paradise Lost provides some fascinating insights into the Christian view of woman’s relationship to man and God.” This is not plot summary, but merely introduces the reader to your subject matter and your approach to that subject matter (ie. you intend to discuss woman’s relationship to man and God, not the politics of war in the poem).

2. Distinguish accepted facts about the work from interpretations of it. If all readers would agree about the plot events of a work, you need not remind your reader of those events; you should assume that he or she has read the piece and knows what happens when. However, if the facts of the work are unclear or not universally accepted (for example, if an event in a novel may be a real occurrence or a dream; or if it is not obvious whether the speaker in a poem is a man or a woman), you may need to describe what you think is going on. This is not plot summary, but is a means of establishing your personal interpretation of something in the work.

3. Descriptions of plot events should be used to support a specific argumentative point. Suppose you were talking to a friend about a recent episode of a favourite TV show, and you said, “That was a great episode: John thought Sue was cheating on him so he tried to make her jealous by pretending to cheat on her, and it backfired.” Your friend might say, “But I saw all that myself; what about it?”--rightly objecting to your simply telling the story with no apparent point. But suppose you were to say, “John’s character is becoming more manipulative; his comment to Sue about his supposed ‘hot date’ with Mary seemed more devious than usual.” In this case, you would be using a particular plot event to support your opinion about the show; in order to convince your friend, you must point to an example with which he or she is familiar.

The same is true for a literature essay: any plot description or summary of contents must support a point--not substitute for one. You should ask yourself the question your marker is sure to ask: “Why is this important?” In other words, what is the significance of this element of the work in relation to the point you wish to make? See over for an example of the difference between summarizing the content and using that content to make a point. The following two paragraphs discuss with equal accuracy and intelligence the same passage from Shakespeare’s 1 Henry IV. Only one of these, however, would be considered acceptable in a university English essay. The other is merely a well-written plot summary and contributes virtually nothing to our understanding of the significance of the episode.

A.

In the first scene, King Henry compares his own son unfavourably with Northumberland’s warrior son Hotspur. He says that Hotspur is “the theme of honour’s tongue” whereas the wastrel Hal is stained by “riot and dishonour.” The King wistfully wishes that some fairy had exchanged the two in infancy so that he (and the nation) might now have a more suitable prince. Henry then asks his counsellors the meaning of Hotspur’s withholding from the crown a number of Scottish prisoners recently taken in battle. Westmoreland replies that this apparent disloyalty is not the fault of Hotspur but of his malevolent uncle, Worcester, who has induced Hotspur to “prune himself” and “bristle up/The crest of youth against your dignity.”

B.

King Henry’s unfavourable comparison of Hal’s “riot and dishonour” with the heroic virtues of Hotspur (“the theme of honour’s tongue”) effectively introduces and interests us in the two main characters, even though they have not yet appeared on stage. It also establishes from the very outset the conflict between the King and his son and sets up an important structural feature of the play, the juxtaposed careers of Hal and Hotspur. We are, furthermore, alerted at once to the play’s persistent preoccupation with the theme of “honour.” In this passage, then, Shakespeare has two different young men “bristle up/The crest of youth” against the “dignity” of the King and thus sets in motion at one stroke several of the central dramatic elements of this work.

Reader Response Guide 1

A D V A N C E D P L A C E M E N T E N G L I S H

A R e a d e r R e s p o n s e G u i d e : A B i g L i s t o f Q u e s t i o n sG e n e r a l R e a c t i o n s1. First Reaction: What is your first reaction or response to the piece? Describe or explain it briefly. What have you heard about it or

what do you know about it or bring to it (if anything)? What are you looking forward to in studying it?2. Feelings: What feelings does the piece awaken in you? What emotions do you feel?3. Perceptions: What do you see happening in the piece? Paraphrase it retell the event briefly.4. Visual Images: What image is called to mind by the piece? Describe it briefly.5. Associations: What memory does the piece call to mind of people, places, events, sights, smells, or even of something more

ambiguous, perhaps feelings or attitudes?6. Thoughts, Ideas: What idea or thought is suggested by the piece? Explain it briefly.7. Selection: Upon what in the piece did you focus most intently what word, phrase, image, idea?8. Importance: What is the most important word in the piece? What is the most important phrase or image? What else is important?9. Problems: What is the most difficult word in the piece? What is there in the piece that you have the most trouble understanding?10. Author: What sort of person do you imagine the author to be? Or with what you know about this writer, how the author's is life

and style reflected in the piece?11. Response: How did you respond to the piece emotionally or intellectually? Did you feel involved with the piece or distant from

it? Do you know why?12. Evaluation: Do you think this is a good piece of literature? Why or why not?13. Literary Associations: Does this piece call to mind any other literary work (poem, play, movie, story, novel, or the like)? If it

does, what is the work and what is the connection you see between them?14. Writing: In writing about this piece, upon what would you focus? Would you write about some association or memory, some

aspect of the text itself, about the author or about some other matter?S e t t i n g 15. What is the setting (time, place, environment)? How do you know? What clues of setting are provided? Could the piece be

as effective in another setting? Does the setting play a major role? Is there anything universal about the setting?16. Is there a unity of time and place or does the story change from time to time and from place to place? What is the time

frame?17. Of what similar scenes in other works does the setting remind you?18. What are your feelings about the setting? Would you like to live in this place?19. How does the society/environment of the piece differ from your world? Which world do you prefer? Why?

C h a r a c t e r / C o n f l i c t20. Is the characterization effective?21. Are the characters stereotypes, static, dynamic? Explain.22. Is the character motivation valid?23. Is there a clear protagonist? Explain24. Is there a clear antagonist? Explain25. What are the internal conflicts? How are they resolved?26. What are the external conflicts? How are they resolved?27. Do major characters change in any way in the story?28. Are the characters consistent or do they ever behave in an inconsistent, incredible manner?29. How would you have acted differently from the way any of the characters acted during crucial points in the story?30. Which characters remind you of someone you know? How?31. Which character reminds you of yourself? How?32. Compare a character to another character in literature.33. Discuss a character you admire, like, or dislike. Show why.34. Give reasons for a character's behavior.35. In the form of an autobiographical comment, examine the positive values of a character.36. Write a biographical sketch of a character.37. Speculate about the behavior of one of the major characters. Examine the character's role to support your ideas.38. What do you think were the causes for one or more characters behaving as they do? Why do they behave as they do?39. Respond to questions in the piece about the character.40. Do some of a character's actions parallel others? actions of another character? anything in your own life?41. What are your first impressions about a character? Do these change as you study the piece? How?42. If you could talk to any character, what would you say? Why?


43. Which of the following tell you the most about a character in this piece? What the character does? says or thinks? what others say about the character? how others react to the character? what the author says directly about the character? Support your answer with specific examples.

44. How is a character in this piece responsible for what happens to him or her?45. Write an interior monologue for one character in one scene.46. Choose two characters to compare and contrast.47. Brainstorm, cluster, or map a character.48. Discuss actors appropriate for characters in a film version.49. What is the main problem the protagonist faces? What is his most important decision? Is it a good one?50. What is the source of conflict? Is there more than one conflict?

P l o t & S i t u a t i o n51. Describe the exposition of the piece.52. Discuss major crises in the rising action.53. What is the climax of the story?54. What happens during the falling action? Why is it important?55. Make a diagram of the plot.56. Is there adequate suspense or tension in the story, or does your interest lag? Where? Why?57. Do any of the incidents seem contrived and false?58. How does the plot relate too setting and character?59. What parts are realistic or effective? Why?60. Compare and contrast things that happen in the plot with your own experience or with plot elements in other works.61. Summarize concisely what happens in the plot. (report of information)62. Predict what might happen next. Explain why.63. Comment on the structure of the plot.

T h e m e64. What general truth does the author seem to be stating about human nature?65. Discuss the theme(s) of the piece.66. Do you agree with the author's feelings about humanity?67. Does this work contain a message, lesson, or moral?68. Is the work realistic, naturalistic, romantic, surrealistic, etc.? Explain.69. What is the author's philosophy of life as reflected in the work?70. What is the work's view of the nature of man, the universe, God, society?71. What ideas in the literature remind you of other works?72. How do the ideas and themes of the work remind you of your own life and philosophy?73. Choose a passage you think important and reflect on its meaning. (reflection)74. Discuss an idea or theme you like or dislike in the piece.75. Give your interpretation of one of the themes. (interpretation)76. Argue about ideas presented in the work. (controversial issue)77. Defend the different ideas presented in the work. (controversial issue)78. Explain how you infer a theme from the piece.

S t y l e79. Choose a short passage to analyze for style.80. Write a short passage emulating the style of the work.81. What are the key elements of this author's style? Give examples.82. Compare and contrast this author's style with another's.83. Discuss, using concrete examples, the author's diction.84. Discuss, using concrete examples, the author's syntax.85. Discuss, using concrete examples, the author's use of dialogue.86. Find and discuss effective figures of speech (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, paradox, pun, and the like).87. Find and discuss effective examples of sound patterns (alliteration, consonance, assonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme,

repetition).88. Find and discuss effective examples or patterns of imagery (appeal to the senses).89. Defend the author's choice of point of view. What is it? Why is it effective? What are its limitations?90. What is the author's tone? Is it effective? appropriate? consistent?91. Find examples of symbolism in the piece.92. Discuss the atmosphere and mood of the piece.


93. Discuss the use of irony in the piece. Look for dramatic, verbal, and situational irony.94. Find examples of foreshadowing in the work.95. Find and explain allusions in the work.96. What do you like or dislike about this author's style?97. What is your favorite passage in the work? Copy it and discuss it. Memorize it.

G e n e r a l R e s p o n s e98. From what you know about the work, speculate and make predictions about its outcome. (speculation about effects)99. Interpret an important passage chosen by the teacher. (interpretation)100. List questions about puzzling passages.101. Comment on the relevance of a passage to the present or to your own life.102. Discuss the importance and relevance of the title.103. Disucss the genre (literary type) of the work. Compare and contrast it with other works of the same type.104. Comment on the contents of a passage in relation to its historical context.105. Summarize class discussions. (report of information)106. Evaluate the work as a whole. How do all aspects work together? What doesn't work? (evaluation)107. Reflect on the learning gained from studying this work. (reflection)108. Reflect on the work you have written in your log related to this piece. (reflection)109. What changes would you suggest for this piece?110. What questions would you like to ask the author?111. Write about this work for different audiences.112. What feelings did you experience in your study of this work?113. Write a scene that could be added before, during, or after the work.114. Speculate on what might happen in a sequel or prequel.115. Relate the work to your own life.116. What do you like most about this piece?117. What do you like least about this piece?118. Create your own response item and complete it.119. Create a dialectical journal.120. Create essay test items using the "key" words for essay tests. Answer these or exchange with other students for answers.121. Create "Show Not Tell" telling sentences about the literature and supply the showing detail. Or exchange the telling

sentences for completion by another students. Or supply the showing details for another student to provide the telling sentence. The teacher may assign "Show Not Tell" sentences on aspects of literature for you to complete.

122. Create graphic interpretations of the literature.123. Create audio or visual cassettes related to the literature for presentation in class.124. Create parodies or satires of works.125. Create letters to and from characters or authors. Write an advice letter to a character or author after studying the work.126. Create a children's book from the original or from its themes.127. Would you recommend this work to others? To whom? Why? Do it.128. How have you grown in knowledge or emotion from this work?


1999 AP English: Literature and Composition ExamQuestion 1

Blackberry-picking

Late August, given heavy rain and sunFor a full week, the blackberries would ripen.At first, just one, a glossy purple clotAmong others, red, green, hard as a knot.You ate that first one and its flesh was sweetLike thickened wine: summer's blood was in itLeaving stains upon the tongue and lust forPicking. Then red ones inked up and that hungerSent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-potsWhere briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drillsWe trekked and picked until the cans were full,Until the tinkling bottom had been coveredWith green ones, and on top big dark blobs burnedLike a plate of eyes. Our hands were pepperedWith thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.But when the bath was filled we found a fur,A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.The juice was stinking too. Once off the bushThe fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.I always felt like crying. It wasn't fairThat all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.

Seamus Heaney

Sample M

In the poem “Blackberry-Picking” the author, Seamus Heaney, uses several literary devices such as similes, near rhyme, imagery & diction to convey his emotions on blackberry-picking. His poem also reveals that Heaney has a greater understanding beyond that of the literal act of picking blackberries.

Heaney’s use of imagery stimulates the reader to the point of visualizing the blackberries in their own hands, “a glossy purple clot” as well as “Leaving stains on the tongue” are examples of imagery used to convey a sense of “realness” for the reader. Similes used in this poem are used to stimulate the reader’s senses. “...Sweet like thicked wine (line 5-6) and “Our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s (line 16) serve to arouse the senses & give the illusion as participating in the event.

The poet’s word choice is what sets up the great contrast between the stanzas. Words like “lust” and “that hunger” as well as “Summer’s blood” convey a Primitive force driving the actions of the children in the summer. The second stanza’s diction moves from the Primitive, “hoarded” (line 17) to a more sobering one. The Children see the fruits of their labor wasted & gone, “and this reveals a more saddening tone. “Stinking” (line 20) & “glutting” (line 19) convey a sense of anger that just like every other yr. their harvest of Blackberries has been tainted. The sweetness & beauty that they desired so was taken from them.


The Poet reveals in line 24 that he knew the fruits would rot. This is a direct statement about life, that the poet knows “they will never keep” b/c he knows that things such as rotting and death is inevitable & with that pair also is inevitable as seen in line 22 with “I always felt like crying.” This same statement also makes the reader feel sympathy for the poet.

Through the use of literary devices Heaney allows the reader not only peek at a personal experience in his life, but also what he has learned from that experience.

Sample CC

In Seamus Heaney’s poem Blackberry-Picking, the intensity of the reminiscense along with the powerful literary elements included present the reader with a blackberry-picking experience that truly transcends the physical surroundings. through form, word choice, imagery, and rhyme the author conveys what a powerful and moving experience nature can be.

Vivid imagery allows the reader to be fully drawn into the realm of blackberry picking. The author’s use of color and lush detail allow for a clear mental picture. Seamus Heaney describes the blackberries, once ripened, as “a glossy purple clot,” (line 3), or even “red, green, hard as a knot” (ln 4). Perhaps the passage of time does have an effect upon the berries, varying their colors an textures. The physical description of the eating of a blackberry is nearly sensuous, the berries themselves tasting “like thickened wine” (ln 6), or as “blood” (ln 6). The metaphoric comparison of blood to the blackberries implies a “lust” (7) for the “stains” (7) left behind. Perhaps, though, it is only a symbol of the pleasure of blackberry picking itself. The description of different containers such as “milk cans, pea tins, and jam pots” (9) serves to draw the reader further into the experience of berry picking. The poem incorporates many sensory elements such as color, sight, taste and texture, the details engulfing the reader. Seamus Heaney mentions that the berry’s “flesh was sweet” (5), and the narrator and his companion’s hands were “peppered with thorn pricks” (16) by the sticky berries which are much akin to blood. Later, once he has conveyed the pleasure of picking the berries, he tells of his later disappointment through his description of “a rat-grey fungus” (19), and “fermenting” fruit (21). The “flesh would turn sour” (21) and “smelt of rot” (23), conveying the narrator’s disappointment that the passage of time had taken the pleasure out of the blackberries, if only until “late August” (1) of “each year” (24). The lush word choice shows the reader how much pleasure the narrator takes in berry picking.

The author makes use of rhyming couplets of asort, with the last syllables of the sentence essentially rhyming. The irregularities in the rhyme only serve to draw the reader’s attention to the most important parts. In the last paragraph, “byre” (17) and “fur” (18) can be spoken to rhyme, though the next four lines are not even close to rhyming. Yet the poem’s final two lines, the final couplet, has perfect rhyme between “rot” (23) and “not” (24). This is to underscore the meaning of the poem itself. There is no pleasure without pain and disappointment, yet the rotting of the berries is only a temporary setback until the next year, the next August. The narrator himself realizes that the berries would not last, yet he still hopes they will remain year after year.

The form of this poem is mostly rhyming couplets broken into two paragraphs. The first paragraph provides the reader with an adequately lush, sensory description of the pleasure of collecting the sweet berries. The second paragraph relays to the reader the narrator’s growing sense of disappointment and misplaced hope that time would not take its toll on his “cache” (19) of blackberries, the remainder rotting because of his greed and desire to take too much, and his inability to prevent time from having its way with the berries and their “stinking” (20) juice. This and the diction made use of allow the reader to experience the pleasure (“sweet flesh” (5)), pain (“thorn pricks” (16)), hope, and disapointment of the narrator. The statement “Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not,” (24) demonstrates how much the narrator truly loved the sensation & the hope that blackberry picking permitted him, and underscores the meanings that you cannot run from time, but you can repeat what has been done in the past to reaffirm that pleasant and hopeful experience.

The author writes this poem not only to tell of blackberry picking, but to tell of the sweetness of hope in the hopeless. His colorful and powerful choices of words and structure draw the reader’s attention to his


true meaning, and his feeling that although time destroys all things, people can look back in retrospect on the good times or even repeat the experience to recapture feelings that have passed.

Sample F

The blackberry picking is depicted as being fun and adventurous. The pickers couldn’t get enough or their fill so they used just about anything they could find to store the blackberries. For example, in line 8 and 9 they use milk cans, pea tins, and jam pots. You could tell they loved doing it by lines 5 and 6 and also 7 and 8, when it causes them to lust for picking. The author uses great imagery to describe the taste of the berries. For example, he uses words like stains, lust, inked up, glossy, and thickened wine. He also used the simile “its flesh was sweet like thickened wine,” which makes the reader go out and pick their own blackberries.

Sample I

In “Blackberry-Picking”, Seamus Heaney shares with the reader an important yearly event of his childhood. Not only can we picture the narrator picking berries, we can feel the emotion that accompanied this exciting time of year.

The poem begins as the berries begin to ripen and we sense that the narrator has been anxiously awaiting this occurance. “At first, just one,” we are told, emphasizing how much waiting was involved. “You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet.” The first berry of the season was one to be savoured. Its wonderful flavor left a “lust for picking.”

As the poem continues, it becomes clear that blackberry picking was not only a part of summer, it was summer. The first months were spent waiting. The end was fill with nothing but berries. They filled the narrator’s time as well as they filled his stomac. Tasting the first one, we are told, “summer’s blood was in it.” In that blackberry was what kept the summer alive. The juice circulated through the summer and we know that without it, summer would die.

At the end of the poem, we learn that the gatherd hoard of berries could not last. Despite the narrator’s continual hope that the berries could be saved, “the sweet flesh would turn sour” and “all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.”

Heaney tells us, through this poem, that the berries, an annual symbol of summer, can not last year round. Although it seems unfair, if they didn’t rot and we weren’t deprived of that “thickened wine”, we would not miss them. The anticipation and excitement would be lost. With them would go the joy of picking and the wonderful sensation of biting in to that first berry. Not only in the enjoyment of berries, but all things are appreciated more when we have been deprived of them. This poem is a clear reminder that, “success is counted sweetest by those who n’er succeed!”

Sample U

Many times a poet describes a literal situation while implying a deeper meaning. In Seamus Heaney’s “Blackberry –Picking,” diction and imagery, figurative language, and form convey a literal description of picking blackberries as well as a deeper understanding of the whole experience.

Heaney uses descriptive diction to create images of the blackberry-picking experience. The “glossy purple clot,” in the midst of “others, red, green, hard...,” embodies the excitement of the ritual experience. The speaker enjoys literally picking the blackberries and tasting “that first one,” but it is also a reflection upon childhood innocence and past memories. The images the author creates through words such as “inked up,” “hunger,” and “briars scratched and wet grass bleached” reveal the aspects of blackberry-picking that remain imprinted in the speaker’s mind. The “sweet” flesh, “stains upon the tounge,” and “lust” for gathering the sacred berries all create vivid images of how the blackberries literally and figuratively transform the speaker. The speaker “trekked” for and “hoarded” the berries just as he returns to the scene in the memory he holds so dear. The berries “stain” his tounge just as they stain his memory.


Figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, contributes to both the literal and deeper descriptions of the blackberry-picking ritual. The berries embody the summer experience of the speaker just as they have “summer’s blood” in them. They are personified through this description, bringing them to life with the blood just as the speaker brought to life each year as blackberry-picking season arrives. The berries are “sweet like thickened wine” just as the enjoyment and memory of the experience is sweet to the speaker. The berries on top of the cans are “big dark blobs” that burn “like a plate of eyes. The overall meaning of the experience is burned into the mind of the speaker and he looks back in positive reflection.

Finally, the form of the poem helps Heaney convey a literal description of blackberry-picking as well as a deeper understanding of the whole experience. The point of view of the poem is first person, allowing the reader introspect into the mind and memory of the speaker and his experiences. The poem’s structure is two stanzas, the first discussing the actual picking and the second discussing the consequences and reactions following. In the second stanza, the blackberries go sour just as the experience soured as the summer ended each year. The speaker enjoyed the experience and the blackberries immensely. Therefore, he hoped each year that the blackberries wouldn’t rot and the summer wouldn’t end. The lines also reflect the speaker’s wish to hold onto his innocence within the confines of blackberry-picking season. He realizes, however, that, just as the blackberries spoil, all good things must come to an end and he must move on with his life.

Sample C

As summer breathes its hot breath onto the young, so does the mysticism and haunting call of berry picking. Seamus Heaney vividly portrays this summer pasttime in his poem “Blackberry-Picking”. By integrating short, choppy sentences with flowery language and images, the rush of picking berries and the naive greed reminds the reader of one’s summer excursions.

“At first, just one, a glossy purple clot/among others, red, green, hard as a knot.” (3-4) Seamus creates the speaker to be of an adult looking back on past fun. The short, choppy sentences are examples of a child’s detatched, visually oriented lifestyle. The diction and voice as quoted describe the rush of berry harvesting and the accompanying glory of the first sampling of the season. The rushed rhyth of the piece denotes the greed of youth during the passionate summer heat. The speaker describes summer as a time of change over all who answer the “Heavy rain and sun” and retreat to the “Hayfields, cornfields and potato drills” for an experience long waited for and slow in coming.

“That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot./Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.” (23-24) The use of a lacadaisical rhyme scheme aids in describing the naivette of youth and the perpetual misunderstanding that some things will live forever. Every two lines impressively end with the same consonant, but as to whether the two words rhyme is simply random, just as a child’s mind tends to opperate As with a child, outcomes and beginnings are never aknowledged together. The speaker (whether child or adult) builds this vision of blackberries to an almost mystical, magical state, the fruits of heaven. But as the summer draws on, both imaginings and realities meet—for the berries must soon go bad. As the youth mature, so does the interperatation that “all good things must come to an end.” And so, greed has its consequences. To gorge on both berries and life ultimately leads to the building of this wanton taste for next year’s harvest.

Sample H

In the poem “Blackberry-Picking”; the poet provides the reader with a vivid description of his experience of picking berries. He describes literaly picking berries through the use of imagery. Not only does poet tell of the physical characteristics of the experience, but also he shares the deeper emotional elements of it by symbolism.

The imagery used provides the poem with a sense of realism. In lines 4-16, the most vivid images are used. The stains upon the tongue in line 7 and the briars scratching and wet grass bleaching boots in line


10 are examples of this. The poet’s use of imagery allows the reader visualize the environment and physical qualities of his experience.

The reader can realize the deeper emotional element of the poet’s experience by his use of symbolism. The blackberries which have ripened may themselves symbolize the fading summer. The poem begins in late August, and the poet describes the berries as containing the ‘summer’s blood’ in line 6. His sadness at the spoiling of the berries may also have been his indication that summer was dying, fading.

Question #1

Sample M 6Sample CC 9Sample F 2Sample I 4Sample U 7Sample C 5Sample H 3


Sample CC

In the excerpt from The Crossing, by Cormac McCarthy, a third-person narrator depicts the actions of a man who is carrying a dead wolf. Throughout the passage, the point-of-view shifts somewhat to reveal the emotional impact of the wolf’s death upon the man. References to God and religious imagery intensify the meaning of the wolf’s death and force the man to confront the power of life.

At first, the narrator focuses on the man’s action, characterizing the man by his actions rather than by his thoughts or observations. There are many run-on sentences, using “and” to constantly describe his motions as he sets up camp. The narrator strays away from his actions only once in the first paragraph when describing the cries of the coyotes. The story is told in the present tense and long sentences so that the reader is actively involved, unable to step back from the story. The language is not highly descriptive, just straight forward in relaying the man’s actions.

However, in the second paragraph, the narrator begins deviating from the straight forward story-telling. The forked sticks steaming in the firelight are transformed into a religious image with the simile “like a burning scrim. . . where celebrants of some sacred passion had been carried off by rival sects or . . . fled into the night at the fear of the own doing.” There is an implication here that the man is responsible for the death of the wolf in “the fear of their own doing.” This religious thought causes the man to shiver and pull the blanket tighter about him, perhaps in fear of the night.

When the man falls asleep, he is like “some dozing penitent” and his hands are “palm up,” more religious images, as if he is in supplication to God. The coyotes are calling again. They were described earlier as having cries which “seemed to have no origin other than the night itself.” Thus, the coyotes and the night are joined together to symbolize the man’s guilt and regret for his actions. The night surrounds him; the “yapping” of the coyotes plague him. His actions also reflect his sympathy and regret for the wolf—he closes her eyes with his thumb, a sign of respect for the dead. He puts his hands to her forehead and imagines her alive—accompanied by “starlight” and the “sun’s coming”, dispelling the night / his regret. The language here is descriptive, upbeat even; in contrast to the simple, unelaborate diction of before. The wolf is seen as one of “all nations of the possible world ordained by God.” Her running freely causes “the cries of the coyotes” to clap “shut as if a door had closed upon them.”

He holds her and his guilt is expiated somewhat. He is confronted by life, which is “at once terrible and of a great beauty, like flowers that feed on flesh.” The personification and alliteration in describing flowers that eat flesh creates a terrible and striking visual image. The narrator shifts to a first-person plural


point of view, interpreting the events and their meaning. Life is described, a power is described and compared to wind and rain in its shaping of the earth. The diction becomes more fast paced, clauses piled upon sentences in trying to describe the indescribable. The man has confronted this power in the death of the wolf—this power “which cannot be held and is no flower but is swift and a huntress and the wind itself is in terror of it and the world cannot lose it.” The power is personified and nature is personified as all things, even humans, are equal before this power.

The hint of the religious nature of the power is alluded to earlier by the religious imagery. Similes and metaphors are utilized in attempting to convey the description of the man’s experience. His actions are no longer of importance—it is only this power. The sentences lose their strict order, becoming only fragments of sentences, subjects without verbs. The power which the man has encountered in the loss of the life of the wolf forces him to come to terms with the immense meaning of life, God’s creation, and the “rich matrix of creatures”—the connection between all things.

Sample K

A writer seeks to convey a dramatic experience by using word choice, imagery and tone to cause the reader to feel emotion toward the character in the piece. The emotion a reader feels is a product of the impact that the writer’s techniques have. In The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy techniques of word choice, imagery and tone are used in 3 ways to convey the main character’s experience. He creates a setting of images, then a personal connection, and ends with an almost spiritual closing; all concerning a man and a wolf.

McCarthy’s setting of the cold and lonely mountain plains is conveyed with words such as “escarpments,” “grassy swale” “rim lands” and “wilderness.” These are the bases for the imagery created by phrases like, “Coyotes were yapping along the hills. . . and were calling from . . . the rimlands above him where their cries seemed to have no origin other than the night itself.” McCarthy gives a picture to the reader of the campsite hastily set up and the firelight that flickers in the dark. The images then set the tone of his piece—somber and whispering like the grasses, lonely and mournful like the howl of the coyote. The reader now sits alone on the prairie, with the mountains somewhere in the distance, watching the man, and the dead wolf.

After the setting is established, McCarthy makes the personal connection between the main character and the subject of his conflict—the dead wolf. Words such as “cradled,” and his use of “fur” rather than “coat” or “pelt” suggest his feeling for the animal. McCarthy creates images of happier times and the grief that the main character feels with phrases such as “He cradled the wolf in his arms and lowered her to the ground,” and “he sat by her and put his hand down on her bloodied forehead and closed his own eyes that he could see her running in the mountains . . .” the tone is that of reminiscence, sorrowful and sad.

Finally, McCarthy gives a spiritual account of the character’s feelings. His word choice and imagery change from particular to broad spectrum—“what blood and bone are made of but can themselves not make on any altar nor by any wound of war.” He gives the image that a soul has been released, and that once again the wolf is free somewhere—“But which cannot be held never be held and is no flower but is swift and a huntress and the wind itself in terror of it and the world cannot lose it.” His tone is now noble, almost triumphant in the shadow of cold death.

Cormac McCarthy uses tone, word choice and imagery in his novel The Crossing in 3 ways to convey the impact of a dramatic experience upon his readers, and throughout the course of the journey, the reader feels the impact completely.

Sample Z

The main character in McCarthy’s, The Crossing, is greatly afflicted by the death of a wolf which he carries with him to bury. The tone, established in the first paragraph, is almost weary. The main character goes through the action of setting up camp, but his mind and heart are not in it. In line 4 he “dropped the reins”, and in line 8-9 “he walked the horse back to the creek and left it standing.” His thoughts are


somewhere else and the scene is almost surreal, as shown by the imagery of “their cries seemed to have no origin other than the night itself.” (lines 13-14) He also falls asleep from both physical and mental exertion.

Upon waking, his thoughts automatically go to the wolf. His thoughts are remorseful as he realizes “the coyotes were still calling all along the stone ramparts of the Pilares,” and if the wolf was still alive, “where she ran the cries of the coyotes would have clapped shut . . . . and all was fear and marvel.” His thoughts meander on and he mulls over what it is that makes the wolf who she is—what the essence of her is. The syntax of lines 57-64 helps convey the steady stream of his thought—almost as if one thought runs into another, as shown by unpunctuated, run-on-sentences.

In the end, he comes to a spiritual reaffirmation that the essence, or spirit, of the wolf is indomitable. It goes on, as shown b lines 61-64. “But which can never be held, . . . and the world cannot lose it.”

Sample RRR

The longing to hold the spark present in life but forever lost in death is a common yearning. The idea of a permanent loss seems impossible. Through McCarthy’s manipulations, the reader realizes the persona’s yearning for what can never be: the return of the past.

Diction such as “stiff” and “cold” make the reader realize the wolf is already dead. The persona cradles her gently as if she were sleeping. “Yapping” refers to the coyotes cries which seem to be more annoying than dangerous. By describing the teeth of the wolf as “cold” and “perfect,” the author is trying to stress how creatures seem unchanged even in death. “Fear” and “marvel” express the theme of the passage which set the mood.

Mood is probably the most stressed element of the passage. The references of blood and coldness add to the idea of death. The fact that it is dark and coyotes are yapping but there seems to be no origin heigthen the feeling of surrounding danger. The waiting for dawn in order to bury the wolf adds a sense of pathos for the persona for having to endure such a feat. When the persona wakes up and it is “still dark”, the reader may perceive this as a way of being able to recapture the past since death is dark and no thing’s changed. The mood adds to the helplessness of the persona to his situation.

Through the use of flashbacks, the reader can perceive how active and essential the wolf was to nature. The running in the mountains and the rich matrix of creatures express how carefree and unbound the wolf had once been. Now, she’s bound by death and can never be released. The persona recognizes this and wishes to return things as they once had been yet it’s impossible. Death is irreversible and it must just be accepted rather than denied.

The persona, at first, seems to just realized the wolf is dead. As the knowledge sets in, the persona seems to care more about the wolf. When reflecting on her life, he views her former purpose in life and longs to view her in such beauty. He cradles her head once more and closes her eyes to prolong the peaceful moment just a while longer.

Sample I

Spending time in a natural environment often brings people closer to nature. The character in the passage from The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy has an experience which affects him in this way. He tends to the body of a dead wolf while camping outside overnight and feels a connection to this animal.

The narrator of the passage is not the man who has this experience but an omniscient third person narrator. He describes the setting, the man’s actions, and the man’s thoughts. The sentence structure McCarthy employs reflects this understanding of what the man thinks and feels. In the second paragraph, the sentence which begins “He got the fire going” is a run-on; it continues without punctuation, describing the man’s procedure for preparing for bed, for nine lines. That there is not s much as a comma to separate these actions suggests that the man is not particularly concerned with them; he does not regard each one as


significant because he is focused on the wolf. A later noticably long sentence in lines forty to forty-seven also reflects his preoccupation with this animal, by in a different way. This sentence also lacks punctuation (though it does contain one comma), and therefore a break in thought, but it is about the wolf. The man feels so tied to it that he thinks about it at length, first reaching out to it physically (he “put his hand upon her bloodied forehead”) and then mentally (“he could see her running in the mountains”). Just as the reader is connected to the man because the narrator conveys his thoughts, the man is connected to the wolf because he believes he understands its thoughts.

McCarthy writes that the wolf “was one among and not separate from” “all nations of the possible world.” In this statement, he conveys the connection between all of the creatures on earth. He uses other methods to reinforce this idea as well. The narrator’s initial descriptions of the man and wolf, for example, are similar. The man’s “trousers were stiff with blood” and the wolf is “stiff...with the blood dried upon it (her fur).” The repitition of this detail links the two beings. The meaning of this connection between all living things is signifacant to the man in terms of his link to the wolf; though the horse does move to “the edge of the fire,” where the man and wolf lie, when the man makes up he “could not see” the horse and instead focuses on the wolf. He is aware of the coyotes’ presence as well but the noise they make seems to “have no origin other than the night itself”; they are not with him while the wolf is physically close.

.The conclusion of the passage, though obviously related through the narrator, clearly relate to the

main character’s feelings regarding his situation. Holding the head of the dead wolf to which he feels so close causes him to consider what he is searching for in holding a lifeless body. The man seems to be upset, as the narrator portrays what seem to be the protagonist’s thoughts in sentence fragments. McCarthy repeats the word “What” at the beginning of two sentences and one clause, marking an attempt to deal with the idea of the wolf’s spirit, an intangible presence which he does not name.

Sample Y

McCarthy is able to convey the impact of the experience on the main character in this passage. He does this by creating a dark and lonely scene and by greatly describing everything

To begin with McCarthy sets the scene. It takes place in an isolated forest at night. The main character is alone and is carring a dead wolf. The main character build a small fire. By having him alone in the cold darkness the author sets a lonely, dim, bleak outlook.

The author also describes the main character’s actions. This show that he must have a strong attachment to the wolf by the way that he nurtures it so. He washes the blood out of the animal’s fur and wraps it up in a blanket. This shows how much remorse is in the main character.

Towards the end of the passage it seems as though the main character feels hopeless. The death of the wolf made him realize things about the world. The main character realizes what he thought had the power to good in the world is what really caused the terror

To explain the impact of the experiences on the main character, McCarthy used these techniques. He carefully described everything including the setting. He created the setting to be dark, lonely and cold to help the reader feel the way that the main character did. These are a couple of the techniques that McCarthy used.

Sample D

In the selection from The Crossing, author Carmac McCarthy uses a third-person narrative to show how the related experience makes an impact on the main character. McCarthy never gets into the character’s head or relates his thoughts directly to the reader, but through his use of imagery and detailed description of the meticulous actions of the man, he conveys to the reader the sense of the man’s quiet sense of loss and intangibility of the powers of a beautiful natural creature.


From the very beginning, the reader gets a sense of the care with which the main character handles his cargo, a dead and bloodied she-wolf. It is not quite dawn when we meet him “cradling the wolf” in his arms. She is wrapped in a sheet that is covered in blood, as are his trousers. He “lifts” the wolf out of the sheet and places her on the ground with the utmost care and tenderness. This is all done silently. In fact the only sound that the reader is made aware of is the “yapping” of coyotes in the hills, but other than that it is as quiet as a cemetery or a church.

Without the use of any dialogue, McCarthy describes the character’s isolation. He is cold and shivering in the dark, even moreso when he wakes up to find that his horse is gone, although he doesn’t seem to mind much. From the beginning of the passage, the reader feels that the character has a specific task—which we later find out is to bury the wolf. But he falls asleep to wait for dawn, with his “hands up before him like a dozing penitent.” This suggests that he is doing this out of “penitence,” out of a desire for a catharsis, and relief.

The greatest impact on the main character seems to come in the third paragraph. The first thing he does, before looking for his horse, is that he reaches over to the wolf and touches her fur, her eyes, and her “cold and perfect teeth.” He closes her dead eyes, and then closes his own, so that he can imagine her in her once-glorious natural state, “running in the mountains.” He imagines her as a queen or goddess of sorts, for whom all other wild animals are “richly empaneled on the air,” though she feels that she is one of them. He reaches for her and wants to see and understand the thing of “beauty and terror” that he holds. He feel obviously humbled by the fact that he cannot, nor will he ever be able to, grasp the power and “swiftness” of the wolf, the now-dead “huntress.”

This is not at all passive description, though the main character never says anything explicitly, he acts with such tender, humble, affection toward the dead she-wolf, that the impact that it has on him cannot be missed. He wants to be part of a world that is glorious and natural and all-inclusive, and that is not a desire to be taken lightly.

Sample X

In McCarthy’s novel, the narrator describes how a man deals with the death of a part of nature, a wolf. The main character feels compassion for this animal and handles her corpse very gently. He obviously has a lot of respect for this animal if he took the time to travel with its body and search for a place to bury it. His actions suggest that he feels personal loss in that he “cradled” her in his arms and “lowered” her to the ground. These words give the reader a sense of gentleness.

The most intense point in the passage comes when dawn breaks and the man squats over her and “touched her fur.” This is another example of how careful he was with her body. He then closes her still open eyes out of respect and visualizes what her life must have been like. He can “see” her “running in the mountains, running in the starlight” and describes her as being one of the creatures of the “rich matrix” of nature and “not seperate from.” After the meditation, he takes her head in his arms and tries to understand and capture her essence as a huntress and free spirit, but he “reached to hold cannot be held.” The cries of the coyotes in the passage also help create the mournful tone. They seem to be crying over the loss of one of their own.

Finally, the passage seems to give a sense of hope by adding that “the world cannot lose” this kind of freedom. Even though her body is dead, her spirit lives in all of nature.

Question #2

Sample CC 9Sample K 6Sample Z 3Sample RRR 5Sample I 7Sample Y 2


Sample D 8Sample X 4


Sample RR

In Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, Williams creates a character in Tom Wingfield who struggles to choose between two things—his sister Laura and his personal freedom. Tom, who is also the narrator of the play—struggles with this choice throughout the entire play, and finally becomes so agitated at his mother’s nagging, that he chooses his personal freedom.

In the opening scene of the play, Tom, his mother Amanda, his sister Laura are having dinner. The nagging behavior of his mother can be seen in the first few pages. The argument over how he chews his peas shows how incompatible Tom and Amanda are. Yet there is one thing they do have in common: they both love Laura very much. This love is manifested in different ways. Amanda wants Laura to be married to a nice man or find a job a secretary, even if it’s not what Laura wants. By doing this she often unintentionally makes Laura feel inferior to her mother by telling stories of gentlemen-callers. Tom on the other hand, does not care what Laura does as long as it is what she wants. Tom is also caught up in the fact that he is the main income-provider or the family. Amanda does sell magazine subscriptions by the phone, but they would not be able to afford their apartment without Jim’s pay from the shoe factory.

One night, upon Amanda’s nagging, Jim brings home a friend from work to meet Laur. To Laura’s initial horror and eventual pleasure, the friend turns out to be Jim O’Conner, whom she had a high school crush on. Upon the revelation that Jim was engaged, Amanda becomes furious and implicates Tom in a trick play on Laura. Tom had no previous knowledge of the engagement yet Amanda will not believe him. During this argument, he leaves. He had already planned to leave, saving up his money instead of paying bills. Yet it seems likely that he was still thinking about his options. After his departure he appears again as the narrater and gives his famous quote “Blow out your cadles, Laura!” He will never forget about her and he will always love her.

By creating a two-way struggle in Tom Wingfield’s head, he makes the play remain alive and dynamic Without this internal conflict that is manifested externally, the play would not have had the same effect as it did.

Sample S

In Gustave Flaubert’s novel, Madame Bovary, the character of Charles Bovary is pulled by the two conflicting forces of his love for his wife, Emma, and his sense of practicality. He is eventually won over by his love for Emma, and it leads to his ruin. Emma is the epitomy of the Romantic, and Charles’ demise because of her is a strong support for Flaubert’s argument against Romanticism, which is a major theme in the book.

One symbol of the practical side of Charles’ nature is his mother, the elder Madame Bovary. She was the most influential person in his life until he met Emma and she dictated his actions in a way that would ensure his professional (and therefore financial) success. He followed her orders until Emma came into his life and began demanding that they lay themselves in the lap of luxury, much to the chagrin of the elder Madame Bovary. The elder Mme. B’s criticism of Emma to Charles often represents his own qualms about his wife’s conduct. Unfortunately for everyone involved, he is so consumed with love for his wife that he is able to give her free rein of their finances, a move that leads to their eventual bankruptcy. The bankruptcy is one example of the results of a flaw in Romantic behavior.

Although Charles is being slowly won over by the Romantic in his wife, she sees him only as a prig. This view leads to two extra marital affairs on her part. The irony of the situation is that, after Emma’s death, Charles becomes the perfect Romantic lover: he is obsessed with thoughts of her and even keeps a


lock of her hair. Once he has become the Romantic she wanted him to be, however, he is killed by it. He dies of grief when he discovers the evidence left behind from her affairs.

Although Flaubert’s novel is titled Madame Bovary, Flaubert both begins and ends the story with accounts of Charles Bovary. Perhaps he did this because Charles is the character who best illustrates Flaubert’s point. The conflict between his dual senses of practicality and Romanticism is what best expresses this point.

Sample PP

The heronie of Leo Tolstoy’s celebrated novel Anna Karenina is full of conflicting emotion. Torn between her passions and her obligations, she finds herself a victim of the blind man of death. Anna’s mutiple goals and dreams conflict as she struggles to find a balance of her desires. Anna needs to learn order to fulfill her desires, she must let go of her obligations. However, unlike Nora’s walk out of her Doll’s house, Anna finds herself in a hopeless situation.

Anna, a member of the Russian aristocratic society, has many obligations. First and foremost, she needs to retain a respectable position as the wife of Moscow official Allxey Karenin. She is to remain an object of affection, her beautiful black hair and dresses a representation of her high-class status. Anna also has the additional responsibility of raising her son Seryozha. The top priority of her life, Seryozha becomes a center part of her conflict with her passion. Her motherly instinct drives her into a very difficult situation.

Anna’s difficuties rest in her desires. She yearns to be with the man she loves, Vronsky. She craves escape from the judgemental views of the prim high class that declares her a fallen woman and the disapproval of Betsy Tervesky and Lydia Ivanonva. All Anna truly craves is a happiness in love which Levin, in constrast, has recieved.

Tolstoy, a religious man who intepreted the Gospels, used Anna’s downfall constrasted with Levin’s simple piety to deliever the message of his work. A warning is issued to not follow the path of conflicting desires or fate will weave itself into the path of an oncoming train. Anna begins the novel in high-status and digresses; Levin elevates himself and finds love and happiness. Anna’s complex nature and interfereing desires serves as a cataylst to her downfall.

Sample B

The character Micheal Henchard best portrays a character whose mind is pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires. In the begining of the Mayor of Casterbridge, Henchard chooses to drink hevivily rather than support his wife and child as a husband and a father. The end result was the loss of his family through a bet and a shame he would have to live with.

The conflict of desire and duty is a present theme throughout the continuation of the novel. It is again present in the decision of Micheal’s wife on whether or not to tell Micheal the truth about their daughter. The work in itself addresses these parallel events to comment on the morality and right thing to do in decision-making. Although, the entire episode stems from the initial conflict within Micheal. He chose the wrong path and this in turn brought more pain for him in the end. Similar to the begining of the novel Micheal is left alone for the remainder of his life.

Sample H

The character of Marlow in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness makes his way through many harrowing events during his stay in the African jungle. While there, he refines his own identity, telling the reader of Conrads theories on life. A turning point in the story is when Marlow finally mets Kurtz, a man renown in the jungle for getting things done. Though he still gets things done, the anonimintiy of life in the jungle has taken it’s toll on Kurtz and he has come to believe himself to be a god of the African tribe who has adopted him. Kurtz dies there in Africa, only realizing at the very end what a horror he has become, and leaving Marlow to deliver his personal effects. Out in the civilized world Kurtz has a fiancee, refered


to only as The Intended. This woman is a picture of white perfection, she is beautiful, refined, and civialized, a foil of the African woman Kurtz took for a bride in the jungle. The Intended is portrayed in images of dark and light, she does not want to and will not hear of what Kurtz became in the jungle. Marlow know this, and yet he must tell her something. One of Conrad’s themes is that of the importance of the truth, Marlow is a character who makes a point of not lying, but with Kurtz’s Intended he finds he must lie, he cannot tell this ideal woman of the monster her love became. When she askes what his dying words were Marlow says they were of her, ironicly implying that the Intended is a horror. However with those words Marlow also becomes a horror by betraying himself and all he feels he stands for.

Sample AA

In many plays or novels there is a character whose mind is pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, obligations, or influences. This is the case in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. Paul D, the love of the novel’s protagonist, Sethe’s, life is torn between the need to suppress his past experiences which he keeps tucked away in “the tobacco tin lodged in his heart,” and his new found desire to unburden himself, and start a new life with his love, Sethe.

Paul D had spent many years on the Sweet Home plantation in Kentucky as a slave to a brutal master called Schoolteacher. Paul D had longed to feel like a man, instead of a caged up animal. He often longed to be like a rooster named Mister who was a part of life on the plantation. To Paul D. “mister, he looked so free,” The irony that Paul D had to look to an animal as a model of freedom, and the fact that he wanted to be his own man, soon lead him away from Sweet Home—where he had watched most of his friends and family die right before his eyes. Paul D had spent years in a prison camp in Georgia, and it wasn’t until he had escaped, that he had found himself a free man. He was now a wanderer. No Place to call home, no one to love, no one to love him—all he had was his manhood—and the pain that life had dealt him had been stored away “in the black hole where his heart should have been”. Paul D’s tobacco tin signified his suppressed emotions, his lack of stability, his weakened spirit, and his fragile sense of manhood. His tin had rusted shut and he did not want to have to reveal its contents to anyone.

However, the strength of Paul D’s character was tested upon his being reunited with another former sweet home slave, Sethe. Paul D felt the lid of his tobacco tin slowly opening throughout the time that he had been with Sethe. His hard past didn’t seem to matter to her, and hers to him either. She didn’t care that the “longest he had ever stayed in one place was two years—with a weaver lady in Delaware.” For her he tried to be a father for her reserved daughter Denver, and he even put up with their strange house guest, Beloved, whom Sethe developed an incredible attachment to. Sethe felt that Paul D was the one for her—until he left unexpectedly after his tempation got the better of him, and Beloved had “opened the contents of his tobacco tin and exposed “his red, red heart”.

Paul D seperated himself for awhile after finding out some horrifying news from Sethe’s past. He felt that he could no longer trust her, that he didn’t know who she really was; and that once again he was a lonely, shattered man. It wasn’t until a talk with an older and wiser man, Stamp Paid, that Paul D could look inside himself and face his two conflicting forces head on: his need to feel like a man, to keep his guard up for everyone, to save himself from pain; and his undying love and the sense of commitment he felt towards Sethe.

Paul D eventually went back to Sethe’s side in her time of need. He ultimately felt that he could be vulnerable enough to be loved, and strong enough to be the man that she needed. Paul D’s inner struggle in Beloved, serves to illuminate the meaning of the novel as a whole. Through a difficult past, Paul D rose above his own expectations of himself, to find his own true identity, and to conquer his fear of showing that identity to others. He put love before temptation, forgiveness above fear, and demonstrated Toni Morrisons theme, that out of darkness there comes hope.

Sample T

In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character, Huck Finn, helps a runaway-slave, Jim, escape down the Mississippi River. The main conflict in this novel deals with the


oppossing morals of society and the individual, and Huck Finn is torn by obligations to both. The society of Huck’s hometown holds that it is wrong for a slave to excape and by helping Jim, Huck is just a “sinful” as “those abolitionists.”

Huck wavers back and forth throughout the novel, condemning his own actions while still going through with them. Finally, Huck even decides to follow his own heart, even if he will be sent to ell. Although the reader understands that Huck is actually choosing the correct decision in helping Jim, the fact that he decides to help when all he has ever been taught by society tells him he is wrong is a championship of the struggle of the individual against conformity.

Sample III

Ceremony is Leslie Marmon Silko’s coming-of-age novel of a Native American man who must confront his ethnic heritage in order to mature and discover purpose in life. Tayo, the main character, must deal with two conflicting obligations and influences. His first obligation is to his Native-American heritage, as his family members urge him to keep the ceremonies alive. He is also obligated to protect himself, from friends, haunting memories, and authorities. The conflict between these obligations in Tayo’s life are eventually resolved by his ability to integrate past and present, illuminating the theme that it is necessary to draw on one’s past to resolve the problems of today. Silko illustrates this meaning through the character of Ts’eh and her actions, through the integration of myths, stories, songs, and poems into the novel, and by emphasizing the Native American view of time as circular in nature.

Tayo’s character is best described as conflicted. He must cope with flashbacks and nightmares from the Vietnam War, and is hospitalized for his mental problems. For a time he turns to alcohol as a release from his problems, and Silko uses this experience as an opportunity to represent the problems on an Indian Reservation, especially alcoholism.

With help from Josiah and Medicine Men, Tayo begins to learn more about his ethnic heritage and begins to feel the obligation to participate in the Laguna Pueblo ceremonies. However, Tayo is hesitant to commit himself to the influences of the past, and often escapes by drinking and picking up women with his friends. These experiences develop into his other obligation, to protect himself from friends who turned against him. The only influence that Tayo does commit to is Ts’eh, the woman he met after being beaten by white ranch hands. He spends a summer with her, living in a cave and learning important traditions from her. She teaches him about gathering herbs & flowers for ceremonies, as well as explaining cliff drawings to him. But she represents more than his obligation to learn about his heritage, because she keeps him safe from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as well as his enemies. Ts’eh allows Tayo to reach a compromise among the conflicting influences in his life, as she helps him develop as an individual, while still keeping his ethnic heritage in a prominent place in his life. This relates to the novel’s meaning as a whole because under Ts’eh guidance, Tayo deals with conflicting issues while maturing throughout the story.

Silko’s use of myths and stories interspersed with traditional discourse illustrates the combination of past and present. These myths are important in the ceremonies Tayo performs, fulfilling obligations to his heritage. But they also function as allegories of the action in the novel. When Emo dies, Tayo’s grandmother remarks that although the names change, the stories stay the same. In this way, the use of myths, stories and songs represents Tayo’s obligation to the past, but also show that the present (or traditional discourse) can co-exist with the past (myths).

The conclusion of Ceremony includes references to Los Alamos, the atomic bomb, and uranium. Silko uses these references to illustrate the Native American idea of time as circular because the atomic bomb represents continuing destruction. Through varying time schemes, Silko reveals that the events in Tayo’s life are circular, as he must return to the past before he can go on. The use of circular time through the novel integrates the past & present influences on Tayo and his ability to connect past & present to solve conflicts.


Tayo is pulled by different people to fulfill obligations to his heritage and to himself throughout Ceremony. In the end, Tayo resolves these conflicting influences by using the lessons of his past to mature and develop into a happy, healthy, and un-threatened man.

Sample HHH

Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse is a novel which chronicles the daily life of an English family, with all of its conflict and yet harmony. It is further an effective picture of middle-class English society, and lastly, an autobiographical account of Woolf’s own family and childhood experiences. No character more closely reflects each of these aspects than the artist Lily Briscoe, whom may have likened to Woolf herself. Lily’s journey is that which shapes and directs the course of the novel, for hers embodies the central conflict for Woolf. Lily is caught between the feminine and the masculine, liberated and in turn separated by her art but yet disregarded as an artist of any serious merit by her male intellectual colleagues. The conflicting influences of Mrs. Ramsay, who embodies femininity and the societal expectation for women, and Mr. Ramsay, the moody, male, and successful intellectual, pull Lily between the two extremes. Lily Briscoe’s self-realization, that is, her recognition of herself as an individual and true artist, concludes the novel and indeed, resolves the conflict regarding her place in society.

Mrs. Ramsay is easily the biggest influence on Lily Briscoe. She is the loving matron, the essence of femininity: of motherhood. This both attracts and repulses Lily. The novel often narrated by Mrs. Ramsay and next Lily, creating a clear contrast between the two. At dinner, Mrs. Ramsay is the gracious host, desiring all to flow smoothly and harmoniously between the guests. To this end, she is willing to do anything—including bore herself with discussion about fisherman, pretending all the while to be interested. She agonizes internally over lulls in conversation and longs for Lily Briscoe to say something to ease Charles Tansley’s discomfort. Lily observes this, and as the narration passes to her, we aware that she is disgusted by Mrs. Ramsay’s eager hostess role. She dislike Charles Tansley intensely, and so doesn’t want to grace him with her conversation at the expense of her dignity. In this, she is denying the feminine role expected of her, and so denying Mrs. Ramsay. This internal conflict accelerates as Lily is aware of Mrs. Ramsay’s silent pleas imploring Lily to “do something about Mr. Tansley.” Lily finally caves in: she bows to societal expectation. She turns and speaks to Mr. Tansley: the care, feminine hostess.

Even as Mrs. Ramsay is such an influence over Lily, Lily remains detached and does not completely commit to the womanly role expected of her. This is evident in her relationship with William Bankes, which she refuses to turn into a roman. As much as Mrs. Ramsay desires that they marry, and as much as Lily Briscoe percieves this, she does not cave in. Her friendship with Mr. Bankes remains just that. Withstanding the societal pressure to marry, Lily has rebelled against the dictate of the whole of Mrs. Ramsay’s sweet, motherly, and self-sacrificing world.

Here then is Lily’s other “option”: to remain an artist; to pursue her individuality. Mr. Ramsay is just such an individual, in fact, he is rampant and uncompromising in his quest for knowledge and understanding. He rages about moodily, yells out poetry and then assumes a detached silence. Lily observes him, as she does Mrs. Ramsay, with repulsion and yet attraction. He is unconcerned with others except as they affect him. This total disregard for others feelings appeals to Lily in some ways, as the antithesis to Mrs. Ramsay’s self-sacrifice, and yet disgusts her in its self-centeredness. It is the incident in which she denies Mr. Ramsay the sympathy he begs for that she denies wholly Mrs. Ramsay’s utter giving and yet is not totally callous. Mr. Ramsay approaches her; she can feel his presence descending upon her and recoils in fear and loathing. As Mrs. Ramsay has died, Mr. Ramsay now seeks feminine sympathy and comfort from others, and now he has zeroed in upon Lily Briscoe. He comes, he begs for sympathy through his stance, his eyes, his words. Lily “gathers her skirts to protect her” from his “hungry ocean.” She almost gives him comfort, but does not, resolutely holding her ground. Here she has denied that societal, Mrs. Ramsay-esque responsibility of feminine giving. Indeed, she feels a “traitor to her sex.”

At last, then, Lily Briscoe can complete her painting. This painting—symbol of her internal conflict—has shaped the course of the novel. She is constantly seeking to meld its two distinct halves; the right mass with the left, just as she is seeking to meld her femininity & masculinity. She does so: “with a sign, she put down her brush. There, she said, I have completed my vision.” And indeed she has: she has


resolved the conflict inherent in her role as woman artist, just as Virginia Woolf tried to do in her life. Such conflict, which society places upon the woman artist, is one with which Woolf struggled indefinitely. The writing of such novels as To the Lighthouse and their characters, such as Lily Briscoe, certainly helped to ease the pressure of that conflict. However, the conflict between masculinity and femininity—and the questions it raises—eventually defeated Woolf, even as she did not allow it to claim Lily Briscoe.

Question #3

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