Essay Prompts: Three Choices (B)
A second set of four AP style prompts on imagery, characters' comments, opposing traits, and persuasion.
Advanced Placement Examination
ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
(Suggested Time – 40 minutes.)
Select one (1) of the following prompts on which to write your essay. Please write on every other line. When you are finished, staple this sheet to the front of your essay.
DICTION AND IMAGERY
Writers frequently develop a character by describing him or her in imagery of one or two consistent types. The character may speak in words filled with the particular imagery, or other characters may use the imagery in describing or talking about the character in question. The character may also be placed in settings described with the same imagery. Select a character from a work with which you are familiar and show how the writer suggests the character’s personality, strengths or weaknesses, and/or relationships to other characters.
CHARACTER
One way that playwrights develop their characters is through the words of other characters who discuss with one another what they think of the character or report on what the character has done. The character himself or herself may also talk about his or her own strengths and weaknesses, hopes and disappointments, or joys and griefs. Select a character from a work with which you are familiar and show how the writer uses the comments of the characters to develop a well-rounded picture of the central character in the work.
STRUCTURE
Literary critic Norman N. Holland asserts that tragic characters are frequently torn between two strongly opposing traits within their personalities. He goes on to explain that these opposing traits explain the tragic nature of the character and ultimately lead to the tragic outcome of the plot. Select a character from a work with which you are familiar and show how the writer uses such antithetical traits to accomplish this result.
PERSUASION
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the title character tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
Write a carefully reasoned essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies this assertion. Use evidence from your observation, experience, or reading to develop your position.