You have been given (or will shortly be given) a list of the A.P. open-ended free response prompts from the past 30 years or so. Select any prompt (just note the year) and explain what work you would choose to address the prompt and why.
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In 2001 the prompt was about Emily Dickinson's "Much to madness is divinest Sense-/To a discerning Eye-" Then you have to Select a play/novel where the character's apparent madness or irrational behavior plays an important role.
I would choose Hamlet in response to this question because we went over in such depth this year. Hamlet only seemed mad, but it was all a ploy to make sure his uncle was the one who murdered his father. I would discuss what the other main characters believed Hamlet's madness to be. Then I would argue how Hamlet knew exactly what he was doing the entire time. I would also argue how it is because of this apparent madness that this novel continues to be so world renown.
In 1982 the prompt was: 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.
Since it is pretty easy to figure out why the author put in a scene of violence I would probably do this prompt. I could use Hamlet for this one but Toni already used it so I'll use another novel. I would talk about Camus's The Stranger. I would talk about Meursault shooting the Arab on the beach. And from there I can talk about a lot of the things we talked about in class about this shooting. First of all it was in the middle of the book. Meursault killed the Arab but still shot him after he had fallen. And up until the shooting the water and the sun were heavily mentioned so I would be able to reference that with the shooting. It might not be an A paper, but I feel that in terms of violence and purpose this would be a great novel to discuss.
One of the old sample questions said " 'The struggle to achieve dominance over others frequently appears in fiction.' Choose a novel in which a struggle for dominance occurs, and write an essay showing for what purposes the author uses the struggle. "
Lord of the Flies seems like a good candidate in terms of responding to this prompt. In a general sense, the author intends for the boys' struggle for dominance on the island to mirror the state of war engaging the nations around them. More specifically, the novel's characters are symbolic of adverse concepts pitted against each other in contemporary society. Ralph and Piggy, representing order, leadership, civilization, and intellect battle Jack and Roger for power. Jack and Roger stand for unbridled savagery and brutality. The two sides relate to the classic debates over reason and emotion and nature and nurture. The book's modern setting displays that these conflicts are timeless, affecting communities long after the deaths of the philosophers who proposed them. Finally, the fact that the novel's fight for domination is carried out by mere boys challenges the idea of childhood innocence. Kids, too, can be plagued by issues like morality vs. immorality. While some, such as Simon, realize their innate goodness, others release their inner beasts.
I also think that the 1984 prompt is worth addressing: "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 was found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness."
Musee des Beaux Arts is an acclaimed work of poetry by W.H. Auden. Its emphasis on suffering as an individual burden is captured by the final line, "the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on." Auden focuses more on the ship's luxurious appearance than on the boy who is dying, empowering ordinary things as opposed to "amazing" events. The ship's ability to see humanizes the object and also contributes to its domination of the scene. Like the farmer in the previous line, the ship is ignorant to Icarus's tragic fate and sails on. If the sea is to be considered a metaphor for life, then its stagnant state that allows the ship to continue calmly communicates life's regular passage despite intense anguish. Auden's harsh message forces the reader to realize that he is not the center of his universe-a difficult truth for the average person to accept.
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.
To tackle this question, I would choose to write about Crime and Punishment. Most of the action in the novel is purely psychological. I would break down Raskolnikov's dreams, which add a sense of excitement even though they are not externally occurring. I would also go into depth about his monologues, which are some of the most action-filled parts of the novel.
In 2004 the prompt was “Critic Roland Barthes has said ‘Literature is the question minus the answer’ choose a novel or a 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 any answers.”
I think this is a really interesting and intriguing prompt. I think it would take thought to answer on an AP exam, but I think it would also be a prompt that allows for a lot of room in terms of the work you pick as well as a lot of room for explaining what we believe Barthes means.
I think I would pick Hamlet to use as the work to respond to the prompt. There are so many questions proposed in the play, from as basic yet intricate as Hamlets sanity, to the entire struggle and question of the ghost, and who he really is. As Barthes says, literature is the questions that are put out, without answers to follow. In Hamlet, we are given very little answers to many significant questions.
"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." (1982)
For this prompt, I would choose "Lord of the Flies". I would explain how the violence portrayed in the work through the boys reflects the violent nature of human beings--and how, often during desperate time (the world going on at the time), brings out the worst of human beings.
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