Student Samples from the 2010 Open Response Prompt:
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 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.
In William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, the protagonist Ralph experiences isolation on an island with his school peers after their plane is shot down. His alienation includes separation form the civilized society he grew up in and the morals he is accustomed to. However, his experiences in this unfamiliar environment also enrich his knowledge of leadership and reveal the truth about humanity’s basic savage instinct.
Ralph’s sudden transition into the wilderness of the deserted island thrusts him into separation from the mannerismsand decency of civilization. In this position he must become independent and focus on survival and control over his emotions…
Because of this alienation from guidance and rules, the boys’ basic instinct to survive and gain power also leads to a frightening discovery of savagery and barbarism. Ralph’s nemesis Jack, jealous for Ralph’s power, rips Ralph’s leadership away from him and introduces Ralph to the extent to which humans will go to maintain self-preservation and even control…
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Although the sanctuary of “home” is just as monitored and regulated as the society around him, Winston’s apartment and prole hideaway inGeorge’ Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 still serve as a sanctuary for him. When Winston decides to rebel against the totalitarian government, he is tortured into submission. Yet through his alienation from “home,” his secret apartment, and even his lover, he is enriched by the discovery of one of the most crucial aspects of humanity: freedom.
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There is no correct response to alienation. Often a character will spiral into chaos; other times she will prosper from her newfound freedom. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna chooses isolation from her home life and therefore experiences trials that are both alienating and inspiring. Edna’s abandonment of her wifely and motherly duties and her brief experiment with love depicts the idea that though we may choose our alienation and the “freedom” may seems enriching at the time, the outcome may still be temporary and ultimately destructive.
Once Edna cuts off ties with home, she is afforded freedoms a woman in the 1800s rarely experiences…
The exhilaration of Edna’s freedom eventually spirals into one disappointment after another
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbirdby Harper Lee, Atticus Finch is in exile within his racist Maycomb society because of his decision to defend Tom Robinson against false charges of rape. While he experiences the wrath of his community by losing friends and enduring violent attacks against his family, he is also given the enriching opportunity to teach his children the value of all human beings and the importance of standing up for one’s principles no matter how unpopular.