Summer Reading 2018: AP English Literature
According to the College Board, “The AP English Literature and Composition course aligns to an introductory college-level literary analysis course. The course engages students in the close reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature to deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure. As they read, students consider a work’s structure, style, and themes, as well as its use of figurative language, imagery,
symbolism, and tone. Writing assignments include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays that require studentsto analyze and interpret literary works.”
Assignment
Attached, you’ll find a selection of free response essay prompts taken from past AP English Literature exams. For each of the three assigned novels (one per category), choose one essay prompt to which you will respond with a well-organized, analytical essay utilizing aptly chosen evidence from the text (properly cited, of course) demonstrating your mastery of writing conventions and style. In the future, such prompts will be used for timed writing assignments, but for the summer you will have an extended period in which to compose these essays, so they should be as nearly flawless as you can make them. Do not use a prompt more than once. Please indicate the number of the prompt and the novel in the title of the essay.
Hard copies of all three essays are due on the first day of school. Additionally, you will be required to submit a digital copy to Turnitin.com, so take care to include only your own original work. Spark Notes, Schmoop, and similar study aides are specifically banned.Essays should conform to current MLA standards, including header, double-spacing, in-text citations, and a properly formatted work cited page. Avoid personal pronouns referring to yourself or the reader, and remember that you are not reviewing these books; rather, you are analyzing them.
Essays should be approximately 500 words in length. Avoid plot summary; instead, focus on showing the reader your deeply nuanced ideas about the text’s style and themes.
Texts
Choose one of the following:
•Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
•1984 by George Orwell
Choose one of the following:
•Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
•Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Choose one of the following:
•Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
•Beloved by Toni Morrison
Free Response Questions
Directions: For each assigned text, choose one of the following prompts (do not repeat a prompt). Compose a well-organized, analytical essay utilizing apt evidence from the text demonstrating your mastery of writing conventions and style. Utilize MLA formatting in all aspects, including a Work Cited page. Essay should be approximately 500 words in length.
1. 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 a fictional character who is in opposition to his or her society. In a critical essay, analyze the conflict and discuss how the moral and ethical implications for both the individual and the society contribute to your understanding of the book’s theme. Do not merely summarize the plot or action of the work you choose.
2. 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 on the list, 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 within one character illuminates the theme of the work.
3. 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 from the list 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’s theme. Avoid mere plot summary.
4. 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 from the list 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 theme of the work.
5. In literary works, cruelty often functions as a crucial motivation or a major social or political factor. Select a novel, play, or epic poem in which acts of cruelty are important to the theme. Then write a well-developed essay analyzing how cruelty functions in the work as a whole and what the cruelty reveals about the perpetrator and/or victim.
6. Select a novel, play, or epic poem that features a character whose origins are unusual or mysterious. Then write an essay in which you analyze how these origins shape the character and that character’s relationships, and how the origins contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole.