Below are the released free response
essay choices since 1970. For your in
class essay for A Streetcar Named Desire,
you will be responding to one of these prompts.
I am identifying 5 of the possible options so that you can begin to
consider your support and quotes as we move forward with the remainder of the
play. The in class essay will take place on Tuesday, December 18th. Your five possible prompts:
2010 Form B, 2007, 1975 Form B, 1987, 2004
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Free Response Questions for AP English
Literature and Composition, 1970-2011
1970. Choose a character from a novel or play of
recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you (a) briefly describe the
standards of the fictional society in which the character exists and (b) show
how the character is affected by and responds to those standards. In your essay
do not merely summarize the plot.
1970 Form B. Choose a work of recognized literary
merit in which a specific inanimate object (e.g., a seashell, a handkerchief, a
painting) is important, and write an essay in which you show how two or three
of the purposes the object serves are related to one another.
1971. The significance of a title such as The Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn is so easy to discover. However, in other works (for
example, Measure for Measure) the full significance of the title becomes
apparent to the reader only gradually. Choose two works and show how the
significance of their respective titles is developed through the authors’ use
of devices such as contrast, repetition, allusion, and point of view.
1972. In retrospect, the reader often discovers that
the first chapter of a novel or the opening scene of a drama introduces some of
the major themes of the work. Write an essay about the opening scene of a drama
or the first chapter of a novel in which you explain how it functions in this
way.
1973. An effective literary work does not merely stop
or cease; it concludes. In the view of some critics, a work that does not
provide the pleasure of significant closure has terminated with an artistic
fault. A satisfactory ending is not, however, always conclusive in every sense;
significant closure may require the reader to abide with or adjust to ambiguity
and uncertainty. In an essay, discuss the ending of a novel or play of
acknowledged literary merit. Explain precisely how and why the ending
appropriately or inappropriately concludes the work. Do not merely summarize
the plot.
1974. Choose a work of literature written before
1900. Write an essay in which you present arguments for and against the work’s
relevance for a person in 1974. Your own position should emerge in the course
of your essay. You may refer to works of literature written after 1900 for the
purpose of contrast or comparison.
1975. Although literary critics have tended to praise
the unique in literary characterizations, many authors have employed the
stereotyped character successfully. Select one work of acknowledged literary merit
and in a well-written essay, show how the conventional or stereotyped character
or characters function to achieve the author’s purpose.
1975 Form B. Unlike the novelist, the writer of a
play does not use his own voice and only rarely uses a narrator’s voice to
guide the audience’s responses to character and action. Select a play you have
read and write an essay in which you explain the techniques the playwright uses
to guide his audience’s responses to the central characters and the action. You
might consider the effect on the audience of things like setting, the use of
comparable and contrasting characters, and the characters’ responses to each
other. Support your argument with specific references to the play. Do not give
a plot summary.
1976. 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 the work of an essayist who is in opposition
to his or her society; or from a work of recognized literary merit, select a
fictional character who is in opposition to his or her society. In a critical
essay, analyze the conflict and discuss the moral and ethical implications for
both the individual and the society. Do not summarize the plot or action of the
work you choose.
1977. In some novels and plays certain parallel or
recurring events prove to be significant. In an essay, describe the major
similarities and differences in a sequence of parallel or recurring events in a
novel or play and discuss the significance of such events. Do not merely
summarize the plot.
1978. Choose an implausible or strikingly unrealistic
incident or character in a work of fiction or drama of recognized literary
merit. Write an essay that explains how the incident or character is related to
the more realistic of plausible elements in the rest of the work. Avoid plot
summary.
1979. Choose a complex and important character in a
novel or a play of recognized literary merit who might on the basis of the
character’s actions alone be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized
essay, explain both how and why the full presentation of the character in the
work makes us react more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid plot
summary.
1980. A recurring theme in literature is the classic
war between a passion and responsibility. For instance, a personal cause, a
love, a desire for revenge, a determination to redress a wrong, or some other
emotion or drive may conflict with moral duty. Choose a literary work in which
a character confronts the demands of a private passion that conflicts with his
or her responsibilities. In a well-written essay show clearly the nature of the
conflict, its effects upon the character, and its significance to the work.
1981. The meaning of some literary works is often
enhanced by sustained allusion to myths, the Bible, or other works of
literature. Select a literary work that makes use of such a sustained
reference. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain the allusion
that predominates in the work and analyze how it enhances the work’s meaning.
1982. 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.
1983. From a novel or play of literary merit, select
an important character who is a villain. Then, in a well-organized essay,
analyze the nature of the character’s villainy and show how it enhances meaning
in the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.
1984. 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 is found, and analyze the reasons for its
effectiveness.
1985. A critic has said that one important measure of
a superior work of literature is its ability to produce in the reader a healthy
confusion of pleasure and disquietude. Select a literary work that produces
this “healthy confusion.” Write an essay in which you explain the sources of
the “pleasure and disquietude” experienced by the readers of the work.
1986. Some works of literature use the element of
time in a distinct way. The chronological sequence of events may be altered, or
time may be suspended or accelerated. Choose a novel, an epic, or a play of
recognized literary merit and show how the author’s manipulation of time contributes
to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
1987. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes
in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play
and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author
apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to
influence the reader’s or audience’s views. Avoid plot summary.
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. Do
not merely summarize the plot.
1989. In questioning the value of literary realism,
Flannery O’Connor has written, “I am interested in making a good case for
distortion because I am coming to believe that it is the only way to make people
see.” Write an essay in which you “make a good case for distortion”" as
distinct from literary realism. Analyze how important elements of the work you
choose are “distorted” and explain how these distortions contribute to the
effectiveness of the work. Avoid plot summary.
1990. Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict
between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay
in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict
contributes to the meaning of the work. Avoid plot summary.
1991. Many plays and novels use contrasting places
(for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and
the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning
of the work. Choose a novel or play that contrasts two such places. Write an
essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how
their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.
1992. In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or a
confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or
heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a
sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James
remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as much “the reader’s friend
as the protagonist’s.” However, the author sometimes uses this character for
other purposes as well. Choose a confidant or confidante from a novel or play
of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you discuss the
various ways this character functions in the work. You may write your essay on
one of the following novels or plays or on another of comparable quality. Do
not write on a poem or short story.
1993. “The true test of comedy is that it shall
awaken thoughtful laughter.” Choose a novel, play, or long poem in which a
scene or character awakens “thoughtful laughter” in the reader. Write an essay
in which you show why this laughter is “thoughtful” and how it contributes to
the meaning of the work.
1994. In some works of literature, a character who
appears briefly, or does not appear at all, is a significant presence. Choose a
novel or play of literary merit and write an essay in which you show how such a
character functions in the work. You may wish to discuss how the character
affects action, theme, or the development of other characters. Avoid plot
summary.
1995. Writers often highlight the values of a culture
or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society
because of gender, race, class, or creed. Choose a novel or a play in which
such a character plays a significant role and show how that character’s
alienation reveals the surrounding society’s assumptions or moral values.
1996. The British novelist Fay Weldon offers this observation
about happy endings. “The writers, I do believe, who get the best and most
lasting response from their readers are the writers who offer a happy ending
through moral development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere fortunate
events -- a marriage or a last minute rescue from death -- but some kind of
spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at
death.” Choose a novel or play that has the kind of ending Weldon describes. In
a well-written essay, identify the “spiritual reassessment or moral
reconciliation” evident in the ending and explain its significance in the work
as a whole.
1997. Novels and plays often include scenes of
weddings, funerals, parties, and other social occasions. Such scenes may reveal
the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a novel
or play that includes such a scene and, in a focused essay, discuss the
contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole. You may
choose a work from the list below or another novel or play of literary merit.
1998. In his essay “Walking,” Henry David Thoreau
offers the following assessment of literature:
In literature it is only the wild that attracts us.
Dullness is but another name for tameness. It is the uncivilized free and wild
thinking in Hamlet and The Iliad, in all scriptures and mythologies, not
learned in schools, that delights us.
From the works that you have studied in school,
choose a novel, play, or epic poem that you may initially have thought was
conventional and tame but that you now value for its “uncivilized free and wild
thinking.” Write an essay in which you explain what constitutes its
“uncivilized free and wild thinking” and how that thinking is central to the
value of the work as a whole. Support your ideas with specific references to
the work you choose.
1999. 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 or play 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 with one character illuminates the meaning of the work as a
whole. You may use one of the novels or plays listed below or another novel or
work of similar literary quality.
2000. Many works of literature not readily identified
with the mystery or detective story genre nonetheless involve the investigation
of a mystery. In these works, the solution to the mystery may be less important
than the knowledge gained in the process of its investigation. Choose a novel
or play in which one or more of the characters confront a mystery. Then write
an essay in which you identify the mystery and explain how the investigation
illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the
plot.
2001. One definition of madness is “mental delusion
or the eccentric behavior arising from it.” But Emily Dickinson wrote
Much madness is divinest Sense-
To a discerning Eye-
Novelists and playwrights have often seen madness
with a “discerning Eye.” Select a novel or play in which a character’s apparent
madness or irrational behavior plays an important role. Then write a
well-organized essay in which you explain what this delusion or eccentric
behavior consists of and how it might be judged reasonable. Explain the
significance of the “madness” to the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize
the plot.
2002. 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 or
play 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 as a whole. Avoid
mere plot summary.
2002, Form B. Often in literature, a character’s
success in achieving goals depends on keeping a secret and divulging it only at
the right moment, if at all. Choose a novel or play of literary merit that
requires a character to keep a secret. In a well-organized essay, briefly
explain the necessity for secrecy and how the character’s choice to reveal or
keep the secret affects the plot and contributes to the meaning of the work as
a whole. You may select a work from the list below, or you may choose another
work of recognized literary merit suitable to the topic. Do NOT write about a
short story, poem, or film.
2003. According to critic Northrop Frye, “Tragic heroes
are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the
inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be
struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be
instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning.” Select a novel or
play in which a tragic figure functions as an instrument of the suffering of
others. Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought upon
others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.
2003, Form B. Novels and plays often depict
characters caught between colliding cultures -- national, regional, ethnic,
religious, institutional. Such collisions can call a character’s sense of
identity into question. Select a novel or play in which a character responds to
such a cultural collison. Then write a well-organized essay in which you
describe the character’s response and explain its relevance to the work as a
whole.
2004. Critic Roland Barthes has said, “Literature is
the question minus the answer.” Choose a novel, or 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 answers. Explain how the
author’s treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a
whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
2004, Form B. The most important themes in literature
are sometimes developed in scenes in which a death or deaths take place. Choose
a novel or play and write a well-organized essay in which you show how a
specific death scene helps to illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole.
Avoid mere plot summary.
2005. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899),
protagonist Edna Pontellier is said to possess “That outward existence which
conforms, the inward life that questions.” In a novel or play that you have
studied, identify a character who outwardly conforms while questioning
inwardly. Then write an essay in which you analyze how this tension between
outward conformity and inward questioning contributes to the meaning of the
work. Avoid mere plot summary.
2005, Form B. One of the strongest human drives seems
to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character
in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of
others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay
how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.
2006. Many writers use a country setting to establish
values within a work of literature. For example, the country may be a place of
virtue and peace or one of primitivism and ignorance. Choose a novel or play in
which such a setting plays a significant role. Then write an essay in which you
analyze how the country setting functions in the work as a whole.
2006, Form B. In many works of literature, a physical
journey - the literal movement from one place to another - plays a central
role. Choose a novel, play, or epic poem in which a physical journey is an
important element and discuss how the journey adds to the meaning of the work
as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
2007. In many works of literature, past events can
affect, positively or negatively, the present activities, attitudes, or values
of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a character must contend with
some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in
which you show how the character’s relationship to the past contributes to the
meaning of the work as a whole.
2007, Form B. Works of literature often depict acts
of betrayal. Friends and even family may betray a protagonist; main characters
may likewise be guilty of treachery or may betray their own values. Select a
novel or play that includes such acts of betrayal. Then, in a well-written
essay, analyze the nature of the betrayal and show how it contributes to the
meaning of the work as a whole.
2008. 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 or play 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 meaning of the work.
2008, Form B. In some works of literature, childhood
and adolescence are portrayed as times graced by innocence and a sense of
wonder; in other works, they are depicted as times of tribulation and terror.
Focusing on a single novel or play, explain how its representation of childhood
or adolescence shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.
2009. A symbol is an object, action, or event that
represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself. In
literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge
literal meaning. Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an
essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about
the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the
plot.
2009, Form B. Many works of literature deal with
political or social issues. Choose a novel or play that focuses on a political
or social issue. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the author uses
literary elements to explore this issue and explain how the issue contributes
to the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
2010. 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.
2010, Form B. “You can leave home all you want but
home will never leave you.” -- Sonsyrea Tate
Sonsyrea Tate’s statement suggests that “home” may be conceived of as a
dwelling, a place, or a state of mind. It may have positive or negative
associations, but in either case, it may have a considerable influence on an
individual. Choose a novel or play in which a central character leaves home,
yet finds that home remains significant. Write a well-developed essay in which
you analyze the importance of “home” to this character and the reasons for its
continuing influence. Explain how the character’s idea of home illuminates the
larger meaning of the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.
2011. In a novel by William Styron, a father tells
his son that life “is a search for justice.”
Choose a character from a novel or play who responds
in some significant way to justice or injustice. Then write a well-developed
essay in which you analyze the character’s understanding of justice, the degree
to which the character’s search for justice is successful , and the
significance of this search for the work as a whole.
2011, Form B. In The Writing of Fiction (1925), novelist
Edith Wharton states the following:
At every stage in the progress of his tale the
novelist must rely on what may be called the illuminating incident to reveal
and emphasize the inner meaning of each situation. Illuminating incidents are
the magic casements of fiction, its vistas on infinity.
Choose a novel or play that you have studied and
write a well-organized essay in which you describe an “illuminating” episode or
moment and explain how it functions as a “casement,” a window that opens onto
the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
