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Flashcards · AP® English Literature and Composition · Unit 3

Unit 3: Longer Fiction or Drama I flashcards

48 cards on topics 3.1 to 3.8. Pick a topic or study the whole unit.

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3.1 Character in longer works

How does early description create expectations about a character in a novel or play?
Early description leads the reader to predict how the character will behave. Interpretation then depends on whether later actions meet or break those expectations.
Why must you ask whose perspective a description comes from?
In a longer work a character may be described by the narrator, a community, another character or themselves. A community's verdict is not the narrator's, so the description also reveals the describer's values.
What is a soliloquy, and what does it reveal?
A speech in which a character thinks aloud, usually alone on stage. It gives the audience the character's own reasoning, including motives and doubts, with no narrator in between.
What can a comparison made by one character reveal?
It reveals the speaker's perspective as well as the person described. If a character compares hesitation to cowardice, she shows that she judges courage by consistency between desire and act.
How can inaction reveal character?
What a character fails to do or say can show a motive, such as fear or loyalty. Ask what the silence protects and what an expected action would have cost.
Why is a first impression of a character not the whole truth?
Early descriptions may be partial or biased, and a longer work can overturn them. Hold a first impression as a hypothesis and test it against later evidence.

3.2 Characters who change or remain unchanged

What is the difference between a dynamic and a static character?
A dynamic character changes significantly over the work; a static character stays largely the same. Static does not mean badly written: constancy can measure the change in others.
What is the difference between internal and external change?
External change is a change of circumstance, such as wealth, health or position. Internal change is a change of understanding or feeling, such as self-knowledge. Say which one you are claiming.
How do you prove that a character has changed?
Quote an early and a late detail and state the difference: "At first she trusts her judgement; later she calls herself blind." Without both, a claim of change is only an assertion.
What is a turning point in character change?
The event or realisation where change becomes visible. Name it and say what changed, then show how the character acts differently afterwards.
What can a static character do for a text?
Their unchanged manner can make another character's change visible, or can show what stays fixed about a world or a value. Constancy is a choice with an effect.
Why should a change claim mention the effect on the plot?
Character change usually drives or results from events. Linking it to the climax or conflict shows why the change matters to the work as a whole.

3.3 Setting in longer works

What does setting include in a longer work?
The time and place, and the social, cultural and historical situation: who holds rank, which customs rule, which feuds or institutions press on the characters. These details depict a world and its values.
How does the arrangement of a space show social setting?
Who sits, stands or lives where often signals rank and belonging. A favoured child by the fire and an excluded child in a window-seat show a household's values.
How should you write about a historical or cultural situation?
Use only what the text shows and support each point with a detail. Do not import facts about the period that the passage does not support.
What do stage directions tell you about setting in a play?
They describe the place, props and action, and often establish mood or values before anyone speaks. Treat them as evidence like narration.
How does setting affect conflict?
Setting makes some actions possible and others impossible. A feud, a locked house or a social rule can limit what characters can do and so shape the conflict.
What is the most common mistake in setting analysis?
Naming the place and stopping. Always say what the setting does: how it shapes character, sets values or limits events.

3.4 Significant events in a plot

What kinds of events make up a plot?
Episodes (self-contained incidents), encounters (meetings between characters) and scenes (continuous units in one place and time). Each can be analysed for what it adds to the whole.
What makes an event significant?
Its relationship to the narrative, the conflict and character development. An event is significant if the story would lose its cause, meaning or direction without it.
What is a turning point?
An event after which things cannot go back. Name what changes permanently, such as a relationship, a secret or a plan.
What are the functions an event can serve?
Introduce, develop, reveal, turn, resolve or mirror. Name the function you claim, then show it with details.
How do you avoid retelling when writing about an event?
Explain its effect instead of its content: say what it changes, what it causes and why it matters at this point in the story.
Why is the loudest event not always the most significant?
Significance depends on what the event changes, not on how dramatic it is. A quiet decision can alter the conflict more than a fight.

3.5 Conflict

What is conflict in a literary text?
Tension between competing values. It may be internal (within a character) or external (between a character and outside forces). Name the values on each side, not just the people.
What is the difference between internal and external conflict?
Internal conflict is competing values inside a character, such as loyalty against ambition. External conflict sets a character against another person, a rule or society.
What are intersecting conflicts?
Conflicts that press on one another, so that an outside pressure worsens an inner doubt. Show how one raises the stakes of the other.
How can a contradiction in a character show conflict?
When words and actions clash, the gap shows a struggle. A character who says "don't mind me" but refuses every dinner shows two competing wishes.
What is a heightened conflict?
One made more intense by an added pressure, such as a deadline on a dilemma. Say what was added and how it raised the cost of choosing.
Should you say who is right in a conflict?
No. Explain what each side values and why the values cannot both be satisfied. Judging who is right replaces analysis with opinion.

3.6 From claim-and-evidence paragraph to defensible thesis

What is a thesis statement in literary analysis?
A defensible interpretation that answers the prompt and needs evidence and a line of reasoning. It can be disputed by a reasonable reader but is supported by the text.
What is the ladder from topic to thesis?
Topic, then fact, then summary, then device list, then claim, then thesis. Each rung adds an interpretive step; a thesis answers "so what?" about the text.
Why is a device list not a thesis?
"Chopin uses imagery and irony" names features but makes no claim about meaning. A thesis says what the devices show: how they create an argument about the character or situation.
What does it mean for a thesis to be defensible?
A reader could disagree with it, but the text offers evidence for it. A thesis that nobody could dispute, or that no evidence could defend, is not defensible.
What is a useful sentence frame for a thesis?
"By [what the text does], [writer] shows that [meaning], so that [effect]." Another is "Although [common view], the text shows [your claim]."
What should a thesis respond to?
The prompt's focus. If the prompt asks about a character's choice, the thesis must make a claim about that choice, not about a general theme.

3.7 Commentary and the line of reasoning

What is commentary?
Explanation of how the evidence supports a claim and how the claim supports the thesis. It says what the choice is, how it works and why it matters.
How does paraphrase differ from commentary?
A paraphrase restates the evidence in other words. Commentary adds interpretation: it names the writer's choice and explains its effect.
What is a line of reasoning?
The logical sequence of claims that together defend the thesis. Each claim builds on the last, so the essay moves forward instead of repeating itself.
What does a transition do in an argument?
It shows how one claim leads to the next, for example with "more than this" or "as a result". A transition names the relationship, not just the order.
What is wrong with leaving a quotation without commentary?
The reader does not know why it is there. Every piece of evidence needs a sentence explaining how it supports the claim.
How do you make sure a paragraph links to the thesis?
End with a sentence that returns to the thesis wording, saying how this claim adds to the overall interpretation, not just repeating the topic sentence.

3.8 Selecting evidence and controlling composition

What makes evidence relevant?
It bears directly on the claim. Test: can you explain the link in one sentence? If not, choose a different detail.
What makes evidence sufficient?
There is enough of it, in quantity and quality, to support the line of reasoning: usually two or three varied details with commentary, not one detail and not everything related.
What are the purposes evidence can serve?
Illustrate, clarify, exemplify, associate, amplify and qualify. Choosing a purpose for each piece of evidence helps you use it strategically.
What does it mean to qualify a claim with evidence?
To limit or complicate it, showing awareness of an exception or tension. A qualifying detail refines the claim and makes it more convincing.
Why do mechanics matter in an essay?
Punctuation, agreement and tense let the reader follow the argument. Errors that interfere with communication can cost marks in the essay's top band.
How should you edit a paragraph for clarity?
One idea per sentence, a comma plus "and" or "but" between joined clauses, the present tense for describing the text, and no change to quoted words.

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