Hemingway

Below is an excerpt from “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway (1925).  

This prompt is a variation on a previous AP prompt:

“In many texts a character has a misconception of himself or his world. Destroying or perpetuating this illusion contributes to a central theme of the text.” Using the excerpt below,  explain how this  statement applies, and write a response in which you consider the following:

(1) What the character’s illusion is and how it differs from reality as presented in the text.

(2) How the destruction or perpetuation of the illusion develops a theme of the text.

     

Life of Pi

The below passage comes to you from Yann Martel's Life of Pi.  

Read this passage and analyze the tone.  Be sure to explain how the diction, imagery and figurative language all speak to the tone.  Then, what is his point?  Happy reading!  

"In zoos, as in nature, the best times to visit are sunrise and sunset. That is when most animals come to life. They stir and leave their shelter and tiptoe to the water’s edge. They show their raiments. They sing their songs. They turn to each other and perform their rites. The reward for the watching eye and the listening ear is great. I spent more hours than I can count a quiet witness to the highly mannered, manifold expressions of life that grace our planet. It is something so bright, loud, weird and delicate as to stupefy the senses.

I have heard nearly as much nonsense about zoos as I have about God and religion. Well-meaning but misinformed people think animals in the wild are “happy” because they are “free.” These people usually have a large, handsome predator in mind, a lion or a cheetah (the life of a gnu or of an aardvark is rarely exalted). They imagine this wild animal roaming about the savannah on digestive walks after eating a prey that accepted its lot piously, or going for callisthenic runs to stay slim after overindulging. They imagine this animal overseeing its offspring proudly and tenderly, the whole family watching the setting of the sun from the limbs of trees with sighs of pleasure. The life of the wild animal is simple, noble and meaningful, they imagine. Then it is captured by wicked men and thrown into tiny jails. Its “happiness” is dashed. It yearns mightily for “freedom” and does all it can to escape. Being denied its “freedom” for too long, the animal becomes a shadow of itself, its spirit broken. So some people imagine" (15-16).