HW Due Tues. Jan. 31

On loose leaf: Write an introduction to the Open Question (AP English Literature and Composition, 2015) using the prompt and our thematic ideas below it, or another thematic idea you come up with independently. You are writing ONLY about Medea. 

Question 3 (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)
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. You may select a work from the list below or another work of equal literary merit. Do not merely summarize the plot. 

Suggested Text List (YOU WILL BE WRITING ABOUT MEDEA)
Beloved A Bend in the River Billy Budd Black Boy Catch-22 Cat’s Eye The Crucible Frankenstein A Gesture Life Great Expectations Heart of Darkness Invisible Man The Kite Runner The Last of the Mohicans Lord of the Flies Mansfield Park Medea The Merchant of Venice Night The Odyssey Oliver Twist One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Othello The Red Badge of Courage The Scarlet Letter Sister Carrie Sophie’s Choice Tess of the d’Urbervilles To Kill a Mockingbird Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Wuthering Heights
STOP END OF EXAM

Themes:

1. Cruelty contributes to the downfall of the hero.
2. Medea’s cruelty through the play reveals that she is not a character to empathize with, and is sadistic and spiteful.
3. Lack of empathy results in acts of cruelty.
4. If there is thin line between love and hate, then revenge is the marginal factor.
5. When blind passion is illuminated, the object of affection becomes the recipient of revenge.
6. Impulse overcomes priorities of love and family.
7. Cruelty reveals the truth masked in revenge.
8. Wounded pride leads to cruel vengeance.
9. Cruelty is the exploitation of a victim’s weakness as means to justify the perpetrator’s weakness.
10. When driven by cruel intentions, an individual loses his or her humanity.