Open Prompts, Part One - No. 2

For this post, I am reviewing responses to the 2009 exam.  The prompt is: "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."  I actually liked this prompt because it is a bit more clear about that magic A.P. question of meaning.

Student 3A:
 I think that this student did a great job in their analysis of Ibsen's The Wild Duck, and though there were some minor flaws (some syntax errors and semi-illegible handwriting), I believe that this student really earned the nine points given to him/her by the grader.  Though I have never read any of Ibsen's work, this student used enough plot details to establish a sufficient amount of context for their point, such as in their description of Greggers: "who wishes to expose... a horrible act... to serve his own ends."  This detail really helped me understand the conflict that was set up in the metaphor between the duck and dog and the Hjalmar family and Greggers, respectively.  Throughout the essay, 3A tied the plot events that s/he described back to the duck, and the overall meaning of the play.  I particularly liked their description of the duck's meaning at the conclusion of the story with Hedvig's reaction to Greggers' revelation.  Describing how Hedvig shot herself after hearing the ugly truth, 3A tied this event back to both the original idea that the duck represents the Hjalmars' fantasy of happiness, but also added a deeper level of insight by describing the duck as a metaphor for "innocence," which Hedvig was "unwilling to part with."  This student did a fantastic job of recognizing and elaborating on a symbol in their chosen text as well as connecting this symbol to the meaning of the the story.

Student 3B:
 Honestly, I was leaning more towards a five than a six after reading this essay.  This student did choose a symbol and explain its significance to the text with the lampshade representing "covering up the truth."  However, for the most part, I felt that s/he just added in related details from the plot and never really took the time to explain the symbol's meaning further than how it characterizes Blanche Dubois.  For example they wrote, "The reader becomes accustomed to not trusting anything Blanche says... The lampshade symbolizes her fantastical and unreal view of things."  Though this sentence goes along with the writer's established idea on the lampshade, there is almost no connection made between the details listed in those phrases and the symbol itself.  Instead the writer just describes different instances of Blanche hiding the truth and then just restates their characterization of Blanche as secretive.  In addition, they never made any connection to the overall message or theme of the story, but rather, they continually described how the lampshade is like a metaphor for Blanche.  On a side note, they also had a lot of grammatical errors such as a general disregard for apostrophes in the beginning.  This writer did an adequate, but rather mediocre job at explaining their reasoning, and the essay would have benefited from less character details and more analysis of the symbol's value in the overall text.

Student 3C:
It's funny how in this set of essays, the handwriting gets much neater as the score goes down.  This writer did a great job of recognizing and offering a primary meaning for the symbol of the machete, but never really went beyond that.  The essay consisted almost entirely of details with very shallow analysis that was often irrelevant to the meaning or significance that it provided to the story.  They wrote, "Okonkwo never let a woman touch his machete because that would defeat its purpose of being symbolic."  This sentence makes no sense and leads to a random discussion of African women in the story.  To strengthen whatever argument they were trying to make, this writer could have tried to reference some female characters in the story and contrast the machete's link to Okonkwo's manhood with some feminine characteristics.  With regards to syntax and style, I almost felt like I was reading work from a seventh grader (no offense intended, it's just my opinion); their sentences were almost always ten words or less and they even slipped in some Is, which detracts from the seriousness of the essay.  In all, though the writer chose and stuck with a symbol throughout this essay, they had very little discussion of the meaning of the symbol and thus never truly answered the prompt;  I would give it a 3/9.