2014-2015
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
Summer Reading/Writing Assignment
Choose one of the novels from the list below for your summer reading. You will be responsible for
obtaining your own copy of the reading. Many of the works can be found online. After conducting
a close reading of your literary piece, answer the AP Response Question in a complete essay using
MLA format. This essay should run between 2-3 pages. The essay must be complete and ready to
turn in the first day of class.
I have included some notes on how to understand the prompt. If you have any questions, please do
not hesitate to contact me at jtorre07@sisd.net.
Sincerely,
Mrs. J. Vega
AP Response Question:
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 divine lightning.”
Select a novel in which a tragic figure not only is a victim of suffering but also functions as an
instrument of the suffering of others. Then write an essay in which you explain how the author
uses literary techniques to emphasize this suffering and how this leads to an understanding
of the tragic vision of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
(How to understand this AP essay prompt: “Work as a whole” is always code for “theme.” So, the
prompt rereads as follows: “How does the author’s use of literary techniques when discussing the
tragic figure’s suffering in the novel help the reader understand the ultimate theme(s) of the overall
piece.” Do not merely explain where/ when suffering exists. Analyze the suffering, how it is being
presented via literary techniques, and what messages can be derived from this.)
You may choose a work from the list below.
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An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe