Exam Paper 2: Final Tips
First, some basics:
Titles and Authors:
Underline the titles and get the author’s names right:
 “Master Harold” . . . and the boys by Athol Fugard
 A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen
 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Use the author’s full name and the full title of the work when you first refer to them in the introduction.
After first reference, use author’s last name only. You can also shorten longer titles. So, for instance, you
can refer to “Master Harold” or Their Eyes.
For consistency sake, let’s stick with “A Doll House” for Ibsen’s play. That is the title used on our
translation of the play.
Character names: Get them right right. Here’s a list of
“Master Harold”
A Doll House
Hally
Nora Helmer
Sam
Torvald Helmer
Willie
Mrs. Linde
Krogstad
Dr. Rank
Their Eyes
Janie
Nanny
Phoebe
Logan Killicks
Joe Starks (also Jodie)
Tea Cake
Remember the assessment criteria and demands of the paper:
Remember everything that is being measured in your paper:
 Your knowledge and understanding of the texts (Criterion A)
 Your knowledge and understanding of the effects their contexts (Criterion A)
 The subtlety and depth of your response to the question (Criterion B)
 Your understanding of the use and effects of literary features (Criterion C)
Overall, the papers were strongest in terms of understanding of the texts. But remember, to score well
you also have to show understanding of the contexts of the works and how they impact the characters
and shape meaning, and the effects of key literary features the writer’s use. So, you’re juggling a number
of demands.
Context reminders
“Master Harold”
1950, Apartheid-era South (with
all the racial hierarchies,
disparities, and injustices that go
with it.
Cultural popularity of ballroom
dance and jazz music.
A Doll House
19th Century Victorian-era
Norway/Europe.
Their Eyes
Early 20th century, rural South
(Florida in particular).
Bourgeois social and cultural
values that emphasized
appearances, social respectability
and honor, financial success and
material well-being.
Jim Crow era.
Patriarchal attitudes toward
women and marriage. Women’s
roles largely limited to being
wives and mothers, and they are
Hurston focuses on uniqueness
of this rural, Southern, black
culture—celebrating it without
romanticizing it, and empowering
women within that culture.
Hurston shows “black difference”
rather than focusing on white
considered frail, in need of male
protection and moral instruction.
The culture reduced women to
financial independence on their
husbands.
domination. Thet legacy of
slavery is represented through
Nanny, and the racist realities of
the Jim Crow South are reflected
in the novel, but the focus is on
black culture in and of itself.
In all three works, the main characters struggle against the effects of the social/cultural norms of the
society they live in. Hally struggles against the racism he has inherited from his white culture, Nora and
Janie and struggle against the oppressive social/cultural norms for women and marriage.
One other point to keep in mind: All three works were first met with hostility within the cultures they
depict.
Literary Features
Look for opportunities to integrate understanding of the use and effects of literary. For instance, dialogue
is critical to all three works. Write about the key dialogues, and what they reveal or develop about
characters, conflicts, and themes. All three writers are very skillful at imbuing realistic elements of their
works with larger symbolic value. Discuss key symbolic elements relevant to your response to your
question, and the effect these elements have on the reader’s understanding of and emotional response to
characters and themes in the works. (Review your notes on literary features in the works.)
Organizing:
Keep in mind that Exam Paper 2 is a comparative paper. One way to better emphasize that is to use
comparative phrases and transitions as you go through your body paragraphs. This can be particularly
useful if you are using a block structure and thus staying with a single work for a number of paragraphs.
Here are examples of what I mean by comparative phrases and transition:
 Like Nora, Janie searches for what she thinks of as a true marriage—one based on equality, love,
and mutual fulfillment.
 Both “Master Harold” and A Doll House take place in cloistered settings that are both intimate
but primed for conflict.
 Unlike Ibsen, who seems almost entirely critical of the bourgeois culture he portrays in A Doll
House, Hurston celebrates the black culture she presents in Their Eyes, while empowering black
women within that culture.
 While both works deal with racist societies, Hurston leaves the racial realities of the Jim Crow
South lurking around the periphery of her novel, while Fugard places the shame of racism in
Apartheid-era South Africa front and center in his play.
 Look for opportunities for comparative analysis. For instance, some of you noticed the
importance of dance in both “Master Harold” and “A Doll House.” Others wrote about the
similarity between the final dialogues between Nora and Helmer in A Doll House and Janie and
Joe in Their Eyes in which both women find their voice, assert their selfhood and needs, and seize
their own destinies.
Avoid general summary and background; focus on analysis and specific textual references/examples
Keep in mind that your reader will know the works very well. You do not need to provide background
about who the characters are or summary of the plot of the works. Furthermore, once you get caught up
in summary, it’s hard to get out of it. Instead, focus on analysis in response to your prompt and on use of
specific, targeted evidence and examples. Use specific, targeted evidence from the texts to illustrate and
support your ideas. The more specific your supporting details, the more precise, nuanced, and convincing
your paper will be.