AP Question-Based Essay 3, Sample A
Note: Write only about one text.
LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
time--40 minutes. This question counts one-third of the total essay
eighteenth-century British novelist Laurence Sterne wrote, “No body, but he who
has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn
asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a
contrary direction at the same time.”
From a novel or
play choose a character (not necessarily the protagonist) whose mind is pulled
in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations, or
influences. Then, in a well-organized essay, identify each of the two
conflicting forces and explain how this conflict within one character
illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole.