Thematic Statements
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Significant Quotes
1. “Then. Not so far off, I saw Tia and her mother and I ran to her, for she was all that was left of my life as it had been. We had eaten the same food, slept side by side, bathed in the same river. As I ran, I thought I will live with Tia and I will be like her. Not to leave Coulibri. Not to go. Not. When I was close I saw the jagged stone in her hand but I did not see her throw it. I did not feel it either, only something wet, running down my face. I looked at her and I saw her face crumple as she began to cry. We stared at each other, blood on my face, tears on hers. It was as if I saw myself. Like in a looking-glass” (41).
2. “Everything is too much, I felt as I rode wearily after her. Too much blue, too much purple, too much green. The flowers too red, the mountains too high, the hills too near” (63). 3. “Then I’d listen to the rain, a sleepy tune that seemed as if it would go on for ever... Rain, forever raining. Drown me in sleep. And soon...Next morning there would be very little sign of these showers” (86). 4. “Names matter, like when he wouldn’t call me Antoinette, and I saw Antoinette drifting out of the window with her scents, her pretty clothes and her looking-glass.There is no looking- glass here and I don’t know what I am like now. I remember watching myself brush my hair and how my eyes looked back at me… Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?” (162). 5. “’When we went out to England,’ I said. ‘You fool,’ she said, ‘this is England.’ ‘I don’t believe it,’ I said, ‘and I never will believe it.’ (That afternoon we went to England. There was grass and olive- green water and tall trees looking into the water. This, I thought, is England. If I could be here I’d get well again and the sound in my head would stop. Let me stay a little longer, I said, and she sat down under a tree and went to sleep” (165). |
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Essay Prompts & Thesis Statements:
2007 Free Response:
In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present actions, attitudes, or values of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a character must contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character must contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character's relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Thesis:
In Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette is enslaved by the colonization of her home and the resulting racial tensions, as well as her familial madness.
2009: Free Response:
Many works of literature deal with political or social issues. Choose a novel or play that focuses on political or social issue. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the author uses literary elements to explore this issue and explain how the issue contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
Thesis:
Rhys uses setting in her novel Wide Sargasso Sea to juxtapose the conflicting cultures of the colonizer and the colonized.
In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present actions, attitudes, or values of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a character must contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character must contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character's relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Thesis:
In Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette is enslaved by the colonization of her home and the resulting racial tensions, as well as her familial madness.
2009: Free Response:
Many works of literature deal with political or social issues. Choose a novel or play that focuses on political or social issue. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the author uses literary elements to explore this issue and explain how the issue contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
Thesis:
Rhys uses setting in her novel Wide Sargasso Sea to juxtapose the conflicting cultures of the colonizer and the colonized.