Paper II: Blogging the Question

Nov. 2003
(a) "I believe plot is necessary, although I believe it would be possible to write a work of fiction without". Including your own defintion of plot, consider the relative importance and impact of plot on works in your study in the light of the above quotation.

This question examines the importance and role of plot within a writen work. The question wants the examiner to define the term plot in their own words and discuss how the plot's existance is significnat, or insignificant, in writing a work of literature.

Most importantly, the plot and its significance would have to be addressed. From there the examiner can discuss how the plot has an effect on the rest of the development of a novel, taking into consideration characterization, themes, motifs/symbols, and the overall setting.

Two works that could be used include Darkness at Noon and The Metamorphosis.

May 2005
(b) Symbols and motifs are an essential element of many novels or short stories. How have either or both of these devices been used and, in your opinion, how successfully, in two or three works you have studied?

This question outlines the importance of motifs and symbols in literature. It is asking the examiner the importance and the role of these literary devices within literature and wants to know how this can be applied to the works in which we have studied.

The primary literary techniques that would be addressed would most importantly be the motifs and symbols, but the examiner can also discuss how successful the devices are in developing the dominant themes or characters present within the works.

Any of the four written works could be used to write a well developed essay....but I would have to choose As I Lay Dying and The Bluest Eye.