OPEN PROMPT

2006 Prompt Question # 3:  2006. Many writers use a country setting to establish values within a work of literature. For example, the country may be a place of virtue and peace or one of primitivism and ignorance. Choose a novel or play in which such a setting plays a significant role. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the country setting functions in the work as a whole.

Student #1 Essay-Score:8
 Student 1 uses Jane Austen's novel Persuasion to explain how a country setting was used as a "backdrop to Anne [protagonists]'s character development." Anne is fed up with her simple father and older sister in Bath (city) and decides to be with her sister in Uppercross (countryside). The student states that it is common for writers to attribute "primitivism and ignorance" to the country, but Austen challenges this stereotype by sticking Anne in the "nurturing, virtuous, and peaceful Uppercross. The student supports her argument through evidence supported by the novel. First, the student provides a little background information to explain how Anne's morals/ideas do not those of her father and older sister living in the city. However, it is in Uppercross where the people admire " her intelligence, kindness, and modesty" ; thus making Uppercross a virtuous place. Second, the student explains how in the Bath "Anne is constantly surrounded by others and has little time to reflect." In the peaceful woods of Uppercross, Anne discovers her own sanctuary where she is able to meditate and think clearly. Lastly, the student points out how Anne makes many friends in Uppercross, and is not bothered by her past or unpleasant family members. This student received an 8 because their essay flows so nicely and the examples provided were very clear cut.

Student #2 Essay-Score: 6
   Student 2 uses the play The Importance of Being Earnest as an example of how setting can be used to heighten a character's internal complications in a comedic way. In the first body paragraph, Student 2 explains how the protagonists lives a double life; In the city he goes by Earnest, and in the countryside he is Jack. The student says in the country Jack finds tranquility, but "the drama of his urban-life [also] serves to develop the confusion of the play which makes it a successful comedy." This is as analytical as the their essay gets on how the country setting affects the play. The Student frequently refers to how the country is "an agent of confusion" that furthers the comedy in the play. However, instead of providing concrete evidence for how the natural setting perpetuates the hilarity, they simply summarize how Earnest/Jack's dishonest lifestyle unravels while he is in the country. The student offers no insight for why that might be. Had the student not mentioned in the opening paragraph how the solitude of Jack's country home contrasts with the chaos of Earnest's urban life, they would have received a lower score (and perhaps a more deserving one).

Student #3 Essay-Score: 4
   As the commentator observed, the main problem with this student's essay is that they have an "oversimplified understanding of the work." Student #3 selected William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying as an example work where a rural setting plays a significant role in a novel. The student explains that the characters act irrationally and are ignorant. They state that it was Faulkner's intention to make the reader realize that the characters' lack of intellect is a result of "the backward ways of the [S]outh." The student just repeats this line over and over again, followed by poorly written examples of the character's peculiar actions. Student #3's essay is not much different than Student #2's as far as structure goes, but what makes this essay worse are the convoluted sentences and distracting wit.