Paper 2 Prompt Practice

1. “Fiction is an essentially rhetorical art – that is to say the novelist or short-story writer

persuades us to share a certain view of the world for the duration of the reading experience.” To

what extent do you agree with this statement? In your answer you should refer to two of the

works in your study.

Thesis: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett and The Cry of the Dove by Fadia Faqir use point

of view to show the reader a certain view of the world, but also distort that view through

characterization so the reader knows it isn’t accurate.

Analysis:

Cry of the Dove

● From Salma’s point of view → learn about what Salma finds important

○ Salma’s obsession with assimilating

■ Motif of pop media - songs, commercials, magazines, etc

■ Goes to bars and pretends to drink

■ “No” isn’t a word

○ Irony - Salma’s actions do not help her become more assimilated

■ Gets rejected by men she met at bar

■ Judged for being in a makeup store

○ The view we are persuaded to share with Salma is shown to be flawed

○ Salma’s characterization makes her unreliable

■ Depressed and wishes for death

■ Hallucinations

■ Brings about her own death

■ Self-loathing, negative point of view deliberately ignoring important

aspects of life

Waiting for Godot

● Focus on two characters - Vladimir and Estragon - and their point of view (expressed

through dialogue)

○ Didi and Gogo waiting for Godot is suggested to be foolish

■ Refuse to leave area

■ Don’t know why they are waiting for Godot

■ Other characters come and go

■ Godot doesn’t arrive - cyclical structure suggests he will never arrive

○ Characterized as foolish

■ Bawdy humor - Pull down pants, mandrake thing, etc

■ Meaningless activities to pass time - insult each other, exercise, hat

switching

■ Refusal to think and problems with memory (unreliable narrators)

○ Their foolish endeavors and personality make their point of view (waiting for

Godot) seem foolish as well

Comparison

● Both works focus on the perspective of one or two characters

● Both works take action to undermine that perspective

○ Cry of the Dove is less explicitly undermined compared to Waiting for Godot

● Both use characterization to undermine perspective

of view undermined by stupidity

4. Characters in works of prose fiction are often running away or escaping from something or

someone. Compare the means by which such flight is presented, and its narrative significance, in

two of the prose works you have studied.

Thesis: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora

Neale-Hurston show their characters running away from their past connections in order to show

how their characters develop and eventually learn to stop running.

Analysis:

Kafka on the Shore

● Kafka running away from his past life because of his fear of connections

(characterization)

○ Running away Kafka wants to start anew away from his father and the memories

of the mother and sister who left him

■ Discusses his hatred of his father

■ At end of the book admits how damaging it was to his character that his

mother abandoned him

■ Describes himself as independent and doesn’t need anyone else

○ Meets librarian and Miss Saeki - starts developing connections

■ Chooses to stay at library, tying himself down to other people

■ Falls in love with Miss Saeki

■ Trusts in Sakura - calls her when he’s in trouble

others

○ Finally forgives his mother and stops running

■ In village world Kafka is confronted by Miss Saeki and he forgives her

(his mother - ew) of abandoning him as a child (allusion)

■ Promises to keep living - keep making connections

■ Stops running away and returns home - but keeps his connections still

Their Eyes Were Watching God

● Janie runs away to find herself - returns once she has

○ Janie and her first husband

■ Finally became a women when she started being obsessed with love

■ Married to someone she could not fall in love with and didn’t love her

■ He considered her spoiled, only wanted her to work

■ Janie knows something is wrong and cries

○ Janie and Jody

■ Janie runs away with Jody because she thinks she’s in love with him

■ Jody makes all sorts of promises to her

■ In marriage, Jody treats Janie like an object → her personality is squished

until it is no more

■ Didn’t find love, lost herself

■ When Jody dies it’s like she can breathe again, but a part of her is still lost

○ Janie and Tea Cake

■ Janie runs away with Tea Cake because she falls in love with him
 ■ Tea Cake helps her be a better version of herself - lets her play checkers,

teaches her to shoot, doesn’t force her to do things she doesn’t want to do

■ Finally understands love - peach tree

■ When Tea Cake dies, a piece of her dies too - shows importance of Tea

Cake to helping Janie become herself

■ Eventually returns home, but still happier than before because she knows

herself - weird blanket metaphor

Comparisons

● Both involve characters running away to better understand themselves

○ Kafka running away from people, Janie running towards different people

● Both return home after running away once they have found themselves - hero’s journey

5. Compare the use and function of seemingly insignificant detail in two works of prose fiction

that you have studied.

Thesis: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett and Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami use

insignificant details as symbols and motifs to convey the theme of the book.

Analysis:

Waiting for Godot

● Insignificant details have various meanings representing meaningless and death

○ Hat switching

○ Hanging discussions

○ Lucky’s think

○ Unchanging setting

○ Chicken bones
Kafka on the Shore

● Insignificant details have various meanings representing identity and surrealism

○ Kafka on the shore painting

○ Story of two people

○ Library

○ Sex

○ Rock

Comparisons

● Both use symbolism to represent the themes of their books (different themes)