FRQ 3

Prompt 1

Many works of literature contain a character who intentionally deceives others. The character’s dishonesty may be intended either to help or to hurt. Such a character, for example, may choose to mislead others for personal safety, to spare someone’s feelings, or to carry out a crime.

Choose a novel or play in which a character deceives others. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the motives for that character’s deception and discuss how the deception contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

Essay #1

In the novel The Crucible Arthur Miller displays the intentional use of deception amongst characters in order to convey the potential to destroy communities or individuals ultimately illustrating, deception regardless of being meant for bad or good, can be detrimental and destructive to society.

To begin, Abigail Williams uses deception to save herself knowing it will harm others.Early in the book Abigail is discovered dancing in the forest. Because dancing is a sin for her religion, she accuses other girls around her of witchcraft. Consequently, by redirecting the accusations to popular women such as Elizabeth Proctor, she is able to create fear in the community and distract them from her original actions. Therefore, the deception Miller presents in Abigail's case is able to create a mass hysteria in the community as many women are forced to falsely confess to witchcraft and be hanged. Similarly, the other girls follow a similar path in using deception in their own favor. The accused girls begin to put on fake performances in court in order to create fear and credibility. Because the girls seek to benefit only themselves, when one girl tries to be honest about the situation, many of the others deceive the courts by saying she was lying and the spirits were attacking them due to those lies. Consequently, their knowing efforts to scare the court create power for the girls and allow them to manipulate the authority around them. Therefore, by the girls’ collective deceptive actions they create more legitimacy in their lies, forcing the community to fall victim to accepting the disillusionment and be in a state of fear.

However, Miller is able to portray deception as not only used with ill-intent but also with positive intent.

In some cases self deception can be used without full knowledge of its prevalence. When the girls are being tried in court, many are able to use the moral guides of religion to deceive themselves internally. Because of the mass hysteria, many court officials are able to use religious moralities to continue the trials. Consequently, the officials, especially the deputy, disregard proper legal tactics such as questioning the legitimacy of the claims and accusations of witchcraft in order to protect the view of god’s abilities in the town. Therefore, regardless of the deputy’s good intention, by deceiving himself into believing he is doing the right thing, many young girls are wrongfully convicted and face extensive unnecessary punishments, pushing the town into more grief and ruining the community. This can be seen similarly when focusing on John Proctor’s actions. John Proctor, a well known man in the novel, is having a secret affair with the young girl Abigail. Because John Proctor wants to protect his reputation and his marriage with Elizabeth, he hides and undermines this affair. Consequently, by withholding the truth and deceiving the court, the townspeople have no way to portray Abigail as believable, further protecting her credibility. Therefore, despite Proctor's intention to protect himself and his wife, he ultimately further fuels the hysteria Abigail is creating by deceiving the truth.

All in all, Miller uses the complexity of deception and its motivations in the novel The Crucible, to portray its overall negative impact on societies. Despite harmful or selfish intentions or hopes for moral righteousness or self-protection, society can not face the impacts of deception and a lack of reliable truth. Miller is able to establish that the brutal happenings in the town of Salem were not from witchcraft entirely, yet from the people's ability to deceive those around them.

Prompt 2

In his 2004 novel Magic Seeds, V. S. Naipaul writes: “It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That’s where the mischief starts. That’s where everything starts unravelling.”

Select a novel, play, or epic poem in which a character holds an “ideal view of the world.” Then write an essay in which you analyze the character’s idealism and its positive or negative consequences. Explain how the author’s portrayal of this idealism illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole.

Essay #2

In the novel The Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller uses the character Willy Loman’s Ideal view of the world In order to convey his belief that being liked is the most important aspect to success, ultimately illustrating that how people originally believe the world should go may not be accurate to reality.

To begin, Willy believes that personal charm should be valued over skill. Willy continually values popularity over determination in order to reach his goals in life. Because Willy has his mind set of popularity being more important than skill, he does not put forth an effort to improve. Consequently, this is a flawed viewpoint on the world as many situations tend to value hard work and dedication over personality alone. Therefore, Willy's ideal world where personality is the highest level of importance is skewed and not truly how the world should work. Likewise, he shifts his values and focuses towards status alone. Willy sees the American dream as a given ideal which shows wealth and status through ownership. Because Willy craves symbols of success he focuses on outputting himself to get those symbols such as flashy cars and appliances. Consequently, he misplaces his wealth and shifts his lifestyle for this, causing failure in the long run. Therefore, despite Willy’s initial view of success as purely physical assets, his eventual failure proves that in order to truly reach a person’s dream, they must cover a wide variety of successes.

Willy also demonstrates this belief not only on himself but also looking towards his sons.Willy has a similar belief style when it comes to how he sees and informs his sons. Willy inputs the idea to his sons that to be successful is to be liked. Because Willy fully believes in his viewpoint of the world, he tells his sons that popularity and likeability will go further than talent or hard work. Consequently, this idea falls short of the reality of the world and only comes to hurt his sons as this viewpoint won't truly help them. Therefore, Willy’s viewpoint of the world has negative consequences which extend beyond just himself and end up ultimately hurting his sons as well. Meanwhile, his sons are able to go against this viewpoint to reach their own true success in the world. Willy’s son Biff is a business man who even Willy looks up to. Because Biff is so successful in the business world, Willy looks up to him and follows the beliefs he imagines Biff had followed. Consequently, this was not fully the case as biff truly reached his success through self outwardness and rejected his father’s viewpoint. Therefore, Biff was able to come against Willy’s viewpoint and truly show the flaws in his ideal view of the world and how it functions.

In conclusion, In the novel The Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller uses Willy Loman's view of an ideal world in order to convey his view of societal popularity over true talent or skill, ultimately illustrating how one sees the world may not be reality after second glance. Miller is able to show Willy’s flawed beliefs on the path to success and the American dreams in order to demonstrate the negative consequences that come from this outlook.

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