2009 FRQ #3

Post date: Sep 25, 2013 5:31:6 PM

A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself.

In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. 

Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

You may choose a work from the list below or another novel or play of comparable literary merit.

As I Lay Dying

The Awakening

Beloved

Bleak House

Cat’s Eye

The Cherry Orchard

The Color Purple

Crime and Punishment

The Crossing

The Crucible

A Doll House

Equus

A Farewell to Arms

Fences

The Glass Menagerie

The Golden Bowl

The Grapes of Wrath

The Hairy Ape

Heart of Darkness

Invisible Man

Jude the Obscure 

The Kite Runner

Lady Windermere’s Fan

Macbeth

Madame Bovary

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

Moby-Dick

The Namesake

Nineteen Eighty-four

Our Town

The Plague

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A Prayer for Owen Meany

A Raisin in the Sun

Reservation Blues

Snow

A Streetcar Named Desire

Things Fall Apart

Waiting for Godot

Wise Blood

The Women of Brewster Place