12AP Literature & Composition

Fall 2019-2020

Choose one of the following prompts as your final response to Toni Morrison’s Beloved. The essay and the reading of the accompanying literary criticism will be due on Thursday, October 3rd. Your essay should result in a 4-6-page paper utilizing textual evidence in line with proper MLA format. Please do not submit a paper that results in simple summary. Your task is to make some critical argument via textual evidence and sophisticated reasoning. I encourage you to use at least one of the pieces of literary criticism in your essay. Please note that you are required to read all three, even if you choose not to use any in your essay. On Thursday, October 3rd, I will ask you to respond to a handful of questions stemming from the three pieces of literary criticism. The essays are accessible via the links at the end of this post.

Essay Choices:

1. So much of this novel is rooted in the unfortunate truth that slavery dehumanizes individuals by stripping them of their identity, destroying their ability to conceive of the self. Morrison combines the psychological and cultural aspects of the black community and explores the issues of identity, family, and self-possession in a world where slavery has apparently become an unfortunate issue of the past, but emerges, throughout, as a haunting presence. Consider how characters in the novel contend with the past, either personal or societal. Then, write an essay in which you show how the relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
2. How does motherhood get displayed in this novel?
3. How does love get measured and defined in this novel?
4. Discuss the different roles of the community in betraying and protecting the house at 124. What larger issue might Morrison be suggesting here about community?
5. In what ways can this novel be read as history?
6. “This is not a story to pass on” (275). Discuss how this warning by the narrator at the end illuminates the novel as a whole.
7. What is the significance of the elements and effects of the novel’s structure?You might want to consider: oral tradition; flashbacks & time shifts; magical realism; stream of consciousness; and the novel as a bildungsroman.
8. In what way is the novel structured in a musical, compositional, or symphonic way? Should you choose to answer this question, please note that the novel must be the root and the river of the paper, meaning that the text should drive the analytical conversation, regardless of the music-related sources you might choose to utilize. 
9. Although we have to some degree answered this question prior to completing the novel, feel free to answer it again, this time with more fullness and sophistication: “Who or what is Beloved?” (Don’t make this question your title, however.)
10. As an opportunity to validate your own reading and critical engagement of this novel, consider the findings or contemporary connections you’ve been able to make. Write an argumentative essay that derives from your own critical attention to a particular aspect (or aspects) of the novel.

    A Final Note: Papers must move beyond simple summary. The key to your success with this paper is having a clear purpose in your argument. Remember, content and form matter; thus, your paper should be organized, cogent, analytically developed, balanced, full, and clean in terms of mechanics and syntax. Please note that any papers plagiarizing external sources will result in a 0 grade.

Required Literary Criticism:

1–“To Be Loved-Amy Denver and Human Need-Bridges to Understanding in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”

2-“The Ghost of Slavery- Historical Recovery in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”

3-“A Love Supreme- Jazzthetic Strategies in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”