Reading comp PrepTest 109 · Section 2 · Question 9

Topic: Humanities

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • Author on Jacobs's autobiography (uses domestic novel conventions to create sympathy for enslaved people)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Author's view:
    • Harriet A. Jacobs's autobiographical narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself used the conventions of the sentimental domestic novel to cause free women to sympathize with enslaved people (second through last sentences)
  • Comparison, according to the author:
    • Jacobs's autobiography uses the same conventions of the sentimental domestic novel (third sentence)
  • Examples of values embodied in the sentimental domestic novel and Jacobs's autobiography, according to the author:
    • The desirability of marriage and the sanctity of personal identity, home, and family (third sentence)
  • Author's attitude: "provides" (first sentence), "demonstrates to her readers" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • A criticism of Jacobs's autobiography (shortchanges her unique experience) and the author's rebuttal (can't easily apply genre's values to an enslaved person's narrative)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Some critics' views:
    • Using the conventions of the domestic novel undermines Jacobs' story of enslavement (first sentence)
  • Example of criticism:
    • Domestic novel conventions overshadow the slave narrative (first sentence)
  • Author's view:
    • Jacobs uses this tension between the domestic novel and an enslaved person's narrative to show how the domestic novel's values are not achieved enslaved people (second sentence)
  • Comparisons, according to the author:
    • Unlike the typical domestic novel, Jacobs sends her lover away to protect him (third sentence)
    • Unlike the typical domestic novel, Jacobs must sacrifice a stable home and some family members to achieve her freedom (fourth sentence)
    • The "hierarchy or values" promoted by the domestic novel — where family and domesticity are prioritized — do not necessarily apply to enslaved people, who have to sacrifice those to attain their freedom (last sentence)
  • Author's attitude: "more complex" (second sentence), "creates a tension" (second sentence), "calling into question" (second sentence), "thus becomes an antidomestic novel" (last sentence), "demonstrates" (last sentence), "cannot be fully understood without shedding" (last sentence)

Main Point: Despite claims to the contrary, Jacobs's use of domestic novel conventions in her book is a valuable literary decision, as it forces her readers to examine the values of that literary genre from the perspective of an enslaved woman and become more sympathetic with her plight.

Rebutting Critics: This passage utilizes a Rebutting Critics Meta-Structure.* In such a passage, the author presents one or more criticisms of the subject matter before mounting a defense against those critiques.

And that's what the author does here. After introducing Harriet A. Jacobs's autobiography, the author offers their argument about that narrative: it used the conventions of the domestic novel to force her readers to examine the values of that literary genre from the perspective of an enslaved woman and become more sympathetic to her plight as an enslaved woman. The author then gives voice to critics who argue that the book's use of these conventions undermines its effectiveness as a slave narrative. The author completely disagrees with these critics, saying that Jacobs' narrative is instead enriched and empowered by the tension between these two genres. The passage concludes by describing how the book uses the expectations and values of domestic novels to force its readers to reexamine the genre's values from a broader cultural perspective.

In a passage that uses a Rebutting Critics Meta-Structure, the main point is generally the author's central defense. The author summarizes this defense in the last sentence, so we could use that to anticipate the main point. We also formed our own summary: "Despite claims to the contrary, Jacobs's use of domestic novel conventions in her book is a valuable literary decision, as it forces her readers to examine the values of that literary genre from the perspective of an enslaved woman and become more sympathetic with her plight.

*As is often the case with a passage from the Critical Meta-Structure family, several Meta-Structures from that family could work for this passage. You could certainly call this a Correcting the Record passage or a Criticizing a Viewpoint passage and still come up with a workable understanding of the passage's structure and main point. You could even think of this as an Innovative [Subject] passage, as the author discusses Jacobs's innovations within a literary genre.

Comparison: The most prominent minor Meta-Structure is the comparison. The author compares and contrasts Jacobs's autobiography to a typical domestic novel throughout the passage. The two books espouse the same values. But given Jacobs's experiences as an enslaved woman, her narrative plays out in a very different way as the narratives in a typical domestic novel. Having these comparisons highlighted will make answering the inevitable questions on these similarities and differences much easier.

The author doesn't make understanding their point very easy in this passage, which is typical English major stuff if you ask us. So, Jacobs's autobiography leads "her free readers to perceive [the domestic novel's] values within a broader social context" (P1, S5), forcing the readers to question "the applicability of the hierarchy of values espoused by the domestic novel to those who are in her situation" (P2, S2), and shows that such values "cannot be fully understood without shedding conventional perspectives (P2, S6). If you didn't quite follow that, use the author's premises and your common sense. Fortunately, the author makes the premises easy to follow. Unlike the typical domestic novel, where the protagonist finds love and family, Jacobs must sacrifice those to attain her freedom (P2, S3-S5). Her narrative suggests these values — love and family — are important to Jacobs, but her experience as an enslaved woman forces her to sacrifice those. What point is the author trying to make about that? How might Jacobs's narrative force readers to examine these values in a "broader social context" or question "the hierarchy of these values"? Why might that help free readers sympathize more with an enslaved woman? On a real test, when you don't have an explanation to rely on, you need to ask yourself these questions to figure out passages with difficult language!