College Board Literature: A Great Novel in a Malevolent Environment

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English is characterized by the scrutiny and analysis of universally renowned works of literature. The class in geared towards preparing students for the Advanced Placement course the following year, should it be taken. As such, students spend an enormous amount of time developing their writing skills, as wells as their critical reading skills. Starting with J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the course progresses to such works as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. According to the College Board, these works are designed to “provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers.” While most of the selections for the Sophomore Accelerated course fit these criteria, there is one glaring exception: E.M. Forster’s 1924 novel A Passage to India. An uninteresting and drawn out novel, it alienates is audience while confusing readers as it buries meaning in extended metaphors and dated social commentary. Failing to meet the standards set by the College Board, teachers should feel compelled to eliminate the instruction this ill-suited novel from the curriculum.

Since 1990, A Passage to India has appeared on four AP Literature exam free response questions, the most recent in 2009, according to a by-title list compiled by Norma J. Wilkerson. Other novels taught during the Sophomore Accelerated course exceed this number, including Jane Eyre (twelve times) and Macbeth (five times), and nearly paralleled by The Catcher in the Rye (three times, all since 2000). As the Sophomore Accelerated course is designed to prepare students for the following year’s AP course – and ultimately the AP Exam – the instruction should be inclined toward what is more likely to appear on the exam. W...

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...the overwhelming dissatisfaction that the novel elicits from those reading it – which is based in the deep, layered prose of an intricate and sophisticated mind, geared toward older audiences – provide the groundwork for the argument of the book’s removal from the Sophomore Accelerated curriculum. The animosity shown toward the teachers and the subsequent resentment by the teachers’ students should only act as additional incentive to recognize a truly great work of literature as one that has no place in the hands of a sophomore student in the confines of an analysis-based classroom.

Works Cited

http://www.brainyquote.com

http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/AP/APtitles.html

E.M. Forster's "A Passage to India"

Kelly Gallagher's "Readicide"

U.S. College Board

http://www.sparknotes.com

Glen O. Allen's "Structure, Symbol, and Theme in E.M. Forster's A Pasage to India"

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