IB English Paper 2 Prompts from the Past: General Questions on Literature
5. General Questions on Literature
01. “Social and political life are both necessary and corrupting.”
Through what literary techniques, and with what effect on the reader, has this view been considered in the works you have studied?
02. Examine the use made by writers of innocence and/or ignorance, comparing the presentation of such elements and their effects on the individual works you have studied.
03. In what ways, and to what ends, have writers in your study combined opposing facets
of human experience?
04. “Some writers reflect the culture they live in, others challenge it.”
In what ways and with what effects have works in your study either conveyed to you an appreciation of the culture of the works or offered a critique of it?
05. “Man’s love is a thing apart; ‘tis women’s whole existence.”
Evaluate the validity of this view in literature, showing how strategies in works you have studied work to confirm or deny it.
06. To read work which was produced in a culture other than your own has difficulties, but cultural differences between audience and text may be productive. How far do you agree?
07. Literature admits conflicts between good and good, as well as between good and evil. Which two or three works would you choose to discuss to illustrate this generalization, and why might both types of conflict be important?
08. Compare in some detail the use made of the cinema or techniques from the cinema in
two or three works you have studied.
09. How far has your study of two or three works of literature suggested that the idea of the writer‘s “intention” is beset with difficulties or is a useful approach, or is both.
10. “—The past is another country: they do things differently there.”
Discuss the problems and benefits of reading works from another age.
11. What questions about power has your study of literature raised?
12. A novelist wrote: “—As regards plots I find real life no help at all. Real life seems to have no plots.”
From your reading, draw some of your own conclusions about the relationships between writing and —“real life.”
13. In reading a work of literature, how useful or misleading is information about the author‘s life?
14. “The purpose of the work of literature is the reader’s freedom.”
In what sense can literature make a reader free or make him/her feel free?
15. “Lying, the telling of beautiful, untrue things, is the proper aim of art.”
How important is it that literature be composed of what is “true”?
16. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”
In what ways could such a statement be an accurate description of the content, the style, or both of these, in works you have studied?
17. Writers of literature almost always tell stories. How far is it true that the writing you have studied has, at heart, a story?
18. “—To analyse with any discrimination, you have to have enjoyed the work.”
How far is such a view relevant to your experience of studying literature?
19. “—I disavow any essential connection between my life and what I write.”
Is this a credible view for writers of literature you have studied?
20. Compare your responses to the literature you have studied when it includes views or behaviour contrary to your own system of values.
21. Compare the importance of dreams or aspirations or ambitions to the impact of works you have studied.
22. In what ways does the concept “freedom of choice” inform your reading in any two or
three works you have studied?
23. To what extent have you found it possible, in your consideration of literary works, to separate the individual from his or her public role? In your answer you should refer to any two or three works you have studied.
24. “Fact versus fantasy; this is a clash that can have comic or tragic results.”
Bearing this statement in mind explore the results of using realism and fantasy in any two or three works you have studied.
25. Compare how writers in your study have explored the themes of judgment and punishment, or disguise and deceit, or love and friendship, and with what effect.
26. “Good’s good and bad’s bad.”
In the light of this statement, examine the ways in which writers explore moral issues, with close reference to two or three works you have studied.
27. “If love is judged by its visible effects, it often looks more like hatred.”
In the light of this statement, compare the treatment of love in any two or three works you have studied
28. Compare the use of contrast as a literary device in any two or three works you have studied.
29. Compare how writers you have studied have incorporated landscape, or celebration, or
travel, and with what effect.
30. The form of a work is often considered equal in importance to the content of a work of literature. How far does your experience confirm or question this notion?
31. How important has the contrast or similarity between appearance and reality been to the interest of works you have studied?
32. What significant value or values have been selected and developed in writers you have studied; by what means and with what success have they been presented?
33. “It is possible for a good writer to write about commonplace things with immense, even startling power.”
How far and in what ways have writers in your study persuaded you to agree with this view?
34. “Some writers succeed in hypnotizing the reader; others compel the reader to think.”
Compare and contrast two or three works of literature in your study in the light of this statement.
35. Evil not only fascinates people in general, but writers as well. In what ways and with what effect has “evil” been treated by writers you have studied?
36. Sometimes readers are disappointed with literature in which abstraction and reflection are more in evidence than the concrete and particular. How far has your appreciation of works of literature been based on either of these preferences?
37. Great literary themes involving love, death, survival and the like have sometimes been treated in ways that are unique or are unexpected. Discuss how any of the works you have studied demonstrate this phenomenon.
38. “A writer without a keen sense of justice and injustice would be better off editing a school yearbook.”
To what degree is such a sense of human behaviour important to works you have studied?
39. “In literature the concept of ‘home’ is often used to locate the thoughts, memories and dreams of humankind.”
In the light of this quotation, explore the ways in which “home” is used in any two or three works of literature you have studied.
40. Compare and contrast the treatment of different, new or alien cultures in any two or three
works of literature you have studied.
41. How successfully have writers been able to portray the opposite sex? Refer in detail to any two or three works of literature you have studied.
42. In what ways have writers shown that things are not always what they seem? Illustrate your answers with reference to any two or three works of literature you have studied.
43. Explore the ways in which “chance” or “coincidence” is used in any two or three works of literature you have studied.
44. Consider the use made of music or musical elements in any two or three works of literature you have studied.
45. Compare the ways in which writers have explored the relationship between experience and understanding. Refer in detail to any two or three works of literature in your study.
46. “Some works of literature are universal and timeless; others seem specific to one place and/or time.”
In what ways do two or three works in your study explore this range of possibilities?
47. A writer speaks of being “surprised by joy.” In two or three works you have studied, discuss some moments which have surprised and/or delighted you and consider the ways writers have achieved those particular effects.
48. Using two or three of the works you have studied, discuss how and to what effect writers have used exaggeration as a literary device.
49. Writers make many deliberate choices in the course of creating their works. Considering one or two stylistic aspects, compare the effectiveness of some choices writers have made in two or three works you have studied.
50. In what ways do writers use “non-conformist” views or people as material for their writing?
You must base you answer on two or three works you have studied.
51. “Chronological order is the most convincing way to convey a story or an idea.”
Comparing two or three of the works you have studied, agree or disagree with this statement.
52. Much literature has been written about death and dying. How and to what effect has this
subject been explored in two or three of the works you have studied?
53. “Although humans claim to desire freedom above all else, many prefer security.”
In the light of this statement discuss two or three works you have studied, showing the ways in
which they have presented attitudes to freedom and/or security.
54. Using two or three of the works you have studied, discuss how and to what extent the writers have shown the pervasive influence of the past.
55. If one of the roles of literature is to provide insight into human nature, by what techniques and to what degree did your texts offer you such insight? Discuss with reference to two or three works you have studied.
56. A writer may speak in his or her own voice or take on the voice of a character or persona. Comparing two or three works you have studied in the light of this statement, discuss what effects those choices have on each work as a whole.
57. “In the end is my beginning.”
This is a statement made by an author to describe how he organizes his works. What do you understand by the sentence, and how does it cast light on the literary strategies employed in two or three works you have studied?
58. “It’s love that makes the world go round.”
To what extent and in what ways does love, or its absence, dominate two or three of the works
you have studied?
59. “Look to the future and beware.”
How and to what effect have writers depicted the future? Discuss with reference to two or three
works you have studied.
61. Health and sickness may appear in the works of writers either in plots, characters, imagery
or themes. In what ways and to what effect have writers used health and sickness in two or three
works you have studied?
62. What can a writer accomplish through the use of repetition? Respond with reference
to two or three works you have studied.
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