AP English Literature
Module 8 Lesson 7 Mastery Assignment
Prose Essay Prompt 1: Sarah Orne Jewett’s The Country of the Pointed Firs characterizes the narrator as well as convey meaning through literary elements and devices, such as irony and parallelism. The excerpt follows the narrator, who can be characterized as observant, as she goes to a village off the coast to find seclusion. The meaning of the excerpt is revealed through the irony and parallelism the narrator encounters while on the island. The passage characterizes the narrator as observant, imaginative, and strained, which is what led her to the small down of Dunnet. The excerpt does so by the third person point of view style seen in the first two paragraphs to show how observant she is to her surroundings. It also characterizes her imaginativeness when she transition into first person and tells us her thoughts on certain things. For example, the pungent odors of some of the herbs prompts her to think that they might have once “belonged to sacred and mystic rights”. Another …show more content…
Another example of irony is seen in the line “To arrive at this quietest of seaside villages late in June, when the busy herb-gathering season was just beginning” because it is not that quiet of it happens to be a “busy herb-gathering season.” Parallelism in the excerpt is seen in the line “with not only sweet-brier and sweet-mary, but balm and sage and borage and mint, wormwood and southernwood.” This example of parallelism shows the abundant amount of herbs that Mrs. Todd grows. It makes her plot seem crowded and busy with plants. Her busy garden of plants also refers back to irony because although it might seem chaotic with all those different plants, people go there to find elixirs and medicines to calm and heal