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Craft and Structure / Cross-Text Connections Difficulty: Hard

Text 1

Like the work of Ralph Ellison before her, Toni Morrison’s novels feature scenes in which characters deliver sermons of such length and verbal dexterity that for a time, the text exchanges the formal parameters of fiction for those of oral literature. Given the many other echoes of Ellison in Morrison’s novels, both in structure and prose style, these scenes suggest Ellison’s direct influence on Morrison.

Text 2

In their destabilizing effect on literary form, the sermons in Morrison’s works recall those in Ellison’s. Yet literature by Black Americans abounds in moments where interpolated speech erodes the division between oral and written forms that literature in English has traditionally observed. Morrison’s use of the sermon is attributable not only to the influence of Ellison but also to a community-wide strategy of resistance to externally imposed literary conventions.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely characterize the underlined claim in Text 1?

As failing to consider Ellison’s and Morrison’s equivalent uses of the sermon within the wider cultural context in which they wrote

As misunderstanding the function of sermons in novels by Black American writers other than Ellison and Morrison

As disregarding points of structural and stylistic divergence between the works of Ellison and those of Morrison

As being indebted to the tradition of resisting literary conventions that privilege written forms, such as novels, over sermons and other oral forms

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Explanation

Choice A is the best answer. The author of Text 2 argues that Morrison’s use of the sermon is not only influenced by Ellison, but also by a “community-wide strategy of resistance” to literary conventions practiced by Black American authors. Ellison, Text 2 alleges, is only one of many influences on Morrison.

Choice B is incorrect. Neither text specifically mentions sermons in works by authors other than Morrison or Ellison, only a tendency towards eroding “the division between oral and written forms” among Black American writers. Choice C is incorrect. Both texts describe similarities between the works of Ellison and Morrison, and neither points out instances of divergence. Text 2 simply suggests that Morrison was influenced by more than just Ellison. Choice D is incorrect. While Text 2 does discuss Morrison’s resistance to certain literary conventions, it’s unclear what it would mean for the underlined claim to be “indebted” to that tradition. This choice recycles language from the text, but not in a way that makes any coherent point.