May 2nd Assignment: AP Lang Exam Essay Practice

Answer ONE of the following and post your response before the end of the day TODAY, May 2nd.

CHOICE ONE: (Please title the post "Crime is Pride")

In the following excerpt from Antigone, by the classical Greek playwright Sophocles, the wise Teiresias observes:

 

Think: all men make mistakes

But a good man yeilds when he

Knows his course is wrong,

And repairs the evil: The only

Crime is pride.



Take some time to think about the implications of the quotation. Then write a carefully reasoned essay that explores the validity of the assertion, using examples from your reading, observation, or experience to develop your position.

CHOICE TWO: (Please title the post "Wooden-headedness")

In The March of Folly, historian Barbara Tuchman writes:

Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists of assessing a situation in terms of preconcieved fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts.

Some people would claim that what Tuchman calls wooden-headedness plays a remarkably large role in all organizations and, indeed, in all human affairs.

Write a carefully reasoned persuasive essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies this idea about the prevalence of wooden-headedness in human actions and decisions. Use evidence from your reading and/or observation to develop your position.