Question

Read the following transcript from a lecture. Then answer the question(s).

(1) If fiction can change the world for the better, can we afford to undervalue it? Some people believe that fiction is a sideshow to the real work of a society. For such people, stories are unimportant, just another form of entertainment. In my view, however, stories are an essential part of society and can play a significant role in its progress. Throughout history, authors from Charles Dickens to Upton Sinclair to Richard Wright have written about social ills, and their stories have led to change. A great deal of progress would not have been possible without the voices of fiction writers.

(2) One novelist who spurred social change in the United States is Harriet Beecher Stowe. Stowe’s anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, both launched Stowe to fame and helped bring the anti-slavery cause into the mainstream. The book was enormously popular: From 1850 to 1900, only the Bible outsold it. Simon Legree, the brutal slave owner who serves as the book’s chief villain, became a familiar object of fear, revulsion, and contempt. Readers today criticize the novel for its stereotypes of enslaved Africans; however, the book forced a public discussion of slavery that helped lead—eventually—to change.

(3) Social protest novels like Stowe’s do more than simply tell a story. They bring issues into the public forum, compelling a society to face its demons. These stories accuse and condemn the bad, but they also celebrate and applaud the good. The public debate that results may be difficult. It may even involve terrible conflict. However, that conflict can lead to change. Fiction is not just a sideshow to the real work of a society. It is an essential part of the public debate that moves a society forward.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Which of the following additions would most clearly make the argument stronger? Choose two that apply.



Responses

A examples of entertaining sideshows throughout historyexamples of entertaining sideshows throughout history

B an anecdote about how a novel influenced the writeran anecdote about how a novel influenced the writer

C data about literature surrounding social movementsdata about literature surrounding social movements

D quotations from political discourse citing literary examplesquotations from political discourse citing literary examples

E a list of reliable people who agree with the argument

Answer 1

C and D

- C (data about literature surrounding social movements) provides concrete, generalizable evidence linking fiction to social change.
- D (quotations from political discourse citing literary examples) shows that public and political actors themselves recognized fiction’s influence, reinforcing the argument.