Question

In this section, you’ll determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text in detail. You’ll also consider how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details and provides an objective summary of the text.

Priya and Choi continue to read the story and notice that two of the main characters are children (Peter and Wendy). Throughout the text, they’re described as spoiled and entitled to whatever they want.

Which of the following extracts from the story best supports the theme of spoiled children?
Question 4 options:

"They're unbearable–let's admit it. They come and go when they like; they treat us as if we were the children in the family."


"The Hadleys turned. Wendy and Peter were coming happily in the front door, with bright blue eyes and a smell of fresh air on their clothes from their trip in the helicopter."


"Well," said George Hadley. They stood on the grass-like floor of the nursery. It was forty feet across by forty feet long and thirty feet high; it had cost half again as much as the rest of the house. "But nothing's too good for our children," George had said.


"My dear George, a psychologist never saw a fact in his life. He only hears about feelings; things that aren't always clearly expressed. This doesn't feel good, I tell you. Trust me. I have a nose for something bad. This is very bad."

Answer 1

Option 3:

"'Well,' said George Hadley. They stood on the grass-like floor of the nursery. It was forty feet across by forty feet long and thirty feet high; it had cost half again as much as the rest of the house. 'But nothing's too good for our children,' George had said."

Why: the description of an enormous, extravagantly expensive nursery plus the explicit line "nothing's too good for our children" directly shows parental indulgence and the children's entitlement—clear evidence of the theme of spoiled children. (Option 1 also hints at entitlement, but Option 3 most directly supports the theme.)