3/6 AP English Literature Literary Argument Essay Example #4
This is a real, anonymized literary argument essay written by an AP student and scored 3/6 by our AI grader — one of many AP English Literature essay examples in our library.
The Prompt
In a well-written essay, analyze how Hogan uses literary elements and techniques to develop a complex characterization of the community. Write your response
The Essay
The excerpt Linda Hogan's novel ‘People of the Whale’ talks about how unusual experiences are taken as an omen. Especially the woman in the excerpt whos child was born shortly after the octopus walked out of the sea. The novel exmpalins how prophecies and believes impact a person persepective on events. Hogan uses diction in words related to a divine deity, and imagery of when the octopus walks out the ocean to emphasize and develop how the community is not used to seeing things out of the ordanary, believing unusual thinfs have a purpose even if it is not known directly. In the excpert Hogan uses diction to show how the community has old believes and treats unusual events as a sign whether negative or postive. Throught the text the community refers the octopus as “holy”. A lot of time the word “holy” is used to show something that is deeper or stonger than it seems. For exmaple many times when people are referncing a deity they mention a “holy being”. This comes to show that the communty relies on osmething greater , such as gods, to justify an event: like the octopus. The meaning of the octopus can have any significance for the community wehter it is for the better or worse. The octopus is not seen as just a normal animal the way they are describing the octopus as “holy” makes it seem as it is out of the ordanary like an 'alien. The community is shown to think that these unkown occurrences aren't coincidences.The diction in the passage regarding divine connoctation show that the community in the story are open minded because they to believing that things may have different purposes and do not question it futher than saying it has a “mysterious purpose”. This believe of the unkwon influences the community to act accordingly, like the womens child who was born around the time the octopus appered at first and taking the occurrence as a “sign”. She is an example of how community responds to the unkown and is “spiritual”. She was convinved that the octopus was an omen for better her childs life, certain that her child would have a “spirit-keeper” or a protecter of the childs life showing how a lot of the community is still influenced by older belives . This helps show how the community understands themselves as a reliaying to unkown things to jsutify teir beliefs. The imagery of the passage helps exxagertae the communities reaction and characterization of the community. Hogan also uses imagery to show the communities reaction and disbelief of the unusual event. The imagery of the communities reaction to the octopus such as the mother pulling bakc her child from the octopus, “amazed”, and “the eye of it looking a them” as if the octopus knew their life helps interpret the community feeling speechless and frozen to this possible occurence. The imagery also helps interpret the idea that not many wanted to keep it alive stating the should kil the octopus and describing how wether undigesting it or burining it. This shows how the commuty is afraid of the occurence as tries to avoid any bad omen by getting ride of the octopus. These persepectives helps analyze the community is unsure on waht to do not understanding its purpose. Until a women steps up an explains how humans should not interfer and in that moment the octopus “turned a shade of red as it reached the safety of the cave". This imagery made the community feel as if the octopus was really something out of this world that it had to be soemthing meaninguful. start leaving offering and gift as a way for the community feel safer in fear of the octopus being created by magic. This helps show how the community is imapcted by spiritual believes and take omen witha purpose, believing that unusual things have a mysterous purpose and will respect it even if they may not believe that the unkown is good. This however, may just be a simple occurence of nature. Like the fishermen that stated they should just use it for a more practical need like fish food. This shoews the differnec eof opinion many of the community may have as well. It shows that the community is diverswhen confused until it is later that the Colot changing of the octopus makes them untied and confirm to them and become more unified in opinions Showing that even if not everyone thinks the octopus may be a sign from somehting “holy” it can still be used practically. With that being said Hogan expert uses imagery and diction to show the extent until whioch the community is spiritual and open minded. With how different view may imapct the response ot the octopus wehther postive or ngative will cause a believe in soemthing greater.
Score Breakdown
Thesis (1/1)
Evidence & Commentary (2/4)
Sophistication (0/1)
What This Essay Gets Right
The thesis earns its point cleanly: it claims that Hogan uses "diction in words related to a divine deity" and imagery of the octopus emerging from the sea to show that the community treats unusual events as meaningful even when their purpose stays hidden. That is an actual interpretive claim, not a summary of the excerpt, and it holds up as a defensible reading of the passage.
The essay also reaches for real textual detail to support that claim. It notices that the community calls the octopus "holy," a word it points out gets used "when people are referencing a deity." It catches the mother pulling her child back from the octopus, and the moment the creature "turned a shade of red as it reached the safety of the cave." It even surfaces the fishermen's competing view that the octopus is just "fish food," the one place in the essay where a second perspective on the community shows up at all.
What Went Wrong (And How to Avoid It)
The essay picks the right details, but it keeps stopping just before it explains them. Right after quoting "holy," it writes that "the meaning of the octopus can have any significance for the community whether it is for better or worse," which loops back to the thesis instead of saying what calling something holy does for the community's understanding of it. The same pattern shows up with the octopus turning red: the essay names the color change, then only calls it "something meaningful" rather than explaining what a shift from black to red signals to a community already reading the animal as a sign. Each piece of evidence needs one more sentence that says what the detail itself is doing, not just what conclusion the essay wants drawn from it.
The clearest missed opportunity is the fishermen. The essay raises their view that the octopus is "just fish food," the only competing perspective in the whole response, then drops it after a single sentence. Does the community's turn to leaving offerings override that practical reading, or does it expose a real split in how the community makes sense of the unknown? Following that question through would have been the difference between an essay that reports the community's beliefs and one that examines them, and it is exactly what the sophistication point is looking for.
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