Literature: Prose, Poetry and Supplementary Reader
What the section tests
Literature covers prescribed textbook prose, poetry and the supplementary reader. Questions test plot, character, conflict, theme, poetic device, tone and the ability to support an interpretation with textual evidence. Retelling is not enough; you must show why a detail matters.
Reading the three genres
- Prose: map narrator, setting, inciting incident, conflict and resolution. For character questions, use an action, a speech and its consequence.
- Poetry: identify speaker, situation, form, rhyme and imagery. Name devices precisely: simile uses like/as; metaphor states one thing is another; personification gives human qualities; alliteration repeats initial consonants.
- Supplementary reader: track relationships and turning points; link the ending to the theme rather than moralising vaguely.
Worked example
Line: The old man walks like a winter tree. Question: identify the device and explain its effect. Reasoning: like signals a simile, not a metaphor. The comparison suggests frailty and bareness, yet a tree also endures winter, so the image can imply dignity. A full answer names the device, quotes the words and links both parts of the comparison to the character.
Traps
Naming a device without explaining effect; confusing poet and speaker; summarising the whole chapter instead of answering the focus; quoting without comment; and importing a moral that the text does not support.