okay so I chose the 2003 pros analysis question and the prompt says the following passage is an excerpt from the other Paris a short story by the Canadian writer Mathis Galan read the passage carefully than in a well-written essay explain how the author uses narrative voice and characterization to provide social commentary so right off the bat we know we need to pay attention to narrative voice which is point-of-view tone style diction and characterization which is the qualities of characters and how they’re portrayed and described in the sample so to start reading the sample I went through and I marked up everything that I found was important in answering the question in the prompt so everything in blue has to do with narrative voice and I focused on sarcastic and ironic phrases and words and then everything underlined and circled in red has to do with how the characters are described in characterization so to name a few the unsuitable medical student and the phrase no one implies it this person is a nobody right now but after med school he will actually have money and he would be quite suitable in Carol’s eyes she was under the illusion that in a short time she would be so old no one would ask her again the excerpt says that Carol is 22 even in a couple years she’s still going to be very young and in my eyes she has plenty of time the fact that carol was not in love with Howard Mitchell did not dismay her in the least from a series of helpful College lectures on marriage these lectures were not actually helpful and they instilled a faulty view of marriage into Carol and our views are actually causing her some major problems right now so it’s ironic that the narrator calls them helpful although a serious discussion of religious beliefs would have gravely embarrassed them these societal views in Carol’s time are quite different from today’s views at least my and I at least value discussions like these because it helps provide insight into what this person is like and I’m sure a lot of you feel the same way Howard best of all was sober old enough to know his own mind and absolutely reliable and who had sense enough and these these phrases make it seem as if these qualities alone make Howard a good or suitable partner um so let’s see over here when Howard is described as uncommonly cautious the narrator is saying it’s not normal to be cautious like it’s just expected of him just to jump into this relationship without considering anything else not being cautious at all for characterization this is what everyone expected and she had nearly come to believe it herself and this is right after Carol’s like ideal proposal is described and and she had nearly come to believe in herself or believed it herself kind of implies that she’s gullible she was under the illusion she’s impressionable again the fact that carol was not in love with howard mitchell did not dismay her in the least ties in with the college lectures lectures leading her to believe that love isn’t needed in a marriage and then up here it says Carol with great efficiency nearly at once set with the business of falling in love love required only the right conditions she rated these chances of love and this kind of makes me feel like she’s she’s treating this whole situation like a science project like with enough efficiency and practice and order she can make herself fall in love with Howard when really that’s not how that happens and then Howard not as described in as much detail he is described as uncommonly cautious and lonely so connecting some literary devices to the theme we’ve determined point of view which is third-person omniscient and we know this because the narrative narrator describes the feelings of thoughts of both characters and the tone is sarcastic ironic and has underlying contempt and we know this because of diction use of satire irony characterization and we learned the outlook of the narrator who obviously opposes societal views on proper marriage the narrator uses devices such as satire irony and sarcasm to create a sense of uneasiness toward societal norms lush views on marriage and I’m going to read from a sample essay that scored a nine and this person’s handwriting is kind of horrendous so I’m just gonna read out part of this paragraph right here and it says one of the most important reoccurring themes is that of pressure by society to get married soon and for all the wrong reasons the supreme irony of the entire concept is that a set of criteria none of which have to do with emotional attachment have been developed for successful marriage so I just think that this this sentence kind of ties everything together and connects the literary devices to the theme of societal pressure and marriage so writing a thesis I’m going to use the students thesis as an example we want to make sure that we use strong doing verbs and a what does what format avoid having B verbs and include lit terms and devices as much as you can so I’m going to read what the student wrote for his thesis and he said the entire passage ridicules the awkward and misplaced not to mention ludicrous stress society and culture places on proper marriage and this this thesis follows the what does what format but it doesn’t fully answer the question it doesn’t include how the narrative voice and characterization ridicules this stressed society and cultural places on proper marriage so definitely make sure to include every aspect of the question when you’re when you’re writing this thesis out and then to go to his conclusion I thought he did very well on this and conclusions are probably the weakest parts of my assay so I’m just gonna basically go off of what the student says and he says by illustrating these ironies inversions follies inconsistencies circular logic and downright absurdity gallant succeeds in crafting a delicious mockery of not the institution of marriage but the institution surrounding marriage the exceptional character development and witty biting tone served to blast holes the size of Iowa into that poor misguided institution so here the the student did really well in in pointing out some of the topics he he wrote about previously in his essay but he also did well and not summarizing his essay he introduced a new concept which is really important in writing a conclusion and he just tied it together really well without merely summarizing what he had written before and I think that is it