Passage Discussion

[tzyc]

The passage's simple scale would be...
Psychologists such as Bettelheim:
those thinks fairy tales is used to give children lessons
and also they see children as evil and adults are non-selfish (take the second way of interpreting a story which the author gives (the other is what the author called superficial))
vs
Author&literature
It's not true that Children are selfish and adults are innocent...disagree with them

I'm not sure what the author means in the last sentence...this confused me because it seems the author agrees with Bettelheim because s/he says "hence the idea that a literature targeted for them must stand in the service of pragmatic instrumentality rather than foster an unproductive form of playful pleasure."
I thought the sentence started with the reason that leads psychologists (such as Bettelheim) to think about fairy tales, so it talks about pychologists...and thought it ends with the author's disagreement but it seems it ends with the author' agreement, s/he also thinks fairy tales should be something that teach children lessons...? (bc he uses must)
I thought the last paragraph is for rebutting the idea psychologists have but it is confusing...could anyone clarify it?

Thank you

[rinagoldfield]

Thanks for your post.

I agree with your basic scale. I attached a more detailed version below.

The last lines of the passage are confusing. However, here the author comes down on the side of playful pleasure and against pragmatic instrumentality. The author argues that the pragmatic instrumentalist approach stems from "the need to deny adult evil" (line 51). The author is against all of that, arguing instead that true parental behavior can range "from abuse to indulgence" (line 49). So the author is still against Bettleheim.

Does that make sense?

[tzyc]

Hi,

Thank you for the scale.
By the way...could you rephrase this
"hence the idea that a literature targeted for them must stand in the service of pragmatic instrumentality rather than foster an unproductive form of playful pleasure."
in other words?
I got the author is against the interpretation, but want to know how s/he argues against in this sentence...
Thank you!

[shirleyx]

I did a passage map a bit different than the one provided... I want some views/criticism if possible...

background info and author makes an assertion --> provide support for assertion using a psychologist --> provide more background info followed by providing support for assertion using parents --> more hate on the psychologist using a study and then a generalization at the end.

PLEASE and THANK Y'ALL

[christine.defenbaugh]

Thanks for posting your passage map!

One thing that's missing from your passage map is SCALE!! While there are a few passages out there that legitimately don't have a scale, the vast majority of LSAT passages contain some central tension that is useful to understand. Here, it's difficult to pin down the second side of the scale right away, but the first side is readily apparent: the parent-view of fairy tales, complete with moral instruction.

Along the same lines, your passage map has a lot of organizational indicators, but is missing almost any reference to the actual content of the passage.

P1background info and author makes an assertion --> What is the assertion? Also, this makes it sound like the AUTHOR is asserting the parent view!
P2provide support for assertion using a psychologist --> What's the assertion? Again, this makes it sound like the author is supporting the parent view, and using Bettelheim to back his view up!
P3provide more background info followed by providing support for assertion using parents --> Still sounds like the author is supporting the parent view... And what about the people with different cultural expectations?
P4 more hate on the psychologist using a study and then a generalization at the end. Oh, NOW I see that the author hates Bettelheim! What's the generalization?

What do you think?