Q2

[uhdang]

Phillis Wheatley 's approach from the passage to poetry was to "adopt a foreign language and a foreign literary tradition" (49-50) This goes along with the answer choice E) -- adopted the language and forms of modern American poetry (foreign).

Incorrect Answers:

A) "Translating" is not dealt in the passage at all. Phillis acquired English skill and used it to write poetry in English.
B) "new form of poetic expression" is not exactly what the author went for in the passage when he/she says "distinctive African American literary language." It would be too narrow scoped to equate "poetic expression" and "language."
C) This is tempting. This is what "could have been" developed if the literary system weren't "closed." So, saying that Italian immigrants contributed to "Italian American literary style" would be doing something Phillis failed to do.
D) "defining artistic expression" is too broad and strong. Phillis was associated with literary language and developing something distinctive. And Phillis' effort in combining her tradition to English is not covered in this Analogy.

One confusion, though. When the question stem say "approach", I thought it meant what Phillis was TRYING to do, and what she was TRYING to do was (whether intentionally or not), I thought, was to make a contribution in developing distinctive African American literary language. So, I went for C) initially. When I was analyzing E), I did recognize that this would be what ACTUALLY happened and eliminated it because I didn't consider this as her "approach" but something that was rather "forced" to do.

Help me clarify this, please.

[ohthatpatrick]

Nice write-up!

I see where you could get yourself twisted with "approach" becoming something more like "intent, not results" but there are a couple problems:

1. approach isn't a great synonym for intent ... approach IS what she actually did.

2. we don't have any support for the idea that Wheatley wanted/intended/hoped to meld her African culture with her newfound 18th century English culture.

The author's main point is line 30-31. HE is wishing that Wheatley had used her unique background to create an African American literary language. We have no support for the idea that Wheatley ever considered or desired that goal.

The idea that the standards of English poetry "led Wheatley" to create the English poetry she did doesn't mean "it forced her to abandon her project of creating a unique African American voice" ... it just means something more like "her exposure to that English poetry made her think that writing poetry should sound like THAT."

Her talent may be simply as an imitator or replicator of existing styles, not an innovator of new ones.

So my pre-phrase for Q2 would be something like "he DOESN'T use his Italian culture to inform his poetry".

With that in mind, A through D all have giveaway phrases that sound like he IS using his native culture, not just playing by the rules of the new culture.

Nice work!

[lsat2016]

I chose E for this question for a slightly different reason.
I thought that Wheately, who was in the 18th century and adopted 18th century English language is comparable to a modern-day Italian adopting modern American poetry.
Couldn't this be another reason why the two items can be seen as parallel?

[JorieB701]

I chose E for this question for a slightly different reason.
I thought that Wheately, who was in the 18th century and adopted 18th century English language is comparable to a modern-day Italian adopting modern American poetry.
Couldn't this be another reason why the two items can be seen as parallel?

Yes, that's another reason why E is correct. The author thought she could have done a better job of contributing to the formation of a distinct African American literary language, rather she ended up (because of the barriers discussed) serving more to adopt the language and literary traditions of 18th century English poetry- and this all took place within that century.

I'm finding that this is a classic LSAT M.O. - it's arguably a pretty easy question made slightly more difficult by changing one small detail in the stem or answer choice. If you got too caught up in the minutiae of the passage, you might have forgotten that this is all taking place in the 18th century and would've been looking for something exactly like E but adopting from a previous century. The stress of crossing off A-D, then getting confused by E, sure can make a less confident test taker talk themselves into something like D on a question like this.