Question 3
(Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)
Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that “Exile is strangely compelling
to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place,
between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” Yet Said has also said that exile
can become “a potent, even enriching” experience.
Select a novel, play, or epic in which a character experiences such a rift and becomes cut off from “home,” whether
that home is the character’s birthplace, family, homeland, or other special place. Then write an essay in which you
analyze how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching, and how this experience
illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or one of comparable
literary merit. Do not merely summarize the plot.
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