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March 29, 2024, 05:23:39 pm

Author Topic: Any good practice essay topics for North and South to prep for the lit exam?  (Read 1646 times)  Share 

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totheforest

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My lit teacher said she would give us a few ideas to write on during the holidays except I want a head start

literally lauren

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My lit teacher said she would give us a few ideas to write on during the holidays except I want a head start
Hi there!

Below are ten different prompts to help you get started, but as I mentioned in another post, you can 'swap out' different focal points and easily create your own prompts, provided you have some key ideas to focus on. I've underlined all of the major themes/ideas in the ones below, so you can replace these with others if you want more variety!

Also, the trend so far seems to be that VCAA aren't giving you super limited topics for discussion (e.g. 'how does the novel reflect Marxist class struggles?' ... however there were a few texts that had some highly specific prompts in last year's exam (e.g. 'socially constructed gender roles' and 'colonialism') that lent themselves more towards one specific field of criticism. Unfortunately, we don't really know if these were outliers, or if VCAA will continue down this path and get more narrow, but to be on the safe side, it's best to prepare for a variety of possibilities.

I think it's more likely that you'd get an open-ended prompt - for example, one about 'oppression' that would let you discuss the oppression of Margaret from a feminist perspective, and the oppression of the working classes from a Marxist perspective (as well as other, more subtle examples like emotional oppression from a psychoanalytic perspective). But just be wary that it's possible you'll get something that does push you down a certain route (e.g. 'Gaskell's Margaret is an assertive figure in spite of her social standing as a lower-class woman. Discuss...')


1. Reflect on the notion that Margaret discovers more about herself than others in North and South.
2. Discuss the extent to which North and South celebrates triumphing over disenfranchisement.
3. Consider the significance of communication between people in Gaskell's novel.
4. In North and South, there can be no happiness where there is misunderstanding and exploitation. To what extent do you agree with this statement?
5. North and South reveals the necessity of fighting for one's own rights, as well as the rights of others. Discuss.
6. Reflect on the idea that compassion is more powerful than pride in North and South.
7. Gaskell's North and South is a novel about subverting expectations. Discuss.
8. Reflect on the proposition that balancing personal beliefs with societal conventions is at the heart of North and South.
9. Discuss the notion that family invariably affects one's outlook on the world in North and South.
10. Discuss the significance of unity in Gaskell's novel.

Hope that helps! :D