#12 - Specific Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (C).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[JotaDay]

Can someone help me to rule out answer D)?

It seems to me that the competing priorities and the tension created as something that contributed to the plight of the protagonist

[Amber Thomas]

Hi JotaDay!

Let’s look at the text referenced in this question (Lines 45-55): “Jacobs points out that slave women view certain events and actions from a perspective different from that of free women, and that they must make difficult choices that free women need not. Her narrative thus becomes an antidomestic novel, for Jacobs accepts readily the goals of the genre, but demonstrates that its hierarchy of values does not apply when examined from the perspective of a female slave, suggesting thereby that her experience, and that of any female slave, cannot be fully understood without shedding conventional perspectives.”

Here, we can see that the author of the passage describes Jacobs’ novel as anti domestic in order to show that while it accepts the goals of the genre, it shows that the hierarchy of values usually present in these novels could not apply to her due to circumstance. This is because enslaved women were often forced to make sacrifices and take actions that didn’t align with the usual hierarchy of values in the genre in the interest of their own safety and freedom.

Now, let’s look at Answer Choice D: “Jacobs’s narrative implicitly suggests that the desire for domestic ideals contributes to the protagonist's plight.”

This was not the author’s intent in calling Jacobs’ novel anti domestic. Because of her status as an enslaved woman, Jacobs had to prioritize freedom over the typically cherished ideal of a family (a husband and children). This involved leaving behind her own child as she escaped to freedom (Lines 39-45). This is the nature of her plight— it wasn’t caused by the desire for domestic ideals, rather, it is caused by her status as an enslaved woman. From Jacobs’ perspective, these ideals of family and domesticity simply couldn’t be as important as her freedom and safety, something that free women wouldn’t have had to consider. Through this, Jacobs’ was able to demonstrate the limits of the hierarchy of values in the domestic genre, as it was not universally applicable. This leads us to Answer Choice C!

I hope this helps!