#4 - Must Be True, Subject Perspective

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=11395)


The correct answer choice is (A)

The justification for the correct answer can be found on:

(lines 27-30)

The question stem asks for the reason, according to the passage, that the critics dismissed The Wanderers. Relevant discussion is found in paragraph two of the passage, wherein the author states, at lines 27-30, that “there are those who are outright dismissive of The Wanderers because it contains an autobiographical framework and is populated with real-world characters.” The author goes on to discuss the critics’ balking at Mphahlele’s vision, because of the South African’s failure to provide a specific roadmap for its achievement.

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. The use of real-world characters was one of the specific criticisms discussed in reference to The Wanderers.

Answer choice (B): While the criticism referenced the autobiographical framework, it was the framework itself that was dismissed when questioning the book’s literary contribution, not the failure to present the book as an autobiography.

Answer choice (C): The relevant criticism concerning Mphahlele’s vision was not that the writer’s vision was unclear, but rather that the writer provided no specific instruction for bringing this vision to fruition.

Answer choice (D): While Mphahlele considers social criticism vital to any important work, this was not the basis of the criticisms discussed in the passage, so this answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (E): At no point does the passage refer to criticisms regarding Mphahlele’s emphasis on relationships.

[BMM2021]

Hi,

I saw that the passage states "populated with real-world characters" in explaining critics' dismissal of The Wanderers; however, I felt that answer A didn't capture the whole point. The passage begins by stating that literary critics, "especially those who feel compelled to draw a sharp distinction between autobiography and fiction," have specifically pointed to The Wanderers as an example of this "problem of categorizing his work." The passage goes on to state: "Critics have variously decried [The Wanderers] as too autobiographical."

When the passage mentions that some critics "are outright dismissive of The Wanderers because it contains an autobiographical framework and is populated with real-world characters," it seems clear that such critics are dismissive because they are uncomfortable with Mphahlele's literary style combining autobiographical and fictional elements - like the father-son relationship that Mphahlele uses to emphasize the fictional value of The Wanderers in the next sentence.

In turn, it doesn't seem to me that critics would care whether or not real-world characters are present in a novel; historical fiction is a popular genre that seems to escape the scrutiny of Mphahlele's critics, at least within the scope of this passage. The passage as a whole seems to be discussing Mphahlele's critics' overarching concerns regarding the difficulty of categorizing his works into distinct genres - as is stated in the first paragraph. So I chose answer B here, since such a reason appears to follow from the criticism that The Wanderer's is too autobiographical to be fiction (i.e. it should therefore be an autobiography).

I understand that the precise language used in answer A is also present in the passage, but I don't understand how answer A adequately addresses the question regarding what the critics' reason is for dismissing The Wanderers. Thanks for any help with this one.

[Robert Carroll]

BMM2021,

Nothing about this question requires the answer to capture the whole point. The question is asking for a reason that critics dismissed The Wanderers, not every reason. Answer choice (A) is a reason (lines 27-30 say so exactly), so that's the answer.

In your explanation, you say:

In turn, it doesn't seem to me that critics would care whether or not real-world characters are present in a novel; historical fiction is a popular genre that seems to escape the scrutiny of Mphahlele's critics, at least within the scope of this passage.

That directly contradicts lines 27-30, which say that critics dismiss The Wanderers because it is populated with real-world characters. The passage is as clear as possible about this - the critics dismiss The Wanderers for that reason. That directly proves answer choice (A). Be careful about adding outside assumptions to the passage in general, but especially when those outside assumptions directly contradict the explicit words of the passage.

Robert Carroll

[CostaAnthony]

I was also confused about why A was better than B, I chose B origionally.

Outside of lines 27-30, further evidence for A being correct can be found in the last sentence of the first paragraph "critics have variously described the former (Down Second Ave) as too fictionalized and the latter (The Wanderes) as too autobiographical", that is for a novel. This implies that they critize it, not because they thought it was a autobiography and should have been presented that way, but instead because it was a novel and as answer A states, should not have been populated with real-world characters.

Hope this helps any future PrepTest 51 takers.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Great point, CostaAnthony. I can see where answer choice (B) would be tempting. However, saying the Wanderers is too autobiographical to be a novel is different than saying it should be an autobiography. It could be that the critics think it should be a novel, but that the real-world elements should be removed. Answer choice (B) is making a positive claim about what the critics think that is not supported by the information in the passage.

Great work!