Passage - General Questions

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Complete Passage Discussion

The passage examines the work of writer Sarah Orne Jewett in the literary context of 19th century
United States and discusses its relationship to the domestic novels of the previous generation.

Paragraph 1 Overview

The first paragraph compares the work of Sarah Orne Jewett, an American writer of regional fiction
in the nineteenth-century, to the domestic novelists of the 1850s:

• • Similarities: both focus on women and their concerns, with men relegated to the periphery
  (lines 6-8).
  • Differences: domestic novels revolve around children and contain religious themes, whereas
  Jewett’s fiction does not.

Whenever you encounter a compare-and-contrast section in a Reading Comprehension passage,
make sure to notate the similarities and differences between the items being compared. Equally
important is the juxtaposition between two competing viewpoints: the critics, who seek to align
Jewett’s work with the domestic novelists of the previous generation, and the author’s arguing that it
“differs markedly from these antecedents” (line 8). The ability to differentiate between contrasting
viewpoints is an important skill that is frequently tested on the LSAT.

Paragraph 2 Overview

The second paragraph seeks to explain the differences between Jewett’s fiction and the domestic
novels of the previous generation. The author cites several possible explanations, but discounts them
as mere reflections of a more fundamental shift in the conception of fiction held by Jewett and her
predecessors:

Cause Effect
Differing conceptions of fiction .....Differences b/w Jewett and the domestic novel

The domestic novel, the author asserts, was based on a conception of fiction as a continuum that also
included writings devoted to piety and domestic instruction. As such, novels were indistinguishable
from other forms of writing. By contrast, Jewett’s work embodies a new “high-cultural” conception
of fiction as an autonomous sphere with value in and of itself.

This causal relationship is the crux of the author’s argument, and must be fully understood before
proceeding to the next paragraph. Although we study causal reasoning primarily in the context of
Logical Reasoning questions, causality in Reading Comprehension is often used to explain why
certain events occurred, and is not typically viewed as flawed reasoning.

Paragraph 3 Overview

In the final paragraph, the author elaborates on Jewett’s conception of fiction as “pure art.” Unlike
the domestic novelists, Jewett intended her work not as a means to an end but as an end in itself.
This, the author concludes, is the fundamental difference between Jewett and her predecessors,
overriding any superficial similarity in subject matter between them. Make sure to highlight the last
two sentences of the passage, as they summarize the main point at issue between the author and the
critics.

Summary

Despite the subject matter similarities between Jewett’s fiction and the domestic novels of the 1850s,
the author argues that they reflect differing conceptions of fiction. There are two viewpoints you
should keep in mind as you attack the questions:

• Critics: Due to its focus on women and domestic occupations, Jewett’s work belongs
  to the same literary tradition as the domestic novel.
  
  Author: Jewett’s fiction inhabits a secular world without didactic aims, and embodies
  the high-cultural conception of fiction as an autonomous sphere with a value
  in and of itself.

The structure of the passage is as follows:

• Paragraph 1: Provide an account of the similarities and differences between Jewett’s fiction
  and the domestic novels of the mid-nineteenth century.
  
  Paragraph 2: Propose and reject several ways of explaining the differences between them,
  concluding that such differences ultimately reflect conflicting conceptions of
  fiction held by Jewett and the domestic novelists.
  
  Paragraph 3: Examine the meaning and implications of the high-cultural aesthetic and
  summarize the main argument of the passage.