Q5

[yoohoo081]

Understand from Line 30 (urban theme) Lines 39-41 (Mexican literary community belies thematic richness of MA writing) why D is true-

However, I cannot explain why B cannot be answer.
Can you explain please?

Thank you~

[timmydoeslsat]

Yeah no problem.

Choice B is implying that these in-between character are found in works of like Irish Americans, African America, Asian Americans, etc.

And we have no evidence of what is common in other immigrant groups works.

[giladedelman]

Good explanation, thanks!

[hoffman36]

So in the context of the passage we can equate "cosmopolitanism" (line 35) with "urban themes"?

I had a lot of trouble choosing (D) over (C) because I did not really see this connection. I answered (D) only because I couldn't see the author making the comparison illustrated in answer choice (C). It seems like the purpose of paragraph 3 is just to demonstrate the criticism Mexican-American work receives from the Mexican literary establishment and the author never makes a comment regarding Mexican-American writers' liberty to "experiment".

I spent a lot of time mulling over this question while taking the test so I just want to make sure my reasoning is sound. Thanks!

[giladedelman]

Yeah, I think we can support "urban" with "cosmopolitan" in this case. The passage is basically saying that the Mexico City literati look down a little bit at what they perceive as "regional" Mexican American writing -- so we can infer that it's harder to get respect for such "regional" writing. That's why (D) is correct.

(A) is incorrect because the agrarian life is never put forth as a cure for any alienation.

(B) is out as explained above.

(C) is incorrect because, as you say, the passage doesn't talk about experimentation.

(E) is just totally out of scope. It never says that one group is more concerned with history.

Thanks for posting!

[sr]

I don't understand why D is better than E.

E is supported, I thought, because they talk about how Mexican American literature is focused on their agrarian ancestors, and ties to their ancestry, etc. And they specifically say that Mexican lit is more focused on cosmopolitan (urban/modern) themes. So doesn't that mean that Mexican lit is focused more on modern while Mexican American is focused more on ancient?

And for D, even though they put regional in quotes, there is nothing to indicate that they do not respect it.

[soyeonjeon]

Would forging a new identity and "creating 'in-between' characters" not be roughly proportional to experimenting with the idea?

I am having difficulty nailing down this problem. Can someone clarify this for me please?

Thanks

[ohthatpatrick]

The case a previous poster made for (E) was a comparison between the focus of Mexican American writers and the focus of Mexican writers. But (E) is more broadly making a comparison between Mexican American culture and Mexican culture.

Nothing in the passage gives us justification for inferring something about the entire cultures.

The end of the 3rd paragraph indicates the Mexico City's negative opinion about Mexican American writing in two subtle ways:

1 - the quotes around "regional" are meant to be read with a snobby, dismissive tone. Otherwise, the author would have just written 'regional' without any quotes.

2 - the following sentence clarifies this attitude: "the apparent simplicity of what this community sees as parochial concerns" ...
this community = Mexico City literary establishment
'simplicity' can be positive or negative, but 'parochial' is normally negative in the sense that it means 'close-minded, insular, shut-off, lacking wide perspective'. Finally, the fact that the author says "X belies Y", indicates a contrast between the first and second half of that sentence. Since 'thematic richness' is a good thing, we can infer that 'apparent simplicity of parochial concerns' is a bad thing.

I like the suggestions for ways to support "experimentation" ... 'forging a new identity' definitely seems to qualify.

The problem with (C) is that it has an extreme term, "a predominant strength" and a comparative term "free to experiment in a way many Mexican writers are not".

We need to be able to justify both of these and really come up lacking.

Where in the passage does the author emphasize that one of the best things about Mexican American writers is that they're not tied to a major literary establishment?

There's no line we can point to to support that.

Where in the passage are we supposed to support the idea that Mexico City writers are not free to experiment?

All we know about them is the topics / structures they're mainly interested in, but you could still experiment within those topics and structures.

I will grant you that we don't actually have any comparative term to support (D), just lines 30-33 along with the contrast drawn immediately thereafter between what the literary establishment tends to like and what Mexican American writers do.

This ends up being one of those tough questions in which the correct answer is simply the "most supportable" and "least sketchy" of all the alternatives.

Hope this helps.

[sh854]

The reason I didn't pick D is because it says mexican americans who write about urban themes have more success. Where does it say this?

[ohthatpatrick]

As we said before, there is NOT concrete proof for (D). It's just more supportable than the others.

We know from line 30 that
"literary reputation and success in Mexico are often bestowed or denied by this literary establishment."

So we have some support for the idea that if the literary establishment likes you, it's easier to get a good reputation and success.

Conversely, if the literary establishment doesn't like you, it's harder.

Where do we get the idea that the literary establishment doesn't like regional writing as much? Lines 36-42.

"This community" [the literary establishment] sees "regional writing" as simplistic, consisting of "parochial concerns".

As we said previously, these are negatives, in context. We can tell from the sentence structure of line 39-42, "But the apparent [crappy thing] belies the [awesome thing]."

So combining the ideas that the Lit. Establish. is often the gateway to success/failure and that the Lit. Establish doesn't seem to like or respect "regional" writing very much, you can support (D).