The following excerpt is from Anne Tyler’s novelClock Dance, published in 2018. In this passage two girls, Willa and Sonya, head out into a neighborhood to sell candy for their school orchestra’s fund-raiser. Read the passage carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how Tyler uses literary elements and techniques to convey the complex relationships among the characters. In your response you should do the following: •Respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible interpretation. •Select and use evidence to support your line of reasoning. •Explain how the evidence supports your line of reasoning. •Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument. The houses on Harper Road were newish. Ranch-style, they were called. They were all on one level and made of brick, and the people who lived there were newish, too—most of them employed by the furniture factory that had opened over in Garrettville a couple of years ago. Willa and Sonya didn’t know a one of them, and this was a good thing because then they wouldn’t feel so self-conscious pretending to be salesmen. Before they tried the first house, they stopped behind a big evergreen bush in order to get themselves ready. They had washed their hands and faces back at Sonya’s house, and Sonya had combed her hair, which was the straight, dark, ribbony kind that a comb could slide right through. Willa’s billow of yellow curls needed a brush instead of a comb, but Sonya didn’t own a brush and so Willa had just flattened her frizzes with her palms as best she could. She and Sonya wore almost-matching wool jackets with fake-fur-trimmed hoods, and blue jeans with the cuffs turned up to show their plaid flannel linings. Sonya had sneakers on but Willa was still in her school shoes, brown tie oxfords, because she hadn’t wanted to stop by home and get waylaid by her little sister, who would beg to tag along. “Hold the whole carton up when they open the door,” Sonya told Willa. “Not just one candy bar. Ask, ‘Would you like to buy some candy bars?’ Plural.” “I’mgoing to ask?” Willa said. “I thought you were.” “I’d feel silly asking.”AP ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
“What, you don’t thinkI’dfeel silly?” “But you’re much better with grownups.” “What will you be doing?”
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