For the juggler poem I felt like the “gravity” that was referenced several times was a metaphor for the mundanity and boredom of the world and of everyday life. I interpreted the juggler’s performance as a way for the speaker to escape this mundanity and temporarily have this “gravity” lifted. I hope my grader feels that was arguable.
Took the test this year. IMO compared with language, literature is perhaps the harder one. The essays are exhausting. Maybe a four is good enough for me.
I actually found language was harder for me than literature and I’m hoping for a 4 on this too.
Everyone is saying that they did well on the second essay but I didn’t really understand it. What did you guys argue was the complex relationship between the father and daughter?
@AnneKatherine I argued that their relationship was irreconcilable due to the Henchard, who views his daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, as being backwards and uncultured, which were characteristics that he once had and disliked in himself. Because she has traits that he himself once had, and that he harbored distaste for those traits, he is very strict towards her and although Elizabeth attempts to speak, walk, act, etc like her father wants her to, she is unable to please him.
Basically I blamed the father.
@teiluuuj That’s a bit of a stretch…what did God have to do with the Juggler?
@marvin100, I assume you’re one of those people who will take anything for literature so long as it’s a written word, especially if it’s astronomically confounding and vaguely composed? People try to overanalyze everything today, and sometimes they forget that not every piece of literature is created with the intention to bury hidden meanings in the text. Do you also appreciate and admire splatter-paint as art? Because that’s precisely what this poem was: a splatter of words. The poet came off as a complete drunk to me. I’d like to see you defend the author of that pile of garbage while not coming off as a completely brainwashed sheep who is afraid to call out some literature for its utter nonsensical pretension. A poet who sits down hoping to write about God and his disillusionment with the world but ends up conjuring a complex metaphor of a Juggler – a JUGGLER – is by definition pretentious. After all, a simple and explicit poem about the real subject of his work couldn’t possibly survive in the modern world of literature, right? We have to make literature overly complicated in order for it to be appreciated?
@Aleksandr7 apparently the 5 balls are a symbol for the 5 wounds of Christ, and the “for him, we batter our hands” is supposed to mean putting one’s hands together in prayer. There is more to it, there’s a full explication that my English teacher shared with us. It’s been tweeted, and it’s on Google.
My English teacher thinks this interpretation is BS. He read it several times and couldn’t see how one could interpret this poem to be about God, especially under time pressure.
I totally agree that everything is over analyzed. Everyone’s explications are making my analysis look reaaaallly surface level, haha. Essentially, I wrote about how the speaker transformed an ordinary entertainer into someone God-like/masterful; someone who deserves respect for his awesome gravity defying abilities (not exactly worded like that, but you know 
)
Also, I kind of struggled with the prose analysis. It seems like everyone mentioned the daughter’s education level, but I attributed the disconnect between father and daughter to the time they spent apart, and the different lives that they lived in that time apart.
@teiluuuj Yeah, I read that analysis online myself after the exam, and I also agree with your teacher that the interpretation is BS / a stretch. I think the College Board could have done a much better job with this first FRQ. I understood the gravity-defying ability part (and discussed that quite thoroughly in my response) as it was quite obvious that the balls themselves fall and fall less but the juggler is able to keep them in a spinning motion. But aside from that I saw no significance in the poem. All I could say is something along the lines of “Well, the speaker’s admiration for the juggler suggests that the man who is able to defy gravity is a source of hope for him, in a world where everything is weighed down by gravity.” Honestly, I don’t even care if I get a trash score on this essay.
@marvin100 can you argue the wrong thing on an ap lit essay and still score high? for example, on the juggler poem i argued that the speaker saw the juggler as an escape from the “gravity” of the mundanity and boredom of the world (something along those lines)
@writerzt71 Yeah, I’m pretty sure you just have to make a solid case and support it.
@marvin100 The bigger problem with The Juggler poem is that the prompt did not fit at all. The exam should have included some sort of “pointer” to get students on the right track or have had a more fitting prompt.
I’m hoping that the general prompt means they’ll go a bit easy on the grading or at least won’t particularly care WHAT you argue as long as you do it WELL. Does anyone know if we get to see the grading rubric before the scores are released?
@Bunnylionn no we don’t get to see the scoring guidelines before they are released unfortunately
@writerzt71 Oh well. I was hoping to try and figure out my scores. I really hate how we never get any details about how we did on essays or multiple choice
How much credit would you lose for only having 3 paragraphs in an essay? 
My poetry analysis had 4 paragraphs, but my prose and free choice had 3 solid paragraphs… I struggled with time. The 3 paragraphs are an Intel, body, and conclusion.
I don’t think you lose any credit for having a shorter essay but it would probably be hard to get a “high” score. My teacher at least is always saying its better to be long than short
@Aleksandr7 - yes, I do like Jackson Pollock, but the juggler is hardly abstract or impressionistic.
@marvin100 “A light-hearted thing, resents its own resilience.”
You’re right, this is definitely not an abstract poem. My apologies.