Enigma and Edifying:Read the actual passage!!!!

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>School is out so I have lots of time on my hands. The enigma - edifying versus puzzling - fabrication question has been driving me crazy. Just found the actual passage. It is from The Accidental Asian by Eric Liu. Read the passage and then read bbalaz's excellent commentary (post 1) in the thread "Enigma and Edifying is the correct answer." </p>

<p>Here is the actual passage:</p>

<p>One one or two occasions I've sat down with my pocket Chinese-English dictionary, determined to decipher at least the essays that my father wrote. This was painstaking work and I never got very far...By the time I solved one word, I'd already forgotten the previous one. Meaning was hard enough to determine; context was even more elusive.</p>

<p>So it is, I sometimes think, with my father's life. On the one hand, it's easy to locate my father and my family in the grand narrative of "the Chinese American experience." On the other hand, it doesn't take long for this narrative to seem more like a riddle than a fable. Leafing through the pages of the memorial book, staring dumbly at their blur of ideographs, I realized just how little I know about those years of Baba's life before he arrived in America, and before I arrived in the world..."</p>

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<p>The question asked about "riddle than a fable". In the passage it says that the narrative seemed more like a riddle than a fable, so it was more confusing/enigmatic/puzzling than a fable. Edify means to instruct or to benefit and in the next sentence it says "I realized..." meaning she was edified. She found out that she knew very little. So rather than it being more puzzling than edifying, it actually was more edifying because of her realization. She found out that it was more puzzling than she thought, and that it was less of a fabrication.</p>

<p>Edit: Don't get me wrong, I completely see how edifying is the answer as well, I am just supporting puzzling/fabrication because I chose it on the test! But, I can see how the question can be argued for either way... so who knows.</p>

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<p>i agree with WantIvy,</p>

<p>i dont think the author found his father's life to be an enigma, more of a puzzle which he had to solve. and this didn't take long to become a fabrication (making up of something).</p>

<p>Im pretty certain it was puzzling, fabrication.</p>

<p>but u guys also debate it well..IDK</p>

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<p>Wow, you guys are stubborn. </p>

<p>The key thing to pick up on is "On one hand...and On the Other Hand". This shows that there is a parrallel between the first and second statement. It is easy to locate his family in the general Chinese-American Experience. However, the narrative soon turns into a riddle, as opposed to a fable. This means that the father's story is an enigma (mystery) as opposed to the comforting (edifying to him) and common storyline of the Chinese-American Experience. </p>

<p>The fable (which equates to the Chinese American experience) is not at all a fabrication.</p>

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<p>he's not talking about his father's story, he is talking about himself talking in this narrative...read it again</p>

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<p>There's no fabrication in the passage. I'm sorry.</p>

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<p>WantIvy, she said she realized how little she doesn't know, meaning she was exactly the opposite of edified... I've never heard of someone being edified by their lack of knowledge. The answer was enigma/edified.</p>

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<p>Bigweight you must be joking, the entire is passage is about the narrator trying to figure out his father's story. Like actually the entire passage.</p>

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<p>Did anyone on here choose another choice? This is the one that I remember I put imaginative/historical. I was going to put enigma/edifying. I think this is the CR question i'll get off on.</p>

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<p>First of all, to the OP, I love you for finding the passage. </p>

<p>Discussing CR questions without the passage, often times, results in tons of people unnecessarily worrying about the answers they put because of the dogmatic opinions of others. </p>

<p>Now that we have the passage, let's analyze it, rather than our opinions.</p>

<p>"On the one hand, it's easy to locate my father and my family in the grand narrative of "the Chinese American experience." On the other hand, it doesn't take long for this narrative to seem more like a riddle than a fable."</p>

<p>This excerpt is almost like one big metaphor, so I will attempt to decipher it. My explications:</p>

<p>Locate my father and my family in the "The Chinese American experience" = Discover my family's role in Chinese history, a history which is factual.</p>

<p>"On the other hand" means that the point of the sentence will be opposite to that in the previous sentence. "To seem more like [x] than [y]" implies that x and y are opposites. The point of the sentence, which we should agree is the opposite of the point of the previous sentence, is x. And since x and y are opposites, y is the point of the previous sentence. </p>

<p>THEREFORE, y, a fable, is synonymous with the point of the previous sentence, "Locate my father and my family in the "The Chinese American experience."" </p>

<p>THEREFORE, a fable, in this context, means the history in which he discovered his father's role, a history which is factual.</p>

<p>THEREFORE, a fable, since it is factual, does not involve fabrication.</p>

<p>Furthermore, I found this definition of the word "fable" on dictionary.com:</p>

<p>"6. the plot of an epic, a dramatic poem, or a play."</p>

<p>It's by no means the principal meaning of the word, but the SAT doesn't always test on the principal meaning of the word, now does it?</p>

<p>A fable, in this context, according to dictionary.com, is the plot of an epic, an epic which, according to the passage, is the "narrative of Chinese Americans," which we already established is factual, rather than fabricated. Plot, we know, is basically the story.</p>

<p>THEREFORE, we can deduce that the meaning of fable, in this context, is "the story of my father's factual history--not fabricating.</p>

<p>The bottom line, is that a fable, 99% of the time, is fabricated. However, why would the SAT test your knowledge of a 1st grade vocabulary word. Doesn't it stand to reason that they are testing your ability to deduce the meaning from context?</p>

<p>QED? Hopefully? Maybe? :)</p>

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<p>I think everyone is arguing over the answer they put on the test, rather than looking at it from a different perspective... I mean.. what do you REALLY think the answer is?</p>

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<p>Between the two, I picked puzzling, fabrication. = [</p>

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<p>Brilliant analysis, Godfatherbob! Your reasoning is flawless. IMHO Enigmatic and edifying is supported by the passage. BTW I was able to find the passage because I remembered that the father's name was Baba. Google did the rest!</p>

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<p>ok. i'm totally convinced it's enigma/edifying!</p>

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<p>I think puzzling/fabrication, also--he was never edified by his father, he COULDN'T have been edified because he didn't know anything. Thus the "swaths" of ignorance/curiosity (that one's up for debate too, but it's probably the former). Would you have swaths of ignorance if you were edified? Mais non!</p>

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<p>Here is the link that will take you to the passage:</p>

<p>http:<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/liu-asian.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/liu-asian.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Good point Bustles. This is a real tough one!</p>

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<p>Ok here is the "great swaths" paragraph:</p>

<p>If I could render as a painting the image I have of my father as a young man, it would be a post-impressionist work, late Cezanne, rather than a work of realist
precision. Actually, it would be more like an un-finished Cezanne: blocks of color; indistinct shapes; and then, suddenly, great swaths of blank canvas. The scraps of knowledge I have of my father's pre-American life come from letters he wrote, from my mother's secondhand memories, from family lore. They aren't random fragments, exactly. But they aren't full-fledged stories either. They're more like scenes, symbolic images that can be arranged in rough sequence yet still resist narration.</p>

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<p>This question is ridiculous. Fabricated doesn't fit, but neither does enigmatic.</p>

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<p>I don't know why you all feel that fabricated doesn't fit... fabricated doesn't necessarily mean made up or imagined or falsified, it can mean constituted or comprised or created--he was fabricating his dad's story.</p>

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<p>Bustles makes a good point: to fabricate can also mean to construct. . . . This better have a nice scale.</p>