LSAT 109 | Section 2 | Reading Comprehension: Q14

RC Question 14 Explanation

DISCUSSION: The author believes Jacobs’ book was valuable because it forced free women to consider their own values from the perspective of an outsider, from the perspective of a slave.

Many of the wrong answers are general. We only have information about Jacobs’ novel. The right answer is general, too, but we know that the author of the passage does value shaking our cultural perspective. See lines 20-22 and lines 51-55.

___________

1. We’re not told if Jacobs’ novel captured the mood of a whole period. We only know it reflected Jacobs’ life. But a period is a large thing, and Jacobs just one person among many.
2. Did Jacobs’ book accurately reflect the details of Jacobs’ life? We know she and her protagonist were both slaves. But we’re told little else of Jacobs’ biography. Did she flee to Canada? Did she seek domesticity? We don’t know. 
3. CORRECT. Jacobs’ novel forces readers to consider the values of domesticity from the perspective of a black slave. It helps us better understand of those values. 
4. Jacobs did not use a familiar perspective. She was a slave writing a book for free women.
5. Hard to say. We’re only give one example: Jacobs’ novel. The author might think genre switching was useful in this case, but a poor idea in other circumstances.