LSAT 113 | Section 1 | Reading Comprehension: Q17

RC Question 17 Explanation

DISCUSSION: The third paragraph shows that Ellison isn’t alone: jazz also borrows from European culture.

___________

1. Within the discipline? Jazz is music, a different discipline from writing.
2. This is gobbledegook. Jazz is used as an example to strengthen the argument in favor of Ellison. The point of the paragraph wasn’t to tell us how important jazz is. 
3. Jazz wasn’t the source for Ellison’s novel. It’s mentioned because it also borrows from foreign themes.
4. It’s true that Ellison liked jazz. But we’re not told why, or what his perspective on it was.
5. CORRECT. The critics make it seem like Ellison had done something heretical, something that no African-American had ever done before. But jazz, one of the great African-American musical traditions, had done the same thing. We realize that Ellison wasn’t alone within the African-American community; other arts had borrowed from foreign influences.