Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Easy

PT128 S4 P2 Q11 Explanation

Woody Allen

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsLocal PurposeHumanities

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Passage

ln filmmaker Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry, the writer Harry Block is presented as extremely neurotic and narcissistic. Block uses his experiences as fodder for his work, no matter how embarrassing the result may be for the other people in his life. And while Allen exaggerates Block's narcissism for comic effect, the effect a new direction for Allen than a concentrated reprise of a theme present throughout his career.

For instance, a film producer in Stardust Memories, Allen's sourest portrait of artists before many, articulates a particularly cynical view of cinematic art after a screening of a film-in-progress by Stardust Memories' main character, Sandy Bates. The producer says of Bates, "His insights are shallow and morbid. I've seen it all before. it off as art" appears sufficiently often in Allen's films to seem an unresolved personal issue.

In Manhattan, the ex-wife of a television writer and aspiring novelist offers a denigratory take on the artistic enterprise that is similar to the producer's in Stardust Memories. Her book documenting the collapse of her marriage punctures her ex-husband's artistic pretensions by revealing that he "longed to be an artist but balked he elevated to tragic heights when, in fact, it was mere narcissism."

It is also significant that in Allen's films, the less artistic the characters, the more likely their narrative is to result in a happy ending. Thus, the filmmaker in Crimes and Misdemeanors, the novelist in Husbands and Wives, and the screenwriter in Celebrity all wind up desolate and solitary, largely because of gratifying resolution Allen has scripted, primarily due to altruistic devotion to his utterly talentless nightclub performers.

What this question is testing

Local Purpose

Your task

Identify why the author included the referenced detail at that point in the passage — its function, not its content.

Common trap

Answers that merely repeat or summarize the topic of the detail instead of describing the role it plays.

Winning move

Ask what job the detail does for the paragraph, then for the passage's broader point.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
11.

The author mentions the title character in Zelig

Answer choices

  1. Out of Scope: counter the view1% picked this

    counter the prevailing critical view of

    The author has been endorsing the same view throughout the passage (not sure whether we call it the prevailing view). This last passage is further emphasizing Allen's motif of critiquing artists by offering an example like Zelig, which shows that Allen was not so sour when it came to un-pretentious characters.

  2. Opposite: primary2% picked this

    exemplify a primary preoccupation of Allen's

    The primary preoccupation of Allen's works has been identified as critiquing self-obsessed artists. This last paragraph is introducing a couple examples of how characters that didn't fit the primary focus of Allen's films were not subjected to the same negative depiction Allen used for his primary preoccupation.

  3. Correct90% picked this

    serve as a contrast to the fate of artistic characters in

    Why this is right

    "Serve as a contrast" is extremely appealing, since the Zelig sentence begins "On the other hand". And, as we anticipated, Zelig is an "inartistic, unpretentious" character whose is portrayed differently from how Allen portrays his artistic characters.

    Skill tested: Local Purpose · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  4. Opposite1% picked this

    demonstrate that artistic characters have always been important in

    Zelig is labeled as an "inartistic" character, so the function of bringing him up is definitely not about demonstrating something about "artistic characters".

  5. Too Strong: obvious affection6% picked this

    illustrate Allen's obvious affection for the nonartist characters

    This is close to being okay. The point of bringing up Zelig and Danny Rose is to show that the nonartist characters Allen had were "more likely to have a narrative that resulted in a happy ending". (first sentence of the last paragraph) But to say Allen had obvious affection goes a little too far. We just know that he wrote happier endings for them.

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