College Board: AP English Literature Video 

Contrasts & Figurative Language 

 
Directions​: Start ​the video​ at 13:45 minutes. You can stop watching at 32:45. Follow along and 
pause as necessary to answer the following questions. 
 
Pause the video at 21:30 and read the following passage before continuing the video. Mr. 
Escobar discusses the contrasts in the passage. Answer the question that follows. 

 
 
Choose either a contrast in characters, imagery, or speech. What is the function of this 
contrast? (Why are they contrasted? How does this contest help form the value systems of 
this society?) 
Answer: ​I am choosing the contrast between Estrella and Mrs. Horn. They are 
contrasted because Estrella needs to feel that she is different or differing from 
 the “norm” whether that be with the comparison between both of the 
characters cleanliness or their attitude or even their physical features. This 
contrast helps form the value systems of this society by showing how a young girl 
from a wildly differing background is, bluntly, different from the adult with 
another background from the opposite end of the spectrum.  
 
Read the following passage that Mr. Escobar discusses, and then complete the rest of the chart 
below. Remember you can stop watching the video at 32:45. 

 
 
 
Contrast  Function 
“overcast day” / “early-afternoon sun”  Introduce the tone of the first 
paragraph and ends the last paragraph; 
cements the full contrast in situation of 
both situations; showcases how the 
“past” is much colder tonally than the 
“sunny” present 
 “winter” / “summer”  Similar to the one above, indicates not 
a setting change but rather a change of 
the mood of the setting from 
paragraph to paragraph 
“You can bury it” / “claws its way out”   The function of this contrast is slightly 
different from the previous two. One 
distinction is the fact that this contrast 
is within one paragraph, which is unlike 
the previous contrasts. This specific 
contrast deals with the view of the 
past. What the author wants to do is to 
show is how fluctuating the narrator’s 
view on the past is, highlighted by how 
close the parts of the contrast to each 
other.