CollegeBoard

• Line		Ernest Hemingway reminds us that both Tolstoy and Stendahl had seen war, that Flaubert had seen a revolution, that Dostoyevsky had been sent to Siberia, and that such experiences were important in shaping the art of these
  5		nineteenth-century literary masters. And he goes on to observe that "writers are forged in injustice as a sword is forged." He declined to describe the many personal forms which injustice may take in this chaotic world — who would be so mad as to try? — nor does he go into the
  10		personal wounds that each of these writers sustained. In the end it is the quality of Hemingway's art that is primary. It is the art which allows the wars and revolutions which he knew, and the personal and social injustice which he suf- fered, to lay claims on our attention, for it was through his
  15		art that they achieved their most enduring meaning. It is a matter of outrageous irony, perhaps, but in literature great social clashes of history, no less than the painful experience of the individual, are secondary to the meaning they take on through the skill, talent, imagination, and personal vision
  20		of the writer who transforms them into art. Here they are reduced to more manageable proportions; here they are imbued with humane values; here injustice and catastrophe become less important in themselves than what the author makes of them. This is not true, however, of the writer's
  25		struggle with that recalcitrant angel called Art, and it was through this specific struggle that Ernest Hemingway became Hemingway. And it was through this struggle with form that he became the master, the culture hero, whom we have come to know and admire.

In the passage, art is described as a "recalcitrant angel" (line 25) because

• (A)   writers have traditionally found it difficult to achieve mastery of artistic form   CORRECT ANSWER
• (B)   so few artists have found fame and appreciation for their work
• (C)   art does not readily relieve the suffering of those caught in unjust situations
• (D)   divine inspiration is often considered intrinsic to artistic creation
• (E)    writer's block is a frequent result of the artist's struggle with new forms

Explanation:
Line 25 refers to the "struggle with that recalcitrant [difficult to manage] angel called Art" that every writer engages in; lines 27-28 refer to "this struggle with form," the struggle through which Hemingway became a great writer. The struggle with the recalcitrant angel is one and the same as the struggle with literary form. It is most likely that the passage describes art as a recalcitrant angel because writers have always found it difficult to master artistic form, having to struggle to achieve control over it. Choice (A) is the best answer.

(from the October 16, 1999 test)