AP Language Persuasive Essay Prompt � �Where Have You Gone

							AP English 3B                                    Seward                             January 26, 2012


         AP Language Persuasive Essay Prompt – “Where Have You Gone, Horatio?”

According to one pundit’s recent commentary, “America is coming apart.”1 Charles
Murray states further, “[t]here remains a core of civic virtue and involvement in working-
class America that could make headway against [this] problem if the people who are
trying to do the right things get the reinforcement they need” (Murray 5). As you likely
are well aware from your extensive reading, Murray is lamenting the cultural bifurcation
of America, and the increasing isolation of America’s elite upper class. Nobel Prize
winning economist Paul Krugman perceives a related phenomenon - that America is now
comprised of an “unlevel playing field” where our iconic American meritocracy “is a
fantasy.”2

Is the myth of Horatio Alger no longer as possible as it once was in our country?

In a well-written essay, argue, defend, or qualify the following statement: “Although the
societal sands may be shifting in our country, the United States is still a meritocracy, a
country in which anyone can succeed with determination, grit, ambition, and
intelligence.”

Please include in your essay, inter alia: (i) a clear thesis; (ii) a concession and rebuttal;
(iii) outside ideas and sources.




1
    Murray, Charles, “The New American Divide, The Wall Street Journal, January 21, 2012.
2
    Krugman, Paul, “America’s Unlevel Playing Field”, The New York Times, January 8, 2012.