Q21

[tommywallach]

21. (B)
Question Type: Inference (36-41)
This question asks us to take information from the passage and use it to make an inference about Dostoyevsky. In the third paragraph, Dostoyevsky is said to have defined an "artistic" work as one in which the artist "posseses a talent to express his thoughts in characters and images so that when the reader has finished the novel, he has fully understood the author’s thoughts." (B) is the only answer choice that references the author’s thoughts, which it rephrases as "author’s ideas."

(A) is problematic on a number of levels. First of all, Dostoyevsky was talking about fiction, and does not discuss the idea of writing a "fictionalized" account "based on" some kind of source material. More importantly, nowhere does (A) mention the "author’s thoughts."

(C) uses the word "attempted," implying that the author failed in trying to use allegory. Also, nothing is said of the "author’s thoughts."

(D) is tricky, because something autobiographical probably concerns the thoughts of the author, but not necessarily. Furthermore, Dostoyevsky was talking only about novels, not essays, so we must eliminate this answer choice.

(E) bears no mention of the "author’s thoughts."

[jm.kahn]

[b]
(C) uses the word "attempted," implying that the author failed in trying to use allegory. Also, nothing is said of the "author’s thoughts."
."

I am confused why would use of "attempted" imply that the author failed in trying to do something. Shouldn't a literal read of such a sentence mean only what's written which is that the author "attempted" to do something. We don't know if the author failed or succeeded. All that that sentence communicates is that author attempted to use allegory.

For the second part about author's thoughts, if the author is "communicating a criticism of feudal society", since it's the author who is doing the communicating, it doesn't seem like a leap to think that those are authors thoughts.

I was confused by this choice because it doesn't seem to fail any critical issues that exist in a wrong answer. This choice, it appears, could be a correct answer for a very tough "most likely agree" type of question.

I know B is clearly correct, but is there something I am not seeing that makes some 180-level expert violently eliminate this choice C based on a super confident reason?