MYP English Lang & Lit 12.2 Choice Notes

How Does Choice Shape Identity and Responsibility?

1. Choice links action, consequence, and responsibility.
2. A helpful way to think about choice is that it is rarely a single "instant." A decision usually has:
   1. A build-up (pressure, values, limited information, fear, desire)
   2. The moment of deciding
   3. An aftermath (consequences, regret, justification, learning)
3. This wider view makes your analysis stronger, especially when a text shows that one decision echoes through a character's life.

How Does Choice Create Consequences, Including for Other People?

1. Decisions rarely affect only the person deciding.
2. A "private" choice can shape other lives, sometimes unintentionally.
3. This is a more complex view of choice than simply asking, "Did you do it?"
4. Instead, you should be asking: "What did this allow?" and "What did the character choose not to do?"

What Do Writers Do To Represent Choice?

1. Narrative perspective guides judgement
   1. A first-person narrator can make choices feel intimate and justified, even when they are ethically questionable.
   2. A third-person narrator can create distance that allows readers to judge more critically.
   3. An unreliable narrator complicates choice by withholding information or reframing motives.
2. Symbolism turns decisions into images
   1. Writers often use symbols to make choices memorable: a road, a doorway, a border, a test, a letter unopened.
   2. These images allow one character's decision to represent a wider human experience.
3. Structure highlights turning points
   1. Decisions may be placed at chapter endings, repeated from different angles, or revisited through flashbacks to show how earlier choices "haunt" the present.
   2. Structure can make choice feel inevitable, sudden, delayed, or avoidable.