WHAT IS “SO WHAT?”
To write a good essay for the AP Lit exam, you must discover the thematic truth in the poem and prose
text that you are given. This is the point—the theme that you must look for when you read the passage. Not
everyone will see the same thing in a work, but the texts chosen for each exam do have important ideas in
them. You will always be asked to “zoom in” on that important idea, the thing I call the “So What.” In
other words, when I read a poem, I ask “So what?” What is it about this poem that really matters? What is
the point that the writer is trying to make?
Once you discover that underlying idea, then you’ll analyze the ways the poet or author reveals that
theme to readers through a variety of literary elements. It will never be enough to simply recognize
figurative language or imagery. If that is all you do, the reader of your essay may also ask, “So what?”
Therefore, “So What” can be viewed in two ways:
1. the universal theme of a poem or prose text;
2. your insight into that theme as revealed through your careful analysis of literary elements.This universal theme or truth must drive your essay. Without it you are writing about nothing. Without
it, your reader will ask, “So what?”