SAT OwlQuestion bank / Cross-Text Connections
Text 1: Scholars have generally read the final scene of Clara Voight's 1902 novel The Salt Road, in which the heroine boards a ship bound for America, as a triumphant escape from the narrow village where she grew up.
Text 2: Critic Hannah Lusk notes that in the novel's last paragraph, the heroine watches the village from the deck "until the last roof slipped into the sea" and never once looks toward the open ocean ahead. For Lusk, the ending is as much about loss as about freedom.
Based on the texts, how would Lusk most likely respond to the scholars' reading in Text 1?
She would argue that the reading overlooks the sense of loss in the final scene.
She would claim that the heroine never actually leaves the village.
She would agree that the ending is purely triumphant.
She would argue that the novel's early chapters reveal more about the heroine than its ending does.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
The scholars see only a triumphant escape. Lusk points to the heroine watching her village disappear and never looking ahead, and she reads the ending as "as much about loss as about freedom." She would say the scholars miss the loss, choice A.
Choice C ignores Lusk's phrase "as much about loss as about freedom." She sees more than triumph in the ending.
Why the other choices are wrong
- B. Text 2 has the heroine watching the village disappear from the ship's deck, so she does leave.
- C. Lusk says the ending is "as much about loss as about freedom," so it isn't purely triumphant to her.
- D. Lusk focuses on the last paragraph and says nothing about the early chapters.
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