Question

1. why is a literary author’s purpose sometimes tricky to identify?

○ some authors do not really have a purpose for writing.
○ the author may be just pretending to have a purpose.
○ the author may express a purpose subtly or indirectly.
○ some authors get confused and change purposes midway.

Explanation:

To determine why a literary author’s purpose is sometimes tricky to identify, we analyze each option:

• Option 1 ("Some authors do not really have a purpose for writing") is unlikely as most authors have an intent.
• Option 2 ("The author may be just pretending to have a purpose") is not a common or valid reason for purpose being tricky to identify.
• Option 3 ("The author may express a purpose subtly or indirectly") makes sense because if the purpose is conveyed in a nuanced, indirect way (e.g., through subtext, symbolism), readers may find it hard to discern.
• Option 4 ("Some authors get confused and change purposes midway") is less about the difficulty of identifying the purpose and more about inconsistent writing, which is not the primary reason for trickiness in purpose identification.

So the most logical reason is that authors can express purpose subtly/indirectly.

Answer:

The option "The author may express a purpose subtly or indirectly." (the third option from the left, or the one with text "The author may express a purpose subtly or indirectly.")