‘American literature often depicts tension between social classes.’

This question is taken from the 2018 A-Level paper which I sat last year and achieved 59/60.
English at A-Level is challenging because it requires an acute understanding of the Literature but also an ability to comment on how contemporary socio-political influences impact on the writing whilst closely linking it to the question.To achieve this, I would recommend 'brainstorming' each part of the question and this is a technique which can be employed in exam conditions.
Secondly, after your initial planning, students need to translate their ideas into a perceptive and coherently written essay. Introductions are not where marks are concentrated so the opening sentence should provide a clear answer to the question. The second sentence should give examples which potentially challenge your thesis or provide a nuanced distinction in the authors' presentation. The third sentence should summarise why these alternative arguments are less convincing than your thesis. For example:
Both Fitzgerald in 'The Great Gatsby' and Willa Cather in 'My Antonia' place strong emphasis on America's divided society by presenting frequent examples of where class is a preventative barrier for the characters' integration into American society. However, the authors focus on different types of class tension, Fitzgerald gives the reader stark examples of class tension by contrasting the affluent entitled lives of the upper class with the "bleak" lives of the working class. In contrast, Willa Cather focuses on the segregation between the settled Americans and the ostracised recent Immigrants. Ultimately, both authors contrast the sanguine connotations of the American society, in the height of the American dream, with the ironic portrayal that social classes remain rigid and characterised by tension rather than a shared sense of identity.
Overall, this structure can be repeated throughout the essay to achieve a top mark (introduce paragraphs with a broad topic sentence, provide examples of how authors distinguish / compare in how they present the issue, link this difference to the context of the text and conclude with a summative comment on the theme across the texts).