Skill Overview: Identify and describe what specific textual details reveal about a character, that character's perspective, and that character's motives.
Divide the story into four short sections: 1) hearing the news; 2) holding back; 3) letting go; and 4) the revelation. Then, mark the text in each section to indicate the words, phrases, clauses, and images that contribute to the mood or atmosphere. (You will turn in how you divided and marked up the story up with final write-up.)
Explain in a paragraph for each how each section of the story reveals additional information about Mrs. Mallard. Include textual evidence.
Skill Overview: Identify and describe specific textual details that convey or reveal a setting and speaker in the text (or narrator). Explain how a narrator's reliability affects a narrative and reveals nuances and complexities in character relations with one another.
Take notes on the point of view and perspective of the narrator. Read it out loud and pause after each chunk of text and consider the "stream of consciousness" narration and how to comprehend what the narrator is literally saying. Make notes on the text as to your interpretations. Tip: Consider all of the voices -- their identifies, roles, and the information that can be gathered about them -- and the effect of presenting them in a stream of consciousness. Consider how diction, imagery, details, language, and syntact convey the narrator's and other community members' complex relationship with Emily. Based on these observations, ask yourself and explain in your notes whether or not you think the narrator is reliable. (You will turn these notes in with final write-up).
List the specific details (e.g. physical descriptions, daily manner of living, etc.) from the text that indicate the setting.
Write a brief explanation of the details of the setting in each section, including textual evidence. Connect and draw conclusions in these explanations about the meaning of the setting and consider Faulkner's choice to involve a townsperson in the story rather than write in the third person (refer back to your notes on the point of view/narrator).
Skill Overview: Develop a paragraph that includes: 1) a claim that requires defense with evidence from the text (i.e. a defensible thesis); and 2) outline the evidence itself.
Draft a defensible claim about the story (you will show these revisions and drafts of your claim with the final write-up).
Draft an extended/detailed outline (formatting of your choosing) that includes a fully written introduction with your final defensible thesis, followed by how you would support that claim. (So first paragraph will be fully written out, while rest can be in outline form.)
Skill Overview: Identify and describe details, diction, or syntax in a text that reveal a narrator's or speaker's perspective. Identify and explain the function of a symbol.
In your reading notes, informally discuss the symbolic settings of China and America in the story. Highlight textual evidence that helps convey what these settings symbolize and how it contributes to meaning in the story. (You will turn in these notes with the below write-up.)
Focusing on the last three paragraphs of the story, analyze Jing-mei's tone(s) by examining imagery and figurative language.
Explain in an essay with a defensible thesis and textual evidence, how the tone in this last section reveal Jing-mei's complicated relationship with her mother.