In class this week we picked groups for our presentations and were given materials to study. When reading those materials, we were expected to close read them and take detailed notes. Lindsay Moore and I chose characterization and symbolism as our themes. The pieces we were given to read had many detailed and interesting thoughts. In the chapter on characterization I learned that creating a “real” character is harder than it seems. They need both good and bad impulses and all of their actions must be dramatized to help the readers understand their personalities. To do this, writers use either direct or indirect presentation; direct meaning telling the readers straight out what a character is like and indirect meaning showing instead of telling. Overall, the passage also stated that the quality of any book relies on its characterization. The chapter on characterization helped me as a writer. My characters never feel up to par; they always seem underdeveloped. The piece helped me understand what I was doing wrong in my writing and gave me ways to fix the problem.
The other theme Lindsay and I chose was symbolism, which is closely associated to allegory and fantasy. Those three themes together help compress a story by carefully selecting each word. The passage gave two major examples and showed how to analyze them to find the symbolism contained. This chapter taught me how to find symbolism in a story, which is something I tend to skip over. However, near the end of the part on symbolism the piece also gave a word of caution. When most people first learn about symbolism they tend to overanalyze parts of the story and are meant to be taken literally. Considering this fact, my goal for next week and on is to use “perception and tact”, as the piece described, when trying to find symbolism. http://nieonline.com/tbtimes/downloads/CCSS_reading.pdf
1 Comment
Josephine
10/13/2016 05:47:39 am
Hi Melissa,
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