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Summerfield Charter Academy

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dialogue analysis literary analysis narrative structure literature

Summary

This document provides a detailed analysis of dialogue and plot development in literature. It teaches how to examine incidents and dialogues specifically to understand character's decisions and development of the plot.

Full Transcript

Dialogue and Incidents: What: Authors use dialogue and incidents in the plot to reveal elements of character, to provoke decisions by the characters, and to propel the plot forward. How: 1. Think about a specific incident or piece of dialogue in the text. 2. Ask, “What does this incident or dialogu...

Dialogue and Incidents: What: Authors use dialogue and incidents in the plot to reveal elements of character, to provoke decisions by the characters, and to propel the plot forward. How: 1. Think about a specific incident or piece of dialogue in the text. 2. Ask, “What does this incident or dialogue tell me about the character?” 3. Ask, “Did this incident or dialogue influence a character’s decision?” 4. Ask, “How does this incident or dialogue push the plot forward?” Why: Good readers recognize how specific pieces of dialogue or incidents in the plot impact the characters or plot to fully understand why the events of the story are happening. Literary Terms: tone, mood, epigraph Vocabulary: Insolence Summary: Chapter I The story opens in Rhode Island in May 1776. Young Isabel walks to the funeral of Mary Finch, along with Pastor Weeks, the wagon driver, her “simple” sister Ruth, and Robert Finch, nephew of the deceased. Ruth and Isabel’s mother is buried in the same cemetery, dead of smallpox for nearly a year. Isabel runs ahead to ask her Momma to cross over from the dead and advise what she and Ruth should do now that Mary Finch is dead. Robert Finch, Mary’s only living relative, appeared when Mary was sick and has rushed the funeral and taken her money. Isabel’s Momma does not respond. Finch harshly calls Isabel back to his aunt’s graveside to pray for the woman who owned her. Summary: Chapter II Isabel explains to Pastor Weeks that she and Ruth were set free in Mary Finch’s will, a document in the possession of a lawyer named Cornell who has moved to Boston. She has read the will because Mary Finch had taught her to read. Robert Finch objects, claims Isabel and Ruth are now his property, and declares his intent to sell them at auction, which horrifies Isabel. She recalls the time when she was sold at a young age along with her parents. Her father fought like a lion to keep the family intact, and when her mother fainted, Isabel caught her baby sister Ruth as she cried. Summary: Chapter III Isabel and Ruth return to their house with Finch to retrieve shoes and blankets. When Finch is in the privy, Isabel grabs a handful of her Momma’s seeds and hides them in her pocket. By afternoon, they are in Newport in a busy tavern. Finch wants to auction them on the tavern steps, but Jenny, the matron, says no. Jenny takes Isabel and Ruth into the kitchen and feeds them, revealing that she knew their Momma, Dinah, who was kind to her when she was an indentured servant. Finch calls Isabel and Ruth back to the tavern, where they meet the Locktons, a couple who wants to buy them. After some conversation, Jenny offers to take them, but when the Locktons double their offer, she backs down, and Finch accepts the heavy coins. Summary: Chapter IV Isabel and Ruth spend two sickly days on a cargo ship, headed to New York. At night, Isabel ventures onto the deck and muses that ghosts cannot move over water, the reason why their ancestors couldn’t follow those who were stolen from Africa and why Momma can’t help her now.

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