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Get the Most out of Your Reading: Understanding Setting, Character Development and Techniques for Close Reading
Notes on Setting:
Aspects of setting include time (age in life and historical era), place (geographical features, living environment, and physical objects within one's environment), as well as current way of thinking at a given time. Breaking Through covers the childhood and adolescent years in Francisco Jimenez's life from the late 1940s to 1962. The setting traces the Jimenez family's roots from El Rancho Blanco, a small village north of Guadalajara in Mexico to Santa Maria, California, a rural community in central California, and includes various living arrangements, work and school environments. As you read, you will become aware of how Francisco adjusts to and interacts within various environments and how they influence his emotional, spiritual, social, and intellectual growth.
Notes on Character Development:
The most important characters in the memoir are Francisco's immediate family members - especially his parents and older brother Roberto. Teachers and his peer group also play significant roles in shaping his direction in life and his social awareness and sensibility. To analyze and understand the significant characters in the book and the way they affect each other, focus on the following points:
1. Concreteness: Pay attention to details about important characters' homes, possessions, personal tastes, habits, opinions, etc. Try to imagine the character in his/her own setting.
2. Speech: The content and manner of a person's speech suggest a particular personality. Pay attention not only to what a character says, but how he or she delivers the message. Is the person shy and reticent hesitant to express thoughts or feelings , aggressive and frank very direct , quick and humorous, petulant impatient and angry for no apparent reason and sarcastic prone to making biting, caustic, hurtful remarks , thoughtful and considerate? Be aware of the relationship between the content and manner of speech and the character's social and ethnic background.
3. Behavior: The way one behaves reveals a great deal about the personality as well as the ethical, psychological , and social development of a particular character. Is the behavior consistent or inconsistent? How does the character react under different forms of stress? What does this reveal about the character's personal strength or weakness? What is the impact of one character's behavior on another or others?
4. Motivation: What drives a character to make decisions, particularly difficult ones? Does the reason for a particular action seem self-centered, other-centered, or both? What does a character hope to achieve by his/her actions or decisions?
5. Change: Change is a marker of personal development or the lack thereof. Track the personal changes that occur (or fail to occur) as important characters face conflicts and suffering, confront new problems in strange environments, succeed or fail with plans or projects as they live through each stage of life.
Notes on Close Reading:
Be an active reader and mark up your book as you read. Use highlighters and pens to underline and make notations. A closely-read story is surrounded by comments in the margins, exclamation marks, question marks, underlinings, stars, etc. These marks and comments help you to easily find significant passages in the text that are descriptive, explanatory, informative, moving, or puzzling.
Mark words or passages you don't understand. Circle, underline, or highlight unfamiliar words. Mark longer passages by bracketing them and putting a question mark in the margin. Words or passages that confuse you are good for class discussion later on.
Underline items you think are important. If you find sentences or passages that you think give a message (theme), advance the action or story in a new way, foreshadow suggest a future event, decision, etc. events to come, or tell something meaningful about a character, be sure to underline, bracket, or star them. Write key words in the margin to help you remember where an important idea or event occurs. For example, when a new character is introduced, underline the words and phrases which describe this character and then write the character's name in the margin. When aspects of setting are mentioned (a different time or place), underline them and make some notation in the margin. If certain words or ideas seem to be repeated in the text, note them also; they may be connected to motif a main theme or subject .
Note your feelings. In the margin, note with exclamation points or comments any feelings that you have - positive or negative. This way you can track your feelings about a particular character or turn of events. Especially note passages that evoke anger, sadness, disappointment, surprise, happiness, respect, awe or wonder.
Most importantly, enjoy this wonderful memoir of a man among us who has overcome extreme poverty, racism, linguistic barriers and the indignities that come with each in order to achieve an education and a exemplary career as a full professor of Spanish Literature at Santa Clara University.
