Dialectical Journal and Character Analysis

1. Dialectical Journal and Character Analysis • What is a dialectical journal? • A journal in which the reader records a mental conversation with the text they are reading. • What is Character Analysis? • A character’s ethics, actions, motivation, behavior, the effect of a character’s behavior on other characters, words used repeatedly to describe character, items associated with the character, and how the author judges or writes the character.

2. Character Analysis • Identify evidence about the character (words actions, reactions, etc.) • Use quotation marks around quotes and cite page numbers • Based on evidence, make an inference about the character. (What is an inference? Clues from the text + your own personal experiences = a guess/ inference

3. Why bother to do dialectical journals? • They aren’t just busy work, I PROMISE! • The journal becomes to basis for the essay you will write in class. • The INFERENCE becomes your topic sentence or thesis sentence. • The EVIDENCE/QUOTE becomes the proof or support of the inference. • The COMMENTARY is expanded and developed- body sentences

4. Sample Dialectical Journal Evidence( Quote from the Book) “Pearl was born an outcast of the infantile world. An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right among the christened Infants” (p.70). “…the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door” (p. 83) Inference and Commentary Outcast, shunned- Pearl is mistreated by the children in town. She is seen as being sinful even though she did nothing wrong. The parents didn’t want their children to associate with Pearl and be tainted like she is. wild, untamed, disobedient-