Descriptive+Narrative

The visuals you get out of reading this book are breathtaking. Jones' descriptive language really allows the reader to paint the scene in their minds. I know throughout my reading of the text I constantly drew images in my head of the jungle, the beach, the schoolhouse, the characters. This novel really allows you to paint the images yourself. I thought it would be great to have students create their own version of the scene visually, they could pick a scene from the novel and find an image or images that portray that scene as they intepret it through a characters eyes. Then they could write their own descriptive narrative of that scene from a character in the novel's point of view or and outsider. For example if I pick the schoolhouse scene, I could write my narrative from Dolores' point of view, how she reacted to the student's faces when she spoke of religion, and what was going through her mind when she was talking, also if she paid any mind to Mr. Pip while she spoke. These scenes are viewed in the novel through Matilda's POV so it would be interesting for students to change the point of view when writing their own version. Also this allows students to examine the use of language to evoke emotion from the reader, the students would have to utilize descriptive language to paint a scene in the readers head much like Jones does. The lesson here is not so much point of view, it is more how an author uses language to paint a scene and create emotion through text.

Return to Lesson Plan Ideas