Avoid music with lyrics in it while you’re reading. Try to read in blocks, setting aside at least 30 minutes. It is very hard to keep track of things if you’re constantly picking the book up and down. Remove yourself from outside distractions, like a TV or lots of human activity.
What does the main character(s) want? Who is telling the story? Where and when is the story set? Be specific. If you’re struggling to get the basics, there is no harm in picking up a study guide or reading a plot summary on Wikipedia. This can help you grasp the basic concepts quickly and start looking for nuance.
Seems drunk, high, or otherwise drugged (A Clockwork Orange). Is mentally or socially impaired (The Sound and the Fury, Curious Incident of the Dog at Nighttime). Has reasons to lie, often because of a crime or wrongdoing (Lolita).
Do you have distance between the events? Does the narrator seem to know what is going to happen, or are you along for the ride together?
Try and mark how characters change. Once you know how a character has changed throughout a chapter you can start to figure out why they’ve changed. If it is not already, try and order the plot chronologically. Stories that are presented out of order, like The Iliad or Absalom! Absalom! are often difficult because they are jumbled up, not because the actual plot is complicated.
In The Orphan Master’s Son, the idea of movies, actors, and Hollywood shows up repeatedly in the protagonist’s early life. This is crucial, but not until the last third of the book. In The Great Gatsby, there is repeated mention of a blinking light off the coast, and blinking lights reappear several other times. All of these moments are linked by longing for something the character’s cannot have.
What would you call the theme of the book? What, ultimately, is the book about?
Quotes, summaries, and your notes will form the basis of your case. Whether arguing with a friend or writing a term paper, you should always turn to novel for evidence.
Take notes during class discussion, marking important pages and quotes that you may have missed. You can go overboard with notes. You want your notes to be a guideline for your writing when you finish the book. If the whole book is underlined you won’t get a lot of useful information.
Theme: The overarching ideas, morals, or thoughts of the novel. Can be as simple as “good beats evil” and as complex as “capitalism is destroying the modern family. " Metaphor: Making two dissimilar things seem similar. “She is a rose” doesn’t literally mean the woman is a flower, it means she is beautiful, delicate, and a little barbed. A “simile” is when the metaphor uses the words “like” or “as,” ie. “She is like a rose / She is pretty as a rose. " Motif: A repeated idea, image, or flavor in a book. If a book frequently uses sailing and ocean metaphors, for example, it could be said to have a “nautical motif. " Allusion: A reference to another work, either directly or indirectly. For example, any character that dies and is raised from the dead (A Tale of Two Cities, Harry Potter,) is frequently considered a “biblical allusion” to Jesus Christ. Symbolism: When an object in the book stands for the idea of something else. Symbolism is everywhere, sometimes unintentionally, because humans think in terms of symbols. For example, in Of Mice and Men, the rabbit farm comes to symbolize Lenny’s dreams of financial security and safety. A symbol comes to represent a much larger idea than it initially appears. [7] X Research source
You cannot only worry about plot when reading, as plot is just one of the many pieces that make up a novel. Some teachers encourage reading summaries before starting the book. This helps you pay more attention to characters, themes, and structure, since you know how the plot ends up.
David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest is all about the nature of entertainment, debating (in part) if one must work for entertainment. Accordingly, half the novel is written in footnotes, making the reader work by flipping back and forth, even within sentences and other footnotes. Even less serious books must merge form and function to be successful. Dracula, tells its horrible story as a series of letters and first-hand documents instead of a narrator. This allows Bram Stoker to slowly ratchet up the horror and gives the reader a sense that this really happened somewhere in England. [9] X Research source
When writing longer papers, reading the thoughts of other writers is a great way to form your arguments early on. Do you agree, and have other evidence to offer? Do you disagree, and can you use the book to prove them wrong? Always cite any outside sources you’ve read and expand on them with your personal opinions. Use these sources as a jumping off point, not your only argument. [10] X Research source
