(Un)arranged Marriage

Assignments: (Un) arranged marriage by Bali Rai




Reading log


As you read the book you will write a log, which is divided into five parts.


Pages: 9-68

Pages: 69-124

Pages: 125-173

Pages: 174 - 224

Pages: 227 – 272



Questions posted on the blog



You will also be given questions on some parts of the book, which I will post on the blog. You should either e-mail me the answer or post it on the blog.



Group discussion



When you all have finished reading the book I want you to sit in groups and discuss some aspects of the novel. These questions will be handed to you in class.



Extra work: write an essay called “Is Love Free?”





Instructions: Reading log



When you write a reading log you analyse the novel as you read it. Instead of writing one analysis document when you’re finished you get to write down your thoughts as you go along. This is in fact a more effective way of getting a deeper understanding of the book you’re reading as you don’t have to remember everything that has happened at the end of it.



This reading log will be divided into five parts. Each part touches on different subjects in the book. Remember to take little notes as you read. This will make each reading log easier to write. Each log should be about 400 – 600 words (excluding quotations). Divide the novel into five parts and write one log after each part, starting with the first one and so on.



Quotations

Remember to use quotations as often as you can when you write. The quotations will work both as a support for your arguments in the text and also as a way of showing me that you’ve understood the book.



A quotation looks like this: “It all started with zombies. I have a bit of a soft spot for zombie flicks. Old‐school shamblers, recent remake runners, undead animated by magic or mad science − you name it, I’m there with popcorn.”

(Creepy Cute Crochet, 2008. Christen Haden, p. 6)



When you’ve quoted an author often enough you can choose to just refer to them by their last name (in the case above that would be “Haden”). Every time you want to explain or present something in the text there should be a quotation to back it up.



The Logs



The first log – the exposition



The first log revolves around the exposition of the novel. Exposition is a fancy word for the beginning of the novel and it is in the exposition the characters, story and background to the story is presented to us. In this log you will describe the exposition in depth and explain what happens in it. What happens in the beginning? What does the novel seem to be about? What characters are introduced to us and who are they? The first lines of the novel are also important. Write down the first three lines and describe how you feel about them. Do they catch your interest? Why? The title of the novel can also be important to the exposition. Why do you think that the writer has chosen that title? Can you find any evidence of why the writer chose it in the text?



The second log – the characters



In the first log you presented the characters briefly. In this log you will analyse the characters indepth and present them properly. Choose one character to describe. Ask yourself these questions: Who is the character I’m describing? What do I think about her personality and why? Describe what the person means to the novel and how she has been acting up until the point you’ve read. How do those actions make you feel? Try to describe them as carefully and detailed as possible and relate them to quotations from the novel.



The third log – the environment

When one speaks of an environment in a novel one does not speak of the actual environment. It is not only about how the landscape is described but also how the feeling of the novel is presented. Is the environment dark and creepy or light and playful? What words does the author use to describe both the landscape and society the characters live in? Can you envision the landscape and places the author describes? Some authors might describe almost everything in the environment – the colour of the character’s clothing, the smells that surround the character and the feel of everything the character touches for example. Other authors describe very little. How has this author decided to treat the environment? Are there a lot of descriptions in the novel or almost none?



The fourth log – the conflicts



Almost all novels have conflicts of some kind. Sometimes they are between two or more people, i.e. external conflicts, and sometimes the conflict resides within the characters themselves, i.e. internal conflicts. Try to find examples of both of these kinds of conflicts. The character might for example be fighting with another character, and that would make an external conflict, or the character might be struggling with him‐ or herself over something he/she has done that he/she knows was wrong.

Describe these conflicts in depth and try to use as many quotations as you can to show what those conflicts are about.



The fifth log – the Peripeteia (or peripety)



Peripeteia is Greek and means “sudden change”. Every novel goes through a change somewhere in the end and it may look different in each novel. In some novels mortal enemies become friends to fight a common foe and in some the main character might see the error of his ways and change for the better (or worse, in some cases). This means that the novel comes to a turning point and things change, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly. Can you pin point where this change occurs in your novel? Is it a sudden change or something that goes on through‐out the novel and reaches its peak somewhere? Use quotations to show where your novel’s turning point is and explain why it this is the point where everything changes. Also describe the ending of the novel and what you thought of it. Was it good? Why? Do you think the ending was appropriate and satisfactory or would you have wanted it to end in another way?