The books name is: the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime
Interact with the text and CREATE A READING JOURNAL WITH 10 ENTRIES. The reading journal can be in any formatting,
but it should follow the progression of the novel (I expect you to show that you have read the whole novel) and include page
numbers connecting your thoughts to the location in the book. In other words, do this AS YOU READ, not after the fact.
The entries should be detailed and show thoughtful reflection and intelligent connections. These entries
are not merely summary or a restatement of the passages or plot but explore your thinking and understanding of what you are
reading. This is your opportunity to interact with the language and the ideas of the author at a critical level. If you incorporate
direct evidence from the text, do not dump a whole paragraph or a bunch of lines into your entry and make sure to cite it
correctly.
Some ideas of what to focus on in the reading journal.
1. Find details in specific passages or lines that seem important to you.
2. Explore where and when you have an epiphany
3. When you learn something significant about a character and/or idea.
4. You recognize a pattern (recurring images, ideas, colors, symbols, descriptions, details, etc.).
5. You agree or disagree with something a character says or does.
6. You find an interesting or potentially significant quotation.
7. You notice something important or relevant about the author’s writing style.
8. You notice effective use of literary devices.
9. You think that the passage contributes to or reveals a theme in the novel.
Example of reading journal entry: This entry is for the novel Animal Farm.
In chapter 6 of the novel, I couldn’t believe how the animals fell for the gaslighting by the Pigs. Squealer makes
everything they see seem like a dream, making them question their understanding of events that they literally went
though. He continually asks them, ‘Are you certain that this is not something that you have dreamed, comrades?
Have you any record of such a resolution? Is it written down anywhere?’ … the animals were satisfied that they had
been mistaken” (29). Gaslighting their former beliefs, the pigs juxtapose their actions to their doctrine of loyalty and
allegiance. This form of propaganda crosses the line for me because it is the intentionally mixing of falsehoods with
facts, warping the animals’ reality and making them doubt their own memory, reaping confusion and making them
feel almost crazed. By distorting the truth, Squealer’s lies make the animals even more reliant on the pigs and their
leaders for the truth: a truth of lies and deceit they are blinded to. If the animals continually stay blinded to the
truth, they never can fight back to regain their freedoms, especially their freedom of thought.
Example of a reading journal entry: The entry is for the novel Fahrenheit 451.
Part 1 of the novel has important symbolism to water. Water, symbolizing rebirth, purity, and baptism, is
represented through Clarisse’s love of rain, symbolizing her love of knowledge and truth. Clarisse herself symbolizes
a needed desire to gather information and truth from books that the authority wants to keep from her because of
how freeing those words on the page will be. On page 28-30 of Part 1, in contrast, Beatty describes books and the
philosophy within them as “dishwater” and something that drowns out the written word. Beatty’s distaste for truth
and knowledge is compared to the byproduct of clean and pure water – foul and dirty.
Example of reading journal entry: The entry is for the novel The Great Gatsby
At the beginning of the novel, I like the witty humor of Nick as he compares his summer house to the houses
surrounding him. In chapter 1 on page 10, he knows his house is an “eye-sore, but it was a small eye-sore and it had
been overlooked”, yet despite this, he does not care because he “had a view of the water, a partial view of my
neighbor’s lawn and the consoling proximity of millionaires – all for eighty dollars a month.”
Nick finds it important that even though he moves away from his family in the Midwest that he does not shame
them by living the life of a mere commoner. He must make friends with the rich and become popular, which is the
great American Dream. Under normal circumstances, one would not buy a house that is an eye-sore, but the focus
on eyes makes this point revealing. Could eyes reveal a constant presence, could the setting be about voyeurism?
Judgment? Peer pressure? Despite all this, the proximity to the affluent aids the decision. Pride is also present in the
American Dream, and Nick can say that he lives with millionaires. I also liked the usage of the dash and found it
effective since it emphasized the “privileges” Nick has compared to others. However, this urge to become popular
with an upper class is destructive, for there is no limit to how popular one can be, so the hopes and dreams of
people searching for an easy life can only be hopes and dreams.
