Outside Reading

• How are you enjoying the book so far? Is it the type of book that immediately grabs your attention? Is it hard to get into? Why?
• Which of the five literary elements from the assignment seem to be dominant at this point? Are you unsure or is it obvious?
• Begin thinking about why the author may be using these literary elements. Write some ideas as to why the book may have been written in this manner.
• What is the tone of the novel? Does the tone shift from chapter to chapter? Explain.

When I first started reading The Joy Luck Club, I wasn't too impressed. It was pretty boring and I wasn't really sure where the author was going with the book. But after I finally got through the first chapter I really started to get in to it. I think it was hard to get in to because I was so focused on annotating the book, I forgot to pay attention to the storyline. The dominant literary element in my book is point of view because each of the chapters is narrated by one of the eight main characters. I think the dominant element is pretty obvious but I wasn't sure until I finished the first chapter. I think that the author chose to do this to show the point of view of all the characters. I think this works well because the reader gets to know how each character is feeling and how they react to events throughout the book. The tone obviously shifts from chapter to chapter because each character has a different outlook on life. It's interesting to hear how each character is unique with their own ideas and beliefs.