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The Novel
Year 9 Reading Literature
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Learning Objectives
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In this unit you will
Write a blurb for a novel
Practise identifying the themes of different
novels/tales
Learn to analyse characters by interpreting
descriptions
Invent convincing characters of your own
Think about how the type of media affects a story
Practise character hot-seating
Learn about literary heritage and historical
context
Write a scene and an alternative ending for a
novel
Think about how to convert a novel into a film
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Novels
Whats your favourite
novel Max?
My favourite book is
Heart of Darkness by
Joseph Conrad. Its all
about British
Colonialism in the
African Congo. Whats
your favourite?
I love so many but The
Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
was particularly good.
What is your favourite novel?
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When reading any novel, it is up to the reader to contribute
ideas and develop an interpretation of the:

Plot
Themes
Characters
Literary heritage
Your interpretations and opinions should
be based on close textual analysis.
This presentation will teach you how to
study a novel closely.
The novel
I love the strong female
protagonist in Moll
Flanders by Daniel Defoe.
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Plot is the novels story line what the book is essentially
about.
Here is the plot outline (story summary) for the novel
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert:
Emma Bovary is a young woman who dreams of a
romantic life away from home. When she finally marries
and gets all she desires, she feels unsatisfied with her role
as a housewife. To quench her hunger for romance she
has an affair with an unsuitable lover. As she fights for a
life of glamour, things soon deteriorate in Emmas life,
leaving both her and her husband penniless and unhappy.
The plot
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Write the plot outline for your favourite novel in the form of a
blurb, like you find on the back covers of books.
Writing a blurb
Remember when writing a blurb, you
must try not to give the ending away!
Blurbs often include:
a short plot summary
some quotations from the
work, its author or publisher
a brief biography of the author
praise from literary critics to entice potential readers.
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Could the novel have ended differently?
Write an alternative ending for the novel you have
chosen. Try to be realistic about what might have
happened and as far as possible, imitate the authors
style of writing.
Story writing
Im writing an alternative
ending for The Lord of the
Rings trilogy so that
Gandalf turns evil and
must also be defeated by
the fellowship
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The themes in a novel are the issues that it attempts to
address. Themes can range from universal and timeless
issues such as friendship and war to more specific themes
such as homelessness in London.
Brainstorm on the spider diagram above the
themes of the novel you are currently reading.
Themes
Themes
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Literary themes anagrams
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In order to understand a character, it is important to
examine all the clues a writer gives you.
What are they doing?
What are they saying (and how are they
saying it)?
How do they interact with other characters?
What are their attitudes/fears/dreams?
What are they wearing? Why?
Asking the following questions will help you understand a
character:
Characters
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Read the description of Miss Havisham.
In an armchair, with an elbow resting on the table and her head leaning
on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have seen, or ever shall see.
She was dressed in rich materials satins, and lace, and silks,
all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil
dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her
hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her
hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table
It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took
note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had
stopped at twenty minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room had
stopped at twenty minutes to nine.
Look at me, said Miss Havisham. You are not afraid of a
woman who has never seen the sun since you were born?
Great Expectations by Dickens
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What can you tell about Miss
Havisham by her appearance
and behaviour?







Characters
Draw a portrait of
Miss Havisham:
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Characters in novels or even the narrators of novels do not
always express the views of the author. Sometimes the
author has views which are contrary to a characters point of
view.
The character whose viewpoint we are expected to adopt is
called the hero. The villain is the evil character who we
want to see fail.
Characters
I really want Moll to
succeed and make
her fortune
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Heroes and villains
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This is an extract from John Steinbecks novel Of Mice
and Men which is set in California in the 1930s:
What does this tell you about the attitude
of some of the characters in this novel?
Do you think that Steinbeck agrees with
these attitudes?
Characters
Why aint you wanted?
Lennie Crooks
Cause Im black. They play
cards, but I cant play
because Im black. They
say I stink. Well, I tell you,
all of you stink to me.
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Nominate one person to adopt the role of a character.
Sit him/her in a hot-seat. Interview him/her using your
knowledge of what you have been told by the narrator,
other characters or by him/her personally.
The purpose of character hot-seating is to:
reach a better understanding of a character
make you think about unanswered questions
encourage you to debate interpretations.

The rules of questioning are:

you may ask any inoffensive question
questions must not promote yes/no answers.
Character hot-seating
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What would happen if [character name] and [character
name] were stranded on a tropical island together?
Imagine a scene
in which this
happens and act it
out with a partner.

Drama
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How good would you be at inventing convincing characters?
Invent a character. Write at least one paragraph of a story
in which you show how your character looks, speaks and
treats others, e.g. a knight
Characters
You could create two characters: a hero and
a villain who battle against each other
self-critical
courageous
unforgiving
loyal
honest
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Literary heritage
A literary heritage reflects the literary
traditions and culture (ideas,
beliefs) of a particular society, for
example, English or French society.
When you have read a novel, it is
useful to consider how it is part of a
literary heritage.
English literary heritage is made up of the works of famous
English writers. Their works remain popular despite being
written in the past because they wrote about themes which
are still relevant now, such as love, poverty, hope, death etc.
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Literary heritage
It is important to consider literary heritage because the
traditions and culture of writers who lived before are passed
down to later generations and still affect writers today.
Modern writers will
have read the works of
older writers and will
have learnt from them.
Literary heritage is like a
bank of ideas which grows
as more writers add to it.
Im writing a
satire in the style
of Jane Austens
Pride and
Prejudice
Writers look in the literary heritage bank for ideas
from earlier writers. They then develop the ideas
into new works which will also become part of the
bank and the cycle continues...
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Understanding your author
Before or after reading a novel, it is useful to investigate the
authors life to understand why their works contribute to literary
heritage.
You can start to do this by reading any biographical information
on the author that is provided in the book and then conduct
some research of your own in the library or on the Internet.
Researching your author will inform you about the
religion, politics, culture and art during their life which
may be referred to in the novel, or may influence it.
Joseph Conrad was Polish and his
father was arrested by Russians
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Historical context
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Historical context
Brainstorm (using the previous slide) how the events in
Charles Dickenss personal life and the historical context
(when he wrote it) may be relevant when reading his novel
Great Expectations.
Great
Expectations
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Lasting appeal
Famous novelists such as Charles
Dickens, Jane Austen and Thomas
Hardy are part of Englands literary
heritage because their remain
popular with present day readers
Why are their works still read?
They are: memorable
full of meaning
challenging.
Think about the plot of Great Expectations. In what
ways is the novel still memorable, full of meaning and
challenging for readers today?
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Literary novels tend to continue to be a success over a long
period of time although they affect new readers in new ways.
Different media
Which version did you prefer? Why?
Can you think of a novel which was altered as a result of
being made into a film?
Many novels are now transferred
into different media: film, play etc.
This gives the story a much wider
audience although often directors
choose to change the endings of
stories to suit the particular media in
which they are working.
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You have been chosen to direct the new film version of
[novel name]. Complete the tasks below to help the
production of this film.
Choose actors to
play the lead
roles and give
reasons for your
choices.
Design a poster
to advertise the
film premiere.
Decide on a
target
audience.
Film adaptation