4 Passages
Learning Objectives
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Examine different types of literary passages and consider how their purposes might serve the author’s goals.
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Cite specific textual evidence to support inferences and conclusions drawn from the text.
Chapter & Discussion
This chapter includes a presentation that can be navigated in a classroom setting or independently. You can access the presentation via the link below.
Literary Passages: A Paragraph, A Purpose
Work through the different sections of the chapter and discuss ideas and topics as they arise. If you’re working independently, take notes instead. Notes and active discussion will be helpful in navigating this week’s assignments.
Big Picture: All Roads (Still) Lead to Theme
When an author tells a story, the big goal is to communicate big ideas, or themes.
Last lesson, we learned that setting, character, and plot can help the author communicate these themes by being metaphors for them.
Today, we’ll talk about how the different types of passages can do the same.
Passages
Passages are the actual paragraphs in a story. When you write a paragraph, it’s going to have a purpose. That can be one of the following:
It can describe something- this is called a descriptive passage
It can tell us what happens- this is called an action passage
It can tell us what people say- this is called a dialogue passage
Descriptive Passages
These passages fill in details about the world the characters live in. They can:
Describe a place, time, and the circumstances that characters face
Build understanding of the world
Help establish mood and tone
Provide realism
These passages help the author establish the setting.
From Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit
The road that led to Treegap had been trod out long
before by a herd of cows who were, to say the least,
relaxed. It wandered along in curves and easy angles,
swayed off and up in a pleasant tangent to the top of a
small hill, ambled down again between fringes of
bee-hung clover, and then cut sidewise across a meadow.
Here its edges blurred. It widened and seemed to pause,
suggesting tranquil bovine picnics: slow chewing and
thoughtful contemplation of the infinite. And then it went
on again and came at last to the wood. But on reaching
the shadows of the first trees, it veered sharply, swung out
in a wide arc as if, for the first time, it had reason to think
where it was going, and passed around.
Action Passages
These tell us what happens. They can:
Describe intense actions like a chase or a fight, but also more subtle actions
Show us the choices that characters make, and help us see the consequences of those choices
These passages help the author build the plot.
Dialogue Passages
These tell us what people say. They can:
Help us understand the intentions and obstacles of the characters
Develop relationships
Advance character development
These passages help the author build and develop the characters.
From Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit
“Nothing’s going to change.”
“You tell me