Black Boy Dialectical Journals

Due Date: Three Entries due every Friday (IF YOUR MOTIF IS NOT IS THE CHAPTERS FOR THE WEEK, CHOOSE AN ALTERNATE FOR THAT WEEK ONLY)

Requirements:

  • Three substantial concrete details are chosen that clearly demonstrate the area of the novel you are analyzing
  • Each concrete detail has at least four sentences of analysis. Your analysis should:
  • Explain the meaning/context of the quotation
  • Explain the relevance of the quotation
  • As you progress through the novel your entries should build upon and refer to one another
  • Entries must be neat and legible with the correct heading

Example:

Dialectical Journal #1: Pages/chapters ______

Hunger (your topic)

Quotation / Analysis
“I looked at my mother, at the strange woman, at my father, then into the fire. I wanted to take the nickel, but I did not want to take it from my father. ‘You aught to be ashamed,’ my mother said, weeping. ‘Giving your son a nickel when he’s hungry. If there’s a God, He’ll pay you back,’” (Wright 33). / At this point in the novel Richard has to make the decision to stay with his father or live with his mother. In order to get Richard to stay with him, Richard’s father gives him a nickel showing him that he will be able to eat and won’t have to be hungry anymore. Obviously a nickel isn’t enough to support one’s self on, and by giving him merely money Richard, a young boy, will still need to go out and buy his own food; he is taking care of himself rather than being taken care of by his father. Wright is showing the reader how low his father will stoop in order to “win over” Richard. What Richard wants is a guardian and caregiver, not the title of a father.
“When supper was over I saw that there were many biscuits piled high upon the bread platter, an astonishing and unbelievable sight to me. Though the biscuits were right before my eyes, and though there was more flour in the kitchen, I was apprehensive lest there be no bread for breakfast in the morning,” (Wright 50). / Richard is constantly thinking and worried about food – he is staring at a pile of bread and all he can think about is that there isn’t going to be enough food for the morning. A child shouldn’t repeatedly have to worry about food and having (or not having) a meal on the table the next day. However, Richard does worry about these things because he has always had things taken away from him – even food. To most people food is taken for granted, but to Richard it is a source of stress, concern and pain.
Recap—Quotations should:
-Demonstrate important parts of the novel
-Clearly reveal your subject area
-Cover the entire reading section / Recap – Analysis Should…
-Reveal the context of the quotation, its importance to that part of the novel, and as you progress through the novel its importance as a whole within Wright’s story.
-Demonstrate your creative and critical thinking.