I read Mary E. Lyons' Letters from a Slave Girl a couple times when I was younger; historical fiction was something that always interested me. This time around, however, I read the real-life account --the authentic version of Harriet Jacobs' life--in American Texts, right alongside Letters. It was so interesting because in her account, Jacobs uses a pseudonym and changes the names of all the characters to protect all --her goal was to educate and make readers aware of the ways of the South's "peculiar institution," not to blow the horn on specific individuals. Lyons', however, safely used everyone's real names in 1992 when she presented Jacobs' story in letter form for young readers. At the end of her novel, Lyons steps up as the author and tells us what happened to Jacobs after she reached the Northern Free States; she also shares pictures of Jacobs' home town and Dr. Norcom.
I would definitely recommend and teach this book in my classroom: similes and foreshadowing abound. It could also be used for its cultural aspects, at least in terms of language --Harriet doesn't always use the correct verb tense, and sometimes there isn't a verb at all! Since it's written in the first person via letters, I'm sure I could do something with that; as of right now, I don't know what, but it's at least an aspect of the book I've thought about. Letters would be great to teach alongside a social studies/history class working on a pre-Civil War unit; the integration would surely serve to strengthen and deepen student understanding.
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2 comments:
Abbie - it seems to me that you have touched on a number of possibilities for "planning around a text." yes - foreshadowing, simile, both good.
I think what you are talking about when you get at culture and the no verbs is dialect, perhaps. Helping kids learn to read dialect can be a strategy (a useful thing to teach them, that is...).
I wonder if this would be considered an "epistolary novel" (letters...). Katie Rose is, I think, also looking at that genre. And, indeed, that genre certainly holds potential... (Though, now I find myself asking, well, what exactly IS an epistolary novel? and why do they exist? I mean, I know it is a novel in letters, but, we need to maybe dig a little deeper than that...) Issues of audience - who are the letters written to.... issues of shape, what do the letters include, who are they structured, what gets included and what does not. etc.
It seems to me that you have several rich possible ideas here.
oh, and, another thing, perhaps.. how dialect and character are related?
what dialect reveals about character?
just very draft-y thoughts, there.
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