Keys to Reading a Novel

How do you read the novel?

Like the short story, the novel is concerned primarily with five elements: plot, setting, character, point of view, and theme. But as the short story restricts the development of these elements, the novel encourages it. As a reader of a novel, one must follow the development of these elements and ask what changes and transformations occur in them, and which do not, what conflicts result, and whether the conflicts are resolved. Following the development of the first four elements will lead a reader to wrestle with and understand theme(s) in the novel. Other considerations, as well, should be taken into account before, during, and after you read:

- Establish whether you are reading fiction or non-fiction. Novels are fictional.
- Define the kind or type of novel (the genre) you are reading. In a handbook for literature, find and read a definition of this type of novel to learn its basic characteristics.
- Recognize the historical, economic, social, or political elements or concepts present in the novel.
- Speak with others who have read or who are reading the novel.
- Learn about the author.

Be able to answer the following questions about the novel:

-    What point of view does the author use and why has this point of view been chosen?
- Who are the major and minor characters of the novel? Who is the protagonist?  Antagonist? How do the relationships between and among characters shed light on the protagonist or antagonist?
-   What is the time, place, and environment in which the events of the novel take place (the setting)? Can you relate personal experiences or knowledge to the setting?
-  What is the subject matter of the novel and the author's attitude towards the subject or his/her manner in handling it (often referred to as the tone of the novel)?
-  What conflicts do the characters encounter, particularly the major characters?  Are their conflicts internal (within the character's mind for example) or external (with other characters or groups or with nature)? Are the conflicts resolved? To what degree and result?
- What themes arise from the conflicts and their resolutions (or lack thereof) in this novel? What is the author trying to show us about the human condition through his/her novel?

The passage below is the second paragraph from the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his [Jim's] accident [broken arm]. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out.

This paragraph is from the opening of Lee's novel. What can be learned from it? The point of view is first person. The "I" of the passage, as the reader shortly thereafter learns, is Scout, a main character in the novel. She relates the events of a time long ago in the life of her and her brother, Jem.

Lee's selection of first person point of view provides authenticity and immediacy to the story; her narrator participates in or participated in the action of the story, having the information first hand. First person point of view, in this novel, also has the advantage of distance, as the narrator is now older, looking back on events. This distance allows the narrator to be both adult and child, telling the events as they had happened but also telling the events in a way that they are now more meaningful for her, because they are more clearly understood by herself in her adulthood. The narrator shifts between two perspectives, that of child and that of adult looking at her childhood, throughout the novel.
This paragraph also establishes the major characters of the novel by naming them, although the reader is not fully aware of this at this early stage in the novel. The reader is introduced to the Ewells, to Boo Radley, and to Dill. The age of Jem, Scout, and Dill is inferred through reference to an earlier time of their lives and through the conflict that is hinted at in the phrase making Boo Radley come out, which is the stuff of childhood pranks.

The reader's curiosity is piqued to find out what happened with Boo. Plot is already at work in the novel, although nothing really is happening in this passage. Other conflicts are suggested in the passage with the linking of Dill and Boo to the Ewells who started it all. The reader is not sure what the it is, but the use of the pronoun without knowing its antecedent suggests the narrator, Scout, is about to tell what the it is. The it becomes the novel. It is the story that the reader is going to hear about, the unnamed events with which these major characters are involved.

Where are these events taking place? At this point in the novel the reader knows only that the events took place in summer. However, in paragraph three, Harper Lee establishes clearly the setting to be the American South, Alabama, and the fictional small town of Maycomb. The setting of the novel becomes directly linked to the conflicts established in the plot because of, as Scout describes it in the first pages, the code of Alabama. This code eventually entails a way of life for the characters (mentioned in the paragraph above) and their interaction. Who lives by the code? Dies by the code? Breaks the code? Is changed by the code? Changes the code? The answers to these questions are revealed as the reader continues reading the novel.

A novel gives the reader much information to feed upon. It is up to the reader to not only take part in the feast of the novel but to take time to digest what has been read. Reflecting on how the text presents the basic elements of fiction will provide a closer reading of the novel and a greater understanding of it as a whole.