STOP: Think, Write, Speak

1. Stop periodically in your reading. Pick one of our good

reading strategies- write that strategy down in
your notebook, and then write your
response to it.

Good reading strategy options (try to pick a different one each time):

Predict (example: what will come next in the text, what might happen to a
character because of their choices, how might the conflict of the story be
resolved, etc).

Question (example: ask questions about what you are reading- why is a
particular character acting a certain way, why is the author starting with a
strange opening, why is the author using similes or metaphors to describe
things, or ask a question about something that confuses you). Respond to your
questions.

Make a comment (example: make a comment about actions in the text,

characters in the text, make a comment on use of foreshadowing clues the
author is giving, comment on vocabulary choice, comment on strong images or
interesting dialogue, etc).

Make a connection (example: does this story, characters, setting, themes, plot,
etc remind you of anything in your own life, or other books or stories you have
read, movies you have seen, t.v. shows you have watched?) Write about those
connections.

Clarify something you had misunderstood (example: if you were confused

about a character’s actions and have now figured it out- write about it. If you
figured out what a vocabulary word meant- write out the meaning. If you pieced
clues from the story together to solve a mystery, or answered a prediction you
had- write about it).

Visualize (example: what do you see in your head as you read? Describe the
characters, setting, what the invisible narrator might look like, etc).

Frankenstein
 Summary: Letters I-IV
Letter I
As the novel Frankenstein begins, we meet Englishman Robert Walton, the
captain of a ship bound for the Arctic. The novel opens with his correspondence between
himself and his sister, Margaret Seville. He tells Margaret of his dangerous journey
northward towards the North Pole. In his first letter, we learn about his departure and
about Walton’s burning desire to “accomplish something great,” such as setting foot on
some unknown territory, making a great scientific discovery, or anything that will bring
him adventure and renown.

Letter II
During Walton’s second letter to his sister he discusses how lonely he is. He lacks
friends and someone of the same intellectual interests and level to talk with. He feels like
no one around him on the ship understands his desires or his motives and he therefore
feels closed off. Walton describes himself as a Romantic: he believes in “the marvelous”
and his beliefs help him push towards his goal of reaching the North Pole.

Letter III
Walton’s third letter to Margaret is brief. In it he describes the ship’s departure
from port and his strong belief in himself and his crew that they will achieve his vision.

Letter IV
The fourth letter is where finally meet Victor Frankenstein. As Walton’s ship gets
closer to the Arctic, his ship must pass between giant ice sheets. As they are going
through the ice sheets, Walton and his crew spot a sled half a mile away. The sled has a
carriage on its runners and is being pulled by a team of dogs. On the sled is a giant
creature that they cannot quite make out due to surrounding fog. They crew watches as
this strange sight moves on into the distance as the ship remains in place, trapped in by
ice. The ice breaks over the next few hours and Walton writes that he takes this time to
rest.
When Walton awoke the next morning, he found many members of his crew
gathered on one side of the ship. He discovers them trying to persuade a man trapped on a
large section of ice to board the ship. This man was also on a sled, but only one dog of his
team was still alive. The crew eventually assists the bedraggled man in boarding the ship
and he is taken to a room to be cared for. When the man is well enough to speak, Walton
finds the intellectual and emotional connection he was lacking in this stranger and grows
fond of him, despite the man’s apparent misery. Walton confides in this man his desire to
gain knowledge and to seek the unknown. This brings the man, who we now know is
Victor Frankenstein, to tell Walton the story of his own desire for knowledge and how it
brought much suffering to him. Walton becomes the scribe for this narrative, and as his
letter to his sister ends, we read of Victor story as told by himself and recorded by
Walton. Here the story switches voices from Robert Walton’s to Frankenstein’s.

Summary
 Volume II: Chapters III-VII
Chapter III:
Once again, the voice of the novel shifts. This time, the monster is telling
Frankenstein his own narrative of how he came to be the way he is, how he became
educated, and how he found Viktor.
The monster begins with his “birth,” saying that he does not remember how he
came into being, but slowly began to sense light, dark, touch, sight, taste, smell, and
sound. Confused and scared as he comes into consciousness, the monster runs from
Victor’s home. He begins to adjust to the outdoors and begins to experience hunger,
thirst, and cold. The monster says, “I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and
could distinguish, nothing; but, feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept”
(177). He remains confused as he ventures into the next day, the sound of his own voice
scaring him. The monster is constantly learning, much like a child does as it experiences
new things. He moves throughout the forest searching for berries and other food sources
to keep hunger away. Eventually, the monster comes across a small hut. He enters the
hut, scaring away an old man, but cannot figure out why the man was frightened. He is
enchanted by the hut: the structure itself and the way it is set up inside. He does not stay
here long before moving onto a village, where yet again, people scream and flee at the
sight of him. Feeling despondent about this, the monster decides to quit himself of
humans altogether. The monster finds a hovel next to a small cottage to sleep in. He
realizes that he can see into the cottage through a crack in the wall and proceeds to
observe a family consisting of an older blind man, a young woman, and a young man.

Chapter IV:
The monster continues to observe the family. He notices that they seem
particularly unhappy, and comes to realize that their unhappiness is due to their poverty.
He ceases to steal their food and begins helping them (without them knowing) by
bringing firewood to the door at night for them to use the next day. He grows curious
about the sounds they make to each other, and vows to himself that he will learn what
these sounds mean in order to communicate. Throughout the winter, the monster stays in
his hovel observing the family by day and gathering wood for them at night. His affection
for the family grows and he begins to learn some words, such as the names of the family
members: Father, the older blind man, Felix, the young man, and Agatha, the young
woman. He learns the meaning of “brother” and “sister” as he observes the family. He
admires the graceful figures of the family, and upon catching a glimpse of himself in a
mirror, discovers his own hideousness, which fills him with “despondence and
mortification” (201). He grows more and more fond of Father, Felix, and Agatha, and
wishes to help them sometime in the future. The monster is still experiencing loneliness,
and this is aggravated by his pursuit of knowledge. Like Victor, the monster begins to
realize the dangers of knowledge and how disheartening it can be. This is evident in his
reaction to his own reflection. He now knows what he looks like, but it makes even more
clear the differences between him and the cottagers. His spirits rise when he begins to
form a plan to introduce himself to the family and attempt to bring them happiness again.
Chapter V:
It is here that a new character enters the scene of the cottagers. A dark-eyed, dark-
haired woman named Safie arrives at the cottage. She is taken in by the family and since
she does not speak the same language as they do, the family commences in teaching her.
The monster takes this opportunity to learn the language himself. He also learned about
“the science of letters” as it was taught to Safie through the book Ruins of Empires,
which also helped the monster to learn about the history of past cultures as well. The
monster begins to question the greatness of man, saying, “Was man, indeed, at once so
powerful, so virtuous, so magnificent, yet so vicious and base?” (211). He learns of social
systems, class rank, wealth, poverty, and status. He then reflects on his own situation,
purporting that he is “a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men
disowned…” (213). The monster’s sorrow increases with his knowledge as he learns
about family structures and duties, such as a father’s love, a mother’s responsibilities to
her children, and the warmth of family. He has never known any of this and grows
disheartened at the contrast between his situation and the cottager’s.

Chapter VI:
As the monster acquires more knowledge of language, he also learns the history
of the cottagers and why they are here. He discovers that the family is called De Lacey.
They used to be wealthy Parisians: respected, well-educated, and affluent. Safie’s father
was a Turn falsely accused of murder and sentenced to death. While in prison, Felix visits
him where he meets Safie and together they create a plan of escape for the Turk. Felix
falls in love with Safie, just as Safie wants a European rather than an Arab husband so
she can cultivate her own knowledge and liberties instead of the slavery she will be under
if she married a man from Turkey. Felix successfully helps her father to escape, but the
plan is discovered nevertheless. The family De Lacy is sent into exile in Germany and
stripped of their wealth. Safie’s father wants her to return to him in Constantinople, but
she refuses and finds Felix’s whereabouts and some money so that she may return to him.

Chapter VII:
The monster now understands and can produce written and spoken language
almost perfectly. One night while foraging, he finds a satchel bag in the woods containing
the books The Sorrows of Young Werter by Goethe and Paradise Lost by John Milton.
Not knowing that they were works of fiction, he reads them as truth, finding much
similarity between himself and both Adam and Satan in Milton’s work. He also takes
some papers that he stole from Victor before leaving his home, and now that he can read
them, he learns how his creator felt upon seeing his creation come alive. He decides to
approach the cottagers in hopes that they will look past his deformed exterior and not
judge him as other have. He approaches the blind father while no one else is home. The
monster begins to speak with De Lacey about his situation, but before he can finish the
other three family members return and Felix drives the monster away after seeing his
hideousness. The monster escapes, distraught and more alone than ever after being
rejected by the people he had grown to care about most.