DIRECTIONS: Use the “Double Entry” note-taking strategy (modeled on the next page) to assess the
importance of specific quotes in relation to the identified guiding question. Your notes may be typed or
hand written, but should be thorough and legible. Follow the below steps as you complete this
assignment.
Step 1: Identify quotes that help you answer the guiding question (see below). Mark these quotes
with a post-it note as we will be using them to generate class discussion. You should mark a
minimum of eight quotations throughout the novel.
Guiding Question: One thematic concept explored in author Charles Portis’ True Grit revolves
around the concept of “coming of age;” How does Portis utilize literary elements (such as
character development, imagery, symbolism, allusion, and/or archetype) to convey this theme to
the reader?
Step 2: Select three of the following literary elements from the list below to focus on as the novel
unfolds. One of your three literary elements must be character development, though you may choose
the other two.
Literary Elements:
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Character Development (required)
Imagery (student choice)
Allusion (student choice)
Symbolism (student choice)
Archetype (student choice)
Step 3: Begin reading the novel and marking quotes that serve as examples of the literary elements you
have selected. Your quotes should help you answer the guiding question and should, in some way, relate
to theme.
Step 4: As you identify these quotes, take a moment to explain how each identified quote reveals the
“coming of age” theme using the “Double Entry” note-taking strategy (modeled below). Continue
collecting quotes until you have a minimum of eight quotes and feel you can adequately address the
guiding question.
Double-Entry Notes – Exemplar
(Modeled using Lois Lowry’s The Giver)
Direct Quote (With pg. #)
1. “Jonas learned, through the
memories, the names of colors; and
now he began to see them all…There
would be a glimpse of green –the
landscaped lawn around the central
plaza; a bush on the riverbank. The
bright orange of pumpkins beings
trucked in front of agricultural fields
beyond the community boundary—
seen in an instant, the flash of
brilliant color, but gone again,
returning to their flat and hueless
shade.”
-Page 97
2. “The next morning, for the first time,
Jonas did not take his pill. Something
within him, something that had
grown there through the memories,
told him to throw the pill away.”
-Page 129
Analysis (What literary element is being utilized in this segment
of text? How is Portis using the identified literary element to
reveal the theme?)
1. In this passage Lowry uses visual imagery to help the
reader see what Jonas is just beginning to see – color.
Lowry describes the “bright orange” of pumpkins and the
vivid green of “landscaped lawn” which immediately
places specific vibrant colors into the reader’s head.
Lowry then contrasts this with Jonas’s everyday life, and
the life of everyone else in the community when she
mentions the color disappeared and returned to its “flat”
black and grey scale. This contrast reveals the theme
“freedom is worth fighting for” by serving as an example
of what the people in Jonas’s world have been forced to
give up. It’s something as simple as color, but it’s
something that Jonas is seeing for the first time, and he’s
realizing what a gift it is. Seeing how beautiful the world
can be is making Jonas realize this freedom is worth
fighting for.
2. This quote is an example of character development as it
exemplifies the way the protagonist changes over the
course of the story. In the beginning of the novel, Jonas
was proud to receive pills and put an end to the
“stirrings,” as it symbolized his becoming a full-fledged,
adult member of the community. But as Jonas received
more and more knowledge from the Giver, he realized
the pills actually inhibited his ability to feel, to be human,
to be free. Jonas’s development from a person who was
willing to erase his emotions (by taking the pill) to a
character who goes against the ways of the community
by disposing of his medication reveals the theme
“freedom is worth fighting for” because it shows Jonas is
willing to defy an established community rule in order to
experience emotion. He’s willing to fight for his rights as
a human being, no matter the cost.