The Name of This Book Is Secret

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

ACTIVITY 1: “Do-It-Yourself Ending/Dear Narrator”

In this activity, students will analyze important themes and character arcs in the novel to write their own ending (as suggested by the narrator in Chapter 31) that successfully connects to and resolves important themes in the novel; they will then engage with the constructed relationship between the Narrator and Reader personas in the novel by defending their choices in a letter written to the Narrator himself.

In lieu of writing an actual ending, in Chapter 31, the Narrator gives the Reader a “do-it-yourself ending”—he provides details about important moments and characters to suggest how their stories ultimately resolved but does write the chapter as a linear narrative. The Narrator uses his intrusive narration style and the relationship with the Reader to give the Reader a greater sense of agency in the novel, allowing them to engage more deeply with the material by leaving part of its final scene supposedly up to their interpretation. In this activity, you will assume the persona of a narrator and write a conclusion to the story of one of the characters outlined in Chapter 31.