Another great way to engage your students is through the creation of storyboards that asks your students to find Tone, Word Choice, Imagery, Style, and Theme. This activity is called a TWIST (an acronym for the above literary elements). In a TWIST students focus on a particular paragraph or few pages to look deeper at the author’s true meaning.
Using any paragraph of “The Birthmark”, students can examine, depict, explain, and foreshadow what will happen in the story while getting a good idea of the tone of the story.
The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of 6 earthly mould, degrading them into kindred with the lowest, and even with the very brutes, like whom their visible frames return to dust. In this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death, Aylmer's sombre imagination was not long in rendering the birthmark a frightful object, causing him more trouble and horror than ever Georgiana's beauty, whether of soul or sense, had given him delight.
| T | TONE | Disgusted: Aylmer has a grotesque fascination with Georgiana’s birthmark. Instead of seeing it as a mark of uniqueness, he sees it as an imperfection. |
|---|---|---|
| W | WORD CHOICE |
Degregating, ineludible, sin, sorrow, death, decay, sombre, frightening, trouble, horror |
| I | IMAGERY |
“The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of 6 earthly mould...” The sight of the birthmark reminds Aylmer of Georgiana’s near perfection. |
| S | STYLE |
The narrator uses particular imagery and word choice in his description to illustrate Aylmer’s disdain and disappointment in Georgiana’s lack of perfection. |
| T | THEME |
Since Hawthorne was a Puritan writer it is important for the reader to look at the morals and theme that Hawthorne as a Christian was trying to express. A possible interpretation for this short passage is that man is flawed and sinful. The lack of perfection he sees in Georgiana is in fact the imperfection in man. |
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Student Instructions
Perform a TWIST analysis of a selection from “The Birthmark”. Remember that TWIST stands for Tone, Word Choice, Imagery, Style, Theme.