Table 5: The think aloud narrative provided by the prototypic member of Cluster Four (Aesthetic Coherence)

Passages in bold font within the narrative indicate the distinctive attributes of readers in this category.

  1.

It has a sense of mystery to it, "The Dark Walk."

  2.

The descriptions are very beautiful. They almost seem, uh ... "midnight tunnel of smooth sinewy branches" reminds me of something that's not of this world

  3.

It seems a place of calm for this girl to go. She seems anxious to get to this area.

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D

 
G--reminds me of a literary style

C/D

I characterize the mood of the setting

D

The Dark Walk seems foreboding/evil/gothic

C

I characterize a connotation

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  4.

"She raced right into it."

  5.

"Memory of the sun behind her"--maybe she was running into something that was different for her, a memory of things past behind her.

  6.

And she loved the thrill of the darkness and she loved the thrill of ... of, uh, challenging herself.

  7.

She would like to scare herself a little bit just like people do when they're kids. Um, "she emerged gasping, clasping her hands, laughing, [and] drinking in the sun." She would relish the fact that she was able to ... to complete it because she had been so scared doing it.

  8.

She would always consider doing it again for the excitement of it. She seems a very excitable girl.

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C/D

 
I characterize a character's emotions

C/D

I characterize a character's emotion (enjoyment)

C/D

I characterize a character's motives

C/D

I characterize a character's motives (pleasurable desire)

C/DD

I characterize a character's thoughts

C/DD

I characterize a character's thoughts (reflection)

C/D

Julia reflects on her ordeal

C/DD

I characterize a connotation

DD

I characterize a connotation (life-promoting)

DD

This seems like rebirth, reawakening, enrichment, feeling renewal for Julia

C/DD

I interpret the story symbolically

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  9.

Hmm, she wanted to share in the excitement of it. I don't think ... I think it was the thrill of the ... of the terror that would get to them. And yet for him I don't think it was as ... as fun because he was smaller than her and she would outrun him and he'd be left in the dark, which is really scary for a child.

10.

/

11.

They would have to revel in their adventures.

12.

Ha, he would say how great he had been and ... and she would make fun of him. Actually it seems very typical of male and female things. They squabble because they can never see eye to eye, since men tend to boast so much about their adventures.

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C/D

 
I characterize the mood of the setting

C/D

I characterize the mood of the setting (frightening, threatening)

C/D

There is a sense of fear in the scene

C/DD

I characterize a character's motives

D

I characterize a character's motives (pleasurable desire)

D

Julia wanted to share her experience with someone

C/D

I characterize a character's emotions

D

Julia experiences joy in her fear

C/DD

I judge a character's actions

DDU

I judge a character's actions (adventurous)

DDU

The children's actions are adventurous

C/DD

I interpret the story symbolically

D

I characterize a connotation (life-promoting)

D

The setting is really quite dream-like

D

The children's actions are typical of sibling relationships

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13.

/

14.

And now they're starting to argue with each other trying to say that the other one was as scared just ... just to make themselves feel better.

15.

She threatens not to take him anymore because, I don't know. I have a feeling that something's going to happen to her that her brother will help her out with.

16.

Now they're calling each other names. That's very typical of children.

17.

"I hate you." Reminds me of what my sister and I used to do, pretend and wish each other were dead all our lives until we hit our twenties and then we became best of friends.

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C

 
I judge a character's actions

C/D

I judge a character's actions (typical)

C/DDU

The dialogue is typical 

D

The children's actions are typical of sibling relationships

C

I characterize a character's motives

D

The children are trying to assert superiority over each other

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18.

"Tears were threatening." Oh, it's so typical of childhood, uh ... childhood fights because first you're laughing and pretty soon you're crying.

19.

/

20.

She doesn't believe that, uh ... she decided to be incredulous. She's at twelve, eh. Oh, she didn't believe the story that somebody was telling her about the well as if there was something that had happened there that she didn't believe. It had just been an old thing.

21.

Oh, with this I see foreboding. Uh, the well ... something's going to happen to her.

22.

"Haughtily, she said. 'Nonsense'!" She doesn't believe but something's going to happen.

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D

 
Someone intervenes to take the children's minds off of fighting

C

I characterize a character

D

Julia is curious

C/D

I characterize a character (disenchanted)

D

Julia is at an age of disenchantment/suspicion

D

I anticipate something happening in the story involving Julia and the well

C/D

I characterize a character's thoughts

DDU

Julia doesn't believe the story of the well

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23.

/

24.

And she found the well. So, maybe she needed to prove to herself that ... that, uh, it was there and that she could find it. Give her some self-esteem.

25.

/

26.

She's discovered something, the trout, in this tiny little bit of water. I think she's going to save it.

27.

The excitement of finding something new uncovered the darkness. They weren't afraid. Maybe the ability to find what is actually there. It's like when children are afraid of the dark and then they realize that there's nothing there in the dark that there isn't in the light.

28.

Mmm, the fish was imprisoned, they were free.

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D

 
I characterize a character

C/D

I characterize a character

D

I anticipate what is going to happen next in the story

C/D

I characterize a character's emotions

C/D

I characterize a character's emotions (unworried)

C/D

The children's excitement makes them not afraid of the dark anymore

C

I clarify my understanding of the story

D

Julia found the well

D

Actions remind me of a personal memory

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29.

It was a mystery to them, how he was there in that tiny little bit of water.

30.

Nobody would believe them that a trout could live in that small amount of water.

31.

/

32.

This older man reminds me of, um ... of the kind of man that sides with the children, in many of these stories there's always an older person who's, uh, on their side.

33.

/

34.

She just thinks that he put it in there.

35.

She decides that she's going to keep it. She's very selfish, this girl. Well, not selfish. No, she's just very full of herself, which is good.

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C/D

 
I characterize a character's thoughts

C/D

I characterize a character's thoughts (doubt/disbelief)

C/D

The adults are skeptical

C/DD

Julia thinks Martin may have put the trout there

C/D

I characterize a character

C/D

I characterize a character (self-centered)

D

Julia is possessive

D

I characterize a character (mature/independent)

C

I judge a character's actions

D

I characterize a connotation (mysterious)

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36.

Her mother likes to think of a gentle way of the thing getting there, the trout getting there.

37.

And his father ... her father sees it more as a ... of water drying up and dying, he's the only one left.

38.

She decides to see it in private because she's very ... she relies on her own, um, perceptions of things.

39.

Her brother is young still. He ... he hears ... he wants to hear everything from other people. He's still getting all the input, whereas she's starting to deduct ... analyze things on her own.

40.

He's still too young to understand what she's thinking.

41.

She doesn't have to deal with that trivial stuff anymore. She says, 'Pooh!'

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C/D

 
I characterize a character

C/D

I characterize a character (immature/dependent)

C/D

I characterize a character (mature/independent)

D

Julia is older, more mature

C/D

Julia does not believe stories anymore

C/D

I characterize a character's motives

D

Julia needs to assess the situation independently

D

I characterize a character's motives (explaining)

D

The father offers an explanation

D

I characterize a character's thoughts

C/D

I judge a character's actions

D

The father's suggestion is implausible

C/D

I judge a character's actions (immature)

C/D

Her brother follows her around

DDU

I confirm/elaborate my previous characterization

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42.

She sees how confined the trout is. She feels sorry for him.

43.

She sees he's trapped.

44.

He's on her mind constantly because she doesn't like to see him suffering and that's ... that's the way it happens when you see things that, um, that get to you, maybe things on the TV or ... I had a lot of experience of this with the war, um, you think about the suffering of the ... that these other people or things aren't, you know ... and mostly for some reason, it gets me with animals because they're so, uh ... they have no choice and this fish has no choice in being there.

45.

She brings him food, cares for him.

46.

He didn't want it. Maybe it's just his situation.

47.

She thinks about him a lot. She's wondering how he could have survived in a place like that.

48.

All the time that she had been going in the dark walk he was just there all by himself. Which she had run through it for a bit of excitement but he had to spend all of his time there.

49.

/

50.

He stays on her mind.
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C

 
I characterize a character

C/D

I characterize a character's motives

C

I characterize a character's emotions

D

I characterize a character's emotions (sympathy)

C/D

I characterize a character's emotions (lonely)

C

I characterize a character's thoughts

C

I characterize a character's thoughts (preoccupation)

C/D

I interpret a story symbolically

C/D

I interpret a story element symbolically (narrow confined world)

D

I confirm/elaborate my previous characterization

C/DD

I anthropomorphize a story figure

C/DD

I anthropomorphize the trout

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51.

In June it's freedom, it's summer. It's the longest days. Happiness. Carefree.

52.

/

53.

The days don't end for her right now. Just like the night never ended for this fish.

54.

/

55.

The feeling of not being able to sleep and looking out the window.

56.

She won't believe in what the parents are saying. She's definitely a free thinker. She doesn't believe in all this baby stuff.

57.

Ah, but she still has leanings towards it. She still wants to hear what's going on because deep inside, she is a free thinker and she's independent but she still maybe wants to be like her brother in a way, have that love and support from Mom and Dad.

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C

 
I characterize a character

C

I characterize a character's motives

DDU

I interpret a story symbolically

C/D

I characterize setting attributes

C/D

I characterize a physical attribute of the setting

D

The setting is very hot/bright

C/DD

I elaborate on a story feature

D

I elaborate on a setting description

C/D

I comment on literary style

C/DD

I notice a repeating/parallel story element

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58.

/

59.

She doesn't want her mom to make it into something foolish, or something she doesn't want to hear.

60.

It was not realistic for her, she wanted the real fish there. She wanted logic. She didn't want, uh, magical thinking.

61.

She ... all she could feel was what was happening to that poor trout, suffering down there, panting.

62.

She's scared all of the sudden.

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C/D

 
My reading evokes a literary comparison

D

A story element reminds me of a literary genre

D

The mother's story is a folk tale/fairy tale/fable

C/D

I characterize a character

D

Julia seems to be maturing

D

I characterize a character's motives

C

I anticipate story development

C/D

I characterize a character's thoughts

DDU

I characterize a character's thoughts (mature)

DDU

I interpret the story symbolically

DDU

I propose an interpretation of the author's objectives

DDU

I confirm/elaborate my previous characterization (author's objectives)

DDU

I confirm/elaborate my previous characterization

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63.

She thinks something's going to happen to him. I see that something's going to happen. She's going to go running into it. Steven is totally unaware. He's sleeping.

64.

She decides to go down there. The little scraps of moon, maybe to protect her.

65.

It's scary out there for a child but she wants to go.

66.

Instead of, uh, secure, there's the image of the "cool and cruel gravel", all these wordings, uh, are cold.

67.

Everything's cold.

68.

Mmm, I got a fear reaction to that--"peered into the tunnel".

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C/D

 
I characterize the mood of the setting 

C/D

I characterize the mood of the setting (frightening/threatening)

DDU

The setting seems menacing

C/D

I anticipate story development 

C/D

I anticipate concrete story events (character actions)

D

I elaborate on what it is that rustled in the tunnel

DDU

I characterize a character (changing/developing)

DDU

I characterize a character's motives (nurturance)

C/D

I characterize a character's emotions 

C/D

I characterize a character's thoughts 

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69.

"Something ... ". She was in a flurry to reach this fish.

70.

She put her hand in.

71.

"Mad with fright." She was frightened at being in the dark and trying to save the suffering fish and the fish, itself, was terrified to be taken out of its ... out of its security.

72.

/

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C/D

 
I characterize a character's emotions

C

I characterize a character's emotions (fear)

D

Julia is panicking

C

Julia and the trout are frightened

C/D

I clarify my understanding of the story

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73.

Maybe she's killing him but she's ... she's trying to help him.

74.

/

75.

The gravel's cold and ... and, uh, hurting, the gravel that leads to the tunnel but she becomes ... goes down to the river where it's life, it's cool ooze.

76.

And they put him into the river.

77.

She still has, uh, feelings for him. You'd think she would. She gives him human characteristics.

78.

Everything's calm all of the sudden--"glimmer", "silent-flowing river, the dark firs ... dim mountains." It's calm.

79.

She sees everything as watching her. She's the center of her world.

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C/D

 
I characterize a character 

D

I characterize a character (changing/developing)

D

I elaborate on the impact that this event will have on Julia

DD

I characterize a character's motives 

C/DDU

I characterize a character's motives (nurturance)

DDU

The trout wants to get out

DDU

Julia rescued/released the trout

C/DD

I characterize a character's emotions 

DDU

I characterize a character's emotions (worry)

C/D

I characterize a character's thoughts

C/D

I comment on literary style 

DDU

I notice a contrasting story element

C

I anthropomorphize the trout

DDU

The trout wants to get out

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80.

/

81.

/

82.

She felt happy for what she had done. Pleased.

83.

Stephen's too simple for her.

84.

She feels superior.

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C/D

 
I characterize a character's motives 

C/D

I characterize a character's emotions

C/D

I characterize a character's emotions (happy)

C/D

Julia is pleased/happy with what she did

C/D

I characterize a character's thoughts 

C/D

I judge a character's actions 

D

Julia is acting superior, snotty, condescending, arrogant

DD

I elaborate on a story feature 

DDU

I elaborate on a story event (consequences/outcome)

DDU

I elaborate on what the dog/fishing reel implies for the well-being of the trout

D

Julia's actions seem like an animal/a crab

D

Somebody fishing might catch the trout now

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C/D

 
I offer a symbolic interpretation (in a single story section) 

D

I maintain the integrity of a symbolic interpretation (across at least two sections) 

D

Julia wants to form her own truths and construct her own reality

C/D

I interpret a story element as symbolic of a narrow confined World

DDU

I interpret a story element as symbolic of the tension between life and death

DDU

I interpret a story element as symbolic of the pattern of life 

D

The story is about a character's journey on the road to Maturity

D

The story is about coming to know/recognize oneself as a free/independent individual

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