EDR 201

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING

INKHEART
A Reading to Explain Reading/Literacy
By Rosalie Mae de Ocampo, Maria Ediliza Margarita
Ramilo, and Jewel Bautista
7/31/2010

PROF. NEMAH N. HERMOSA. EDR 201 Proj2. UP College of Education, Diliman. Sem
1, AY 2010-2011.
A. Synopsis

In this movie, there were people who had a rare gift that whenever they read aloud, they
bring out the characters from the book to the real world. These people were called
"Silvertongues" and Mortimer "Mo" Folchart was one of them. Along with his 12-year old
daughter, Meggie, Mo managed to find a copy of “Inkheart” -- a book that he has been searching
for a long time. He was later met by a man named Dustfinger who gave him a warning about
Capricorn, the villain in the movie who is after Mo. Dustfinger tried to persuade Mo to fix what
he did nine years ago by reading Inkheart aloud and sending him back home to the Inkworld.
Unfortunately, Mo refused to help him. Mo decided to ensure his daughter's safety by bringing
her to her great aunt, Elinor Loredan. But then, Dustfinger managed to follow them. This time,
however, he had already turned to Capricorn for help. Along with his new allies, as headed by
Basta, Dustfinger brought Mo, Meggie and Elinor to Capricorn’s castle.

Mo's group was locked up in a stable with various creatures such as ticking crocodile,
flying monkeys, Minotaur and a unicorn. Mo explained to Meggie and Elinor that those creatures
were read out from the books. He claimed responsibility of bringing some characters from
"Inkheart" into the real world nine years ago -- Capricorn, a thuggish bandit; Basta, his sidekick;
and Dustfinger, a fire juggler. Unfortunately, he also brought his wife into the book and from
that day on, he stopped reading any story to Meggie.

Upon meeting Capricorn, Meggie witnessed his father's gift and understood his father’s
dilemma all those years. Later on, Capricorn admitted deceiving Dustfinger and vowed to never
help him get back to the Inkworld. Feeling desperate, Dustfinger came to see Resa, a servant girl
whom he trusted. He later realized that she is the wife of Mo and promised her that he will help
her reunite with her family. Dustfinger tried to make amends with Mo and they all escaped by
having Mo read the great storm out of the book Wizard of Oz..

Following the idea of Meggie, they searched for Fenoglio, the author of "Inkheart,"
hoping to get another copy. When they saw the original manuscript, Dustfinger revealed to Mo
that Resa is already out of the book. To save Resa, Mo decided to sneak back to Capricorn's
village along with Dustfinger.

Meanwhile, the moment Meggie learned that she inherited her father's gift, she was again
captured by Basta and was brought to Capricorn. He instructed Meggie to read out The Shadow.
As Meggie was reading aloud a copy of "Inkheart" that Capricorn has been keeping, The Shadow
came out and moved its way to kill Resa and Fenoglio. Mo tried to free them from their cage
while Dustfinger headed the burning of the castle and Elinor has freed the creatures from the
stable to help fight the villains.

Mo managed to give Meggie a pen which she used to write on her arm. She wrote with
her own words and read these aloud. She changed the story and made Capricorn and his
henchmen turn to dust while The Shadow disintegrated to nothing. She also managed to send all
the other book characters and creatures back to their respective stories and brought back Resa's
voice. Mo eventually sent Dustfinger back to "Inkheart" as he set off with his daughter and wife.
B. Relevant features that relate to literacy and reading activities and issues.

Aside from being a very entertaining movie for the family, "Inkheart" is also a rich
source for students and teachers to have a better understanding of literacy and reading activities.
Many implicit and explicit scenes are portrayed. It is important to take a better look on the
deeper meaning and lessons the movie can show to its audience for these can be avenues in order
for them to become more knowledgeable individuals.

Literacy is the ability to read and write to a competent level. One who is literate is often
synonymous to someone who is educated, cultured and lettered. Literacy is portrayed many
times in the movie. The protagonist and main characters of the film namely Mo, Meggie, Aunt
Elinor and Signor Fenoglio are all literate individuals. All of them can read and write very well.
It is evident in the movie as one takes a closer look at Mo being a bookbinder and a Silvertongue.
He was first seen reading a story to Meggie while she was still an infant. Meggie on the other
hand, aspires in becoming a writer when she grows up and this was briefly seen during the
movie's climax. Apart from that, Mo also provided his daughter with appropriate schooling
though it was not in a formal setting. Meggie mentioned in the film about her unconventional
schooling when she confronted her father about the story behind her mother’s disappearance.
Aunt Elinor obviously belonged to the upper class society. It is manifested in her demeanor and
the way she speaks. She is literate in a way that coming from the upper class society gave her
opportunities for education. She also showed love for reading by having a vast collection of
books in her own home library. Lastly, Signor Fenoglio, being the author of the book "Inkheart",
is obviously someone who speaks fluently and reads extensively. His vocabulary helped him
understand what he is reading and therefore he can write outstandingly.

Many reading activities are illustrated implicitly and explicitly in the film. In fact there
are too many to mention. We will first enumerate the explicit evidences of reading activities
shown. In the beginning of the film, the narrator said that storytellers have enchanted audiences
with their words. Mo read the book “Little Red Riding Hood” to baby Meggie to help her sleep.
That is not the only time Mo read books in the movie. He read out loud Farid from the book
“The Arabian Nights” and the great storm from the book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". In
another scene, Mo was seen skimming through the original “Inkheart” manuscript at Signor
Fenoglio’s home. Meggie showed evident acts of reading in the movie as well. She read the book
“The Wizard of Oz” in her Aunt Elinor’s house and again in Signor Fenoglio’s house. She also
read out loud the book “Inkheart” in Capricorn’s lair. Darius, the other Silvertongue who despite
of having a stutter defect, read the book “Rapunzel” when villain Capricorn introduced him to
Mo, Meggie and Aunt Elinor.

Aside from reading activities, a text-rich environment is also seen in the movie. Mo and
Meggie had lots of out of town trips to antique bookstores for nine years until Mo found the
"Inkheart" book. Those trips may unconsciously triggered Meggie’s love for reading because she
was exposed to a lot of books. When Mo, Meggie and Aunt Elinor were imprisoned, Mo even
encouraged Meggie to pretend that she was in a book. The reason Mo gave for such statement is
that children tend to escape in books.

Implicit evidences of reading are also present in the movie. It happened when Mo read
aloud the Great Storm from "The Wizard of Oz." The Inkheart people did the necessary
precautions when the signs of the storm were prevalent. Many ran to the comforts of their homes
and even brought their laundry and live chickens into their houses. This kind of reading involves
reading the signs of nature. Another implicit reading activity was when Meggie interpreted the
picture of a certain Persian book in her Aunt's Library. Meggie read symbols in that scene. Urges
for reading are present in the movie. The villain Capricorn stressed the importance of reading but
in the movie Capricorn gave a certain bias to a special kind of reading. This kind of reading is
where the reader can bring out the characters of the book into life simply by reading them out
loud. Though there is a bias it is still reading nevertheless. Another evidence involves Aunt
Elinor, although it was not seen in the movie that she was reading a book, it was apparent that
she reads books the moment she told Meggie that she was able to travel around Italy and many
other places simply by reading.

Nothing is perfect in our world. This fact is clearly manifested in the movie. Though
many humanists and educators around the world are fighting for universal education and literacy,
we just have to accept the fact that such ideals still remain as ideals. The purpose of this activity
is to identify relevant features of the text which relates to reading and literacy and equate these
features to corresponding theories, concepts and models of reading. However, one cannot help
but take note of certain literacy issues shown in the film. One issue is despite having a number of
literate characters, Farid does not know how to read and write. At the end of the movie, Meggie
even offered to teach Farid how to read. Another issue some readers have to face is
discrimination. Just because they stutter when they read out loud, they sometimes become a
laughing stock. This was seen when Capricorn and his minions made fun of Darius many times.

C. Explanation of the model/theory or reading, literacy and related issues that the features
of the text allude to.

Reading modules one to five was very beneficial for the group. It helped us identify the
different reading activities and literacy issues portrayed in the film. It also served as a tool to
fully understand the art of reading and how the reader understands the reading material. We
found the movie as an interesting model in explaining reading, literacy and other related issues.
It featured not only reading activities and literacy but also good values that any viewer will find
endearing.

We have learned that man has been reading ever since. Jennings mentioned that the
primitive man read the flight of birds and the spoor of the beast. Man was able to derive meaning
in things that were happening around him. Therefore, reading then was done for practical
management of signs and things. Similar "primitive" reading was present in the movie. It was
when Mo read aloud the Great Storm from "the Wizard of Oz” so they may escape from
Capricorn’s castle. The Inkheart people did the necessary precautions when the signs of the
storm were prevalent. Aside from that, we have also learned that this kind of reading also helps
human beings manage or deal with human experiences and that reading is always done for a
reason.
Reading as a skill is established in the movie. Most of the characters are literate and
obvious reading activities were seen. However, it is also prevalent that a special kind of reading
was valued. This special kind of reading is the ability to bring the characters from the book into
life. Like Mo, Darius possessed this gift, however, the manner in which he reads aloud was
criticized since he stutters. Nowadays, teachers use word recognition strategies to boost learning
on how to read and pronounce words. Examples of which are phonic analysis and synthesis,
whole-word or "look-and-say" method, and structural analysis. We can also assert that due to his
stuttering, the distorted look of the book characters that came out from his reading is noise. His
stuttering made the message unclear.

Another important aspect that we found applicable to the film is that skills training and
practice are important in a child's growth towards literacy. We saw Meggie as a perfect example
for this argument. First, she experienced learning to read as a linguistic process. At her mommy's
womb, her senses were already working and her brain was reacting to stimuli. That explains the
experience factor in the linguistic process. When she was born, her father read to her aloud
allowing her brain to absorb a few words. As she grew up, her oral language developed. Their
mother language is English. Knowledge of written and printed symbols emerged when Meggie
began schooling though it was not in a formal setting.

Furthermore, reading development is not just a process that grows and changes by itself.
Rather, it is correlated with other aspects of child development --- physical, cognitive, linguistic
and socio-economical. Through practice and exposure to books and the influence of the people
around Meggie, she became a good reader and writer as well. In the end, she used her
imagination to make her own story to save her family and the other characters from different
books. We also must consider Mo’s influence in Meggie’s passion for reading. He stood as
Meggie's reading teacher. Even when Meggie was still very small, he read to a level above what
Meggie can read independently thus, helping her develop more advanced language patterns,
knowledge of new words and ideas, etc. Mo responds to and warmly appreciates Meggie's
interest in books and reading. He introduced Meggie to a "print-rich environment," bringing her
with him to different bookstores for nine years. All these contributed to her advanced reading
ability. Notwithstanding, the home also has a very important role in the development of language
experiences that are prerequisites for learning to read. Within this natural environment of
language use, young Meggie learned what books and written texts are, when and where they are
used, and what is it she can get from reading and writing. Because of these, Meggie turned out to
be a mature reader who interacts with print. She exemplifies Rumelhart’s interactive process of
reading when she predicted on the content of the book enclosed in glass at Elinor’s library. She
processed the features of the individual letters (a bottom-up processing task) or by information
from the semantic source about some general meaning, category of the words and illustrations (a
top-down processing task).

Since most of the adult characters in the movie namely Mo, Elinor, and Fenoglio are
fluent speakers and wide readers, their vocabulary helped them to understand what they read and
therefore can write. Three language cueing systems operate during reading. They all have
developed the habit of moving their eyes from left to right and it is already automatic to them. It
seemed that they had less and shorter fixations, suggesting that they are already mature readers.
Their eye movements were relatively fast, reading from left to right, one line after another.
Fries' Three Stages of Reading, the vivid imaginative realization of vicarious experience,
appeared in the movie as well. For Mo, Elinor, and Fenoglio the reading process becomes so
automatic that reading is used for different purposes and as a tool for learning a broad range of
information. They are in the most advanced stage of reading. They are said to be adult readers.
Mo even said that the written word is powerful and that people should be careful with it. His
remarks give us an idea of how a mature reader gives value to reading. Elinor also said that
books are adventure and that she never had to leave her library because of all of the benefits that
she gets from her books. The value of the books and reading itself was further underscored when
Elinor said that books are masterpieces. This suggests that for them, reading books is not just
reading books. There is a whole lot more value in it other than just deciphering what has been
written.

Redundancy is also revealed when Mo, Meggie, and Elinor came to the castle, they were
put in a cell. On their way there, they saw weird creatures that were said to have come out of
books. Bewildered, Meggie and Elinor demanded for an explanation. Mo, forced to explain,
confessed everything. Later that day, Capricorn asked Mo to read from the book in front of
Meggie and Aunt Elinor. It was made clear to Meggie, Aunt Elinor and the viewers as to how all
those book characters came to reality. Context clues/Semantic information was also shown in the
movie as the villains imprisoned more famous book characters. Assimilation was also present
when Meggie and Aunt Elinor realized that all those men in black and the rest of the characters
in the castle were not regular men. They were all from the book, Inkheart, finally making things
clear for them.

The brain mechanisms of language took place for Mo when he was looking for Inkheart
through the shelves of the bookstore. As Mo seems to read the titles of the books, the words
seem to whisper/talk to him (a silent task that happens only in Mo's brain) but he is able to
manage well, deciding what to do with the incoming and outgoing messages in his brain as he
reads. His reticular formation/thalamus was operating like a very busy switchboard, choosing
which book to focus on or not. Goodman’s model is also applicable to what was seen in the
movie. Mo knows that he is not going to read all the books. He looks through the shelves
quickly, picking up features of the printed titles that tell him where to focus a greater amount of
attention. Maybe, after a cursory glance at the titles, he goes to other sections of the bookstore
where there may be greater hope of finding Inkheart.

Initiating and sampling occurred in many scenes from the film. First, when Meggie was
checking out the books for sale right outside the bookstore. Reading begins even before she
makes a fixation. Processing starts as soon as she acknowledges her intention to read. She shows
initiating behavior by reading the title of the text and looking at the upper left-hand corner of the
page of the sample print. Similar initiating and sampling is seen in the movie when Capricorn got
interested with the reading of treasures out of books. When he found it interesting, he asked Mo
to read it. Another example is when Mo saw the manuscript they were looking for; he did not
think twice to read it. No fixation took place.

The scheme theory was also present as Meggie, Mo, and Elinor were looking at
Capricorn’s prisoners. The schema for "fictional characters" or “book characters” was activated
when the following characters were shown in the movie: unicorn, flying monkeys, minotaur,
alligator with ticking clock, Rapunzel, etc. Assimilation, Accommodation and Equilibrium took
place when Mo, Meggie and Elinor thought that Dustfinger was a villain. But as the story
progresses, during their latter interactions with each other, changes in their thinking towards
Dustfinger was realized-- from being a villain to an ally. This balance of assimilation and
accommodation is equilibration.

Finally, another lesson we have learned is from Jennings. He said that language reflects
the ability of the human mind to abstract, take out of an experience those aspects which the mind
considers essential, and then use what has been abstracted to stand for that total act or
experience. Meggie saved her family and friends from Capricorn’s evil plans by writing and
reading out loud a new “ending” for the Inkheart story where all villains were defeated. Meggie
was able to use her language and experiences to create a new version of Inkheart.

D. Observations about the reading process while watching the movie.

The group members had been very generous in sharing their personal observations about
the reading process while watching the movie Inkheart. In an attempt to summarize the
exchange of personal experiences, we came up with six themes under which ideas have been
classified, namely: Prediction, Strategy, Struggle, Comparison, Differences, and Value.

The Prediction. Members of the group were initially worried about the project, thinking
that watching the movie, Inkheart, would be a serious or highly academic endeavor, devoid of
the elements of fun and excitement. Upon viewing it, however, the group is unanimous in its
description that Inkheart is a really good movie to watch with one's family and friends, filled
with chunks of adventure, mystery, and comedy too. The group is thankful for having been
introduced to this material.

The Strategy. Members of the group agreed that knowledge of the reading and literacy
concepts from chapters one to five was inevitable in identifying the relevant features of the
movie. The group had to read the reference first before viewing the movie and relating its
features to literacy and reading models/theories/issues. An attempt to do otherwise was proven to
be a failure.

The Struggle. Members of the group thank the genius people who invented the pause and
play buttons of the movie players. These functions gave the group the opportunity to go back to
the missed messages during the viewing process. Similarly, this may be related to the concept of
Regression which is defined as an act of returning to a previously read letter, syllable, word, or
phrase for refixation. This happened when the group's flow of thought was interrupted and/or the
group thought that they made a mistake and needed to double check on it. In addition, another
coping mechanism was one’s Fixation in some parts of the movie where confusion came in (like
when hearing an unknown word used by the characters).

The Comparison. While viewing the movie, there were several times when the members
of the group were recalling their personal experiences with reading. The group cannot help but
compare one's beliefs to those of the characters in the movie. One member even noted that she
vividly recalled how she was also reading bed time stories to her kid, as Mo did to Meggie. Also,
the wide variety of books collected and valued by Elinor was also compared to one's small
collection of books, creating a desire to beat the standard set by the character in the movie.
Another member noted that she believes to be relating her viewing experience to Gough’s model,
as she seems to be doing psycholinguistic guessing. She does this even when she shares stories to
her preschool students, not needing to read the whole book but merely guessing the whole story
based on all the clues on the picture books. Lastly, Mo’s ability to bring characters to life was
compared to one’s ability to bring out the wild imagination of the students as stories are similarly
read to them with passion. With the weight of emotions that we bring out as we tell stories,
listeners imagine the worlds that our words create, as if bringing them inside the book.

The Differences. There were several times when the group had to check on each others’
understanding of the story, despite watching the same movie. This may be explained by the
concept of Schemata. It provides a powerful explanation of how members of the group gave
different interpretations for one and the same movie, and why some fail to understand what they
watch. This may also relate to readers who lack the proper Schemata to understand complex
reading materials that require prior knowledge of the subject. The differences were resolved by
providing examples and rephrasing one’s statements.

The Value. Members of the group are unanimous in saying that the search for related
features to reading and literacy from the movie was of utmost value to them, as teachers of the
young. It highlights the importance of providing the child with an environment that is supportive
of its reading needs (a “print-rich environment”). As teachers, we ought to be very good role
models to the students, even as we read aloud to them. By experience, students tend to easily
imitate the way we pronounce the words, making our role even more crucial. The group is sold
to the importance and power of reading as a skill that everyone ought to develop. The richness
and color that reading can bring to life is undeniable. As in the movie, the group believes that it
can even mend relationships and save lives.