The book I chose to use for this assignment was “The Secret Agent” by Joseph Conrad. During the prediction phase of this assignment, I came up with a summary of what I believed the story was going to be about. At the end of my summary, I included a list of words that I predicted would be seen throughout the story. I handwrote the summary; it went as follows: I believe that my story will be about a man who is working as an undercover agent; however, his wife and children do not know that he is leading this double life. He is living a normal life with a normal job; in an office or a furniture shop. Towards the end of the story, the agent is faced with a decision that will change his life. Someone in his family is a prime suspect and he will have to choose between following the lead in order to close the case or he will have to find a way to let them get off with no issues. We will see what happens!
Possible Words: spy, undercover, confused, family, liar, sleep, night, friend, coffee, double life, missing, time, hiding, trusted, boss, followed, son, children, followed, boss, mission, discovered, man, open, door, and view.”
During my time using Voyant tools I came to a realization that I didn’t exactly have all the right answers when it came to the plot of the story. The story had more to it and was much deeper than I initially configured; it is much more complex. I enjoyed using the Voyant tools website because I found it to be an interesting, as well as engaging device. In a classroom setting, I feel that I could use this as an activity for my students at the beginning of reading of a novel. I’m interested to see what else this “digital humanities” class will bring, directly adding to my teaching pedagogy.