Close Readings Picking the Lock and Then Robbing the Whole House: Close Reading Strategies Close Readings

What is a close reading? A close reading is generally understood to be an in depth exploration of a short work or a short piece of a longer work. A close reading is both a process—that of analyzing and interpreting a text—and a product, that is, an argument based on this process. For example, think of yourself as having just seen a movie with a friend. The two of you are discussing what the film’s main theme was. Your friend refers specifically to a short scene in the film, and states her view of the overall theme based on that scene. Your friend has just participated in a close reading.

The most effective thing about close readings is the fact that their close scrutiny can shed much light on larger subjects. If you engage in enough close readings, they become instinctual, such as making inferences about a city from their public transportation signs, gaining a conception of a painting by one feature of the image, etc

How do we do it? I will outline three steps for a close reading—observation, interpretation and communication.

Step One: Observation First you want to simply take a long, hard look at the passage. This is not pleasurable beach reading, although you may enjoy it. This is predatory, word by word scrutiny. What are you looking for? Everything. Anything. Basically you want to look for parts of the passage that stick out to you or confuse you.

There are many specific literary elements to notice, and I have provided a list for you which is by no means exhaustive. *images *figurative language (symbols, similes, metaphors) *tone *repetition *rhythm*word order *style *diction *paradoxes *omissions *sensory details*viewpoint * audience *punctuation

You want to react to the passage with your pen. Underline, circle, draw arrows, make notes, mutilate. Anything is fair game. If you believe a sentence to be particularly important, perhaps you should look up every word of that sentence in an Oxford dictionary for etymology and possible double meanings. Also, you could label the parts of speech of every word in that sentence to see if there is anything peculiar about word order.

Step two: Interpretation Now comes the so what? part. Why do these oddities or patterns matter? What do they mean? This is the part where it becomes important to think about the passage in the context of the larger work.

How does this passage affect or change your view of the overall work and its themes? Again, I will provide a list of possible questions to ask Does an image remind you of an image elsewhere in the book? Could this passage serve as a microcosm of the entire work? How does the passage make us react or think about characters we have met? Is there on controlling metaphor? How might objects represent something else? Do the strategies of the writer’s language reinforce the content or contradict it?

Step Three: Communication After you experienced the inevitable eureka! It is time to share your findings through the construction of a coherent argument. Remember, there are no wrong answers in a close reading. Their strength depends on your ability to connect your thoughts to a close engagement of the text—that’s what makes an English instructor’s heart go pitter pat.

As you put together your response or essay, you want to keep in mind the major points and themes that have come up in the class’s discussion of the text.

Application I would like you to try a close reading on a passage from Kafka’s novel, The Metamorphosis, which we are reading and discussing in class. Take this passage through the three steps and keep in mind our focus on symbolism. The communication of your argument may take the form of a one paragraph essay. I’ve given you extra space in the passage so you’ll have lots of annotating room. Good luck!

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a giant insect. He was lying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his dome-like brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes.