'43hq

It/

from Writing About Literature, 10th ed.

by Edgar V. Roberts.

I lrr. l,Ot..rti0lr

ol llrt. l,.rss.lgc in.r l'r<lsc wtlrk or Longcr l'Ocllt

('ss.lvs 'tlrotrt lrortitttts of a work shtluld demtlnstrate how the

tlrc rc,st tlf the wclrk. The principle is_that all parts are
l).lss,ll,,(' is .,,,rrrr.'ct.'.1 to

( lost' lt',ttlitlll

Writing About a Close Reading

Analyzing Entire Short Poems or Selected Passages
from Prose Fiction nnd Longer Poems

t'rlrr,rllv irrtPortirllt trtrd essential' Analyzing an individual part' thereforc'

of the
slrorrltl briug Out nclt only the meaning of the part but also the function
part withir.r the larger structure of the work'

setup

Expect an Eaily Passage to Get Things Going

or story'
You may reasonably assume that in the early portions of a poem'.play'

n essay on a close reading is a detailed study of an entire short work,

{I }most often a poem, or else a passage of prose or verse that is part of a

Ionger work. This type of essay is specific because it focuses on the selectcd poem or passage. It is also general because you do not consider only a single topic such as the nature of a cl'raracter or the meaninS; of a particular
idea, but ratller deal with all the elements you think are important. If the
passage describes a person, for example, you might naturally want to discuss character. You might also want to stress the actions described in the
passage, or noteworthy ideas or expressions of emotic'rn, or descriptions of
the location of arr action, if you decide that tl'rese matters are irnportant. In
other words, the content of a close-reading essay is variable. Your passage
governs what you write.

The Purpose and Requirements of a Close-Reading Essay

The general purpose of a close-readitrg essay is clear: If you can read a paragraph in a book, you can rcad the cntire book; if you can read a speech, you
can read the entire play or story; if you can read one poem by a poet, you car-r
read other poems by the same poet or other poets. Tl-ris is not to say that writing a close-reading essay automatically means you can immediately understand every work by the same author. Rathel, what a close-reading essay gives
you is a skill upon which you can build, an approach to any other text that you
will encounter.
The essay is designed as an explanation of what is in the assigned passage.
( lt'rrcral content is the objective, together with anything else that is noteworllrv. '[<l write the essay, you do not need to undertake a detailed analysis of dicIt.t1, g161111ar, or style. Instead, you should analyze and discuss what you
.rsi(ler the most important aspects of the passage. Although you are free to
'
, tttqitlcr special words and phrases, and should do so if you find them im1,, 'r l,rnt, your aim is primarily to get at tl-re content of your passage.

and
the author is setting things in motion, introducing you to the characters
dealt
be
to
going
are
that
problems
and
situations
the
ideas, and explaining
with in the work. Thus, you should try to discover how such early ideas, characterizations, insights, and and descriptions are related to later developments'
Always assume tiat everything there is connected to everything else in the
work, and then find and explain that connection'
Expect a Midltoint Passage to lnclude
Anticipations of the Work's Conclusion
In a passage at the work's midpoint, the story or idea usually takes a partic.rluri.rrr'r-l"ither expected or unexpected' If the change is unexpectet'Iot
then
should explain how ihe passage focuses the various themes or ideas and
the
that
be
It
may
climax.
or
propet, them toward the forth"coming conclusion
meaning
different
a
*ort f"ut.r.es surprises, and the passalle thus acquires
while
on second reading. It maybe that the tp"ik"t has one set of assumptions
increasing
speaker's
the
the readers have others, and that the passage marks
which the pasself-awareness. In short, your task is to determine the extent to
(b)
the way for
prepares
sage (a) builds on what has happened previously and

a change

the outcome.
Expect Things to Come Togethet in a Passage
&t or Near the Conclusion

ending
Apassageatornearthework'sendisdesignedtosolveproblemsorbea
You will
focat p,l"ir-rt or climax for all the curnulative situations and ideas.

and
thus need to show how the Passage brings together all details, ideas,
in
described
themes. In a narrative work,ihatis happening? Is any actictn
everyHas
the passage a major action or a step leading ttl the rnajtlr actitln?
thing in th" purrug" been prepat"tl fot earlier, or are there any surprises?
in
tr, u po"*, #not iJnuppeningto the topics and ideas introduced earlier
the poem?

I ltttltltt

W'iti'll .'t

t,,ss.ry,lr llrc ('l.sr. l(r,.rrlirrpl

,l

.r

l,'t.'r

ltt't lost'11"1(lllll',,1 ,t l'tx'ttl rlot's not rrrr'.rrr Ih.rI

vorr rrt'trl l. r.11rl,1111 t,r,t,r.1,llrirtc
Iott litrri irr llrt'1,1r1'1y1. I'lrturctically a corr-rplctci ol-tot,rl.,r1,1,,1,,1r()n
\v()ul(l r(,_
r;rrirc yotr ro t'rrrlirin trre,mcaninS; and implicaticl-rs
of ca..rr w,,,tr ,rrrtl cvery
lirrr'-tr teclrni(Fre that obviously would be exhaustive (ancl
c.xhar_rsting). lt
als. be serf-defeating, for writing about everything
in great detail wourd
'v.uld
you from using your judgment and deciding;;?;l;portant.
A
manap;eable and ciesiiable techniclue i, #"r"r-"
'rrl.ribit
to devote atten,
.. ro."
tiln,to
the meani.g of individual parts in relationship
r.',n"
work. you
mi,ght think of your essay as youiexplanation
""aire
or "reading,, of
the poem. you
will need to be selective ind'to .o.,rid", only those
details thalyou thi^k are
significant and vital to the thematic clevelopment
of your developing essay.
I

Ask Questions to Discoaer Ideqs

o What does the title c.ntribute to the reader,s understandi.g?

' wro is speaking? where is the speaker wrren the poem is hap-pening.r unfold irrg?
r w.rat is the situati.n?
iras rrappened in trre
r
.
o

past, or what is hap_

.wh1t
pening in the present, that
has brought about the ,p"".tl2
what difficurt, speciar, or unusuar words does the
poem contair-r? what
references need.expraining? Horv does an
explanati.n assist i' the u'cierstanding of the poem?

How does the poem clevelop? Is it a personal statement?

Is it a story?
what is the rnain idea the poern? what details

9f
mulation of the main idea?

make possibie trre for-

Organize your Essay on the Close Reading

of a poem
In this close-reading essay you should plan (1)
to
follow the essential details
of the poe'r, (2) understand the issues ancl
the meaning th;
G; reveals, (3)
explain some of the relationsl-rips of content
to technique, and (4) note and
discuss especially important or Lnique
aspects of the poem.

introduction,
l"yourwl-rich your use your centrat idea to express a len_
eral
vrew ot the poem,
^..rr!,tIc;!.r!r,ri:
essay wilr bear out. A close reading of
A'rold's "Dover Beach,,,, for example,
-,gnt bring out th";;;k".,s under_
standing that philosophical and ,"iigio.rr"."rtainty
have been lost and that
thcrefore people can find certainty onry
within trusti'g inairriauat reration_
slrips. In the followinq demonstrati.," essoy
<lescribing fi".J;;;;;;ne Man He
Killc.cl," the
central idea is that war is senseless.

Bodtl In the body of your essay, first explai' tl're

poem's content-not
a paraphrase but with a dcscriition of the
p.r"*;r'-o;o.o-.gur-ririr-rg
'vith
t'tttt'nts. Hence, if the speaker of the poem
"tis a ?irst,persori ,,f;i'un,_, an r_rot
ttt't'tl [. rcp*lduce this voice yourself ir yo.r.
descriptio'.
r'rr,"ua,ta""r]r,,?);;:

lyir/rir,., \/,r,rrl ,r (

1,,

, l:,,t,lttt'.'

rr'l

lirrtl
l'(lr,nl rr \'()ur (r\\'n \\'ol(1.,, rvrllr rvlr,tlt'r't't lrrit'l tttttrrtlttt'tory l'rltr.tst'sytltr
n(,( (,:,:,.r \/,,rs rrr llrt',,t't orlrl lt,rr',rlt,tltlt ol tltt'lolltlwirrg dcllronstrative essay.
Nt'rl, t'rpl,rirr lltr' pot'ttt's tlt'vcltlpt]rcut clr growth in relation to your cenlr,rl itlt',r.( lroost' .t/ttnt rtrtttt orclcrctf discussion,dependingonyourtopics.Ycru
. lrorrltl, lrowt've r, kecp stressini your central idea with each new topic. Tl'rus,
vorr rnishI wish to follow your descriptionby discussing the poem's meaning,
()t ('\/('lt lry presentir-rp; two or more possible interpretaticlns. You migl-rt also
w,ish [o rcfcr to significant techniclues. For example, in Dudley I{andall's "Ball.rcl of [Jirmingham," a noteworthy technique is tl-re unintroduced quotations
(i.r'., cluotartions appearing without any "she said" or "he said" phrases) as the
lraf lircl writcr's means of dramatizing the dialogue between mother and "baby."
Yotr might also introduce unique topics, such as the understatements in
stanza two of "Ballad of Birmingham" that instruments of violence "Aren't
good for a little child." such a reference to the mother's language underscores
adult attempts to shield children from the poter-rtial violence of the outside
world, and it therefore makes the event described in the poem's conclusion especially ironic. In short, discuss those aspects of meaning and technique that
bear upon your central idea.
ConclusiLtn In your conclusion, you nlay rept'at your lniljor idea to reiniorce your essay's thematic structure. Becattse your essay reflelcts a general
but not an exhaustive reading, there will be parts of thc pttem that yotr will not
have covered. You might therefore mention what might be gainecl from a more
complete discussion of varic'rus parts of the poem (dtt not, htlwever, begin an
extensive discussion in your conclusion). The last stanza of Hardy's "The Man
He Killed," for example, contains the words "quaint and curic)tls" in reference to war. These words are unusual, particularly because the spcaker might
have chosen hntct'ul, scnse/ess, destructiue, or other similarly descriptive words.
why did Hardy have his speaker make such a choice? with brief attention tcr
such a problern, you may conclude your essay'

Demonstrative Essay
A Close Reading of Thomas Hardy's "The Man He Killed"'

t1l

Hardy's "The Man He Killed" exposes the senselessness of war.* lt does

this through a silent contrast between the needs of ordinary people, as
represented by a young man-the speaker-who has killed an enemy
soldier in battle, and the antihuman and unnatural deaths of war. of major
note in this contrast are the speaker's circumstances' his language, his
sense of identitv with the dead man. and his concerns and wishes.t

"See page 336

"Ccntral idca.

for this poem

rThesis sentencc.

hll

I !ttrIlr't

L2) The speakcr

beqrrrs by conlrrslirrg llrc crrt;rrrrr:;l;ur(:r,:,,1 w,ll,ul wtllr llror;l

of peace. He does not identify himself, but his spcr:r;rr r{:vr!,rr., rrr,rr rrr,r:;
common and ordinary-a person, one of "the people" wlr,.r r;,y:, rlrrrrkrrrr;
in a bar and who prefers friendship and helpfulness to violer)c(:. lI lrc irrrtl
the man he killed had met in an inn, he says, they would have shared rnany
drinks together, but because they met on a battlefield they shot at each
other, and he killed the other man. The speaker tries to justify the killing but
can produce no stronger reason than that the dead man was his ,,foe."
once he states this reason, he again thinks of the similarities between
himself and the dead man, and then he concludes that warfare is ,,quaint
and curious" (line 17) because it forces a man to kill another man whom he
would have befriended if they had met during peacetime.
[3] To make the irony of *arfare crear, the poem uses easy. everyday runguage
to bring out the speaker's ordinary qualities. His manner of speech is
conversational, as in "we should have sat us down" (line 3), and ,,,list,'(for
"enlist," line 13), and his use of ,,you" in the last stanza. Also, his word
choices, shown in words like ,,nipperkin,,',,traps,,,and ,,fellow,'(lines 4, 15,
and 18), are common and informar, at reast in British usage. This language
is important because it establishes that the speaker is an average man who
has been thrown by war into an unnatural role.
[4] As another means of stressing the stupidity of war. the poem makes clear
that the two men-the live soldier who killed and the dead soldier who was
killed-were so alike that they could have been brothers or even twins.
They had similar ways of life, simirar economic troubres, similar wishes to
help other people, and similar motives in enlisting in the army. Symbolicaily,
at least, the "man he killed" is the speaker himself, and hence the killing is a
form of suicide. The poem thus raises the question of why two peopre who
are almost identical should be shoved into opposing batfle lines in order to
kill each other. This question is rhetorical, for the obvious answer is that
there is no good reason.

[5]

Because the speaker (and also. very rikery. the dead man) is sho*n us a
person embodying the virtues of friendliness and helpfulness. Hardy,s
poem represents a strong disapproval of war. clearly, political justifications
for violence as a political policy are irrelevant to the characters and
concerns of the men who fight. They, like the speaker, would prefer to follow
their own needs rather than remote and vague idears. The fairure of
complex but irrelevant political explanations is brought out most clearly in
the third stanza, in which the speaker tries to give a reason for shooting the
other man. Hardy's use of punctuation-the dashes-stresses the fact that
the speaker has no commitment to the cause he served when killing. Thus
the speaker stops at the word "because-" and gropes for a reasonlline 9).
Not being articulate, he can say only "Because he was my foe. / Just so: my
foe of course he was; / That's clear enough,, (lines 10_12). These short
bursts of words indicate that he cannot explain things to himself or to
anyone else except in the most obvious and trite terms, and in apparent
ombarrassment he inserts "of course" as a way of emphasizing hostility
oven though he felt none toward the man he killed.

lVrr/rrrL,

\/r1r11l

11

r l', '

l:,,t,lttr'.,

l(,lAtl;trltttr;llltt:,',ltr)w:'llll!powcttlllltcllltltlttt':;tltlttttitttcitr<ltttttt:ttlHitrtly
policy but

rloor; ttol cl;litlrlt:,1 tr;kr:;oly tlcl;ttlccl rcilsolls against war as a

in
r;rllrcr rlftrilrirtizc:; llr(l idea that all political arguments are unimportant

vit:wolthecentralandglaringbrutalityofwar-killing'Hardy,sspeakeris

is an
rrot able to express deep feelings; rather he is confused because he

averagesortWhowantsonlytoliveandletliveandtoen|oyadrinkinabar

is
with friends. But this very commonness stresses the point that everyone

victimizedbywar-boththosewhodieandthosewhokill.Thepoemisa
powerful argument for peace and reconciliation

Commentary on the EssaY

"The Man He
This close-reading essay begir-rs by stating a central idea about
Although
idea.
the
develop
will
Killed," then indiiates the tcfics to follow ttrat
takes
essay
the
is
senseless,
war
nowhere does the poem/s speaker state that
examination
detailed
more
A
the position that tlie poem embc,dies this idea.
in which
of the poem,s themes might develop the idea by discussing tl-re ways
becontrast
the
or
forces,
indiviiuals are caught ip in sociil and political
statement
simple
the
however,
tween individuality ind the state. In this essay,
of the idea is enough.
I'aragraph 2 describes the major details of the poem, with guiding phrases
like "The'speaker begins," "he says," and "l-re again thinks'" Thus the paraclose readgraph e*plalr-,s how tliings ir-r the poem occur, as is appropriate for a
tl're idea
with
idioms,
and
words
ir-rgiPorug.nph 3 is devo-led to thb speaker's
of armethod
contrasting
poem's
that his conversational manner is part of the
be
could
topic
this
detailed,
more
gument. If these brief references to style were
war.
argument-against
implied
irore fully developed as an aspect of Hardy's
para[raph 4 extends paragraph 3 inasmuch as it points out the similarities
the dead
of tne ,peater and the ma" he t<ijtea. If the situation were reversed,
affinity
This
speaker.
present
the
*ur1 *ight say exactly the same things about
the
poem's
of
style
the
treats
5
.rndersJores the suicidal nature of wai Paragraph
reiterlast
paragraph
The
brief.
is
fourth stanza. ln this context, the treatment
argument.
an
as
the
poem
to
ates the main idea and concludes with a tribute
The entire essay therefore represents a reading and explanation of the
shows
poem,s high points. lt stresses a particular interpretation and briefly
how various aspects of the poem bear it out'

Writing About the Close Reading of a Passage

of Prose Fiction or Narrative Poetry
By raising
Focus on tl're general meaning and impact of the passage or poem'

for
and a.swering a number of ipecific questions, you can gathermaterials

shapingyorr.*ruy.onceyoucreateanswers,writethemintoaformthatyou
Tty to reach specific and focused conclusions'
car.adipt in your
"ttny.

I lt'tl'l' t

lirrisr, ()lrr.sl itttrs !tt I )isr.rti,r,t lrlr,rt,,

I)ot':;lltr,l),t:,s,tl',(,(I)rlt.strilrt,,ts((,n(,,(.1)tlt,r.r,lo1,,r,lr,l,r,lr,r,(ltl,lr..,,,nl
,ur,r([i()n,(.1)n'r,t'.rl.t(ll,n.,l(.t(,r.,slltotttltts,(5).ttlr,rrrtr.,ut,ltlunt(.nl,ot
i

rr I

what is thc situati.rr in trrc'work? who is

Lss;'ry

A Close Reading of a Paragraph from O'Connor's "First Confession"o

speaker? who is beirg, acrclrcssecl? wlrtrt does the speaker want? what ideas
are c.ntai^eci i'trre work?
wl'rat is the thematic co.tent of trre passage? How representative
is it of the
work as a whole? How d.es the passageierate to earrier and
later parts of
tr-re

the entire text? (To deal with this cluestion, you may assume
reader is familiar with the er-rtire work.)

tll

thit your

what noticeable

aspects of diction arrd ideas are present in the passage?

Do.speeches or descriptions seem particurarry rerateci to
any characterizations or ideas that appear elsewhere in the work?

Organize your Essay on a Close Reading

[ntroducti,n Because the close-reading essay is concernecl witrr cretails,

you
rnight have a problem developi.g a themitic structure. you
can overcome tl-ris
difficulty if you begin to work with either a generarization about
the passage or
a thesis based on the relationshlg of the pas-sage to tl-re
work. suppose, for example, that the passage is factually descriptive or that it ir-rtroduces
a major cl-rar.
acter or raises a major idea. Either of these observatic-rns
may serve as a thesis.

the character together with your analysis of what bearing

this informatior-r has
on the story or play as a whole. For a passage prese'tingan
idea or ideas, analyze the idea, and also demonstrate l-row the-idea is import.rnt
fo. U.," rest of the
work. In short, your aim ir-r this kind of essay is doubie: First,
discuss trre passage itself; and seconcl, show how tl-re passagl functions
withiir the entire wc-rrk.

l2l

More impressionistic than descriptive, the paragraph concentrates in a

good-humored way on the direct but somewhat exaggerated responses of
the narrator, Jackie. The first four sentences convey Jackie's reactions to
Nora's confession. Sentence 1 describes his recollections of her voice in
the confessional, and sentence 3 makes his judgment clear about the
hypocrisy of her pious appearance when she leaves for the altar. Each of
these descriptive sentences is followed by Jackie's angry reactions, at
which readers smile if not laugh. This depth of feeling is transformed to
"fear of damnation" at the beginning of sentence 6, which describes
Jackie's own entry into the confessional, with the closing door suggesting
that he is being shut off from the world and thrown into hell. ln other words,
the paragraph gives us Jackie's sights and reactions, and also his
confusion about the scene itself, all of which are part of the story's brief
and comic family drama.

t3l

The humorous action of the passage is augmented by Jackie's simple

diction, which enables readers to concentrate fully on his responses. As an
adult telling the story, Jackie is recalling unpleasant childhood memories,
and his direct and descriptive choice of words enables readers to be both
amused and sympathetic at the same time. His words are neither unusual
nor difficult. What could be more ordinary, for example, lhan butter, slam,

Conclusion Tb conclude,

stre-qs the important details of your ar1alysis. you

with secondary issuei that arise in the passage but do not
trt'rit full consideration. The passage may co'tain specific ph.or",
o. underly_
ttrli :rssumptions that you have not considered in tlie
body of your essay. Tlie
,trt'lLrsion is the place to mention these matters,
without devetoplng them fully.
'

rrray also want to deal

PASSAGE FoR

Easy RuTuRENCE

Itt plcparing your essay, prepare a copy of the entire

passage just as it
in the text. Include the copy at the beginning, as ir-, i'h"
d"mon"lt 'tliv. t'ssay. For your reader's convenience, number'the lines in
fn",.y
.lr,l llrr,st'ntences in prose.

Nora's turn came, and I heard the sound of something slamming,

and then her voice as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, and then
another slam, and out she came. [2] God, the hypocrisy of womenl
[3] Her eyes were lowered, her head was bowed, and her hands
were joined very low down on her stomach, and she walked up the
aisle to the side altar looking like a saint. [4] You never saw such an
exhibition of devotion, and I remembered the devilish malice with
which she had tormented me all the way from our door, and
wondered were all religious people like that, really. [5] lt was my turn
now. [6] With the fear of damnation in my soul I went in, and the
confessional door closed of itself behind me.

This paragraph from Frank O'Connor's "First Confession" appears midway

in the story. lt is transitional, coming between Jackie's "heartscalded"
memories of family troubles and his happier memory of the confession
itself. Though mainly narrative, the passage is punctuated by Jackie's
recollections of disgust with his sister and fear of eternal punishment for his
childhood "sins." lt reflects geniality and good nature.. This mood is
apparent in the comments of the narrator, his diction, the comic situation,
and the narrator's apoarent lack of self-awareness.t

B,dy Develop the body of the essay according to what you fincl ir-r the passage. For a passage of character description, onuly".
whaiis discloseci about

rt|1111115

r.r t i vc

l()]

lorl ut,t' il n i(l('il?

NutrnEn rHE

)crrronst

'Scc pages 321-326 for this story

*Central idea.

+Thesis sentence.

t ltrtltlr'1

r,l

(il11, lt;ut(l:;, l()ttt('tl, htw, rr,'rt,,,rl, ittt(l ()/().';()(/1 [ vr:tt.l,tr ktr,", trr.r.rl,rlrl
religious words lilll wrtllir) tllc vocabulary of or(lrrilry (lr:,(;u', ,rln .,rlroul :,lr
and punishmenl. hypocrisy, exhibition, devilislt nnlicc, lotrrtr:rtlr'rl,,tul
damnation.ln the passage, therefore, the diction accuratcly oonvoy:;
Jackie's vision of the oppressive religious forces which he dislikes and
fears, and which he also exaggerates. Readers follow these words easily
and with amusement.

[4]

lt is from Jackie's remarks that the comedy of the passage develops. Much
of the humor rests on the inconsistency between Nora's sisterly badgering
and her saintly behavior at the confessional. Since Jackie is careful here to
stress her "devilish malice" against him (sentence 4), readers might smile
at the description of her worshipful pose. But readers surely know that Nora
is not unusual; she has been behaving like any typical older sister or
brother. So there is also a comic contrast between her normal actions and
Jackie's negative opinions. The humor is thus directed more toward the
narrator than the sister.

tsl

ln fact, it may be that the narrator's lack of self-awareness is the major

cause of humor in the passage. Jackie is an adult telling a story about his
experience as a seven-year-old. Readers might expect him to be mature
and therefore to be amused and perhaps regretful about his childhood
annoyances and anger. But his child's-eye view seems still to be controlling
his responses. Comments about Nora such as "looking like a saint" and
"You never saw such an exhibition of devotion" are not consistent with a
person who has put childhood in perspective. Hence readers may smile not
only at the obvious comedy of Nora's hypocrisy, but also at the narrator's
lack of self-awareness. As he comments on his sister with his past feelings
still intact, he shows his own limitations and for this reason directs
amusement against himself.

t6l

Readers are more likely to smile at Jackie's remarks, however, than to oblect
to his adult character. The thrust of the paragraph from "First Confession" is
therefore on the good-natured comedy of the situation. For this reason the
paragraph is a successful turning point between Jackie's disturbing
experiences with his sister, grandmother, and father, on the one hand, and
the joyful confession with the kind and genial priest on the other. The child
goes into the confession with the fear of damnation in his thoughts, but after
the following farce, he finds the assurances that his fears are not justified and
that his anger is normal and can be forgiven. Therefore, in retrospect,
Jackie's anger and disgust were unnecessary, but they were important to him
as a child-so much so that his exaggerations make him the center of the
story's comedy. Jackie's bittersweet memories are successfully rendered and
made comic in this exemplary passage from O'Connor's story.

Commentary on the Essay

A rrtrnrber of central ideas might have been made about the passage chosen
for closc reading: that it is dramatic, that it centers on the religious hypocrisy
of Jackir"s sister, that it brings together the major themes of the story, or that

tl ( t.(',tl(,:,,r lrtrrlrlt'rrr rrr llrr,, lt,tr',rt tt't ttl lltt'tt,ttt',tlttt. l lrt'itlt',1 ol lltt'tlt'tttott
:;lr',rlivt'(,ss(l_V (ls lrtrrttr,,ltt ottI irt Par.tgraPh l,ltttwcver, is th.rt the pirssagc rt'-fhe
cssay cloe's itr fact detrl with the sister's
llt,r,ls st'rriality ancl gooci rrrrture.
in the narrator's character, but tl-rese
problem
witl-r
the
atrcl
also
lrypot'risy
centra.l idea.
with
the
in
ntade
connection
are
points
In the body of the essay, paragraph 2 shows that the narrator's comrurents about his sister and his own spiritual condition add to the good nature of the passage. Paragraph 3 deals with the ievel of diction, noting that
the words i." upptop.iate both to the action and to Jackie's anger when recollecting it. Parigraph 4 explains the relationship between Jackie's remarks
and thc comedy teing played out in the narration. [n paragraph 5 the adult
narrator's unwitting revelation of his own shortcomings is related to the
good humor and comedy. The final paragraph connects the passage to the
latter half of the story, suggesting that the comedy that shines through the
passage is, comparatively, like the forgiveness that is believed to follow the
act of confession.
Because the essay is based on a close reading, its major feature is the use
many
specific details. Thus, the second paragraph stresses the actions and
of
some of Jaikie's comments upon it, while the third paragraph provides many
examples of his word choices. Tl-re fourth paragraph stresses the details about
Norais posturing and Jackie's comments about her. Paragraph 5 provides details of more of Jackie's comments and the limitations of character that tl-rey
show. Finally, the concluding paragraph includes the detail about jackie's entering the confessiorral.

Special Topics for Studying and Discussing

the Close Reading of a Poem or Prose Passage

1.

For an Entire Poem

a. Blake's "Tl're Tyger" or Frost's "Desert Places." Try to estarblish how the
poems bring out the speaker's ideas about evil or spiritual blankness'
b. Keats's "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer." How does Keats
convey his sense of iniellectual excitement and discovery?

2.

For a Paragraph from a Story or Longer Poem (You Choose)

a. Bierce's "An Occurrencer at Owl Creek Bridge." Try to show how tl-re
passage connects the main character's imagination witir his real death
a!lony.
b. Hardy's "The Three Strangers." Emphasize tlre connectiotrs between
the detaits and the work's admiration of the shcphercls living in the
vicinity of Higher Crowstairs.
For a Speech from a Play (You Choosc)
a. Claspell's ?f/es. Demonstrate how the speech (or speeches) shows
the relationship between men and women.
b. Chekhov,s The Besr. How does the speech create character as it alscr
conveys the play's humor?

3.