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Writing About a Close ReadingAnalyzing Entire Short Poems or Selected Passages

from Prose Fiction nnd Longer Poems

I n essay on a close reading is a detailed study of an entire short work,{ }most often a poem, or else a passage of prose or verse that is part of aIonger work. This type of essay is specific because it focuses on the select-cd poem or passage. It is also general because you do not consider only a sin-gle topic such as the nature of a cl'raracter or the meaninS; of a particularidea, but ratller deal with all the elements you think are important. If thepassage describes a person, for example, you might naturally want to dis-cuss character. You might also want to stress the actions described in thepassage, or noteworthy ideas or expressions of emotic'rn, or descriptions ofthe location of arr action, if you decide that tl'rese matters are irnportant. Inother words, the content of a close-reading essay is variable. Your passagegoverns what you write.

The Purpose and Requirements of a Close-Reading EssayThe general purpose of a close-readitrg essay is clear: If you can read a para-graph in a book, you can rcad the cntire book; if you can read a speech, youcan read the entire play or story; if you can read one poem by a poet, you car-rread other poems by the same poet or other poets. Tl-ris is not to say that writ-ing a close-reading essay automatically means you can immediately under-stand every work by the same author. Rathel, what a close-reading essay givesyou is a skill upon which you can build, an approach to any other text that youwill 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 notewor-llrv. '[

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mi,ght think of your essay as youiexplanation or "reading,, of the poem. youwill need to be selective ind'to .o.,rid", only those details thalyou thi^k aresignificant and vital to the thematic clevelopment of your developing essay.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 un-fold irrg?r w.rat is the situati.n?

.wh1t iras rrappened in trre past, or what is hap_pening in the present, that has brought about the ,p"".tl2r what difficurt, speciar, or unusuar words does the poem contair-r? whatreferences 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?o what is the rnain idea 9f the poern? what details make possibie trre for-mulation of the main idea?Organize your Essay on the Close Reading of a poem

In this close-reading essay you should plan to (1) follow the essential detailsof 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 anddiscuss especially important or Lnique aspects of the poem.

^..rr!,tIc;!.r!r,ri: l"your introduction, use your centrat idea to express a len_eral vrew ot the poem, wl-rich your essay wilr bear out. A close reading ofA'rold's "Dover Beach,,,, for example, -,gnt bring out th";;;k".,s under_standing that philosophical and ,"iigio.rr"."rtainty have been lost and thatthcrefore people can find certainty onry within trusti'g inairriauat reration_slrips. In the followinq demonstrati.," essoy

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L2) The speakcr beqrrrs by conlrrslirrg llrc crrt;rrrrr:;l;ur(:r,:,,1 w,ll,ul wtllr llror;lof 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 irrrtlthe man he killed had met in an inn, he says, they would have shared rnanydrinks together, but because they met on a battlefield they shot at eachother, and he killed the other man. The speaker tries to justify the killing butcan produce no stronger reason than that the dead man was his ,,foe."once he states this reason, he again thinks of the similarities betweenhimself and the dead man, and then he concludes that warfare is ,,quaintand curious" (line 17) because it forces a man to kill another man whom hewould have befriended if they had met during peacetime.

[3] To make the irony of *arfare crear, the poem uses easy. everyday runguageto bring out the speaker's ordinary qualities. His manner of speech isconversational, 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 wordchoices, shown in words like ,,nipperkin,,',,traps,,,and ,,fellow,'(lines 4, 15,and 18), are common and informar, at reast in British usage. This languageis important because it establishes that the speaker is an average man whohas been thrown by war into an unnatural role.

[4] As another means of stressing the stupidity of war. the poem makes clearthat the two men-the live soldier who killed and the dead soldier who waskilled-were so alike that they could have been brothers or even twins.They had similar ways of life, simirar economic troubres, similar wishes tohelp 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 aform of suicide. The poem thus raises the question of why two peopre whoare almost identical should be shoved into opposing batfle lines in order tokill each other. This question is rhetorical, for the obvious answer is thatthere is no good reason.

[5] Because the speaker (and also. very rikery. the dead man) is sho*n us aperson embodying the virtues of friendliness and helpfulness. Hardy,spoem represents a strong disapproval of war. clearly, political justificationsfor violence as a political policy are irrelevant to the characters andconcerns of the men who fight. They, like the speaker, would prefer to followtheir own needs rather than remote and vague idears. The fairure ofcomplex but irrelevant political explanations is brought out most clearly inthe third stanza, in which the speaker tries to give a reason for shooting theother man. Hardy's use of punctuation-the dashes-stresses the fact thatthe speaker has no commitment to the cause he served when killing. Thusthe 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: myfoe of course he was; / That's clear enough,, (lines 10_12). These shortbursts of words indicate that he cannot explain things to himself or toanyone else except in the most obvious and trite terms, and in apparentombarrassment he inserts "of course" as a way of emphasizing hostilityoven though he felt none toward the man he killed.

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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 l()]i rr I lorl ut,t' il n i(l('il?what is thc situati.rr in trrc'work? who is tr-re speaker? who is beirg, acr-clrcssecl? 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 thework as a whole? How d.es the passageierate to earrier and later parts ofthe entire text? (To deal with this cluestion, you may assume thit yourreader is familiar with the er-rtire work.)what noticeable aspects of diction arrd ideas are present in the passage?Do.speeches or descriptions seem particurarry rerateci to any characteri-zations 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, yournight have a problem developi.g a themitic structure. you can overcome tl-risdifficulty if you begin to work with either a generarization about the passage ora thesis based on the relationshlg of the pas-sage to tl-re work. suppose, for ex-ample, 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.B,dy Develop the body of the essay according to what you fincl ir-r the pas-sage. For a passage of character description, onuly". whaiis discloseci aboutthe character together with your analysis of what bearing this informatior-r hason the story or play as a whole. For a passage prese'tingan idea or ideas, ana-lyze the idea, and also demonstrate l-row the-idea is import.rnt fo. U.," rest of thework. In short, your aim ir-r this kind of essay is doubie: First, discuss trre pas-

sage itself; and seconcl, show how tl-re passagl functions withiir the entire wc-rrk.Conclusion Tb conclude, stre-qs the important details of your ar1alysis. you

rrray also want to deal with secondary issuei that arise in the passage but do nottrt'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.

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I )crrronst r.r t i vc Lss;'ry

This paragraph from Frank O'Connor's "First Confession" appears midwayin the story. lt is transitional, coming between Jackie's "heartscalded"memories of family troubles and his happier memory of the confessionitself. Though mainly narrative, the passage is punctuated by Jackie'srecollections of disgust with his sister and fear of eternal punishment for hischildhood "sins." lt reflects geniality and good nature.. This mood isapparent in the comments of the narrator, his diction, the comic situation,and the narrator's apoarent lack of self-awareness.tMore impressionistic than descriptive, the paragraph concentrates in agood-humored way on the direct but somewhat exaggerated responses ofthe narrator, Jackie. The first four sentences convey Jackie's reactions toNora's confession. Sentence 1 describes his recollections of her voice inthe confessional, and sentence 3 makes his judgment clear about thehypocrisy of her pious appearance when she leaves for the altar. Each ofthese descriptive sentences is followed by Jackie's angry reactions, atwhich readers smile if not laugh. This depth of feeling is transformed to"fear of damnation" at the beginning of sentence 6, which describesJackie's own entry into the confessional, with the closing door suggestingthat 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 hisconfusion about the scene itself, all of which are part of the story's briefand comic family drama.The humorous action of the passage is augmented by Jackie's simplediction, which enables readers to concentrate fully on his responses. As anadult telling the story, Jackie is recalling unpleasant childhood memories,and his direct and descriptive choice of words enables readers to be bothamused and sympathetic at the same time. His words are neither unusualnor difficult. What could be more ordinary, for example, lhan butter, slam,

NutrnEn rHE PASSAGE FoR Easy RuTuRENCE t3l

Itt plcparing your essay, prepare a copy of the entire passage just as itrt|1111115 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. 'Scc pages 321-326 for this story*Central idea.

+Thesis sentence.

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

tll 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 thenanother slam, and out she came. [2] God, the hypocrisy of womenl[3] Her eyes were lowered, her head was bowed, and her handswere joined very low down on her stomach, and she walked up theaisle to the side altar looking like a saint. [4] You never saw such anexhibition of devotion, and I remembered the devilish malice withwhich she had tormented me all the way from our door, andwondered were all religious people like that, really. [5] lt was my turnnow. [6] With the fear of damnation in my soul I went in, and theconfessional door closed of itself behind me.

Sandra Nicole Roldan

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

[4] lt is from Jackie's remarks that the comedy of the passage develops. Muchof the humor rests on the inconsistency between Nora's sisterly badgeringand her saintly behavior at the confessional. Since Jackie is careful here tostress her "devilish malice" against him (sentence 4), readers might smileat the description of her worshipful pose. But readers surely know that Norais not unusual; she has been behaving like any typical older sister orbrother. So there is also a comic contrast between her normal actions andJackie's negative opinions. The humor is thus directed more toward thenarrator than the sister.

tsl ln fact, it may be that the narrator's lack of self-awareness is the majorcause of humor in the passage. Jackie is an adult telling a story about hisexperience as a seven-year-old. Readers might expect him to be matureand therefore to be amused and perhaps regretful about his childhoodannoyances and anger. But his child's-eye view seems still to be controllinghis responses. Comments about Nora such as "looking like a saint" and"You never saw such an exhibition of devotion" are not consistent with aperson who has put childhood in perspective. Hence readers may smile notonly at the obvious comedy of Nora's hypocrisy, but also at the narrator'slack of self-awareness. As he comments on his sister with his past feelingsstill intact, he shows his own limitations and for this reason directsamusement against himself.

t6l Readers are more likely to smile at Jackie's remarks, however, than to oblectto his adult character. The thrust of the paragraph from "First Confession" istherefore on the good-natured comedy of the situation. For this reason theparagraph is a successful turning point between Jackie's disturbingexperiences with his sister, grandmother, and father, on the one hand, andthe joyful confession with the kind and genial priest on the other. The childgoes into the confession with the fear of damnation in his thoughts, but afterthe following farce, he finds the assurances that his fears are not justified andthat his anger is normal and can be forgiven. Therefore, in retrospect,Jackie's anger and disgust were unnecessary, but they were important to himas a child-so much so that his exaggerations make him the center of thestory's comedy. Jackie's bittersweet memories are successfully rendered andmade 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 chosenfor closc reading: that it is dramatic, that it centers on the religious hypocrisyof Jackir"s sister, that it brings together the major themes of the story, or that

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In the body of the essay, paragraph 2 shows that the narrator's com-rurents about his sister and his own spiritual condition add to the good na-ture of the passage. Paragraph 3 deals with the ievel of diction, noting thatthe words i." upptop.iate both to the action and to Jackie's anger when rec-ollecting it. Parigraph 4 explains the relationship between Jackie's remarksand thc comedy teing played out in the narration. [n paragraph 5 the adultnarrator's unwitting revelation of his own shortcomings is related to thegood humor and comedy. The final paragraph connects the passage to thelatter half of the story, suggesting that the comedy that shines through thepassage is, comparatively, like the forgiveness that is believed to follow theact of confession.

Because the essay is based on a close reading, its major feature is the useof many specific details. Thus, the second paragraph stresses the actions andsome of Jaikie's comments upon it, while the third paragraph provides manyexamples of his word choices. Tl-re fourth paragraph stresses the details aboutNorais posturing and Jackie's comments about her. Paragraph 5 provides de-tails of more of Jackie's comments and the limitations of character that tl-reyshow. Finally, the concluding paragraph includes the detail about jackie's en-tering the confessiorral.

Special Topics for Studying and Discussingthe Close Reading of a Poem or Prose Passage

1. For an Entire Poema. 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-repassage connects the main character's imagination witir his real deatha!lony.

b. Hardy's "The Three Strangers." Emphasize tlre connectiotrs betweenthe detaits and the work's admiration of the shcphercls living in thevicinity of Higher Crowstairs.

3. 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?