Close Reading: Analyzing Text for Deeper Meaning

Close reading is thoughtful, critical analysis of a text that focuses on significant details or patterns in order to develop a deep, precise understanding of the text’s form, craft, themes, etc. Reach for interpretationin your analysis, looking beyond summary to your understanding of its deeper meanings.Elements to look for:1.Characters: Who are the peoplein in the narrative? Who is the protagonist? Who are the antagonists, if any? What is their principal characteristics? Are they nuanced characters? Why do they feel real? What is their inner motivation?Why do they feel real or artificial to you? Provide specific examples.2.Setting: Where does this narrative occur? What specific details does the author use to illustrate the feeling, the look, the smell, the taste and the feel of that place? What is unique about this author’s depiction of the setting? 3.Conflict: At the core of every character, there is a conflict. What are the forces working against this character, and how are they working against them? How does this manifest? This moves beyond that traditional depiction of character VS herself or character VS nature. Look for nuance, complexity, an inner landscape here. How is it written?4.Point of View: Who is the narrator? Is this first person, second, third person limited or omniscient? Does it alternate? Why is the story told from this point of view? How would it be different in another character’s eyes?5.Voice:Diction, with its emphasis on words, provides thevoice of the work.The dictionary will illuminate new connotations and new denotations of words, while the sound of the voice will

lend it a certain conversational, elevated or intimate tone. Why is this the voice the author used? What is the effect?6.Structure. Divide the narrativeinto obvious sections, and look at the interrelation of these units.How do they develop? Again, what can you postulate regarding a controlling design for the work at this point? Does the form contribute to the meaningof the story? 7.Style. Look for any significant aspects of style—parallelconstructions, antithesis, etc. Look for patterns, polarities, and problems, periodic sentences, clause structures. Look for alliteration, internal rhymes and other such poetic devices which are often used in prose as well as in poetry. Why would the author write in this way? Is it reflectiveof a particular character? Conflict? Setting?8.Tone: What is the mood of the text? This is when you can discuss the emotional tenure of the piece. How does it feel inside the world of the narrative? How did the authorcreate that feeling, mood or tone?9.Figurative Language. Examine the narrativecarefully for similes, images, metaphors, and symbols. Look for multiplemeanings and overlapping of meaning. Look for repetitions, for oppositions. Consider how these figurative examples play intoa pattern and/or points to theme. 10.Context:If your text is part of a larger collection, make brief reference to its position in the whole; if it is a short work, say, a poem, refer it to other works in its author's canon, perhaps chronologically, but also thematically. How does it fit into the larger literary moment?Why is this representative of our era?11.Theme:A theme is not to be confused with thesis; thethemeor more properlythemesof a work of literature is its broadest, most pervasive concern, and it is contained in a complex combination of elements. In contrast to a thesis, which is usually expressed in a single, argumentative, declarative sentence and is characteristic of expository prose rather than creative literature, a theme isnota statement; rather, it often is expressed in a phrase, such as "illusion versus reality," or "the tyranny of circumstance." Generally, the theme of a work is never "right" or "wrong." There can be virtually as many themes as there are readers, for essentially the concept of theme refers to the emotion and insight which results from the experience of reading a work of literatur