Close reading is deep analysis of how a literary text works; it is both a reading process and something you include in a literary analysis paper, though in a refined form. Close reading is important because it is the building block for larger analysis. Your thoughts evolve not from someone else’s truth about the reading, but from your own observations. The more closely you can observe, the more original and exact your ideas will be. You have already had some practice with close reading during the Annotation Exercise; I encourage you to begin by referencing your feedback from that assignment.
For this paper, you will choose one of the six chapters from Of Mice and Men to focus on for a close reading (we’ll call the untitled sections where the novella breaks “chapters”). It is very important that you choose one chapter of Of Mice and Men to analyze, not multiple chapters or pieces of multiple chapters. The objective of this assignment is to compose a 500-750 word close reading paper that demonstrates your ability to do the following:
1. execute close and careful textual reading and examination
2. conduct effective literary analysis by practicing insight and acknowledging complexity
3. present clear and effective ideas and arguments in writing
You’ll meet these objectives by analyzing specific details, scenes, actions, and conversations in the text and discussing how they contribute to your interpretation of the meaning of the larger text. This process requires extracting as much information from your chosen passage of writing as possible.
Examine the passage by itself
• What is the first thing you notice about the passage? What is the second thing? Do the two things you noticed complement each other? Contradict each other?
•What mood does the passage create in you as a reader? Why?
• How do Steinbeck’s style, imagery and choice of language create a tone or intensify a meaning?
•Which words do you notice first? Why? What is noteworthy about this diction? Are there any unfamiliar words in this passage? If so, look them up.
•How do the important words relate to one another?
•Do any words seem oddly used to you? Why?
•Do any words have double meanings? Do they have extra connotations?
• What is the sentence rhythm like? Short and choppy? Long and flowing? Does it build on itself or stay at an even pace? What is the style like, and to what end?
• Is there any repetition within the passage? What is the effect of that repetition?
• How many types of writing are in the passage? (For example, narration, description, argument, dialogue, etc.) Is this significant in any way?
•What does this passage explicitly say? Is there a meaning beneath or beyond the explicit message? If so, what is it? How is it communicated?
• Does an image here remind you of an image elsewhere in the book? Where? What’s the connection? How might this image fit into the pattern of the book as a whole?
• What is left out or kept silent? What would you expect the author to talk about that the author avoided?
• Who speaks in the passage? To whom does he or she speak?
• How does the passage make us react or think about any characters or events within the narrative?
• What might the passage suggest about Steinbeck’s motivations?
• Could this passage serve as a microcosm—a little picture—of what’s taking place in the whole work? How so?
Examine the passage in light of surrounding passages and the rest of the book
• What themes running through Of Mice and Men are evoked explicitly and implicitly in this passage?
• How does this passage fit—or not fit—into its immediate context as well as the book as a whole? What insights does it offer about the rest of the book?
• What questions does the passage raise about the story being told?
• What conclusions can be drawn about Steinbeck and Of Mice and Men from this passage ? What specific examples in the passage (and additional passages) support these observations?
