This assignment requires you to do a close reading of a passage (paragraph or section) in ONE of the texts. Please note that you have a choice of two passages. Once you choose a passage, your goal is to examine the significance of the passage. After finishing the text, go back and reread your passage, paying close attention to the language, tone, imagery, and /or symbolism in the passage. To get started, consider the following questions:
What role does this passage play in the text or in this particular textual moment?
What connections can you make between this and other significant moments in the text?
What does this passage reveal about a character or about one of the text’s thematic concerns?
Why is this passage significant? In what way are the specific details in this passage curious, interesting, or compelling?
Avoid the temptation to summarize the passage or to examine its significance in terms of chronology (i.e., avoid saying that the passage is important because it sets up what comes after it). Instead focus on analyzing what is going on in the passage and how/why it highlights or underscores an important issue, motif, theme, or thematic concern of the text up to that point in the reading. Note that you need not answer the first three bullet point questions above – they are intended to help you if you get stuck.
Requirements:
Despite the brief length of this assignment, you will still be expected to write this in an essay format. In other words, you should use textual evidence, quote when appropriate, and have a thesis about your reading of the passage in terms of its overall significance.
Each essay should analyze a bare minimum of 3 word choices, phrases, or sentences in the passage that you find intriguing, compelling, or thought provoking with regards to your overall reading of the passage. These shouldn’t be random words or phrases but those that are particularly telling; perhaps they are ironic, symbolic, have a double meaning, expose a contradiction, or underscore an important issue or theme.
2 -3 double-spaced typed pages, 12 point font, Times New Roman, 1 inch margins all around (paper must adhere to MLA guidelines).
Your two options are:
“Griff”
Passage is on page 96 beginning 12 lines from the bottom of the page with “Losing all his money would cause him to ride on streetcars.” End on page 97 after “‘Griffy, dear, you were the only one there with a Master of Arts.’”
Or
“The Museum”
Passage is on the last page (258). Begin with “He didn’t know, he didn’t understand” and continue until the end of the story.
