If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth, certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.
As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not every thing to do, but something; and because he cannot do every thing, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong. It is not my business to be petitioning the governor or the legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and, if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then? But in this case the State has provided no way: its very Constitution is the evil. This may seem to be harsh and stubborn and unconciliatory; but it is to treat with the utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit that can appreciate or deserves it. So is all change for the better, like birth and death which convulse the body.
I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait till they constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they have God on their side, without waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors, constitutes a majority of one already.
– This is the passage that will be anylized for this essay
How to close read:
Read the whole text: even though you’re only writing about one passage, you will need to know the overall arguments and ideas to offer a convincing argument about what’s significant in this passage and why.
Read the passage in question, slowly, and take careful notes on language, grammar, motifs, etc. Pay attention to your own responses: feelings, ideas, connections that the text sparks as you read it.
Tell us what the passage means and how it conveys that meaning: you should make an argument about what this passage says, what it is doing within the text writ large, and how its meaning is conveyed by specific textual elements. In your analysis, refer back to the text often: don’t quote big chunks but zero in on significant phrases or words
Some things to pay attention to:
Word choice and language
Punctuation, grammar, syntax (dashes; exclamation points; capitalized letters, etc)
Audience: who is this for?
Purpose: what is it doing? (call to action; emotional appeal; rational argument)
Literary devices: metaphors and similes; imagery; symbols (“A spectre is haunting Europe”; the democratic “beast”)
References (e.g. Declaration of Sentiments riffing on the Declaration of Independence)
Genre (Autobiography, dialogue, manifesto)
Presence of author (“I think XYZ” vs “XYZ is true”)
Characters (Socrates; Covey)
Location within the text (opening or closing lines; turning point; etc.)
Titles (Why “Leviathan”?)
Ambiguous words or phrases: how do you interpret and why?
Anything else that stands out to you
Close reading may feel like overanalyzing—but that’s the point. You can’t address all of these elements in a single paper; and not all elements will be relevant to every passage. Choose the ones that you see as most significant to your understanding of the passage and explain why.
