Close Reading and Annotation #5
The Underground Railroad
Objectives: This assignment will prepare you produce an analytically sound close reading with attention through annotation. The primary aim of this assignment is to practice a method of close reading that will allow you to construct the foundations of an arguable, well-supported thesis.
Directions: Read the selection from The Underground Railroad, pages 253-258, and complete the steps below.
Step One (30 min): Read through the selections and ask yourself, “what do I notice?” Avoid jumping to analysis! Spend at least 15-20 minutes simply making observations. You may not even need all of the things you observe for your written analysis.
Questions to consider:
What is interesting? What is strange? What is revealing?
Use of a literary device such as metaphor, personification, simile, allusion, etc.?
Do certain sounds, words, images, repeat?
How do words, images, tone, action, dialogue, etc. compare across the two texts?
Are there words I need to define, terms I need to look up, or references I should research?
Make as many observations as you can, but no less than six (6).
Step Two: In his interview with NPR’s Fresh Air, Colson Whitehead describes each of the states Cora and Caesar will travel to as each representing a “different state of American possibility.” You can listen to the interview here or read the transcript. Write a response that examines why you think Whitehead chose to make the metaphor of the underground railroad literal and what he means by “different states of American possibility” using your close reading annotations. What state of possibility does Indiana and its ghost tunnel hold?
Write a 250-500 word (approx. 1-2 pages double spaced but I will be noting word count) close reading response that synthesizes some of the themes, patterns, anomalies, confusions, and more that you made note of in your annotations and observations.
You should not worry about crafting a thesis or developing an argument. Instead, your response should indicate your process of reading, what you noticed and why, and what you think your observations mean.
Step Three: Revise your close reading and submit to Blackboard by 10pm Friday, April 19.
INTERVIEW LINK: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/502558001
these are the instructions above and I will attach the pages for the reading as well.
