Reading through my first post again I notice many problems with the way I approached close reading as a whole. I get too caught up in the bigger themes at play, without first investigating the minutiae that should lead to my eventual conclusion of the bigger themes. It is important to always start small and then build up. That being said, I believe that my ideas are good and sound. They lack the necessary buildup and evidence to support them however. Without evidence my analysis falls rather flat, and the big ideas that are presented cannot be taken seriously. This is a problem in any close analysis of literature, as without substantial evidence the commentary being presented cannot hold it’s own in the vast sea of other ideas that have been written about the work in question, many of these having evidence to support them. I completely failed to see the small patterns that make up the groundwork. This can be helped by looking closer at the language and syntax within the passage itself. Furthermore my quotations, while relevant to the broad point I am trying to make, fail to highlight and discernible specifics. They seem to be broad enough to encompass the whole story and this prevents specific points from being made. Broadness is a recurring problem in my close reading, but this is a problem that should be easy enough to fix with an increased focus on the smaller things that play just as vital a role to the story as the big ones. Close reading as a whole is an important process for any lover of literature to practice regularly. It is vital to allow the reader to get closer and more intimate with the text in a way that casual reading simply doesn’t allow. Close reading allows for a greater appreciation for the author’s choices, even the most seemingly insignificant ones and allows us to see a that everything in the story was intentional. There is always a purpose to everything these authors do and it can be difficult to appreciate this without getting fully invested in the text. It can be difficult on casual reading to determine an author’s intentions, motivations, and ultimate message with just casual reading. Close reading gives the reader a unique opportunity to get as close as is possible to being inside the author’s mind while trying to puzzle out why exactly the author stated a passage a certain way, or why the author spelled a word the way he/ she did. Close reading is a vital tool for all readers, and one that is perhaps not as appreciated as it should be.