Close Reading Essay 1: 15% of final grade

Due

  • Friday, Feb 16 by the end of the day

Requirements

  • ~1000 words (3-4 pages double-spaced), not including Works Cited or Bibliography.
  • MLA or Chicago citation style (most likely, the only text you are citing is the novel you are writing about).
  • Turn in via Canvas; doc, docx, or pdf.
  • Includes an AI Writing Tools statement. See the “Course Info & Policies” page under “Academic Integrity and AI Writing Tools” for more information about what this statement should look like.

Your first writing assignment in this class is to write a close reading essay in response to a prompt about one of our course novels. A close reading essay is an essay in which you make an interpretive claim about a literary text based on close textual analysis. For this essay, you are required to write about either The Man Who Lived Underground or No-No Boy.

What is a Close Reading and How Do You Do It?

Your close reading essay should be an analysis of specific, detailed elements of the language, tone, and/or structure of the passage(s) you elect to write about. Your goal in writing a close reading essay is to make a claim that will help your reader to see this text differently. You are looking, in other words, to interpret this text in a potentially new way for your reader.

Your essay may say something like this (although not so explicitly): “You, the reader, probably think this novel means X, but look again at these specific passages or elements a, b, c, and d —let me show you that in fact they don’t mean what you thought they meant the first time. You may even have ignored them the first time because you didn’t think they were important: let me show you why in fact they’re crucial to understanding the text. Now you can see that the text doesn’t mean X, but clearly means Y—and perhaps also Z.”

Writing a successful close reading means answering the question(s) posed by the prompt in the form of an argument. This means your essay should have a central claim or thesis statement, this central claim or thesis statement should be defended using specific evidence from the text, and your essay should be organized in a clear way. You don’t have a lot of space (~1000 words is not that long!), so you should eliminate throat clearing and cut right to the chase. You are not required to cite sources other than the novel about which you are writing for this assignment, but you may cite secondary scholarship or criticism if useful for your argument.

Prompts

The Man Who Lived Underground

  1. Imani Perry writes that the surrealist elements of The Man Who Lives Underground caused her to view Wright’s oeuvre with “fresh eyes.” Select one or two of these surrealist elements from Wright’s novella: this may include a specific scene, a repeated motif, or even a specific object or location. Discuss the significance of this element(s) for the novella. How is your selected element(s) surrealist, and what is the function of this surrealism in the novella?
  2. What characterizes the underground in the novella, and how is it different from the aboveground world? What is the significance of this contrast in the novella? Focus on 2-3 specific examples/comparisons.

No-No Boy

  1. Much of the novel utilizes a third person limited narrative style: we as readers have access to Ichiro’s thoughts and perspective, but not the thoughts and perspectives of other characters. Select one or two scenes or sections from the novel in which this narrative technique shifts and we can access the thoughts and perspectives of another character(s). Discuss the effects of this shift in this scene(s) or section(s). Why does the novel’s narrative perspective shift in this scene(s) or section(s)? What does this shift mean within the context of the novel? You may draw on passages from other parts of the novel in making your argument, but the focus of your essay should be on your selected scene(s) or section(s).
  2. Three characters die in the second half of this novel: Mrs. Yamada, Kenji, and Freddie. Selecting one of these deaths to focus on, discuss how the reader learns of this character’s death and what the effects of learning about this death in this way are. How does this character’s death change or affect our understanding of the novel? You might also consider when your selected character dies in the novel, and why.

Write Your Own Prompt

If you would prefer to write about something not included in the prompts described above, you may write your own prompt for this assignment. If you elect to write your own prompt, you must send me this prompt by class on Monday, February 12 (at the latest). I will then approve or suggest revisions to your prompt. Your prompt should focus on either The Man Who Lived Underground or No-No Boy, and it should articulate a specific interpretive question or questions that your essay will go on to answer.