PL Essay Due Date/Themes/Close Reading

The essay is due Mon 3/9; however, if you want the essay returned before break, you need to get it in by Fri 3/6.

Some themes we discussed in class:

Gender, Power, Free Will/Predestination, Temptation, Mercy, Reality/Illusion, Obedience, Deception

NB: Remember in close reading the theme is what you stress. Use specific characters/incidents to illustrate your larger point. Too much focus on characters/incidents exclusively leads to a paraphrase, not a close reading.

Sample Close Reading PL V.28-37

Eve's commentary to Adam about her dream is riddled with doubt. The first indication is the word "if" sandwiched between two uses of "dreamed" (31-2). Certainty about the dream is immediately followed by uncertainty. Other words expressing doubt include "methought" (35) and its near twin "thought" (37). Eve hears "one"(36) call her; she cannot be sure who it is, and thinks it is Adam. She ought to recognize the voice of her husband, the only other human living on Earth.

This uncertainty might indicate a weakness in Eve's character, an inability to distinguish reality from fantasy. If so, the text comments on the ways a weak mind is more susceptible to temptation. Creating doubt where none should exist is an effective strategy for convincing people to act against their best interests. Satan's speech provides a model for others to follow, from sleazy politicians to used car salesmen.

NB: This passage is very dense, so the first paragraph is essentially a literal paraphrase; no reasonable reader could deny Eve's doubt. The second paragraph suggests how doubt might shed light on Eve's character, and then broadens the argument to consider how temptation works similarly in other contexts. An analysis of Eve's character straddles the border between paraphrase and close reading.

A Note on Class Paraphrases

Students consistently try to paraphrase instead of close reading, I think, because paraphrase is rewarded in high school. I'm not distressed or surprised, but you need to adapt to a new way of thinking with close reading. Old strategies need to change in college.

Of course, before you can do a close reading you need to understand your passage literally and be able to paraphrase it easily and accurately. 

A lot of students literally misread passages they paraphrased. In your essays literal misreadings will cost you dearly. The most common misreadings were: 1)  thinking "ingrate" refers to Satan. You need to look to the previous sentence to determine grammatically it can only refer to "Man" 2) thinking God intends to change Man's nature - "else" turns that around; that's just a question of paying attention to what you read.

Paraphrase vs. Close Reading

Most of the class wrote paraphrases on Wed. A paraphrase simply restates what the text literally says. No intelligent reader could disagree with a paraphrase. A lot of paraphrases had no quotes. In your formal essays, the very best paraphrase would earn no better than a D.

Close reading requires you to look at specific words/phrases to see what value judgments they lead readers to; thoughtful readers might disagree about this.  The value judgment is the reader's, not the character's, although the two might coincide. 

In your formal essays, even the most chaotic attempt at close reading, even something barely coherent, will earn a higher grade than the most accurate paraphrase.