Close Reading

I would say that I haven’t learned anything about close reading.  I have known for a long time how to analyze a text.  Close reading is a term I can call it now.  I have learned in high school or middle school how to read into the words the author is writing.  But if it helps, I have paid more attention to deeper meanings in things around me.  When I have been listening to music, I have started to pay more attention to the lyrics the artist is singing.  I try to imagine what the artist was going through and why he/she chooses to sing these lyrics.  And what did he/she mean by this certain phrase of lyrics. 

Literature is a very uncertain thing to close read.  Only when an author or artist truly states what he/she meant by their particular work of art or novel, then you will truly know the message they were trying to convey.  I would prefer that the creator doesn’t share their feelings or inspirations for their particular work.  Then the job is up to you to “close read” and try to understand the message behind the art. 

But sometimes if the artist or author never lets his/her admirers know what the idea behind their work is, then they will never understand it.  Without the authors conformation on the message behind the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” then we would have never know the true story.  We would not have known some of the deep messages or meanings within the details of her story. 

So close reading is important to learn.  It would be even better the earlier you learn about it.  So you can understand underline messages within everything you see.  Because a lot of art is not straightforward.  Part of art is to lay deeper messages within the art,  and close reading is how you uncover it.

Word count 314