Close Reading Assignment: Use the close reading guide. Using evidence from the text, draw conclusions about one or more of the themes. When you think about theme, you are answering the questions: What is this novel about? What point is the author attempting to address? Write a several paragraph analysis.
Excerpt from The Road by Cormac McCarthy
When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world. His hand rose and fell softly with each precious breath. He pushed away the plastic tarpaulin and raised himself in the stinking robes and blankets and looked toward the east for any light but there was none. In the dream from which he'd wakened he had wandered in a cave where the child led him by the hand. Their light playing over the wet flowstone walls. Like pilgrims in a fable swallowed up and lost among the inward parts of some granitic beast. Deep stone flues where the water dripped and sang. Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth and the hours and the days of it and the years without cease. Until they stood in a great stone room where lay a black and ancient lake. And on the far shore a creature that raised its
hadnt kept a calendar for years. They were moving south. There'd be no surviving another winter here.
When it was light enough to use the binoculars he glassed the valley below. Everything paling away into the murk. The soft ash blowing in loose swirls over the blacktop. He studied what he could see. The
segments of road down there among the dead trees. Looking for anything of color. Any movement. Any trace of standing smoke. He lowered the glasses and pulled down the cotton mask from his face and wiped his nose on the back of his wrist and then glassed the country again. Then he just sat there holding the binoculars and watching the ashen daylight congeal over the land. He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.
When he got back the boy was still asleep. He pulled the blue plastic tarp off of him and folded it and carried it out to the grocery cart and packed it and came back with their plates and some cornmeal cakes in a plastic bag and a plastic bottle of syrup. He spread the small tarp they used for a table on the ground and laid everything out and he took the pistol from his belt and laid it on the cloth and then he just sat watching the boy sleep. He'd pulled away his mask in the night and it was buried somewhere in the blankets. He watched the boy and he looked out through the trees toward the road. This was not a safe place. They could be seen from the road now it was day. The boy turned in the blankets. Then he opened his eyes. Hi, Papa, he said.
I'm right here. I know.
over the wasted country. The road was empty. Below in the little valley the still gray serpentine of a river. Motionless and precise. Along the shore a burden of dead reeds. Are you okay? he said. The boy nodded. Then they set out along the blacktop in the gunmetal light, shuffling through the ash, each the other's world entire.
Close Reading Guide.
I. First Impressions: What is the first thing you notice about the passage? What is the second thing? Do the two things you noticed complement each other? Or contradict each other? What mood does the passage create in you? Why?
II. Vocabulary and Diction: Which words do you notice first? Why? What is
noteworthy about this diction? How do the important words relate to one another? Do any words seem oddly used to you? Why? Do any words have double
meanings? Do they have extra connotations? Look up any unfamiliar words. For a pre-20th century text, look in the Oxford English Dictionary for possible outdated meanings.
III. Discerning Patterns: Does an image here remind you of an image elsewhere in the book? Where? What's the connection? How might this image fit into the pattern of the book as a whole? Could this passage symbolize the entire work? Could this passage serve as a microcosm--a little picture--of what's taking place in the whole work? What is the sentence rhythm like? Short and choppy? Long and flowing? Does it build on itself or stay at an even pace? What is the style like? Look at the punctuation. Is there anything unusual about it? Is there any repetition within the passage? What is the effect of that repetition? How many types of
writing are in the passage? (For example, narration, description, argument, dialogue, rhymed or alliterative poetry, etc.) Can you identify paradoxes in the author's thought or subject? What is left out or kept silent? What would you expect the author to talk about that the author avoided?
sounds, physical description that appeals to the senses? Does this imagery form a pattern? Why might the author have chosen that color, sound or physical
description? Who speaks in the passage? To whom does he or she speak? Does the narrator have a limited or partial point of view? Or does the narrator appear to be omniscient, and he knows things the characters couldn't possibly know? (For example, omniscient narrators might mention future historical events, events taking place "off stage," the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters, and so on).
V. Symbolism: Are there metaphors? What kinds? Is there one controlling metaphor? If not, how many different metaphors are there, and in what order do they occur? How might that be significant? How might objects represent
something else? Do any of the objects, colors, animals, or plants appearing in the passage have traditional connotations or meaning? What about religious or biblical significance? If there are multiple symbols in the work, could we read the entire passage as having allegorical meaning beyond the literal level?
Is the theme supported by evidence from the work itself? Below is a partial list. There are more universal themes than provided here. The theme could be a combination of one or more. Adjust the theme to your sentence. Create your own theme if necessary. Be sure, however, you back up your text with evidence.
Possible universal themes to get you started abuse of power action vs apathy beating the odds beauty coming of age corruption courage effects of the past faith fall from grace family fate fear fear of failure freedom friendship greed hate heritage heroes honesty innocence justice love loyalty manipulation mothering nature need for change obligation parent-child relationships peace peer pressure perseverance Power of the mind vs authority prejudice price of progress pride quest for knowledge religion revenge
