Essay on Close Reading

Submitted By brainonlunchbreak
Words: 596
Pages: 3
Open Document
The memoir of Blue Van Meer, the protagonist of the story, centralizes around her relationship and near- obsession with her father. Despite that a significant portion of the story focuses on her high school senior year, all incidents in her quite eventful life comes secondary to the encompassing presence of her father’s influence in her thoughts and actions. Blue is portrayed to think very highly of him and never fails to quote him, or his teachings in every aspect of her life. However, as if almost as unexpectedly to her, as to the reader, she comes face-to-face with situations where she sees her father under a very different light and finds herself on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum than is typical of herfrom what she is used to. This not only hints at plot twists, but also casts a shadow on the seemingly transparent relationship of the two main characters.
Blue has spent most almost all of her senior year weekends at Hannah’s house, lying to her father about a so-called study group, even updating him time to time of their progress. But, after she came home from her high school Christmas Cabaret, she gets into a confrontation with him where he lets her know with a demeanor “calm as the Dead Sea” (234), that he had known of her deceit all along. This was for the first time he explicitly encounters her and states to bethat he is disappointed in her. It was undoubtedly a moment of shocking revelation to Blue, her nightmare of disappointing her father coming true; yet, she remains as observant as ever. She casts her father in a negative light describing him as of being “supremely arrogant and unapologetic (see “Picasso enjoying the fine weather in the South of France,” Respecting the Devil, Hearst, 1984, p.120 ).”, comprehensive with her references and an inescapable influence of the readings and education orchestrated by her father.
However, the climax of the passage reaches a climax with the shockingly frigid reaction Blue has to her father’s verdict on moving to another town, disregarding her fragile protests. There was no pretense or, elaborate figure of speech tagging along with her reaction, as characteristically expected of Blue. The simplicity of her thoughts was enough to create an
Show More

Related Documents: Essay on Close Reading

close reading Essay

Of Mice And Men Close Reading “A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting it periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically.” -Of Mice and Men Sec. 6 Par. 2 Syntax: Throughout the novella John Steinbeck uses his arrangement of writing remarkably well…

Words 921 - Pages 4

Close Reading Essay

Donathan Washington Close Reading: Lines Written in Early Spring By: William Wordsworth Due Date: 2/18/14 Professor Ruderman In this poem Wordsworth is sitting admiring nature, while also looking at nature almost in a jealous point of view. It almost seems as if Wordsworth believes that man doesn’t seem to be considered nature, but an intruder interrupting its beauty. Wordsworth also seems to be stating that nature gifted the soul to man. Although this is a beautiful thing nature has done…

Words 897 - Pages 4

Essay on Close Reading

The Innocent Man We live in a world where we face challenges everyday. The daily obstacles we face just make us stronger each day to face the real hurdles of life. In the article, it is so clear to me that Dyer has been pushed to extents that have forced him to rise up to the world and take charge of his life. After all, what does not kill you only makes you stronger. In his article, “Red Flags”, Curtis talks about the life of Dyer, a football celebrity who had achieved high peaks as a rising…

Words 1474 - Pages 6

Close's 'Close Reading Of Melanctha'

English 429A - Close Reading Close reading of Melanctha, paragraphs on p. 96-97, Norton Critical edition Jeff initially never imagined himself with a girl like Melanctha, “he had never believed that she was any good... and heard something about how she wandered,” he “certainly never did think” that he would find Melanctha “so sweet.” Eventually however, their relationship develops and it is not long before Jeff finds out about Melanctha’s promiscuous past where she was “free in [her] ways” and…

Words 501 - Pages 3

Close Reading - How to! Essay

Compare the literary devices used in the following two passages, and comment on their effects. Offer a close reading of the two passages, paying particular attention to themes, along with the similarities and differences in the techniques employed. https://ocs.essex.ac.uk/students/AssignmentDetails.aspx?ID=10495 (a) The man from the south (southern Europe, it should be said) strolled along and warily reflected on what lay beyond certain windows of certain houses. In school, many years earlier…

Words 640 - Pages 3

Extended Close Reading Essay

Two Cathedrals But Many Symbolic Meanings: Extended Close Reading I chose to do my extending close reading assignment on the episode “Two Cathedrals” from The West Wing because I believe that this episode has some great symbolic meanings in it. The last 15 minutes of this episode are intense in a way that has the viewers decoding what the real message and meaning of this episode is trying to tell us. Not only does this episode have several symbolic meanings but it also has flash backs that let…

Words 990 - Pages 4

Close Reading 2 Essay

Bailey Buchanan V00840216 Philip Cox English 147 / T16 Close Reading #2 Date submitted February 6 2015 Close reading #2 In chapter ten of Emma, Emma speaking to Harriet, expresses that she has no reason or intention to ever marry because of her status. More exactly she says the following: Never mind, Harriet, I shall not be a poor old maid; and it is poverty only which makes celibacy contemptible to a generous public! A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous…

Words 450 - Pages 2

Close reading analysis Essay

Corey Barringer Instructor Johnson ENG 104 17 September 2014 TITLE In Country, is a novel set in Hopewell, Kentucky in the summer of 1984. Sam is intrigued about the Vietnam War, especially her father’s story. She lacks information about her father and becomes increasingly interested in helping her uncle, Emmett, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Sam is interested in finding answers about her father and learning about the war. “Sam wanted to care about her father, but she didn’t…

Words 768 - Pages 4

Close Reading Of Ole Golly's

The sentence structure of this passage is solely based upon a conversational dialogue between Ole Golly and Harriet. The young girl exemplifies the language of a child through her frustration of Ole Golly’s inability to answer her. Harriet says, “If people are alone all the time, I feel sorry for them,” (96). Her observation of Harrison Withers prompts this thought but Ole Golly does not directly respond to the statement. Instead, she recites literary greats to Harriet, indirectly offering her own…

Words 400 - Pages 2

Close Reading Essay 1

Turning now to the experiences of African American families, Jacobs shows us that the family is seen as a source of strength. Aunt Martha has a strong desire to keep her family together. She is the protector, as long as her grandchildren remain close to her, they will be safe. If her grandchildren choose to runaway, she can no longer protect them. Aunt Martha is saddened by her grandchildren’s attempts to runaway, so she is devastated when William does not return from the North with Mr. Sands.…

Words 812 - Pages 4