Close Reading of Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

you will write a 2-page double-spaced written response that offers a close reading of a quote or brief passage (no more than 1 paragraph) of your choice from the text. This close reading must be for a quote or passage that we have not already discussed as a class. You are free to write these responses on the course text for which you facilitate a peer-led discussion. Your response will follow the what, how, why format, which forms the foundation of close reading: • What do you notice about this quote or passage? What is its meaning? What is interesting and/or significant about it? • How is language used in this quote or passage? Are there specific word choices, images, figures of speech, or sentence structures that seem noteworthy – odd, puzzling, unexpected, powerful, and/or beautiful – to you? (Use your Close Reading Toolkit as a guide here.) • Why did the language of the quote or passage capture your attention? Why do you think it might be significant that the writer chose this particular language in the quote or passage? Why do you think this quote or passage might have significance for the text as a whole? While you need to provide some answer for the what, you should devote no more than a sentence or two contextualizing your chosen passage within the larger narrative. The bulk of the response should primarily respond to the how and the why. You will need to provide in-text citations for the words or phrases that you cite in your close reading in proper MLA formatting. You will need to indicate to your reader (me) which textual quote or passage you are discussing by incorporating the language of the text in your own writing. However, since this is an exercise in close reading, you should not be citing more than one sentence or two lines at once.