Process Post for Close Reading

Over the last couple of weeks, while reading Fahrenheit 451, we've been practicing a very important skill for deeply looking into a text- close reading. We've used this technique for a variety of reasons, including looking for symbols, analyzing meaning, and looking at comparisons. One thing that I see as vital for close reading, especially when you want to get the most out of close reading a part of the text, is knowing the context in which the part of the story you close read exists in. I believe context is such an important part of close reading because without knowing the context, you can't fully understand the part of a text you close read.

I don't think any reader would normally just pick up a book and flip to a random page and read from there, and that's because the reader wouldn't understand the situation that the reader finds him or herself in at that random page. The same goes for close reading, in my opinion. You may know the part of the book you want to close read, but I think that knowing what comes before it and after it opens up a whole new level of meaning to the passage you close read. Aside from just giving the reader basic knowledge about the text, the context can open up the possibility for symbols, and further analysis of the part a reader chooses to close read. For example, in Fahrenheit 451, some symbols are dragged out from past a certain section. When Clarisse tells Montag he's not like most of the firemen, Montag thinks his body is split in two, a hotness and a coldness. However, if you only close read the part in which Montag talks to Beatty about the Hound, where this hotness-coldness is repeated in similar forms, perhaps the whole meaning of the symbol would not be found.

Obviously, one doesn't need to close read the entire book to scrape out every tiny word and phrase, looking for the slightest meaning. However, just reading over the parts before and after a text one decides to close read could be hugely important and beneficial to close reading the passage itself.