· Name the work and the author; identify the speaker and/or characters involved; briefly explain the context of the passage (where it occurs in the work, and any important incidents associated with it) and the cultural issue that you will examine.
· Assert an argument about how the passage illustrates the novel’s attitude toward or stance on a specific cultural issue. Support this argument by pointing to literary characteristics (sentence structure, figurative language, imagery, tone, plot, word choice) that elucidate the meanings of the passage and/or the work as a whole. Be specific. Refer to (and quote) specific words and phrases.
· Support your argument by explaining how the passage is significant in relation to the whole work.
· Do NOT merely summarize or paraphrase the passage.
· Do NOT feel like you need to cover everything or list all that you’ve found—you will usually have to focus on a few significant details in order to write in paragraph form. Focus on the specifics that support your argument.
Getting in the habit of
asking these basic questions for everything you read in English 85 should help
make explications—and more importantly, close reading—become something like
second nature.
· Begin by reading the passage carefully and underlining any provocative words or phrases that catch your eye and relate to your topic. Circle any words that you don’t understand. Look them up.
· Look for the ways that the author uses figurative language (similes, metaphors, symbols) to convey meanings. What other words might the author have used instead of the ones that s/he did? Why choose these words instead of the others? What affect do the words s/he chose have on this passage’s significance to the cultural issue that you are examining.
· If you get stuck or have trouble getting started, ask yourself: What is the author leaving out or not saying? What is simply “interesting” or “weird” about this passage? What words or other characteristics “jump out” at you or seem particularly striking or even incongruous? What words seem to have multiple meanings? What connotations do these words carry? How do these connotations relate to your topic?
· You might consider any of the following that apply: from whose point of view do you get this passage? What is the passage’s tone (sad, foreboding, celebratory?), imagery (stark, beautiful, inconsistent with the passage?), style (flowery, grandiose, plain?), sentence structure (long, short, flowing, choppy?), point of view (first, third, omniscient, limited?). Remember, these elements only matter in so far as they affect your interpretation of the topic you are investigating.
SAMPLE
EXPLICATION
“A throng of bearded
men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with
women, some wearing hoods, and others bare-headed, was assembled n front of a
wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded
with iron spikes” (Hawthorne, Scarlet
Letter 53).
Student Response:
This is the opening paragraph of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, from a chapter entitled “The Prison-Door.” It portrays the crowd gathered in front of the prison door as they await the appearance of Hester Prynne, her baby, and her scarlet “A.” The groups is described as a “throng,” which suggests that not just a random collection of people, but a densely packed, almost mob-like group. The mood set by their “sad-colored” (which suggests black or gray, perhaps) garments, gray hats, and hoods is a sombre one – this is clearly not a pleasant gathering. Also interesting is the description of the men’s hats as “steeple-crowned,” suggesting that even the lay people in this town are associated with the church that has punished Hester. And this seems to be a faceless group of people – the description of merely their clothing and headwear, along with the fact that there are women unnoticeably “intermixed” with men, implies a lack of individuality present here. The use of the passive voice in “was assembled” further suggests this lack of individuality – rather than actively judge for themselves, they passively move as a crowd. Finally, the prison, too, is a sombre place, evidenced by its uninviting door. The appearance of heavy dark, woodplanks (timbered) and iron spikes is a dreary one, but the door also repels the sense of touch with its sharp and splintery surface.
The passage is especially significant because of its placement at the very beginning of the novel. It’s interesting that Hawthorne chooses to begin with this scene of the crowd at the prison door as opposed to, say, the image of Hester standing before the townspeople on the scaffold (which we get in the next chapter). Opening in this way suggests a general theme that we see throughout: the novel is not only about the sin and punishment of a single women, but about the way that the townspeople themselves perceive, judge, and stigmatize Hester for her sin. But the sense of a faceless, mass crowd also continues throughout the story – rumors about Hester and Pearl get spread, judgments get made, but no individual comes forward to take responsibility. Most importantly, I think, beginning this novel this way allows Hawthorne to place us, the readers, almost in this anonymous crowd, waiting to see who or what might emerge from the menacing prison door.
Instructor
critique:
This is an excellent example of what could be
a first draft or prewriting exercise.
The writer does link the poem to key issues relating the passage to the
novel’s cultural work/argument/project/commentary (the negative portrayal of
the mob-like crowd and their judgment of Hester). The posting also makes use of specific language in the
novel. You *should* do both of these
things. Yet one problem is that the
posting does not identify the novel’s argument regarding these issues. The writer notes interesting aspects of the
passage at hand (an important first step), but does not link these aspects to a
larger claim about the novel as a whole.
This claim should be debatable; here the phrase “the speaker talks
about” (or “the novel portrays”) is not really debatable. Instead, what is significant
about what the novel portrays here?
Now
look at the following revision:
This passage, the opening paragraph of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, immediately introduces the novel’s examination of the fine line between a democratic assembly and an ignorant mob. Through its portrayal of a somber Puritan community ruled and easily swayed by the religious elite, The Scarlet Letter argues that individual thought is central to the success of a true democracy. As the doorway to the novel, this passage reveals that the novel is not only about the sin and punishment of a single woman but also a critique of the way that the townspeople themselves perceive, quickly judge, and stigmatize Hester for her sin. Here, the crowd appears as “throng,” a densely packed, almost mob-like group. The men’s hats are “steeple-crowned,” suggesting that even the lay people have merged with the church that has punished Hester. The text presents a faceless group of people – the description of merely their clothing and headwear, along with the fact that there are women unnoticeably “intermixed” with men, implies a lack of individuality. The use of the passive voice in “was assembled” further suggests this lack of individuality – rather than actively judge for themselves, they passively move as a crowd. The mood set by their “sad-colored” garments, gray hats, and hoods and the dark representation of the prison, evidenced by its inviting door emphasizes the novel’s critique of this community. The appearance of heavy dark, woodplanks (“timbered”) and “iron spikes” is a dreary one, but the door also repels the sense of touch with its sharp and splintery surface.
Instructor
critique:
Okay, now in the revised version the writer
immediately attempts to link the passage to the text’s argument: “This passage,
the opening paragraph of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, immediately introduces the novel’s examination
of the fine line between a democratic assembly and an ignorant mob. Through its
portrayal of somber Puritan community ruled and easily swayed by the religious
elite, The Scarlet Letter argues that
individual thought is central to the success of a true democracy.” Here, the writer isn’t just talking about
what the passage “portrays”; this explication also explains the significance of
the representation, which is exactly what you should try to do. You’ll
notice that the points in this explication are all basically the same: the
discussion of the crowd, their “facelessness”, their somber appearance. The difference is that now the explication
can use these points to support the argument; the somber crowd and its mob-like
characteristics become part of the novel’s critique. Also, you’ll note that
even the language of the passage reveals that this is a debatable
interpretation; the writer eliminates words such as “seems” and includes words
such as “argues” and “critiques.”
You’ve
probably noticed that much of the argument came from the second paragraph of
the earlier version. This happens all the time. In a formal assignment (and
even in the final exam) you need to introduce your claims BEFORE you analyze.
Remember, your debatable claim should be as specific as possible (for example: “The Scarlet Letter is a critique of society” is too general to be debatable). And one can always push on even further. Here the writer could still explain WHY individual thought is central to the success of a democracy (and of course, support this with text). For example, individual thought could be important because without it, one could be, as the people in the crowd are, easily swayed (and ultimately controlled) by a minority, elite opinion (and that wouldn’t be a democracy, right?).