Practicing Close Reading by Kate Scheel

Passage 1 for analysis

schk2 — 2021-07-19 20:09:35 UTC

"I used to listen to people tell stories and I'd think that those pretty young women in those stories, so clever and bright, were just made up by the storyteller. How could I have known there really is such a young lady, as fresh and delicate as a scallion, able to embroider like this! This bird that you're making is simply adorable!"

Passage 2 for analysis

schk2 — 2021-07-19 20:10:09 UTC

“Even now, I’ll admit, the story makes me squirm. For more than twenty years I’ve had to live with it, feeling the shame, trying to push it away, and so by this act of remembrance, by putting the facts down on paper, I’m hoping to relieve at least some of the pressure on my dreams. Still, it’s a hard story to tell. All of us, I suppose, like to believe that in a moral emergency we will behave like the heroes of our youth, bravely and forthrightly, without thought of personal loss or discredit. Certainly that was my conviction back in the summer of 1968."

Passage 3 for analysis (Sean,Caijun,Suah,Rossi)

schk2 — 2023-07-25 20:11:55 UTC

"A picture of Uncle Ho was glued into the middle of a piece of large white paper. Just beneath it, an empty explosives canister held a bunch of fresh flowers. We always had flowers there, but in the lamplight I couldn't tell their colours. Maybe someone had just brought us these. We were a priority."

The Distant Stars by Le Minh Khue

This secene describes when the recon team girls are back in their cave and having a rest, the picture of Ho Chi Minh, the leader of communist party at that time, is placed as a symbol of collectivism value in the front line. It reminds them about their belief and collective goal. And the flowers they receive implies that they are concerned about and supported by the large group, also refelction of collectivism

Gender role:

'we were a priority' ---not only stands for the concern they received, but also imply a reversed gender role under the collectivisim regime of Communism. Girls in the recon team have a differnet gender role in stereotype of female roles, they are doing dangerous bomb diffusing works, devoting, sacrificing their youth just like the male soldiers. The equality of gender roles in the war emphasize that responsibility and glory of defending their nation can be shared by everyone in the group, and females are receiving rhe same anount of respect as males in collectivism.

“An empty explosives canister held a bunch of fresh flowers.”

This not only is a hint of socialist realism writing where the condition of the fields in the Vietnam War is not desirable to the case where an explosive canister is used as a vessel to hold flowers. But it also brings out a strong contrast of 2 elements symbolised by the canister and flowers: The destruction by war and the growth by peace, while it might not be an uncommon depiction, the contrast brought by the 2 items can be observed and we might guess how the emotion within the girl trio have been conflicting throughout their journey as the bomb defusers.

Passage 4

2024-07-23 19:40:04 UTC

“They walked away from the beach club and in the lee of a hill they saw what looked like a refugee camp, with hundreds of tents and lean-tos and people of many colors and hues – many colors and hues but mostly falling within a band of brown that ranged from dark chocolate to milky tea – and these people were gathered around fires that burned inside upright oil drums and speaking in a cacophony that was the languages of the world, what one might hear if one were a communications satellite, or a spymaster tapping into a fiber-optic cable under the sea”

Directions:

schk2 — 2024-07-23 19:42:31 UTC

Identify the story or book from which the passage is taken

Identify the author

Explain the surface meaning of the passage, which characters are involved and the context or circumstances..

Look for those moments or kernels of interest. Do a close reading and consider the deeper meanings of the passage and how those deeper meanings contribute to the overall theme or themes of the story/text.

Passage 5 for analysis

schk2 — 2024-11-28 01:22:30 UTC

"I first saw the light of day in Saigon, where firecrackers, fragmented into a thousand shreds, coloured the ground red like the petals of cherry blossoms or like the blood of the two million soldiers deployed and scatters throughout the villages and cites of a Vietnam that had been ripped in two."

Passage 6 for analysis

schk2 — 2024-11-28 01:31:26 UTC

"We spent whole mornings with him, repeating words we didn’t understand. But we all showed up because he was able to raise the sky and give us a glimpse of a new horizon, far from the gaping holes filled with the excrement of the camp’s two thousand people. Without his face, we could never have imagined a horizon without flies, worms and nauseating smells.”

Mabel, Matthew and Lok Lam FUNG (River) FUNLD2203 Passage 6

funld2203 — 2024-11-29 17:20:44 UTC

This passage is from Kim Thuy’s novel "Ru". It details An’s life in the refugee camps where a man taught An and the others English. Although An and the others did not really understand what the man was saying, where later on An only remembers how to say her boat number, the man poses as a sign of hope for the people in the refugee camp. She feels grateful for the man, as teaching English providing them an outlet out of the traumatic place. It gives them a distraction and could possibly help them to get out of this place and survive as English is one of the more universal languages. Learning English is also giving them power and helping them regain their existence. The description of the refugee camp associated with "excrement" and "flies" also provided a visual imagery of how horrible the circumstances are.

Angus, Terrace, Brenda

2024-11-29 17:40:51 UTC

Passage 4

Exit west, by Hamid

They walk out to an overview of the refugee camp as the narrator describes the refugee camp. The usage of the word cacophony here emphaises the heterogeneity of the refugee camp in its languages, combined with the similie of food for the skin colors of the migrants, highlighting the fact that it is specifically historically exploited peoples gathering in this camp. Displayed through the metaphor that compares their skin colour to that of dark chocolate and milky tea. The cacophony simile also leads directly into a metaphor of spymasters and communication satellites, in contrast with the much simpler tents and oil drums of the camp, but nonetheless as global in its nature as the camp itself.

Rohan, Noor and Ernest (5)

2024-11-29 17:48:10 UTC

this passage is from the novel "Ru" by Kim Thuy. The surface meaning of this passage is that even when a baby is born at the beginning of the story and the family is supposed to having a good time, there is a lot of danger and sadness in the area. The author describes the scene with vivid words, such as "firecrackers" and "blood-red," to convey the mixture of fear and joy. This shows how thrilling and frightening it was to be born during such a difficult period and what effects the war had left. Throughout the novel the author tries to convey the themes of historical events, emphasizing identity, displacement, and the lasting impact of history on individual lives and so this passage is also somewhat a reflection of it.

Passage 2 (Linus, Ada & Sabrina)

2024-11-29 17:49:15 UTC

from On The Rainy River- Tim O'brien

The author had to live with the feeling of shame. By writing this novel, the author was able to let go of some of the guilt and shame he has been feeling for the last 20 years. The author must have worked up a lot of courage in order to tell the story since he felt ashamed of his decision. The conviction he had as a child came from him idolizing soldiers without fully understanding what it means to be a soldier. The reality is that being a soldier isn't what he imagined it to be, and he feels ashamed that he failed to actualize his ideals.

The story highlights the blurring of the line between heroism and cowardice; forcing the readers to understand how deeply personal and painful the decisions are in these types of "moral emergency". Also it illustrates how the army falsely advertises what it means to be a soldier in order to enlist more people.

Ultimately, the story represents the transitional stage that a lot of Americans (this story is written under an American's perspective) go through during the war time.

"Back in the summer of 1968"- wars around the world (specifically Vietnam-US wars); there were also a lot of protests/riots against the government in the US (due to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination)

Passage 3 (Rossi, Suah)

2024-11-29 18:03:28 UTC

Uncle Ho is an important figure for their party who gave his life to protect them. And people put flowers in the canister in memory of him.

Explosive canister symbolize the current situation of the war, and the fresh flowers symbolize their hopes. They always have hopes, but the colour is unclear to them because they are uncertain when this war will be over.