The purpose of close reading is to suspend personal judgment and examine a text in order to uncover and discover as much information as we can from it. The task is to analyze this passage by looking at the specifics of its structure, diction, tone, and other literary devices and how those choices from the passage connect to or support the theme of the entire work. The key point here is to do this patiently and rigorously—to demonstrate that you can think critically and articulately about the text and extract as much as you can from a small amount of evidence. Avoid broad, unsubstantiated, or speculative readings; back up your interpretation with meticulous textual evidence, and unpack each citation with thoroughness.
In close reading we ask not just “What does this passage say?” but also “How does it say it?” and even “What does it not say?” Close reading takes us further into the passage, below its surface to the deeper structures of its language, syntax, and imagery, then out again to its connections with the whole text as well as other texts, events, and ideas.