English 9B Close Reading Assignment # 2: Due Monday May 3
English 9B
Jane Belton
Close Reading Assignment # 2: Journey from the Land of No
Perform a close reading of ONE of the passages below from pp. 129-150 of the memoir. Answer the following questions in your close reading: Why is the passage significant in the context of what we have read of the memoir so far? What does it reveal about Roya and/or the specific moment in time in Iran?
Please begin your close reading with a clear topic statement that answers the questions above and states your main point. Then, to support your theory, comment on and interpret significant language, imagery, metaphors, and symbolism in the passage. You need not comment on every line of the passage, but should focus on the most significant phrases and moments. You must weave short quotes from the passage into your paragraph as evidence to support your claims and provide sufficient, detailed analysis of each piece of evidence you use. You must also include correct parenthetical citation after every quote you use. You may also want to make connections or comparisons to other specific moments in the memoir we have read so far. However, your analysis must be grounded in and focused on the provided passage and its context. Note: This is a formal piece of analytical writing. Do not use “I” or “me”.
Length: (1 ½ – 2 full pages, typed, double spaced)
Due Date: Monday May 3
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Passage 1 (page 139)
I wrote fast and gripped the pen hard, so hard that the left side of my middle finger paled and began to buzz…The bitter allure of the words was intoxicating. It had a hint of the allure of the revolution. Its immensity had a force I had never felt within. Nothing chaotic or desperate. Uproarious, but rhythmic, too. Even songlike. A song not unlike the hymns I had heard in the synagogue, yet more moving, for I alone was its singer. To sing it, I needed no permission, no one’s seal of cleanliness. At last, a place where I was welcome! There on the rooftop, pen in hand, I led my own chorus of words, with a melody of my own making (139).
Passage 2 (pages 146-147)
On February 14, two days after the victory of the revolution, began the romance that lasted a year. Nineteen seventy-nine was a year of love, though not the kind of love I had ever known; not the love between a man and a woman, a sister and a brother, a child and a parent; not love of art, work, or religion. It was the mother of all loves, so vast, so deep, that in it every other love could grow. Victory had been announced on television by a young anchor…Then his face, beaming a grin, faded into black. An image appeared: a cherry orchard full of pink blossoms. Accompanying the various shots of the trees were the notes of the single greatest hit song of that year…[whose] lyrics remained on all our lips for months to come: “The air is fresh/The flowers are budding out of the soil/The returning doves are singing/Blood is boiling in the stem of every reed/The blessed spring is sashaying toward us…” (146-147).