Journal 2 - Close Readings

In my opinion a close reading is something that readers can do to analyze a piece of literature to find both the stated and implied meaning. When I first did close readings in high school I thought it was just the teacher "putting words in the author's mouth." I thought this because I thought that there was absolutely no way that the author could write and assume that the reader would make the same assumptions or draw the same conclusions that the writer did when he was sitting down writing it. And while I still think most pieces are overanalyzed to try to find something that isn't there, my senior research paper showed that a lot of the deeper meaning parts are fully on purpose and that the writer's influences in life are written into their works. As an author I haven't reached the level where I can attempt complex deeper meanings like the ones found in The Wizard of Oz, but as a reader these close readings are showing me a new way to approach a reading to find the meaning, bias or stereotypes even in pieces like kids’ books. There's time to learn how to incorporate parts to be purposively analyzed deeper than the superficial meaning that the words on the page have. Some of the most meaningful parts can be what is left out or not implied in the writing.