#5

It is one of those fables, which, out of an unknown antiquity, convey an unlooked-for wisdom, that the gods, in the beginning, divided Man into men, that he might be more helpful to himself; just as the hand was divided into fingers, the better to answer its end.

Fables

            In the paragraph before, Emerson was talking about a The American Scholar’s biography. When he uses the word fable in this paragraph, he could mean that a man is in control is his life and it is up to him to become an American Scholar. Like a fable, he could be describing the American Scholar’s life as something the man creates and writes himself and only he can turn his story into success.

The word fable could also mean the complete opposite, and mean made-up. He could mean that people claiming they are true scholars are fake and everything written up to this point does not describe what a true a true American Scholar is.

Divide Man into men

            Emerson could be trying to say that the act of the “gods” dividing man into men means that every man lacks something and is not complete. They are all divisions from a single being that makes them incomplete in terms of complete wisdom.

            Using the man with a capital “M” could be mean he was trying to convey a more religious meaning. Like using the a capital “G” in God, Emerson could be saying that men are divisions of God and it takes looking at religious teachings to achieve real wisdom.

In the beginning

            This statement could have a literal definition and Emerson could be talking in terms of time and the gods were first creating the world and the people.

            This statement could also have negative notion to it. “In the beginning” could mean at one point and not anymore. In relation to the rest of the sentence, Emerson could be saying that when the gods first divided “Man into men,” it was suggested that the men would learn from each other and help the society and themselves; however, that does not seem to be the case anymore and men are now too content with themselves and they no longer seek true wisdom because they think they have already achieve the goal of being a true scholar.

#4

Close reading to me is examining a piece of literature very closely and interpreting the meaning of sentences or words beyond the first instinctive meaning you come up with. In order to close read effectively, it requires the reader to take more than one step.

Like Dr. McClennen (http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/s/a/sam50/closeread.htm) describes, the process of close reading " moves from the smallest bits of information (words, sound, punctuation) to larger groupings (images, metaphors) to larger concepts (themes)." He explains that the reader should first looked at the smaller parts of the literature and figure out the structure of the writing is and what the words mean in context of the rest of the text. Patricia Khan (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/CloseReading.html) advises to "Read with a pencil and annotate the text." She explains how helpful it can be if the reader takes notes in the beginning about specific words or details within the text to give the reader clues to what he/she needs to pay closer attention to. Both these scholars seem to be first emphasizing the importance of looking at the smaller details in the beginning first to try and decipher what smaller details mean before looking at the bigger picture and trying to interpret the text as a whole.

Khan then describes the next step of close reading is to look the patterns in the text such as "repetitions, contradictions, similarities"and ask yourself questions as to what these patterns mean. I find this part of close reading the most important. Although it requires looking at the smaller to things first in order to successfully do this step, this is the step where it really gives the reader the backbone of what they think the reading is about. I see this step as the bridge between reading the text for the first time and really understand or interpreting what the reader thinks the piece of literature is trying to say. From this step, the reader can make conclusions about the reading and they can formulate what they think the theme or thesis is from the passage. Dr. McClennen brings up a very good point when he tells the reader to "Ask yourself how the passage provides insight into the text (and the context of the text)." He explains how this step can give the reader a good clue as to what the rest of the text is talking about based on just the one passage that is being interpreted.

To me, I think everyone does some form of close reading in their heads, but dont really think much about it as they're reading. When using these steps set up by Khan and Dr. McClennen, it allows the reader to really focus on their thoughts and put whatever that came up with in their heads onto paper and allows a reader to further look at the reading in more detail. Close reading is very important especially when trying to read harder and more abstract text because just close reading a paragraph can help a reader understand the rest of the text easier.

#3

I thought reading the different essays this week that dealt with literacy events were very interesting.  Everyone wonders about their future and what it holds for them. It was nice to read about other people's lives an event can cause them to change the way they view and live life. I read two essays where the people interviewed changed in a positive way which was a pleasant read;however, I am interested in reading an essay about how a person maybe did not change in the most positive way. Sharing something like this would probably difficult for the person and I do not personally know anyone who has experienced this, but I wonder what a person who became very critical of life would say if they were asked the questions we asked for this essay. What I also think would be very interesting is seeing something go through a literacy event more than one time in their life. I believe life is very long and it is definitely capable for someone to go through more than one change in their lifetime. I, again, do not know anyone like this so I wondering how a person would describe multiple changes in their lives and caused them to view the world in multiple ways.

#2

This is our 2nd week of classes and I have to admit the readings that have been given to us has been really challenging me. I was never a fan of reading, a trait im not especially proud of, but every time I have a book in front of me, I instantly get sleepy. Besides a natural sleep reaction to reading, the American Scholar was written in an old english that it takes me a few reads to get through a paragraph. Hopefully, in a month or so I can pick up my own pace and be able to take on more challenging works of literature with a little more ease.

I do like the way the material is presented to us. It makes it easier and is helpful that we would have class discussions on the more important parts of the literature or split up into groups and put the readings into a simpler language.