Sample paragraph
M.
Kenneally
Here is a sample of a close read from a class I took with Professor
Kennealy at Concordia University years ago. I hope this helps.
TOPIC: Argue that James Joyce uses imagery to reinforce some of
the central ideas in “Araby.”
1. Joyce uses religious imagery to reinforce his analysis of the bitter
disillusionment that inevitably comes with maturation. 2. Throughout the story,
he orchestrates multiple references to the transcendent aspects of Catholicism
into a specific pattern of Christian imagery. 3. Joyce exploits this imagery in a
manner that draws attention to his depiction of the emotional pain that
necessarily accompanies the loss of innocence. 4. The first suggestion of this
imagery is found in Joyce's emphasis that the former tenant of the protagonist's
house was a priest. 5. The details of the priest's reading material and the
emphasis on his charitable nature begin to weave a pattern of religious imagery
into the text. 6. By emphasizing that a priest's ultimate concern is with spiritual
matters rather than the things of this world, Joyce starts to establish the
transcendent aspect of this imagery. 7. Another example of this kind of
religious imagery is found in the description of the garden behind the house.
8. The details Joyce provides here of the "wild garden" underline the presence of
the "central apple tree" and the priest's "rusty bicycle pump." 9. With its strong
echoes of the Garden of Eden, the idealized place from which humans fell into
the harsh world of reality, this information strengthens the gap between
physical and spiritual realities. 10. Even the reference to the bicycle pump might
be considered a symbol of the priest's celibacy, thereby stressing his
commitment to the spiritual world and rejection of physical reality. 11. Perhaps
the most dramatic example of transcendent religious imagery is found in
Joyce's description of the boy making his way through the loud, vulgar market.
12. The boy's dismissal of this distasteful world and his commitment to another,
invisible realm is suggested when Joyce writes: "I imagined that I bore my chalice
safely through a throng of foes. Her name sprang to my lips at moments in
strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand...I did not know
whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her
of my confused adoration." 13. The series of religious words here - "chalice,"
"prayers," "praises" and "adoration" - constitutes a pattern of religious imagery
that underlines the metaphoric distance between the worshiper and the object of
his worship. 14. In particular, the reference to the chalice suggests the
transformation of a physical object into the divine which it is believed the priest
achieves at a Catholic mass. 15. Joyce's creation of this pattern of religious
references, all of which suggest the polarity and tension between the actual and
spiritual worlds, is used to highlight the pain that must accompany the journey to
experience. 16. At the beginning of the story, the boy naively but confidently
believes that Mangan's sister can fulfill all his romantic desires. 17. Without ever
testing his idealization of the girl against the actual person who lives across the
street, the boy falsely assumes that they are one and the same person. 18.
However, by the end of the story, when he has been forced to acknowledge
the discrepancy between the object of his dreaming and the real girl, the boy
learns of the mental anguish that necessarily accompanies such a discovery. 19.
He has been forced to abandon the comforting but self-deceiving world of
innocence and to accept the emotional anguish that such a realization inevitably
brings. 20. Joyce's weaving a pattern of religious imagery that stresses the gulf
separating the physical and spiritual worlds reinforces the penalty that must be
paid for trying to unite the real and the ideal. 21. By implying a parallel between
the priest and the boy, Joyce accentuates the transcendent nature of the boy's
perception of Mangan's sister, the wide gulf between the actual girl and the
creation of the boy's imagination. 22. Just as a priest may live in the real world
but is ultimately concerned with a spiritual reality, a transcendent place that
exists outside of space and time, so also is the boy concerned with an idealized
girl who has very little to do with his flesh and blood neighbour. 23. Joyce's
creation of this transcendent religious imagery functions, then, to emphasize
not only the gulf separating the physical and idealized worlds but the impossibility
of every uniting them. 24. To attempt to live in the real world according to the
terms of a transcendent reality is not only self-deceiving but ultimately leads to
the bitter acknowledgment that they are incompatible. 25. Joyce's religious
imagery, then, forcefully confirms his sense that responding accurately to reality
always entails difficult emotional adjustment and painful acceptance of a flawed
world.
Paragraph Code
1
Topic sentence
2
Clarification of imagery
3
Clarification of idea
4
Introduction of first proof of religious imagery
5
First proof
6
Analysis of first proof
7
Introduction of second proof of religious imagery
8
Second proof
9
Analysis of second proof
10
Further analysis of second proof
11
Introduction of third proof
12
Third proof
13
Analysis of third proof
14
Further analysis of third proof
15
Transition to discussion of idea
16, 17,18, 19
Proof of idea
20, 21, 22,23, 24
Connection between imagery and idea
25
More authoritative reiteration of topic sentence