Hi please help me annotate this passage to better understand it with the answers to the questions i have included below. This is from the short story called “A White Heron”. I have included the link to the story as well.
Link to story:
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/webpub/english/artandcraftoffiction1e/Fiction-11_short_stories/Jewett%20A%20White%20Heron.pdf
Passage: The guest did not notice this hint of family sorrows in his eager interest in something else.
“So Sylvy knows all about birds, does she?” he exclaimed, as he looked round at the little girl who sat, very demure but increasingly sleepy, in the moonlight. “I am making a collection of birds myself. I have been at it ever since I was a boy.” (Mrs. Tilley smiled.) “There are two or three very rare ones I have been hunting for these five years. I mean to get them on my own ground if they can be found.”
“Do you cage ’em up?” asked Mrs. Tilley doubtfully, in response to this enthusiastic announcement.
Instructions: From “A White Heron” select a short passage. A single paragraph works best. Looking closely at the passage, note and discuss its significant details, especially the language used; then briefly link your observations about the passage to broader themes or conflicts in the novel. This is also called a close reading.
What kinds of observations should you make? Begin by considering the situation; whose point of view or voice is presented; the subject of the passage; and the placement of this passage in the work. Then look more closely at style: at word choice, sentence structure, punctuation, tone. Is there imagery? Is there repetition or emphasis? Integrate brief quotations to clarify your observations. These specific observations are central to the analysis.
What can you do with these observations? Think about what your observations about the passage might reveal about characters, their relationships to one another, their situation, or the themes of the story.
How might you organize your discussion? You need a brief introduction that clarifies what passage you will discuss and your overall point about it. (Provide page numbers and clarify exactly where your passage begins and ends.) Either in your introduction or the subsequent paragraph, you need to provide background information about matters such as situation (what’s happening in this passage) and the passage’s position in the novel (what comes before and after). You then should begin a substantial paragraph, or possibly two, with your specific observations about the passage, especially its language. Then follow up with some reflections on these observations. Conclude with some brief linking of the concerns or themes in the passage to the story as a whole.
Objectives of this assignment:
To encourage close attention to the details of a text. To further your ability to analyze texts.
