The purpose of this exercise is to examine how good writers foreshadow changes in their narrative flow using descriptive texts. The reader is drawn to these texts often without necessarily knowing why - but they intuitively understand that these texts are performing an important function in the story. The text below in straight print is the student's analysis based on close reading and also a knowledge of the whole book, the text in italics is based on the class's close reading. This is an example of one of the exercises performed.

Close Reading – Exit West

Exit West( page 68) - One's relationship ... in place

Student’s Narrative Reading First Impression:

The change in the characters’ relationship to windows affects the narrative flow of the work on how they deal with the outside world. During moments of the war, the characters had to cover up the windows because <<any spot indoors with a view of the outside was a spot potentially in the crossfire>>. And when they do that, they isolate their selves. They get rid of any traces they may leave in the world; they cut off relationships and interactions with what is outside.

Furthermore, this descriptive section is also important to illustrate how danger and violence affect the characters on how they felt about life.  When we think of looking out the window, we usually think of seeing life and we feel free. But when the author says <<a window was the border through which death was possibly most likely to come>>, he gives the idea that there was no hope out there and that the characters were trapped.

Nonetheless, in the second paragraph, as the windows are described as something they still needed even when it was broken, it is suggested that not everything was over, that if they had a way to protect themselves, they would still live for another day and would maybe have a chance to change their lives. They could still have hope.

Looking at the text, for the literary device used, it is notable that the author utilized symbolism to achieve the resulted obtained. Usually related to freedom and liveliness the element ‘window’ was fundamental to associate a broader message to that context. The use of it was essential to give a deeper meaning to the criticalness of the whole dangerous situation of the narrative.

Literary Close Reading

Diction:

●     the most noticeable and repeated word is window - window is a word with multiple and contrasting meanings in the selected passage; it is more than just a window / 1- it connected them with the outside world and exposed them to the danger of the civil war going on; it <<was the border through which death was possibly most likely to come.>> / 2- it protected them from the cold winter nights; it <<served to take some of the edge off the chill>> / opposition of ideas these were all good points made by the student who had read the book, but we examined this text in isolation and saw that the text itself and on its own, when close read, led to a similar conclusion. 

●     We talked about how the window is used in film and literature to represent a passage between inside and outside space – the breaking of this space

●      We talked about how unusual it is to talk about a “relationship with windows” – and we talked about what windows would represent in Arab cultures – because like traditional Portuguese buildings in the south of the country windows were small – a large window is a reflection of a modern influence

●     we talked about the expression  “the pane of a window” here “pane” means a piece of glass, but because it sounds the same as the word “pain”, it induces the reader to think of affliction/pain associated with the window. Hamid used the figure of speech homophone (2 words with the same pronunciation but different meanings and spellings) to draw our attention to “the pain that may come from breaking the barrier between the inside and the outside space

●     This notion is further highlighted when we look at another figure of speech immediately after – alliteration – words starting with the same letter – shrapnel, shattered, someone, shards. Moreover, these words are always associated with causing injury to others

●     a formal language was used

 

Sound and Rhythm:

●     the passage has a regular rhythm

●     in the middle and at the end of the first paragraph it speeds up just a little because of the lack of punctuation

●     the second paragraph’s rhythm is more regular than the first ones

 

Rhetorical Devices:

●     the passage explores the symbolism of the element window

●     an analogy can be drawn between the broken windows -an element that is usually related to freedom and liveliness- and the idea of the characters needing to isolate themselves from the outside world because of the violence of war, as if the broken window represented “broken freedom”

●     adjectives and descriptive verbs were used to give consistency to the idea of a broken window we can see the shards of glass

 

Syntax:

●     the length of the phrases gradually increases over the passage, the first sentences are short and the last ones are long – short sentences imply interruption; longer ones continuity, we are moving from change and uncertainty to recognition of the reality

●     the punctuation used is composed of commas and periods - connections are basic and primitive

 

Structure:

●     the first paragraph is divided into four sentences, with one, two, three and four lines respectively

●     the second paragraph is one sentence long, with almost seven lines

●     there are notably two types of writing in the passage: narration and description

●     the first paragraph talks about how the window became a dangerous thing, especially if was broken -

●     the second paragraph talks about how the window was a way of protecting the characters from the winter, even if the window was broken – also there is a recognition that it “would have been better to remove the remaining windows”, and while this is possible, these broken panes of glass are referred to as giving some protection at least – but if we look at the text, we see that the protection they would offer would be minimal – a metaphor for the characters’ difficulty of breaking completely with the past-

 

Imagery:

●     the passage leads us to visualize a broken window with sharp pieces of glass at the edges

●     the visualized image is totally related to the whole idea of windows being at the same time dangerous and protective from the cold

 

Tone:

●     third-person narrator

●     it gives neutral information

●     the speaker has a partial point of view

 

Context:

●     the passage occurs about one-third of the way into the book

●     the passage relates to the civil war going on where the characters live and to how their freedom gave way to isolation

●     it resembles adjacent material very closely

 

Silences:

●     I could not find omissions in the passage

 

Final conclusions of the Close Reading: The ominous language used indicates threats are coming and while the war/enemy had come from external source(s) before this passage – with its emphasis on windows – perhaps now the threats will also come from the inside. Perhaps there will be a conflict of cultures; modern (big windows – and all these entail) vs tradition (shards of glass that should be removed because they can cause injury, but they are retained because they may also offer some protection and/or comfort.

 

This section of the book was very well chosen because it foreshadows the change that will happen in the relationship of the two main protagonists (Nadia and Saeed). It is taken from the middle of chapter 4. At this stage Nadia and Saeed are living in a city (we never know its name) that is first on the brink of war, then engulfed by it. While the action takes place in this city, they are united against the external enemy and their union, forged on mutual respect and support as well as physical attraction, seems indestructible. But (spoiler alert for students who have not read the book) this will change when they leave the city,  and this passage is actually a good synopsis of the change that is about to occur in the narrative flow of the novel, as one of the protagonists embraces change and the other cannot, despite the fact that this hurts both characters and their relationship – he cannot let go of the shards of glass.