WRITING CLAIM STATEMENTS

All claim statements must answer What (What are you trying to show in your analysis? Often a THEME STATEMENT) and How (How are you going to prove it? Often a literary device).

DEVICES REFRESHERCharacterizationImageryConflictSymbolismSettingPoint of view

FRAME STATEMENT In TITLE OF THE WORK, NAME OF AUTHOR demonstrates THEME STATEMENT through his/her use of OR development of OR depiction of LITERARY DEVICE.

A. GOOD OR BAD? In The Kite Runner by Khalead

Hosseini, Amir is a young man who figures out his true identity after he destroys and rebuilds his family.

SUMMARY

B. GOOD OR BAD? The characters in William

Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, would have been better off if they had only communicated with one another.

Not Provable

C. GOOD OR BAD? In Albert Camus’ short story, The

Guest, choices are made and responsibility is avoided with tragic results.

No HOW

A. DEVICE? Through the character of Amir in

The Kite Runner, Hosseini shows how a man can sacrifice everything for the thing he values most.

Device: Characterization (Amir)

B. DEVICE? Through the development of a

lonesome urban atmosphere in the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger creates a story that reveals a young man’s mental and physical isolation.

Device: Setting & Imagery

C. DEVICE? In Frankenstein, Mary Shelly

illustrates how man’s attempt to control nature results in madness and destruction through Dr. Frankenstein’s creation of the monster.

Device: Conflict (Man vs. Nature)

EXAMPLE COMPARISON CLAIM

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Lucille Clifton’s poem, “Hips,” they show how 1people can overcome their oppression and 2assert their true selves through the women’s physical totems.

Theme st= COMPLETE & COMPLEX

Device st= SPECIFIC AND APPLICABLE

GOOD OR BAD?In Gabriel Garcia-Marquez’s short story, “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World,” and Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, 1the life changing effect that one individual can have on another is shown through the villagers and the Loman family.

Theme st= COMPLETE & not COMPLEX

Device st= SPECIFIC AND APPLICABLE

GOOD OR BAD?In Irwin Shaw’s short story, “the 80 yard run” and Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, the conflicted characters of Christian Darling and Willy Loman demonstrate the lost opportunities and disappointments caused by a life built on the past. Theme st= COMPLETE & maybe COMPLEX?

Device st= SPECIFIC AND APPLICABLE