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Analyzing LiteratureGuide for Students
Literary Analysis = Argument
O Make a claim about the work, then support it
O Purpose: persuade readers your analysis + interpretation is reasonable/logical
O NOT your opinion about the work, but your interpretation + analysis
Why Literature?O Way to experience a way of life, time
period, culture, emotion, deed, event, etc…
O Skills you bring to the table: close reading, breakdown of structure, word choice of author, character motivations, patterns of language, literary devices
Process of AnalysisO Multiple readingsO Specific word choicesO Setting + cultureO How the writer: uses words to create
meaning, how characters speak (dialect/jargon), who is telling story, etc…
O ANNOTATE
Literary TermsO Character: flat/roundO Drama: playsO Fiction: imaginative proseO Foreshadowing: prepare the reader
by introducing cluesO Narrator: who tells story (POV)O Personification: giving
animals/inanimate objects human characteristics
Literary TermsO Plot: Action/storylineO Setting: where and whenO Symbolism: use of a thing or person
or event to create familiar emotion and/or intellectual response in reader
So – To Summarize
1. Read through for enjoyment first, then reread
2. Note diction (how writer uses words to convey meaning), setting, culture, POV, imagery, anything writer does that stands out to you.
3. ANNOTATE your findings as you read. Mark text/take notes
YoursMary Robison
O Diction:- “Allison struggled away…
limping” (7)- 43 yrs. Difference in age- Gift check from nasty relatives
signed “Jesus H. Christ” – “vigil candles”
- Seem happy together – language is common, everyday language
- “Allison began to die” (9)
O Setting/Culture:- 1983 – set in modern time in suburban setting, fall- American culture – daycare,
doctor, Halloween- judgmental culture about age differences in marriage
O POV:- third person limited (see many
things only from outside, but then get Clark’s POV there at the end. – sudden and powerful – the pain of loss
O Imagery:- White Renault (?)- fall imagery
“twig and leaf-littered porch”“thick blond hood”“bright-dyed denims”
- pain + death imagery“Struggled…limping”“gutted and carved”“ferocious and jagged”“began to die”“pulse cords fluttering”“awful, plaguing thing”
Choices in AnalysisO Question: For me to write an analysis
about this story, I have to identify what elements create important meaning and then how the writer creates it.
O Because I find the age difference fascinating since the woman dies first, I will want to focus on that…
Other Analysis ChoicesO How the various literary elements work
together in a specific work to produce meaning
O How two different literary works treat the same subject or literary element(s)
O How ideas and/or elements in literary works relate to larger ideas relating to political, religious, societal, economic, or aesthetic conditions
SupportO Text evidence:
- secondary sources- direct text - paraphrase or summary
O Other critics’opinionsO Social +/or historical context
O Do not overuse a single source
What to Do in an Analysis
O Focus on a single attribute or aspect of a literary work(s)
O Make sure your thesis is arguable
O Make sure you defend your thesis with specific text evidence
ExamplesO Bad – Really Bad: Atlas Shrugged is a
great novel about good vs. evil.
O Better – but not by much: Atlas Shrugged, a novel, personifies good vs. evil.
O Best: Atlas Shrugged, a novel personifying the author’s view of good and evil develops into a philosophical argument for capitalism through direct characterization.
