SIFT
A Literary Analysis Method
SIFT Method
• Symbol: examine the text and title for
symbolism
• Images: identify images and sensory details
• Figures of Speech: analyze figurative language
and other devices
• Tone and Theme: discuss how all devices
reveal tone and theme
Symbols: Signs of Something More
• Our everyday lives are heaped with symbols:
These commonly accepted symbols are called
public symbols
Symbols in Literature
• Writers create new, personal symbols in their
work.
• In literature, a symbol is an object, a setting,
an event, an animal, or even a person that
functions in the story the way you’d expect it
to, but also stands for something more than
itself, usually for something abstract.
Moby Dick
• The white whale in Moby Dick is a very real
white whale in the novel, and Captain Ahab
spends the whole book chasing it.
• BUT- certain passages let the readers know
that the whale is ASSOCIATED with the
mystery of evil in the world.
• Symbols work by ASSOCIATION!
What it isn’t…
• A sign with just one meaning: the picture of a cigarette in a
circle with a line drawn through it is a sign meaning precisely
and specifically, “No Smoking”
• The white whale does not mean, precisely and specifically,
“the mystery of evil”
• Associations suggested by the writer, made by the characters
in the story, and ultimately made by the reader evoke images
of evil, suggests aspects of the darker side of life, and hint at
possible ways of seeing and thinking about events portrayed.
Is it a symbol?
• Guidelines to follow…
– Symbols are often visual.
– When some event or object or setting is used as a
symbol in the story, you will usually find that the writer
has given it a great deal of emphasis. Often it
reappears throughout the story.
– A symbol in literature is a form of figurative language.
Like a metaphor, a symbol is something that is
identified with something else that is very different
from it, but that shares some quality.
– A symbol usually has something to do with a story’s
theme.
(SIFT) Images
• Identify images and sensory details.
• Imagery helps to promote mood and tone.
– What do I see, hear, taste, smell or feel?
– What effect is the author trying to convey with
these images?
Tone & Mood
• Tone: The attitude that an AUTHOR takes toward
the audience, subject, or the character.
• Tone is conveyed through the author’s word and
details.
angry-challenging-sarcastic-outraged-humorous
•Mood: The emotions that the READER feels while reading; the
atmosphere of the story.
•Mood is conveyed through character emotions, setting and other elements.
romantic-gloomy-optimistic-sad-hopeful
(SIFT) Figures of Speech
• Analyze figurative language and other
devices.
• Writers form images by using figures of
speech such as simile, metaphors,
hyperbole, and personification.
• Other devices can include: irony, allusion
Simile
• A direct comparison of two things,
usually using the words like or as.
– “He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.” Tennyson
– “Hell is a city much like London/
A populous and smokey city.” Shelley
– My heart is like an apple tree whose boughs
are bent with thickest fruit.” Christina Raced
Metaphor
• An IMPLIED comparison in which one thing is
spoken in terms of something else. Metaphors
are extremely valuable in making an abstract idea
clearer by associating the idea with something
concrete that relates to one or more of the
senses.
– “And merry larks are ploughman’s clocks.”
Shakespeare
– “Entangled in the cobweb of the schools.” Cowper
– “Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes.” Thomas
Hyperbole
• The use of exaggeration or
overstatement to make a point. It may
be used for emphasis, for humor, or
for poetic intensity.
– “Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard around the world.”
Emerson
It is used freely in sports broadcasting and news
articles…
“…slaughtered their opponents on the basket
ball court.”
Personification
• A comparison that treats objects or things as
if they were capable of the actions and
feelings of people.
– “…Sea that bears her bosom to the moon”
Wordsworth
– “The dirty nurse, Experience.” Tennyson
– “Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.” Auden
Irony
• An expression in which the author’s
meaning is quite different (often the
opposite) from what is literally said.
Irony, as a matter of tone, occurs most
frequently in prose as a technique for
comedy, tragedy, suspense or horror.
• Three types of irony:
– Verbal
– Situational
– Dramatic
(SIFT) Theme and Tone
• Theme: central, underlying, and controlling
idea of a literary work.
• Abstract concept represented by a character,
by actions, or by images in the literary work.
• A generalization about human conduct.
• Ordinarily expressed in a full sentence and it
may even require a full paragraph.
Theme= What it is NOT
• Cannot be expressed in a single word.
• Not the purpose of the work (entertainment
or instruction)
• Man versus nature is not a theme, it is a
conflict.
• Unlike a moral or fable, the theme is seldom,
if ever, stated.
• It is never a cliché.
How Do I Figure Out the Theme?
• You must first understand the plot, the
characterization and conflict, the imagery, and
the author’s tone.
• Identify the subject in one word…
• Then, explain in one or two sentences what
the author says about the subject.
• NOTE: Many stories/novels have more than
one theme and there is seldom just one
“right” answer!
For Example…
• Literature: To Kill A Mockingbird
• Subject: Racism
• Possible Theme: Justice is often withheld
from economically deprived racial
minorities.
Tone and Theme
• Tone is the author’s attitude toward the subject (the
beginnings of theme)
• Tone is revealed through the words he or she
chooses. (Diction)
• In literature, the reader does not have the benefit of
voice inflection- even a dog understands the tone of
his master’s voice!
• So, the reader must understand the author’s word
choice, details, imagery and language in order to
understand the tone.
More on tone…
• To misinterpret tone is to misinterpret
meaning (THEME)
• If you miss irony or sarcasm, for example, you
may misread the meaning of an entire
passage!
Shift in Tone
• Good authors rarely use only one tone!
• A speaker’s attitude may be complex…
• An author might have one attitude
toward the audience and another
attitude toward the subject.
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How to analyze tone:
D
•L Diction: the connotation of word choice
•S Images: Imagery that appeals to the senses
• Details: Facts and details that the author has
•
•
included (does not appeal to the senses)
Language: Formal? Cliché? Jargon? Figurative
Language?
Sentence Structure: Long or short sentences?
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D
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