Analyzing Literature
Guide 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 Analysis
O Multiple readings
O Specific word choices
O Setting + culture
O How the writer: uses words to create
meaning, how characters speak
(dialect/jargon), who is telling story, etc…
O ANNOTATE
Literary Terms
O Character: flat/round
O Drama: plays
O Fiction: imaginative prose
O Foreshadowing: prepare the reader by
introducing clues
O Narrator: who tells story (POV)
O Personification: giving animals/inanimate
objects human characteristics
Literary Terms
O Plot: Action/storyline
O Setting: where and when
O 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
Yours
Mary 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 Analysis
O 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 Choices
O 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
Support
O Text evidence:
- secondary sources
- direct text
- paraphrase or summary
O Other critics’opinions
O 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
Examples
O 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.