SOLIDD Reading
When talking about literary analysis, it can be helpful to think of the acronym SOLIDD.
These letters stand for Syntax, Organization, Level of Discourse, Imagery, Diction,
and Details. In high school literature classes we want our students to become
sophisticated analyzers of literature. This means they recognize the artistic components
in the selection, use the appropriate literary terminology, and recognize the affect these
literary elements have on the piece. This awareness needs to appear in both class
discussion and written work.
SYNTAX- defined by Merrriam Webster as the way “linguistic elements are put
together to form constituent parts (as phrases and clauses)”
Points to consider-are the sentences simple and direct, or complex and convoluted
-is repetition or parallel structure used for emphasis
-are rhetorical questions used for emphasis
In J.D. Salinger’s classic novel The Catcher in the Rye, Holden, a sixteen-year-old boy
who is often quite worked up, narrates the book. Holden’s tirades are often captured in
the rambling, run-on sentence structure, providing a sense of his questioning and hyper
state of mind.
‘Lawyers are all right, I guess- but it doesn’t appeal to me’ I said. ‘I mean they’re all right if they
go around saving innocent guys’ lives all the time, and like that, but you don’t do that kind of stuff
if you’re a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars
and drink Martinis and look like a hot shot. And besides. Even if you did go around saving guys’
lives and all, how would you know if you did it because you really wanted to save guys’ lives, or
because you did it because what you really wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer, with everybody
slapping you on the back and congratulating you in court when the goddam trial was over, the
reporters and everybody, the way it is in the dirty movies? How would you know you weren’t
being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn’t’(172).
ORGANIZATION- how has the author organized the novel, the chapters, or a smaller
section and how do these choices influence the piece?
In Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man, the unnamed narrator is reflecting on events that
have taken place over the last few years of his life. Since the narrator has taken the time
during his hibernation to consider the impact of many events on him, he is able to narrate
in a more detached and satiric tone. “Before that I lived in the darkness into which I was chased, but
now I see. I’ve illuminated the blackness of my invisibility- and vice versa. And so I play the invisible
music of my isolation. The last statement doesn’t seem just right, does it?” (13). Narrating in the past
tense and speaking directly to the reader, creates a continuous sense that we are in on a
deep, dark secret with the narrator and recognizing the same painful truths.
In the epilogue of the novel, the narrator begins in a similar manner: “So there you have all of
it that’s important. Or at least you almost have it. I’m an invisible man and it placed me in a hole- or
showed me the hole I was in, if you will- and I reluctantly accepted the fact. What else could I have done?”
(572). Ellison’s repeated references to being in a hole and invisible, and his references to
the reader, create a pattern for the reader to follow and a close tie is formed with the
narrator. Again, because the narrator is writing in the past tense, he is able to discuss his
invisibility with a wry sense of humor.
LEVEL OF DISCOURSE- what level of language is used throughout the piece? Do
we feel as though the writing is matter of fact, using common language and images?
Do we feel as though the writing is more poetic and metaphorical, sometimes using
sophisticated diction and images?
F.Scott Firzgerald opens the second chapter of The Great Gatsby with the following
imagery:
About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and
runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land.
This is the valley of ashes- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and
grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and,
finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the
powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly
creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir
up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight (23).
Fitzgerald’s complex sentence structure and his evocative use of imagery provide the
reader with a desolate and foreboding image set amongst the wealthy enclaves of West
Egg and the city. This scene provides a metaphorical meaning to the novel, as the reader
is left wondering what is it that the characters can’t see. What truths are obscured or
impenetrable? What is clouding the characters’ perceptions?
In contrast to such complex writing, many of William Faulkner’s characters in As I Lay
Dying often utilize simple sentences, often grammatically incorrect, and simple diction,
which helps the reader recognize these poor southern folk. One entire chapter narrated
by Vardaman consists of the following line: “My mother is a fish” (84). Vardaman, in his
childlike simplicity, has associated his mother’s death with the fish he had recently
caught and eaten. He has no sense that death is irrevocable, and he is left almost
speechless because of his recent loss.
Tull, a neighbor to Vardaman’s family, describes the night he learned that Addie,
Vardaman’s mother, had died.
It was nigh to midnight and it had set in to rain when he woke us. It had been a misdoubtful night,
with the storm making; a night when a fellow looks for most anything to happen before he can get
the stock fed and himself to the house and supper et and in bed with the rain starting, and when
Peabody’s team come up, lathered, with the broke harness dragging and the neck-yoke betwixt the
off critter’s legs, Cora says, ‘It’s Addie Bundren. She’s gone at last’ (68).
Tull is an honest, simple farmer who is deeply tied to the land. His vernacular language
and flowing, uninterrupted ideas mirror his character.
IMAGERY- think of the five senses: Sight- visual; Hearing- auditory; Taste- gustatory;
Touch- tactile; Smell- olfactory. How does the author incorporate these senses in
order to create imagery? What literary elements are used?
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the protagonist,
returns to town after a lengthy absence, only to find the town judging her.
It was time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless
conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and
the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and
lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment (1).
The black people in this novel are often metaphorically described as mules, and their only
power comes from the words they use to judge others. The entire frame of the novel is
built around the idea of a trial and the judgmental power of words. The ability to pass
“nations” through one’s mouth, to be a lord, gives a sense of the magnitude of the power
they have after the bossman is gone.
We learn about Janie’s life before she leaves her grandmother and becomes a married
woman; Janie is a young woman ready to embrace life.
From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom.
It stirred her tremendously. How? Why? It was like a flute song forgotten in another existence
and remembered again. What? How? Why? This singing she heard that had nothing to do with
her ears. The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking
moments and caressed her in her sleep (10).
The image of spring and blooming mirrors her young womanly character. She, too, is
ready to “bloom,” and she feels deeply connected to all of the fulfilling facets of nature,
the sights, sounds, and caresses.
DICTION- word choice, word choice, word choice!
Points to consider:
-concrete or abstract words
-monosyllabic or polysyllabic words
-interesting connotations for the words
-formal or colloquial words
-a shift in the level of diction in the passage
-what can be inferred about the speaker’s attitude from the given diction?
In Sylvia Plath’s provocative poem “Daddy,” she refers throughout the poem to daddy,
but then quickly states, “Daddy, I have had to kill you” (6). When we think of daddy, as
opposed to father, we think of a childlike affection for a parent, and the reader is caught
off guard by the openly expressed hatred she has for her daddy. She continues
throughout the poem to describe her father as a panzer-man, brute, devil, bastard, etc…
The strength of her harsh feelings for her daddy is clearly captured in the diction;
however, she continues to refer to him as daddy, and she has tried to “… get back, back, back
to you” (60). The narrator holds ambiguous feelings for her daddy.
In the dramatic monologue “My Last Duchess” Robert Browning captures the distaste a
duke had for his now late wife, the last duchess. The duke was upset by the common
nature of his wife, and he decides to have her killed, rather than ask her to try to change,
because “E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose/ Never to stoop” (41-42). Having to
verbally express his frustration would be a form of stooping for the duke, and the
connotation of stooping is one of subjugation; the duke needs to remain standing tall, in a
position of superiority.
DETAILS- Where is the setting: does the setting create a certain mood or level of
expectation; does the time period hold certain significance, etc…. Who are the
characters: what are their interests, fears, educational levels, etc….
T.C. Boyle’s modern drama The Tortilla Curtain is set in the twentieth century in an
upscale area of California. Within the first two pages, we learn many details about
Delaney Mossbacher:
he has an unblemished driving record, he is driving a freshly waxed Acura; he has eaten an
omelette aux fines herbes for breakfast; he has dropped his son Jordan off at elementary school; he
is on the way to the recycling center to drop off his neatly organized recyclables; and as he drives
along he knows the names of the various bushes growing alongside the road. All of these details
create an image of a responsible and educated man who is rather wealthy; the name Delaney
suggests he might be white and perhaps from an upper-middle class background; he eats fine
foods with no meat mentioned, perhaps in a desire to be healthy; and he drives an upscale yet
responsible Japanese car. No gas-guzzling hummer for him!
All of these details quite quickly provide a specific image of one of the central characters
in the novel.
REMEMBER: NEVER SUBSTITUTE TERMINOLOGY FOR ANALYSIS. ALWAYS
CONNECT THE LITERARY TERM AND EXAMPLE DIRECTLY TO THE EFFECT
IT CREATES IN THE PASSAGE.