LITERARY ANALYSIS



Ensures accuracy of
interpretation
Protects against
uncritical stock
responses
Enables suspension of
judgment until all
aspects of the story are
understood
The Basic Questions for Analysis

Is this commercial or literary fiction?

What happens, to whom, and why?

What is the author’s purpose?

What is the theme?
Equation of Literary Elements
Plot +
 Setting +
 Characterization +
 Title +
 Point of view +
 Symbolism =
____________
 THEME

Plot Analysis:
4 key elements of plot
Climax
Complication
PLOT
=
CONFLICT
Exposition
Denouement
Four Types of Conflict
Person against Person
Person against Self
Person against Environment
Person against God
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Questions to ask about Plot

What types of conflict occur and why?


What truth does the conflict reveal
about the characters?
Is any conflict left unresolved and for
what purpose?
Analysis of Setting:
two main types of settings

Natural Setting
-may be hostile
or friendly

Artificial Setting
-reveals the
character of those
who create or
inhabit it
Aspects of Setting
Date
 Time of day or
night
 Amount of light
 Flora and fauna
 Sounds

Geographical
location
 Weather
 Clothing
 Smells
 Other descriptive
elements

Questions to ask about Setting

Where and when is it?

What effect does the author achieve
by using this setting?

What impact does it have on the
characters, the tone, and the
theme?
Character Analysis:
E.M. Forster’s three character types

Flat:
• Whitney, the sailor in The Most Dangerous
Game

Round:
• the grandmother in A Good Man is Hard to
Find

Stock:
• Mr. Summers and many of the townspeople in
The Lottery
Characterization:
two other classifications
 Static
• No change from beginning to end
– Mother in “Rocking Horse Winner”
 Developing
• A distinct change occurs, usually
marked by an epiphany
– Granny Weatherall
EPIPHANY

Defined by James Joyce
as
a moment of spiritual
insight into life or into
the character’s own
circumstances.

Example-Why, you’re one of my
babies. You’re one of my
own children!
--The
grandmother in A Good Man is
Hard to Find
Characterization :
Indicated in four ways
Direct Presentation
 1. What the character says

2. What the character does
Indirect Presentation


3. What other characters say about him/her
4. What the author says about him/her
Questions to ask about
Character
Who is the protagonist?
Antagonist?
 Why do the characters act as they
do?
 Are the characters consistent?
 Is there a change in behavior?
Why?

Analysis of Point of View: four types

Omniscient
• Third person narrator knows everything
– “The Destructors”

Third-person limited
• Third person speaks from viewpoint of one
character
– “Roman Fever”
• Stream of consciousness is included
– “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”
Point of View

First Person
• The author speaks as one of the characters
– The boy Spangler in Child by Tiger

Objective
• Events are recorded as they are seen as if by a
video camera
– The Lottery
Questions to ask about Point
of View
Who is telling the story?
 What are the advantages? limitations?
 How does the narrator’s personality affect
the interpretation?
 What has author gained by using this point
of view?
 Is the selected point of view used
consistently?

Analysis of Symbolism

Symbolism
• The use of
one object to
represent or
suggest
another
Types of Symbolism

Names
• Faith in “Young Goodman Brown”
• Granny Weatherall
• Lack of names as in “Rocking Horse Winner”

Objects (including colors and textures)
• The house in “The Destructors”
• The rocking horse
• Clothes and other aspects of setting
• Gooseberries

Actions
• Goodman Brown sitting and refusing to continue
• The lottery
• Weather
– The snowstorm in “Child by Tiger”
Symbolism
Any
symbolic interpretation must
grow directly out of the tones and
connotations found in a close
literal reading of the story. One
must be able to defend one’s
opinions with references to the
text.
Analysis of Title
What clues about the author’s intent does
the title provide?
 Often a major symbol is named or an
allusion is made

• “Gooseberries”
• “Child by Tiger”

Sometimes there is a play on words
• “The Most Dangerous Game”
• “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”
Theme:

The sum of the equation of literary
elements
A mathematical metaphor from p. 207, Perrine’s
Literature:
Careless readers often think
they understand a story
when in actuality they have
misunderstood it.
They understand the events
but not what the events add up to.
Or, in adding up the events,
they arrive at an erroneous total.
Equation of Literary Elements
Plot +
 Setting +
 Characterization +
 Title +
 Point of view +
 Symbolism =
____________
 THEME

Theme:
Important points to remember

Not all stories have a significant theme
• The purpose of most commercial fiction is to
entertain
The theme “accounts for all the major
details of the story”
 “There is no one way of stating the theme
of a story”
 The theme should not be stated as a
cliché

Questions to ask about Theme
 What
truth is the author trying to
convey in this story?
 Has
artistic unity been achieved?