How to Write a Literary Analysis – Starting with an Array of Evidence
Step 1:Find several literary concepts the author uses in the story. Determine three or four that you would like to examine a bit more in depth. You will want to examine the most often used or the ones that have the most evidence. Once you have narrowed your evidence down to three or four concepts, examine the patterns demonstrated through these techniques or concepts. Find the significance of those patterns, and see how those patterns, together, form a more coherent idea that the author might be expressing.
Literary concepts:
Ø Dynamic characters – The change a character goes through is nearly always internal and may occur as a student insight, or through maturity and growth (internal) over time. Here you are looking at the change in the character, as well as the events, challenges, obstacles, and parts of life that may have caused or shaped that change. What does all of this reveal about the theme?
Ø Diction & Figurative language—language is used to characterize the sensibility and understanding of characters as well as to establish the significance of theme and tone.
Ø Tone—what tone does the narrator or author use—is he preaching, sympathetic, humorous, etc.? Why does the author use this tone—what is gained by he or she using this tone? Would the story have the same meaning if another tone was used?
Ø Imagery—what examples of imagery does the author use—is it helpful to the story? If so, why? examples of imagery are—the five senses and sometimes six. What does the character or the author make the reader touch, see, hear, feel, smell, taste, etc.
Ø Symbolism—something said but meant to stand for something else. Allegory is also used within this category—things which stand for something on a one-by-one basis.
Ø Point-of-view—Who is telling the story and what do they know or don’t know? Is the tale told by an omniscient (all-knowing) narrator who doesn’t interact in the events, or is it presented by one of the characters within the story? Can the reader trust that person to give an objective account, or does that narrator color the story with his or her own biases and interests?
Ø Setting—is the context in which all of the actions take place. What is the time period, the location, the time of day, the season, the weather, the type of room or building? What is the general mood, and who is present? All of these elements can reflect on the story’s events, and though the setting of a story tends to be less conspicuous than plot and character, setting still colors everything that’s said and done within its context.
Ø Indirect Characterization—refers to the qualities assigned to the individual figures in the plot, and revealed by their thoughts, actions, speech, appearance and how other react to her or him. Consider why the author assigns certain qualities to a character or characters and how any such qualities might relate to your topic.
Ø Allusion—Does the author use any allusions—references to a past literary source or event in history. Authors will use many Biblical allusions. Adam—would bring qualities of Adam from the Bible, without having to expressly state them, just by using the name infers or alludes to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Ø Patterns—As you have looked at references to ghosts, vampires, seasons, quests, or meal, what patterns have you identified in your bookmark? Do they form a bigger “meta” pattern? Do you seem a common understanding of the work emerging?
Step 2: Now that you have figured out which literary concepts or elements the author uses and that you will examine in your paper, take each concept and find three to five very good examples of the author’s use of the concept in the story (note the page number when you find the use). On the other hand, let’s say an example or type of an example is used only once or twice but you feel it is so powerful or significant that it changed the entire book for you; you can use that to support one of your concepts.
Step 3: Write an outline using those concepts and the examples:
I. Introduction paragraph
II. Main idea about first concept. (1st body paragraph)
A. 1st piece of evidence supporting this interpretation of this literary concept
B. Explanation of this evidence and how it relates to the concept.
C. 2nd piece of evidence supporting this concept
D. Explanation of this evidence and how it relates to the concept.
E. 3rd piece of evidence supporting this concept
F. Explanation of this evidence and how it relates to the concept.
III. Main idea about second concept. (2nd body paragraph)
A. 1st piece of evidence supporting this interpretation of this literary concept
B. Explanation of this evidence and how it relates to the concept.
C. 2nd piece of evidence supporting this concept
D. Explanation of this evidence and how it relates to the concept.
E. 3rd piece of evidence supporting this concept
F. Explanation of this evidence and how it relates to the concept.
IV. Main idea about third concept. (3rd body paragraph)
A. 1st piece of evidence supporting this interpretation of this literary concept
B. Explanation of this evidence and how it relates to the concept.
C. 2nd piece of evidence supporting this concept
D. Explanation of this evidence and how it relates to the concept.
E. 3rd piece of evidence supporting this concept
F. Explanation of this evidence and how it relates to the concept.
V. Conclusion paragraph
Step 4: Write a thesis statement for your paper—Based on the evidence that relates to your topic, the patterns formed by that evidence, and the coherent idea expressed by those patterns, come up with a working thesis. Use the example below to plug in your own words:
Thesis examples
1. Through his use of symbolism, character motivation, and the change that Brother experienced as a result of his efforts with Doodle, James Hurst, in his short story “The Scarlet Ibis” set in the American south in 1918, reveals that pride and hubris can result in a loss of a previously unappreciated treasure.
2. The characters within "The Sniper", "The Old Man at the Bridge", and "Beware the Dog", all reveal the ways war alienates humans from one another.
3. In "A Christmas Memory", "The Scarlet Ibis", and "The Gift of the Magi" the characters demonstrate that loss can only be understood when love is present in relationships.
Step 5: Write the introduction paragraph using the format below to plug in elements.
A literary analysis introduction needs to catch the reader’s attention, give background on the literature, and state the topic through a specific and focused thesis statement. The acronym H RAT SCAT helps the writer remember all the necessary components of the literary analysis introduction.
H: hook (a creative attention grabber which introduces the topic very generally)
R: restate the topic (Because your first sentence is very general, you must refocus
the reader’s attention by getting a bit more specific about your topic.)
A: author (state the author’s first and last name)
T: title (state the title of the piece)
S: setting (state the setting of the literature)
C: character(s) or concept being discussed in paper
A: action (briefly summarize the action in the story in one sentence summing up the main character(s), action, and challenge or conflict)
T: thesis (one sentence which expresses a specific idea about the topic)
All of these components can be combined into a few sentences; they should not each be a separate sentence.
Example Prompt: Discuss a major theme in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Example introduction for prompt:
The youth of any society or culture should embody innocence. However, in William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, set in old-world Verona, innocence is destroyed. Innocence is destroyed by the youth modeling the deceptive and vindictive behaviors of adults in Shakespeare’s tragic play.
Example Prompt: Write an analytical essay about a character’s actions in one of the short stories read in class.
Example introduction for prompt:
Divorce can be a difficult issue for young adults to handle. This difficulty is demonstrated in Wendi Kaufmann’s short story “Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street,” set in modern-day New York city. Vita, a young girl who is trying to deal with her parents’ divorce, has an epiphany and is able to put closure on the separation and moves on with her life.
Hook Possibilities
1. Begin with a startling fact or bit of information which is related to your thesis:
Example: Nearly two hundred citizens were arrested as witches during the Salem witch scare of 1692. Eventually nineteen were hanged, and another was pressed to death (Marks 65).
2. Start with a snatch of dialogue between to characters which is related to your thesis:
Example: “It is another thing. You [Frederic Henry] cannot know about it unless you have it.”
“Well, “ I said. “If I ever get it I will tell you [priest]” (Hemingway 72). With these words, the priest in Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms send the hero, Frederic, in search of the ambiguous “it” in his life. (the second sentence is an example of restating the topic)
3. Provide a meaningful quotation (from the work or another source) which is related to the thesis:
Example: “To be, or not to be, that is the question” {3. 1. 57}. This familiar statement expresses the young prince’s moral dilemma in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. (the second sentence is an example of restating the topic).
4. Start with a universal idea which corresponds with the thesis:
Example: The terrifying scenes a soldier experiences on the front probably follow him throughout his life—if he manages to survive the war.
5. Provide a rich, vivid description of the setting:
Example: Sleepy Maycomb, like other Southern towns, suffers considerably during the Great Depression. Poverty reaches from the privileged families, like the finches, to the Negroes and “white trash” Ewells, who live on the outskirts of town. Harper Lee paints a vivid picture of life in this humid Alabama town where tempers and bigotry explode into conflict. (the last sentence restates the topic)
6. Start with an analogy or metaphor:
Example: Love is a thrill ride: the minute it takes you to the top, there is no where else to go but back down—the uncertainty is in that moment of suspense—when you’re unsure of whether it is going to let you hang at the top and enjoy the view or whether it’s ready to hurl you back downward. This element of uncertainty plays a major role in many dramas. For example, in Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet have no idea what tragedies lie ahead when they fall so passionately and impetuously in love. (the last two sentences are an example of restating the topic and telling part of the action)
7. Begin with a thoughtful question which prepares the reader for your thesis and does not have a simple “yes” or “no” answer:
Example: Can anybody be purely good? The question is certainly important when we encounter Nathan Price, a Baptist minister who sets out to change the lives of “savage” Africans. (the second sentence restates the topic)
8. Use an incident or brief story from the novel:
Example: Early Sunday morning, the young mother dressed her little girl warmly and gave her a candy bar, a picture book, and a well-worn stuffed rabbit. Together, they drove downtown to a Methodist church. There the mother told the little girl to wait on the stone steps until children began arriving for Sunday School. Then the young mother drove off, abandoning her five-year old because she couldn’t cope with being a parent anymore. This incident is one of thousands of cases of child neglect and abuse that occur annually. Perhaps the automatic right to become a parents should no longer exist. Would-be parents should be forced to apply for parental licenses for which they would have to meet three important conditions.
9. Start with an idea or a situation that is the opposite of the one you will develop:
Example: When I decided to return to school at age thirty-five, I wasn’t at all worried about my ability to do the work. After all, I was grown person who had raised a family, not a confused teenager fresh out of high school. But when I started classes, I realized that those “confused teenagers” sitting around me were in much better shape for college than I was. They still had all their classroom skills in bright, shiny condition, while mine had grown rusty from disuse. I had to learn how to locate information in a library, how to write a report, and even how to speak up in classroom discussions.
10. Use a quotation of a well-known person, a saying, or popular expression:
Example: “Fish and visitors,” wrote Benjamin Franklin, “begin to smell after three days.” Last summer, when my sister and her family came to spend their tw0-week vacation with us, I became convinced that Franklin was right. After only three days of my family’s visit, I was thoroughly sick of my brother-in-law’s lame jokes, my sister’s endless complaints about her boss, and their children’s constant invasions of our privacy.
Step 6: Write your body paragraphs following your outline.
The body paragraphs should support/prove your thesis. These paragraphs contain supporting examples from the literature as well as your analysis/explanation which explains how the examples support your thesis.