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ANALYZING A PASSAGE
In writing about literature or any specific text, you will strengthen your discussion if you offer specific passages from the text as evidence. Rather than simply dropping in quotations and expecting their significance and relevance to your argument to be self-evident, you need to provide sufficient analysis of the passage. Remember that your over-riding goal of analysis writing is to demonstrate some new understanding of the text.

HOW TO ANALYZE A TEXT?

1. Read or reread the text with specific questions in mind. 2. Marshal basic ideas, events and names. Depending on the complexity of book, this requires additional review of the text. 3. Think through your personal reaction to the book: identification, enjoyment, significance, application.

4. Identify and consider most important ideas (importance will depend on context of class, assignment, study guide). 5. Return to the text to locate specific evidence and passages related to the major ideas. 6. Use your knowledge following the principles of analyzing a passage described below: test, essay, research, presentation, discussion, enjoyment.

PRINCIPLES OF ANALYZING A PASSAGE

1. Offer a thesis or topic sentence indicating a basic observation or assertion about the text or passage. 2. Offer a context for the passage without offering too much summary. 3. Cite the passage (using correct format).

4. Then follow the passage with some combination of the following elements:

Discuss what happens in the passage and why it is significant to the work as a whole. Consider what is said, particularly subtleties of the imagery and the ideas expressed. Assess how it is said, considering how the word choice, the ordering of ideas, sentence structure, etc., contribute to the meaning of the passage. Explain what it means, tying your analysis of the passage back to the significance of the text as a whole.

5. Repeat the process of context, quotation and analysis with additional support for your thesis or topic sentence.

SAMPLE ANALYSIS PARAGRAPHS

FROM JAMES MCBRIDES THE COLOR OF WATER
An important difference between James and his mother is their method of dealing with the pain they experience. While James turns inward, his mother Ruth turns outward, starting a new relationship, moving to a different place, keeping herself busy. Ruth herself describes that, even as a young girl, she had an urge to run, to feel the freedom and the movement of her legs pumping as fast as they can (42). As an adult, Ruth still feels the urge to run. Following her second husbands death, James points out that, while she weebled and wobbled and leaned, she did not fall. She responded with speed and motion. She would not stop moving (163). As she biked, walked, rode the bus all over the city, she kept moving as if her life depended on it, which in some ways it did. She ran, as she had done most of her life, but this time she was running for her own sanity (164). Ruths motion is a pattern of responding to the tragedy in her life. As a girl, she did not sit and think about her abusive father and her trapped life in the Suffolk store. Instead she just left home, moved on, tried something different. She did not analyze the connections between pain and understanding, between action and response, even though she seems to understand them. As an adult, she continues this pattern, although her running is modified by her responsibilities to her children and home. The image of running that McBride uses here and elsewhere supports his understanding of his mother as someone who does not stop and consider what is happening in her life yet is able to move ahead. Movement provides the solution, although a temporary one, and preserves her sanity. Discrete moments of action preserve her sense of her own strength and offer her new alternatives for the future. Even McBrides sentence structure in the paragraph about his mothers running supports the effectiveness of her spurts of action without reflection. Although varying in length, each of the last seven sentences of the paragraph begins with the subject She and an active verb such as rode, walked, took, grasp and ran. The

section is choppy, repetitive and yet clear, as if to reinforce Ruths unconscious insistence on movement as a means of coping with the difficulties of her life.

FROM TONI MORRISONS THE BLUEST EYE

#1 The negative effect the environment can have on the individual is shown in Morrisons comparison of marigolds in the ground to people in the environment. Early in the novel, Claudia and Frieda are concerned that the marigold seeds they planted that spring never sprouted. At the end of the novel, Claudia reflects on the connection to Pecolas failure: I talk about how I did not plant the seeds too deeply, how it was the fault of the earth, our land, our town. I even think now that the land of the entire country was hostile to marigolds that year. This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live. (206) Morrison obviously views the environment as a powerful influence on the individual when she suggests that the earth itself is hostile to the growth of the marigold seeds. In a similar way, people cannot thrive in a hostile environment. Pecola Breedlove is a seed planted in the hostile environment, and, when she is not nurtured in any way, she cannot thrive. #2 One effect of the belief that white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes are the most beautiful is evident in the characters who admire white film stars. Morrison shows an example of the destructive effect of this beauty standard on the character Pecola. When Pecola lives with Claudia and Frieda, the two sisters try to please their guest by giving her milk in a Shirley Temple mug. Claudia recalls, She was a long time with the milk, and gazed fondly at the silhouette of Shirley Temples face (19). This picture of two young African-American girls admiring the beauty of a white American film star is impossible for Claudia to comprehend. Another character who admires white beauty is Maureen Peale. As Pecola and the girls walk past a movie theater on their way home with Maureen, Maureen asks if the others just love Betty Grable, who smiles from a movie poster. When she later tells the others she is cute and they are ugly, Maureen reveals her belief that she is superior because she looks more like a Betty Grable image than the blacker girls do. Pecolas and Maureens fascination with popular images is preceded by Paulines own belief in the possibility of movie images. She describes doing her hair like Jean Harlows and eating candy at a movie. Rather than being transported into the romantic heaven of Hollywood, she loses a tooth and ends in despair. Everything went then. Look like I just didnt

care no more after that. I let my hair go back, plaited it up, and settled down to just being ugly (123). Admiring beauty in another is one thing; transferring a sense of self-hatred when a person doesnt measure is another. At that point, the power of white beauty standards becomes very destructive.

TSITSI DANGAREMBGAS NERVOUS CONDITIONS

Although Tambu recognizes the injustices she and Nyasha endure as females, she hesitates to act on her suspicion because of fear. First of all, she is afraid that she might not recognize and feel comfortable with herself in a critical role. She hesitates to pursue her critique, noting to herself, I was beginning to suspect that I was not the person I was expected to be, and took it as evidence that somewhere I had taken a wrong turning (116). Using other peoples perceptions rather than her own, she judges her thoughts to be wrong. Although she senses that her behavior as the grateful poor female relative was insincere, she admitted it felt more comfortable. It mapped clearly the ways I could or could not go, and by keeping within those boundaries I was able to avoid the mazes of self-confrontation (116). While she is somewhat embarrassed that she lacks the intensity she had when fighting against Nhamo and her father over the maize, she is reluctant to lose Babamakurus protection and fears experiencing the same kind of trauma Nyasha does in her struggle. Although she says she feels wise to be preserving [her] energy, unlike [her] cousin, who was burning herself out, she reveals that she fears losing a familiar sense of herself in order to battle injustices.
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Writing Papers of Literary Analysis

Some advice for student writers by Seamus Cooney
[Organization ] = [Content: what to say ] = [Style ] = [Mechanics ] = [Documentation and quoting ] = [Pet Peeves ] = [Correction symbols and abbreviations]

Related pages:
Common usage errors |%| Properly intergrating quotations into your text |%| Some notes on syntax

Key Points: If you are writing about poems, remember that in poetry, while the line is the most essential unit of sound, the unit of meaning is the sentence, just as in prose. If you are writing about fiction, remember that summary alone is worthless. Organization

One excellent kind of paper presents a thesis and marshals arguments to support it, not forgetting to mention also the possible arguments against it (and to refute them, or concede to them where necessary). In general, the best shape here is a very brief opening statement of your thesis, then several carefully unified paragraphs in support, and finally a restatement, probably in fuller form, of the thesis. A thesis is a sentence that makes an argument -- says something that has to be proved or back-up. When you read or hear a good thesis statement, your reaction will be "Really?" or "How do you figure that?" or "Oh yeah? Prove it!"

or "That sounds interesting -- tell me more." In short, a thesis will set up the paper and prepare the reader to consider the evidence. A paper that begins with a thesis arouses interest. Contrast the deadening flat effect of beginning with a mere factual statement. Which of the following makes you more willing to read on? Ernest Hemingway wrote many short stories, some of which are as famous as his novels. o Hemingway's short stories achieve through compression and understatement emotional effects as powerful as any he achieved in his novels. Another excellent kind of paper might be called a process paper -- one in which you allow your reader to participate with you in the process of your thinking (and feeling). In this kind of paper, you might begin by saying what it is you want to look for or examine, and then lead the reader through a step by step journey of discovery -- perhaps the examination of a text piece by piece, or even (if it's short enough) line by line, or sentence by sentence. Whatever kind of paper you write, give it a helpful title. Don't call it "Final Paper" (that gives no relevant information); don't give it the name of the work you're writing about; and and avoid sweeping titles like "Wordsworth" or "Man's Place in Nature"! Aim for an unpretentious descriptive title, like "Nature Imagery in Three Poems by Modern Poets" or "Hemingway's Implied Attitude Toward Lady Brett". Adjust your title to the actual paper that gets written, just as you will need to adjust your opening paragraph. Titles and openings are, in fact, best written last.
o

[Organization ] = [Content: what to say ] = [Style ] = [Mechanics ] = [Documentation and quoting ] = [Pet Peeves ] = [Correction symbols and abbreviations]

Content: what to say

Never avoid saying the obvious: it's usually true. But don't spend a lot of time on it -- acknowledge its obviousness, perhaps by a word like "Clearly, ...." Then move on to something less obvious. Don't worry that something that you 've just figured out will be obvious or familiar to someone else. Even if this should be the case, it's still a pleasure for the reader to share in another person's discovery of it.

A good general principle to maintain your confidence is that if you find something interesting enough to say carefully, it'll be interesting enough for your reader. An ideal paper is one in which the writer discovers something and shares his or her pleasure in the discovery with a reader. The discovery may be an interpretation of a challenging story or poem (or portion thereof), or it may just be the discovery of what you really think about something or other. ("How do I know what I think until I see what I've said," Churchill is supposed to have said.) To discover your own considered opinion or valuation of the work you're writing about is a satisfying outcome to a paper. Avoid apologizing for what you say. It goes without saying that the views and interpretations you offer are yours, doesn't it? So there's no need for such boring and weasily phrases as "It seems to me" or "In my opinion." This does not mean you must avoid the first person singular. Use it where appropriate -- remembering, however, that a paper of literary commentary is not a piece of autobiography, so that your private self should not be in the foreground. But if you were told in school not to use "I," forget that advice! The pompousness of locutions like "The present writer" is ludicrous in a student paper. The only kind of originality that matters at all is finding the source of your ideas and feelings within yourself: being true to that origin. In a class paper, it doesn't in the least matter if what you say has been said before. In any case, it's not been said in the same way, and the study of literature should surely have brought home to you that the way of saying something is part of its meaning. Use concepts and terms you've worked with (for poetry: tone, diction, imagery, paraphrase, metrics, etc.; for fiction: characterization, plot, climax, symbolism, theme, etc.). But remember it's best to use them only when they pay off, not automatically. Paraphrase, for example, should be used selectively, when a line or sentence has a tricky meaning, or a meaning you're uncertain of but want to spell out as best you can. It would be tedious to automatically paraphrase every bit of poetry you wrote about. In writing about fiction, you will find more interesting things to say if you focus on characterization rather than characters. Writing about characters too often means writing as though they were real people, speculating about what happened before or after the action of the book or story, and other imponderables like that. Characters in a work of fiction are not real people, but rather careful constructs that resemble real people. Focussing oncharacterization means studying how the writer presents the character -what selection of detail is used, what mixture of direct "showing" to indirect "telling," what implied valuations are being made, and the like.

While some special literary terminology is useful and economical, avoid jargon. Don't think to impress anyone by using big words where simpler words would do. Be wary, especially, of loose vague terms like "theme" or "postmodern." Rule of thumb: when you quote supporting passages from the text being discussed, never let the quotation just lie there on the page inertly; make use of it, put it to work point to specific features or details or words in it, say what you see, what it is that makes you want to let the reader have it before him. It's no good (in a class paper) saying to yourself that the reader can surely work out the point for himself: in this context, it's up to you to do the work. After all, one of your purposes is to persuade your instructor/reader that you yourself can see. Avoid plot summary for its own sake. Whatever may have been the case in high school, in college literature courses you get no particular credit for simply having read and followed the contents of a poem or story or novel. Thus, sentences or paragraphs in which you simply recount what happens or what is said are of no value in a paper about literature. Exception: If a piece of writing is really tricky to decipher and you feel you've succeeded in doing so after some effort, it may be appropriate to lay your cards on the table. For example, "Stanza 2 is syntactically difficult. I understand it to be saying: ..." -- and give your paraphrase. Or, "What happens next in the story is obscure. From the hints given in the next section, I take it that ..." -- and say what you make out, citing the evidence. Summarizing content in order to make a point in your argument, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter and is very much an appropriate part of papers. Provided that you subordinate the summary to a critical point that you are making, you'll be okay. Compare: 1. Hamlet then goes to talk with his mother in her bedroom or "closet" 2. and grows more and more angry as he talks to her. Finally, he has a vision 3. of his father's Ghost, and this restores him to some calmness. 4. 5. 6. When Hamlet talks to his mother in her bedroom or "closet," his reproaches

7. to her grow more and more angry and uncontrolled. Ironically, it's only 8. his vision of the Ghost -- which she interprets as his madness -- that 9. restores him to some degree of reasonableness. In the first version, the writer seems to think that his summary is sufficiently interesting to hold our attention, but it just isn't -- not for anyone who has read the play. In the second version, the bits of summary are made to servesome point of interpretation or comment. To repeat: summary should always be ofered as a way of supporting a point you are making about the story or poem. Ideally, there should be no neutral narrative sentences about the characters or the action, such as "Ferris goes to visit his wife" or "The Duke then conducts his visitor downstairs." Instead, all such bits of summary should be in support of an interpretative point or comment: "When Ferris goes to visit his wife, he discovers that ..." or "The Duke's unpertured courtesy of manner can be heard as he invites his visitor to 'go / Together down' with him," etc. To put it another way: do not write a paper about the characters in a story; instead write about the story itself -- its words, its shaping or organization, its high points, symbolism, etc.

For more advanced students: An aspect of writing -- both poetry and prose -- that well repays attention and which will often yield valuable observations about authors' style is their syntax. For some beginning observations, click here.

[Organization ] = [Content: what to say ] = [Style ] = [Mechanics ] = [Documentation and quoting ] = [Pet Peeves ] = [Correction symbols and abbreviations]

Style

Even if you're laboring worriedly to find plausible things to say in your papers, it still might be profitable to you to examine your style and perhaps loosen it a little. Relax and speak like (in Wordsworth's pre-feminist phrase) "a man speaking to men." Of course, to speak personally should not entail garrulity. o Use the first person singular as you would in natural speaking. Avoid horrors such as "the present writer"!

Offer your opinions freely, where relevant, but don't apologize for them with phrases like "in my personal opinion" or "it seems to me." It goes without saying that your writing expresses you personal opinions, doesn't it? o Write informally but without slang. You don't want to sound like a selfimportant pompous ass, but neither are you shooting the bull over a sixpack. Student writers should make some effort -- or at least be aware of the desirability of an effort -- towards achieving a more than pedestrian style. Grammatical competence is something to be assumed as present, at this level of study. But what about a spark of liveliness in the writing? Maybe the following questions will help you move in the right direction. o Have you read your paper out loud, listening for awkward repetitions and try to hear if the sound flows and if the sentences sound like a college educated person? If you can, get a friend willing to listen and follow your meaning, and then keep watching his or her face for signs of bewilderment or of pleased comprehension. o Have you a sentence or two in your paper that pleases you with its rhythm or construction? o Take a look at your sentence structure: are they all subject + predicate constructions? o Do you ever build a cumulative sentence, using participial phrases? o Do you ever use a rhetorical question? o Does sentence length vary? o Do you have an occasional Jamesian-complex sentence? o An occasional punchy fragment? o What about your punctuation? How often have you had occasion to use the semicolon? Or even better, my personal favorite: the colon? Paired dashes? o And what about italics for conversational emphasis? (I probably overuse italics in these notes, but do you ever use them at all? (On the word processor, all it takes is pushing a button.) A suggestion: it might be helpful to read a page of some author whose style you admire and find congenial just before you write or revise your own work. Asked to name critics who write stylishly, I'd offer this random list: T. S. Eliot, F. R. Leavis, Mrs. Q. D. Leavis, Hugh Kenner, Guy Davenport, Jonathan Williams, Henry James, Tom Wolfe, Roland Barthes (via Richard Howard), James Baldwin, William Empson.
o

[Organization ] = [Content: what to say ] = [Style ] = [Mechanics ] = [Documentation and quoting ] = [Pet Peeves ] = [Correction symbols and abbreviations]

Mechanics

Be duly embarrassed if you make more than an occasional blunder such as lack of subject-verb agreement. Aim for standard educated English -- but let's all remember that educated speakers and writers make such "errors" often enough, and correctness of this kind is a secondary consideration. I won't do more than simply mention here the more common mistakes that irritate instructors, things like to/too/two; they're/their/there; alot/allot/a lot; lose/loose; lay/lie; then/than; alright/all right; and the like. Like spelling errors, these are slips almost anyone can make on occasion in a first draft. They should not survive the careful proofreading that writers who care about their writing subject each piece to. If you are in doubt about any of them, look them up in the dictionary and read the entry carefully. If necessary, write yourself a reminder note and stick it above your desk. (If you find it easier to look for help here, go a brief discussion of these common errors.)

Use the past tense to talk about biographical facts or publication data but the present tense to talk about what goes on in a work of fiction or poetry. Example: "Plath's Ariel was published after her death, but the poems show many premonitions of disaster to come." For on-line help with style and mechanics, consult Elements of Style by William Strunk, perhaps the most famous style manual in English.

[Organization ] = [Content: what to say ] = [Style ] = [Mechanics ] = [Documentation and quoting ] = [Pet Peeves ] = [Correction symbols and abbreviations]

Documentation and quoting

Commonsense, adequacy to purpose, and consistency are the criteria. Use MLA or APA style as you choose. Bear in mind the purpose: to make it as easy as possible for your reader to check your accuracy and fairness in the use of your sources. This shouldn't need sayingl, but it does. If you are quoting poetry, be sure to retain the line breaks. If you're running a very short quote into your own prose, use the slash to mark the line break. If you are quoting more than a couple of lines, set them off by indenting and single spacing, and type them line for line as they appear in the source. Brief parenthetical notes are much preferred to footnotes, whenever they can satisfy the purpose. Avoid footnotes or endnotes giving nothing but a page number (Heaney 47). Place such references in parentheses following the quotation. And keep them to a sensible minimum: if you're quoting four short bits from the same source in a single paragraph of your paper, you need only give the page reference following the last one. Above all, never use a note that merely says "ibid." The reader who goes to the trouble to turn to the back of an essay only to find such an unhelpful note will feel infuriated. In longer papers about poetry, especially, I find it helpful to have the entire text of the poem you're working on included, either in its place as needed or as an appendix. It's just one more way you show consideration for your reader. Accuracy in quoting is crucially important! Change nothing from your source without showing that you're doing so -- not spelling, not capitalization, not line breaks, not paragraphing. And your quotations must fit into your own sentence in a way that makes sense. This point is important and often causes trouble. For a fuller discussion with examples, click here. If you're writing a paper which draws on research you've done ("research" nowdays simply means reading books and articles in the library!), cite your sources scrupulously but as unobtrusively as possible. Do not write like this:
In the first article I read about Hemingway, the author surprised me by pointing out that Hemingway's first job was as a newspaper reporter (Jones 23).

Rather, subordinate the research to the results it brought you:

Hemingway's first job was as a newspaper reporter (Jones 23).

Give the information directly; your note shows that you're indebted for it to the source named.
[Organization ] = [Content: what to say ] = [Style ] = [Mechanics ] = [Documentation and quoting ] = [Pet Peeves ] = [Correction symbols and abbreviations]

Pet peeves Some errors and flaws annoy me perhaps inordinately. Anyone can make slips in subject-verb agreement or in spelling, but errors which derive from pretentiousness or from nervously "correcting" what isn't wrong (e.g. "to my brother and me") are especially apt to destroy the reader's trust in the voice coming through the writing.

Common sense should tell you that ellipses have no function at the beginning of a quotation which begins in the middle of a sentence or is a mere phrase. Such a quotation is is obviously fragmentary. It is pedantic to precede and follow it with ellipses. The function of ellipses is to show you've omitted something when it wouldn't otherwise be clear you had. Distinguish between the hyphen (used to join elements of compound words; often over-used in British writing but under-used in American) and the dash (used to indicated added-on bits of sentences -- like this) and use them correctly. Paired dashes set off parenthetical elements -- bits that are less separable than parentheses might indicate -- from the main flow of your sentence. Note that the hyphen is available on the keyboard as a single keystroke, but the dash is not. It must be either typed as two hyphens (sometimes -- though this is less accepted, since it's potentially confusing -- as a single hyphen with a space before and after it) or invoked by a word-processor-specific command to produce the proper typographical effect.

Speaking of effects, if you confuse the words affect and effect, you should drum into your head, "'Affect' is a verb, 'effect' is a noun!" For example: o His constant talking affected the other students' ability to concentrate. o The effect of his talking was to disrupt the class atmosphere. Once you've got a firm hold of that maxim, you can then go on to realize that it isn't always true, in that less frequently "affect" can be a noun and "effect" a verb. Confused? Then stick with the simple maxim. Otherwise, consult a dictionary, or consider the following sentences: He spoke like a computer, without affect of any kind. o His new clothes effected a transformation in the way people thought of him. Shall and will: people who enjoy grammatical precision find the common American confusion in the use of "shall" very annoying. The solution is
o

simple: never use shall! It's almost always a pretentious affectation, especially in student writing. I hate the following ugly usage: "If he would have told me that earlier, I would have known what to do" instead of "If he had told me ...." My distaste here may be a sign of adherence to a lost cause, since one hears the "wrong" usage everywhere nowdays. It's part of a general obsolescence of subjunctive forms. Other examples of this obsolescence, however, seem to me quite acceptable: "If he was here, I'd tell him what I thought" is (to me) an acceptable alternative to the more elegant "If he were here, I'd tell him what I thought."

Misplaced main subject: compare these two beginnings. o "In Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises, he begins by describing ..." o "In his novel,The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway begins by describing ..." The latter form is much superior, placing the author's name in the emphatic position as subject of the main clause rather than in an introductory phrase.

Here's an annoying instance of an absence of commonsense in scholarly documentation: the failure, when citing a reprint, to give the date of first publication. Compare these two versions of a possible end note: Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (New York: New American Library, 1961), 5. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813; rept. New York: New American Library, 1961), 5. The first version makes it sound as though the novel was first published in 1961. When the work cited is less well known than Jane Austen, this habit can be seriously misleading.

Caution: Other people's pet peeves: Personally, I find it acceptable to use the plural "they / them / their" as a gender-neutral pronoun, especially after words like "everybody" and "everyone." The argument that "everyone" must be singular because it contains the word "one" is pedantic in the extreme. What counts in language is not logic but usage. Most educated people do this in speaking, and it has a long tradition

of acceptance by distinguished writers. If you have a particularly fussy instructor, however, you may find this marked unacceptable. In that case, "him or her" becomes unavoidable, clumsy as it. (The unspeakable -- literally and figuratively -- "s/he" gimmickry is to be eschewed by all save writers who prefer political correctness to a graceful style.) Consult a discussion by linguists of gender neutral language and a delightful and instructive anti- pedantry page about how "Jane Austen and other famous authors violate what everyone learned in their English class".
Pages of Grammar and Style Notes by Jack Lynch of the University of Pennsylvania. Instructor's markings Go to main index of poems and other materials
This page has been visited times since it was last updated on May 6, 1996.

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Literary analysis parts

Theme: the underlying meaning of a literay selection. A theme may be directly stated, but more often it is implied. Characters: it refers to identify the characters of the story recognizing them by their names and trying to find out what kind of people they are. Plot: serie of events selected by the author to present and bring about the solution of some conflict.

Conflict: the story between two or more characters, between character and nature or society, or between a character and his or her feelings. Pattern of the events: the order in which events happen in the story. The author arranges events in a carefully planned pattern. Climax: it refers to the most exciting point of the story. When the conflict must be resolved in one away or the other. It is described as the highest point of interest. Conclusion: it refers to the solution of the conflict. Setting: includes time and place of the events in a story. It could be directly stated, or it may be only suggested. Tone: it reflects the author's attitude towards his subject and his audience. Style: it is how the author uses his own strategies for telling (writing) the story. It reveals his personality.

Imagery: are the words that help reader experience the way things are described in a story or a poem look, sound, smell, taste, or feel. Metapohor: it is a comparison of two things that are somewhat alike. The comparison is not directly stated.

Mood: the atmosphere or feeling in a written work. The choice of setting, objects, details, and words all help create it. Rhyme: two or more words that have the same ending sound. In peotry, the last words of lines often rhyme. Rhythym: the arrangement of stressed and unstressed sounds in writing and speech. It might be regular in a poem, or it may be varied to emphasize certain words or a mood. Simile: a comparison between two unlike things that is signaled by the word like or as. Flashback: an interruption in the action of a story or play to show a scene that heppened at an earlier time. It is used to give background information about the characters or the plot. Characterization: the method an author uses to help you become acquainted with a person in a story. The author develops character by describing physical characteristics, speech, and actions. He also reveals character by the attitudes and actions of the others. Alliteration: repeated consonant sounds occurring at the beginning of or within words. Structure: it is they way in how the story is organized.

Point of view: the author's choice of narrator, or speaker. The narrator may be an observer of the action, or the narrator may be a character in the story. Publicado por Larissa Lpez en 22:15 Enviar por correo electrnicoEscribe un blogCompartir con TwitterCompartir con Facebook

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Sample Analysis
Literary Analysis Format
A literary analysis format forms the platform on which the literary analysis of a novel, text, book or poetry can be presented. It asserts the layout of a literary analysis so that all the elements and points are allocated equal attention and importance in understanding the work.

Sample Literary Analysis Format

Name the literary work that is to be analyzed _____________________________ Analysis prepared by ______________________________ First Paragraph: The first paragraph must give elaborate information about the literary work, the author/poet of the work and the institution conducting the literary analysis. It must furnish the purpose behind conducting the analysis and the date of issue and submission of the analysis. The nature of analysis must be critical as literary analysis corresponds to an evaluation of a body of work. Second Paragraph: The second paragraph must put forward the arguments concerned with the passage and mention the number of times the passage has been read to throw light on the fact that a deep synthesis has been done before the analysis was started. The emotional reaction of the reader must be taken into account as that would establish the genre to which the work belongs. A special note of the literary figures of speech must be made as these play a central role in

enhancement of the story. References and examples must be given as evidences to support the arguments. Third Paragraph: The third paragraph must give a proper conclusion about the literary work and suggestions for the readers. It must include how much effect the author has created through the story. The success of the writer depends on the conclusion formed from the analysis. Download Literary Analysis Format
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Literary Analysis Format For your short story Analysis

Please, use the following format when analyzing your short stories. 1. Always type your names on your papers. Using a pen or a pencil to write your names on your papers after they have been printed is not allowed. 2. Always make sure that your names are typed on the top right hand corner of your papers. 3. Please, do not boldface any areas of your analysis paper. 4. Each of your analysis must contain the following elements in this manner: Plot summary: The plot is a brief but thorough summary of the story. You should exhibit knowledge of the five stages of the plot in your summary (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution). While I do not want you to specifically indicate each of them as you write your analysis, I want to be able to tell that you have incorporated them all. Please, cut out unnecessary detail when you summarize. Please begin your analysis like this: The short story, "--Name of Short story--" begins -----Your summaries must not be more than a page long. Characterization: The characters in the story are the people or animals that author uses to represent various events and actions. When discussing the characters, please, identify their physical traits and personality attributes and explain how each of them interrelates amongst one another in the story.

List all the characters in the story; but discuss in full only two main characters-usually the protagonist, and one antagonist. Please, make sure that when you point out their characters, you must substantiate them with evidence from the story. Setting: The setting of a story is usually represented by its depiction of time and place. While the author may state the original settings in the story, it is important that readers know that there could be various settings in the story as well. The expressions of events and actions do change from place to place and time to time. Discuss the time when the story was written or the time period, and explain where the story took place. You will use a lot of inferences to help you determine some of them. Please, always support your claim with evidence from the story. Theme: What is the universal meaning that the story provides you? How do you explain the fact that you have gotten the message in the story? A theme is usually the universal message or idea that is identified by the reader or audience. In stating the theme of a story, you should be able to express how much meaning and impact that the story had on you. A story may have as many themes as possible; however, you should choose one theme that you can fully discuss, using evidence from the story. Point of view: The point of view of a story is usually the angle from which the author tells his or her story. It is usually expressed in either the first person, second person, or third person. In the first person point of view, the author or narrator tells his or her story; it is mostly used in autobiographical or eyewitness reports. The second person point of view is rarely used in narratives. The third person point of view can be expressed in either third person limited or omniscient. In the third person limited, the narrator is usually not included as a character in the story. He or she is detached from the story; however, he or she is able to narrate the story based on what can be determined from one character in the story. In the third person omniscient, the character is fully involved in the story. He or she is able to see everything that is going on in the minds of the characters and is able to tell the movement of the characters as they progress form stage to stage.

Conflict: The conflicts that occur in a literary work are usually expressed as internal or external. Conflicts are the problems that the characters have as they interrelate amongst one another, and as they express their inner thoughts and feelings in a story. Please, make sure that you identify the internal and external conflicts in your story analysis; and make sure that you use references from the story to support your points.

Others: Symbolism, Tone, Mood, Irony, Symbolism (please, review these concepts and discuss them in your analysis if you choose to do so.)

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Night
by Elie Wiesel
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Night Analysis
Literary Devices in Night

Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory

Night is used throughout the book to symbolize death, darkness of the soul, and loss of faith. As an image, it comes up repeatedly. Even when the scene is literally set during the day, night may be...

Setting

Unlike fictional literature where authors can create or select a perfect setting for their story to unfold, Elie Wiesel recounts the setting of a portion of his lifetime. During the course of his s...

Narrator Point of View

The story is told from the first-person view of Elie Wiesel who writes and reflects on his experiences as a 15 and 16-year-old during World War II. Though written around ten years after his liberat...

Genre
This is not your typical coming-of-age story, which generally deals with a young persons introduction to independence, love, sex, and possibly death (but usually not their own) and often end...

Tone
Wiesels tone, as you might expect in a book about Nazi concentration camps, is serious and somber. He makes no attempt to lighten the mood with jokes there wasnt really much h...

Writing Style
Coming soon!

Whats Up With the Title?

The title refers to the consistent night metaphor Elie Wiesel employs throughout the book. "Night" refers to the darkness of life, mind, and soul experienced by all who suffered in Nazi concentrati...

Plot Analysis
Because Night is nonfiction memoir, it does not fit the classic plot analysis. Instead, it moves from moment to moment in an increasing downward trajectory until Eliezers father dies. Then E...

Bookers Seven Basic Plots Analysis: None

Because Night is nonfiction memoir, it does not fit into one of Bookers Basic Plots.

Three Act Plot Analysis

Because Night is nonfiction memoir, it does not fit into the structure of a Three Act plot.

Trivia
The first version of Night was much longer and started with the following line: "In the beginning there was faith which is childish; trust which is vain; and illusion which...

Steaminess Rating
There is very little sex in this book, and lots and lots of death. There are two or three mentions of sex, but none of them are all that explicit or sexy. First, in the train on the way to Auschwit...

Allusions
Adolf Hitler (throughout)Dr. Josef Mengele (5.55-59) Dr. Mengele has come to represent the horrors and evils of Nazi medicine and experimentation in the concentration camps. It was his job...
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Essay on Literary Analysis Of "Night" By Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel was a victim of the Holocaust during WWII. His story- like many other people who witnessed the gruesome events that occurred during WWII- seems nearly intangible. Most people can not grasp the fact that millions of innocent Jews were murdered strategically by Hitler and his followers. For many of the victims of the Holocaust, it was hard for them to keep their will to live and continue with their religious views because they were suffering tremendously. The use of symbolism, concrete language, and choppy diction in Elie Wiesels writing portray the fact that during tough times it is easy to let go of ones faith and give up hope.

While at the concentration camp, the author discusses his reoccurring struggle to believe that his God is a great God. The author asks questions like why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?(33). Once he witnesses the awful things that are happening at the camp to the Jewish people, he begins to question his religion; the author wonders why his God would allow something so terrible happen to his followers. In the novel he describes the time spent in the camp as a time without God. In the bible, when God is creating the earth, His first action is to make light to banish the darkness; meaning that darkness refers to life with no God. Wiesel uses the night as a symbol throughout his work to depict that his time at the camp was one long night; a night without his God. The first night Wiesel spent in the camp was described as the first night in camp that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed (34). This is the place in the novel where this symbolism was first introduced; when things for the author begin to go wrong. As the dreadful events of the Holocaust continued, the symbol of night sustained through the discourse. One night that was described in the narrative with a negative connotation was when the...

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