What to look for What to do What not to do } When you analyze, you are looking closely at the elements of the story you are analyzing. } When you analyze, you are trying to find textual evidence for your interpretation of the story. 1 2 } Plot (what happens) } Conflict (the dilemma the main character faces) } Characterization (how the characters are portrayed) } Setting (when and where) } Symbol and metaphor } Theme (a central insight about people or truth about life) } The first step in literary analysis is to read the work over and over and to annotate it. Underline words or images that are repeated throughout the story Jot down your thoughts and questions 3 4 } A literary analysis is an argument. } When you write a literary analysis, you use textual evidence from the story to support your interpretation of the story. } } Textual evidence is the actual words the author uses in the story. Your analysis is how you interpret the words the author uses. 5 6 1
} Do not just retell the story. Use present tense when you describe what happens in the story. 7 8 } DO NOT DO THIS: Clara realized that Billy knew he was dying when he said A man in his youth is like a summer } DO THIS: Clara realizes that Billy knows he is dying when he says A man in his youth is like a summer } The first or second sentence of your analysis should identify the title of the story, the author, and what the story is about (the subject or literary motif). } The last sentence of your first paragraph should be your thesis. 9 10 } Tennessee Williams Tent Worms is the story of a day in a married couple s last summer together. } Tent Worms by Tennessee Williams is about a woman who thinks her husband does not know he is dying. } It is important to develop a thesis statement that makes an interesting claim. } Figure out what element of the story you want to focus on: character, symbol, setting, irony, theme, etc. } Write a sentence that uses that element and makes a claim about it. 11 12 2
} Another way to think of your thesis is to think of the main puzzle or question you want to answer } Then your thesis will be the answer to the puzzle or question. } Look at the question(s) about each story on the assignment sheet. } Try to write an answer to the question. If a story has more than one question, choose only one question to answer. 13 14 } A thesis should not be too factual, too broad, or too vague. } Too factual: In Tent Worms, Clara and Billy Foxworth are a married couple on vacation in late summer. } Too broad: Tent Worms shows that hiding the truth from a terminally ill patient causes many problems. } Too vague: Tent Worms is Tennessee Williams most interesting short story. 15 16 } In Tent Worms, the descriptions of the setting, including the cottage and the tent worms, become metaphors for what is happening in the lives of the characters. } Look for quotations in the story to support your thesis. Quotations are your textual evidence. } Write a lead-in and discussion for your quotation that summarizes the main point you think the quotation illustrates. 17 18 3
} DON T DO THIS: Clara finally understands that Billy knows he is dying. A man in his youth is like a summer } This quote is confusing because we don t know who said it or what the context or significance of the quote is. } DO THIS: } Clara finally understands that Billy knows he is dying when he says, A man in his youth is like a summer 19 20 } Keep most of your quotations short. Often it is more effective to integrate short quotations into your own text than to quote too many long passages. } Remember that each quote should support a point you are trying to make. Because it is conventional to write about literature in the present tense, and because most stories are in other tenses, you will have to be extra careful when weaving quotations into your own writing. If your signal phrase is in present tense, your quote can be exactly as it is in past tense as long as leaving it in past tense does not create a verb tense shift problem. 21 22 } Your signal phrase should be in present tense. If your signal phrase introduces the whole quote and does not try to weave part of the quote into your sentence, you can just copy the quote even if it is in past tense. Rita s reaction to Johnny s attitude is described as follows: she blushed, like a wave of illness (159). } Tense shift When Rita sees Johnny s relaxed attitude, she blushed, like a wave of illness (159). } Revised When Rita sees Johnny s relaxed attitude, she is overcome with embarrassment, like a wave of illness (159). } Revised When Rita sees Johnny s relaxed attitude, she blushe[s], like a wave of illness (159). 23 24 4
} Build from your least important point to your most important point. } Make sure each paragraph ties back to your thesis. Remind the reader about your thesis throughout the analysis. Try to remind the reader of your thesis without being redundant by rephrasing and developing your thesis. } Look at the quotations and your discussion of them. Does each quote clearly support a point you are trying to make about your thesis? } Does your paper follow PIE (Point that supports your thesis, Illustration with quote, Explanation of how the quote shows your point? 25 26 } Toward the end of the story it becomes clear that the tent worms are much more than an unpleasant infestation problem. Clara views the tent worms as an annoyance, and does not see that they represent much more to Billy. When Billy says, A blight on vegetation is like a blight on your body (99), the reader can see that Billy knows the truth, viewing the tent worms as a metaphor for the disease which is afflicting him. Clara, however, does not see the significance of his comment and does not see that Billy actually knows he is dying until he says A man in his youth is like a summer place (99), comparing himself to a place rented for summer that they will never come back to (99). Even then, he must repeat himself before Clara understands what he means. Their summer cottage becomes a metaphor for Billy himself, representing his lost youth which he can never re-live and the life he knows will end soon. } Work on writing an interesting conclusion that connects your thesis to some insight about the characters or meaning of the story. } Or you can connect your thesis to some deeper meaning or significance of the story. 27 28 } Think of a better title than Literary Analysis of. } See if you can use part of your thesis in the title. See if you can use the element you are focusing on in your title. Example: What Hands Show in Lee Tonouchi s Where to Put Your Hands. } Make your Work Cited entry. } If you are analyzing a story in a collection of stories by different authors, you are making an entry for a Work in an Anthology, not for a regular book. You will need the names of the editors of the anthology. } If you are analyzing a story in a collection of stories by a single author, you do not need the names of the editors of the book. 29 30 5
} Literary analysis can be fun } Your interpretation is valid as long as you can support it with textual evidence. } PAU 31 6