How to Write a Literary Analysis

How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay

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|The Elements of a Literary Analysis Essay |

|What is analysis? |Separation or breaking up of a whole into its fundamental |

| |elements or component parts. |

|What is literary analysis? |A detailed examination of the component parts of complex |

| |literature (a novel, poem, play or short story) made in order to |

| |understand its nature or determine its essential features. |

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|Adapted from Webster’s Third New International Dictionary |

|What can I use as source material for a successful literary analysis? |

As it says above, it will need to be complex. By complexity, we mean the following:

▪ it deals with “big ideas”: can we fight fate? do we control our destinies? is conflict between parents and children inevitable? how do we redeem ourselves? etc.

▪ it uses indirect ways to tell us about these big ideas: characters fight fate and try to control their destinies, metaphors are used, the narrator lets the characters’ actions and words tell us about the big ideas, symbolic language is used to convey the big ideas

▪ it is substantial enough (there is enough there) to sustain...