CONTENT:
1. HOW TO WRITE LITERARY
ANALYSIS ( PROSE WORK)
2. ANALYSIS OF SHORT STORIES IN
THE STORIES OF OURSELVES FOR
IGCSE 2109-202 (A Comprehensive
Study Guide on The Selected Short
Stories for 2019-2021)
, How to Write Literary Analysis
The Literary Essay: A Step-by-Step Guide
When you read for pleasure, your only goal is enjoyment. You might find
yourself reading to get caught up in an exciting story, to learn about an
interesting time or place, or just to pass time. Maybe you’re looking for
inspiration, guidance, or a reflection of your own life. There are as many
different, valid ways of reading a book as there are books in the world.
When you read a work of literature in an English class, however, you’re being
asked to read in a special way: you’re being asked to perform literary analysis.
To analyze something means to break it down into smaller parts and then
examine how those parts work, both individually and together. Literary
analysis involves examining all the parts of a novel, play, short story, or poem
—elements such as character, setting, tone, and imagery—and thinking about
how the author uses those elements to create certain effects.
A literary essay isn’t a book review: you’re not being asked whether or not you
liked a book or whether you’d recommend it to another reader. A literary
essay also isn’t like the kind of book report you wrote when you were younger,
where your teacher wanted you to summarize the book’s action. A high school-
or college-level literary essay asks, “How does this piece of literature actually
work?” “How does it do what it does?” and, “Why might the author have made
the choices he or she did?”
The Seven Steps
No one is born knowing how to analyze literature; it’s a skill you learn and a
process you can master. As you gain more practice with this kind of thinking
and writing, you’ll be able to craft a method that works best for you. But until
then, here are seven basic steps to writing a well-constructed literary essay:
1. Ask questions
2. Collect evidence
3. Construct a thesis
4. Develop and organize arguments
5. Write the introduction
6. Write the body paragraphs
7. Write the conclusion
, 1. Ask Questions
When you’re assigned a literary essay in class, your teacher will often provide
you with a list of writing prompts. Lucky you! Now all you have to do is choose
one. Do yourself a favor and pick a topic that interests you. You’ll have a much
better (not to mention easier) time if you start off with something you enjoy
thinking about. If you are asked to come up with a topic by yourself, though,
you might start to feel a little panicked. Maybe you have too many ideas—or
none at all. Don’t worry. Take a deep breath and start by asking yourself these
questions:
What Struck You? Did a particular image, line, or scene linger in your mind for
a long time? If it fascinated you, chances are you can draw on it to write a
fascinating essay.
What Confused You? Maybe you were surprised to see a character act in a
certain way, or maybe you didn’t understand why the book ended the way it
did. Confusing moments in a work of literature are like a loose thread in a
sweater: if you pull on it, you can unravel the entire thing. Ask yourself why the
author chose to write about that character or scene the way he or she did and
you might tap into some important insights about the work as a whole.
Did You Notice Any Patterns? Is there a phrase that the main character uses
constantly or an image that repeats throughout the book? If you can figure out
how that pattern weaves through the work and what the significance of that
pattern is, you’ve almost got your entire essay mapped out.
Did You Notice Any Contradictions Or Ironies? Great works of literature are
complex; great literary essays recognize and explain those complexities. Maybe
the title Happy Days totally disagrees with the book’s subject matter (hungry
orphans dying in the woods). Maybe the main character acts one way around
his family and a completely different way around his friends and associates. If
you can find a way to explain a work’s contradictory elements, you’ve got the
seeds of a great essay.
At this point, you don’t need to know exactly what you’re going to say about
your topic; you just need a place to begin your exploration. You can help direct
your reading and brainstorming by formulating your topic as a question, which
, you’ll then try to answer in your essay. The best questions invite critical
debates and discussions, not just a rehashing of the summary. Remember,
you’re looking for something you can prove or argue based on evidence you
find in the text. Finally, remember to keep the scope of your question in mind:
is this a topic you can adequately address within the word or page limit you’ve
been given? Conversely, is this a topic big enough to fill the required length?
GOOD QUESTIONS
“Are Romeo and Juliet’s parents responsible for the deaths of their children?”
“Why do pigs keep showing up in Lord of the Flies ?”
“Are Dr. Frankenstein and his monster alike? How?”
BAD QUESTIONS
“What happens to Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird ?”
“What do the other characters in Julius Caesar think about Caesar?”
“How does Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter remind me of my sister?”
2. Collect Evidence
Once you know what question you want to answer, it’s time to scour the book
for things that will help you answer the question. Don’t worry if you don’t
know what you want to say yet—right now you’re just collecting ideas and
material and letting it all percolate. Keep track of passages, symbols, images, or
scenes that deal with your topic. Eventually, you’ll start making connections
between these examples and your thesis will emerge.
Here’s a brief summary of the various parts that compose each and every work
of literature. These are the elements that you will analyze in your essay, and
which you will offer as evidence to support your arguments. For more on the
parts of literary works, see the Glossary of Literary Terms at the end of this
section.
Elements of Story
These are the whats of the work—what happens, where it happens, and to
whom it happens.
Plot: All of the events and actions of the work.
1. HOW TO WRITE LITERARY
ANALYSIS ( PROSE WORK)
2. ANALYSIS OF SHORT STORIES IN
THE STORIES OF OURSELVES FOR
IGCSE 2109-202 (A Comprehensive
Study Guide on The Selected Short
Stories for 2019-2021)
, How to Write Literary Analysis
The Literary Essay: A Step-by-Step Guide
When you read for pleasure, your only goal is enjoyment. You might find
yourself reading to get caught up in an exciting story, to learn about an
interesting time or place, or just to pass time. Maybe you’re looking for
inspiration, guidance, or a reflection of your own life. There are as many
different, valid ways of reading a book as there are books in the world.
When you read a work of literature in an English class, however, you’re being
asked to read in a special way: you’re being asked to perform literary analysis.
To analyze something means to break it down into smaller parts and then
examine how those parts work, both individually and together. Literary
analysis involves examining all the parts of a novel, play, short story, or poem
—elements such as character, setting, tone, and imagery—and thinking about
how the author uses those elements to create certain effects.
A literary essay isn’t a book review: you’re not being asked whether or not you
liked a book or whether you’d recommend it to another reader. A literary
essay also isn’t like the kind of book report you wrote when you were younger,
where your teacher wanted you to summarize the book’s action. A high school-
or college-level literary essay asks, “How does this piece of literature actually
work?” “How does it do what it does?” and, “Why might the author have made
the choices he or she did?”
The Seven Steps
No one is born knowing how to analyze literature; it’s a skill you learn and a
process you can master. As you gain more practice with this kind of thinking
and writing, you’ll be able to craft a method that works best for you. But until
then, here are seven basic steps to writing a well-constructed literary essay:
1. Ask questions
2. Collect evidence
3. Construct a thesis
4. Develop and organize arguments
5. Write the introduction
6. Write the body paragraphs
7. Write the conclusion
, 1. Ask Questions
When you’re assigned a literary essay in class, your teacher will often provide
you with a list of writing prompts. Lucky you! Now all you have to do is choose
one. Do yourself a favor and pick a topic that interests you. You’ll have a much
better (not to mention easier) time if you start off with something you enjoy
thinking about. If you are asked to come up with a topic by yourself, though,
you might start to feel a little panicked. Maybe you have too many ideas—or
none at all. Don’t worry. Take a deep breath and start by asking yourself these
questions:
What Struck You? Did a particular image, line, or scene linger in your mind for
a long time? If it fascinated you, chances are you can draw on it to write a
fascinating essay.
What Confused You? Maybe you were surprised to see a character act in a
certain way, or maybe you didn’t understand why the book ended the way it
did. Confusing moments in a work of literature are like a loose thread in a
sweater: if you pull on it, you can unravel the entire thing. Ask yourself why the
author chose to write about that character or scene the way he or she did and
you might tap into some important insights about the work as a whole.
Did You Notice Any Patterns? Is there a phrase that the main character uses
constantly or an image that repeats throughout the book? If you can figure out
how that pattern weaves through the work and what the significance of that
pattern is, you’ve almost got your entire essay mapped out.
Did You Notice Any Contradictions Or Ironies? Great works of literature are
complex; great literary essays recognize and explain those complexities. Maybe
the title Happy Days totally disagrees with the book’s subject matter (hungry
orphans dying in the woods). Maybe the main character acts one way around
his family and a completely different way around his friends and associates. If
you can find a way to explain a work’s contradictory elements, you’ve got the
seeds of a great essay.
At this point, you don’t need to know exactly what you’re going to say about
your topic; you just need a place to begin your exploration. You can help direct
your reading and brainstorming by formulating your topic as a question, which
, you’ll then try to answer in your essay. The best questions invite critical
debates and discussions, not just a rehashing of the summary. Remember,
you’re looking for something you can prove or argue based on evidence you
find in the text. Finally, remember to keep the scope of your question in mind:
is this a topic you can adequately address within the word or page limit you’ve
been given? Conversely, is this a topic big enough to fill the required length?
GOOD QUESTIONS
“Are Romeo and Juliet’s parents responsible for the deaths of their children?”
“Why do pigs keep showing up in Lord of the Flies ?”
“Are Dr. Frankenstein and his monster alike? How?”
BAD QUESTIONS
“What happens to Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird ?”
“What do the other characters in Julius Caesar think about Caesar?”
“How does Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter remind me of my sister?”
2. Collect Evidence
Once you know what question you want to answer, it’s time to scour the book
for things that will help you answer the question. Don’t worry if you don’t
know what you want to say yet—right now you’re just collecting ideas and
material and letting it all percolate. Keep track of passages, symbols, images, or
scenes that deal with your topic. Eventually, you’ll start making connections
between these examples and your thesis will emerge.
Here’s a brief summary of the various parts that compose each and every work
of literature. These are the elements that you will analyze in your essay, and
which you will offer as evidence to support your arguments. For more on the
parts of literary works, see the Glossary of Literary Terms at the end of this
section.
Elements of Story
These are the whats of the work—what happens, where it happens, and to
whom it happens.
Plot: All of the events and actions of the work.
