Composition Project 1 Project 1: Literary Analysis
Composition Project 1
Project 1: Literary Analysis
Task: Write a literary analysis of one of the short stories we read in this course. Briefly describe the story,
and what you think are the essential literary elements to understanding the story.
Audience and purpose: Your objective is to use evidence to support your analysis of the short story.
Your audience is your classmates and instructor as well as a larger audience who has not read the short story
before.
Research and evidence: You need only draw from the texts that you have read for this project. However,
in order to illustrate your theme, you may also use outside sources.
Steps toward success:
1) Read your short story in-depth. (This will require multiple readings of the text.)
2) Take notes and annotate the story.
3) Take advantage of the process. Carefully consider all revision comments you receive from your peers
and instructor, and make significant revisions.
4) Avoid simply summarizing the plot of the short story. Remember that this class focuses on your
analytical writing skills, not on retelling the story.
4) Checklist:
Length: 900 to 1200 words
Sources: For this project, you need only refer to the literature on which you are working. Be sure
to cite both the evidence from the text and any outside sources you use.
Include a Works Cited page using MLA style.
Literary Analysis: Using Elements of Literature
Students are asked to write literary analysis essays because this type of assignment encourages you to think about how and why a poem, short story, novel, or play was written.
To successfully analyze literature, you’ll need to remember that authors make specific choices for particular reasons. Your essay should point out the author’s choices and attempt to explain their significance.
Another way to look at a literary analysis is to consider a piece of literature from your own perspective. Rather than thinking about the author’s intentions, you can develop an argument based on any single term (or combination of terms) listed below. You’ll need to use the original text as evidence to defend and explain your argument to the reader.
Character – representation of a person, place, or thing performing traditionally human activities or functions in a work of fiction
Protagonist– The character the story revolves around.
Antagonist– A character or force that opposes the protagonist.
Minor character– Often provides support and illuminates the protagonist.
Static character– A character that remains the same.
Dynamic character– A character that changes in some important way.
Characterization– The choices an author makes to reveal a character’s personality, such as appearance, actions, dialogue, and motivations.
Look for: Connections, links, and clues between and about characters. Ask yourself what the function and significance of each character is. Make this determination based upon the character’s history, what the reader is told (and not told), and what other characters say about themselves and others.
Figurative language – the use of words to express meaning beyond the literal meaning of the words themselves
Metaphor– contrasting to seemingly unalike things to enhance the meaning of a situation or theme without using like or as
o You are the sunshine of my life.
Simile– contrasting to seemingly unalike things to enhance the meaning of a situation or theme using like or as
o What happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun
Hyperbole – exaggeration
o I have a million things to do today.
Personification– giving non-human objects human characteristics
o America has thrown her hat into the ring, and will be joining forces with the British.
Imagery – the author’s attempt to create a mental picture (or reference point) in the mind of the reader. Remember, though the most immediate forms of imagery are visual, strong and effective imagery can be used to invoke an emotional, sensational (taste, touch, smell) or even physical response.
Plot – the arrangement of ideas and/or incidents that make up a story
Foreshadowing– When the writer clues the reader in to something that will eventually occur in the story; it may be explicit (obvious) or implied (disguised).
Suspense– The tension that the author uses to create a feeling of discomfort about the unknown
Conflict– Struggle between opposing forces.
Exposition– Background information regarding the setting, characters, plot.
Rising Action– The process the story follows as it builds to its main conflict
Crisis– A significant turning point in the story that determines how it must end
Resolution/Denouement– The way the story turns out.
Point of View – pertains to who tells the story and how it is told. The point of view of a story can sometimes indirectly establish the author’s intentions.
Narrator– The person telling the story who may or may not be a character in the story.
First-person– Narrator participates in action but sometimes has limited knowledge/vision.
Second person – Narrator addresses the reader directly as though she is part of the story. (i.e. “You walk into your bedroom. You see clutter everywhere and…”)
Third Person (Objective)– Narrator is unnamed/unidentified (a detached observer). Does not assume character’s perspective and is not a character in the story. The narrator reports on events and lets the reader supply the meaning.
Omniscient– All-knowing narrator (multiple perspectives). The narrator knows what each character is thinking and feeling, not just what they are doing throughout the story. This type of narrator usually jumps around within the text, following one character for a few pages or chapters, and then switching to another character for a few pages, chapters, etc. Omniscient narrators also sometimes step out of a particular character’s mind to evaluate him or her in some meaningful way.
Setting – the place or location of the action. The setting provides the historical and cultural context for characters. It often can symbolize the emotional state of characters. Example – In Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, the crumbling old mansion reflects the decaying state of both the family and the narrator’s mind.
Structure (fiction) – The way that the writer arranges the plot of a story.
Look for: Repeated elements in action, gesture, dialogue, description, as well as shifts in direction, focus, time, place, etc.
Symbolism – when an object is meant to be representative of something or an idea greater than the object itself.
Cross – representative of Christ or Christianity
Bald Eagle – America or Patriotism
Owl – wisdom or knowledge
Yellow – implies cowardice or rot
Tone – the implied attitude towards the subject of the story. Is it hopeful, pessimistic, dreary, worried? A story conveys tone by combining all of the elements listed above to create a precise impression on the reader.
http://www.roanestate.edu/owl/WritingLitAnalysis1.html
The Practices of Dr. Rank a student example of a literary analysis of “The Doll House”http://www.roanestate.edu/owl/DollHouse.html
