E N G L I S H 68

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LITERARY ANALYSIS
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PLOT - Plot is much more than what happens in a story; it is "a pattern of carefully selected, causally
related events that contain conflict." Identify and discuss conflict involved in the plot. You are not supposed to summarize the plot--you are to identify the conflict and comment on that conflict. Questions about plot you may want to explore to develop your thesis include: How do events relate to one another? How do single events relate to the work as a whole? How are events arranged in time? What conflicts occur in the story? What causes the conflict and how does it move the plot along? Which of the conflicts are external, which internal? What qualities or values does the author associate with each side of a conflict? How is the conflict resolved? If it is not resolved, why not? How does the conflict help to reveal character? Remember, these are only suggested questions to help you develop a thesis.

CHARACTERIZATION - Characters are the people in stories, but characterization is "the

author's presentation and development of characters." Characters can be either static, implying they do not grow; or they are dynamic, meaning they do grow. Discuss an aspect of characterization. Questions about characterization you might ask include: What conflicts exist between the protagonist(s) and the antagonist(s)? How do characters try to solve them? Do characters have contradictory traits that cause internal conflicts? How do the characters relate to one another? Do they understand themselves? How and what do they learn about themselves? How does this new understanding affect other characters? Do the characters change? If not, why not? If so, how and why? Again, these questions are only to help you develop your thesis, but you may still use one of them to form the basis of your thesis.

THEME - Theme is the central idea, commenting in some way about

the human condition. It deals with four general areas of human experience: The natures of humanity, of society, of humankind's relationship with the world, and of our ethical responsibilities. A theme is what the work says about a topic and must apply not only to the characters in the story but to the "real" world as well--it is a comment on "The Human Condition," and your essay's thesis should comment on the theme's comment on the human condition. Questions you can ask about theme include: What image of humankind emerges from the work? Does the author believe people to be good or evil? Does the author portray a particular society or social scheme as life-enhancing or lifedestroying? Are the characters in conflict with their society? Do they escape from this or are they trapped by it? Do characters find a secure place in society without sacrificing their dignity or values? If society is flawed, how is it flawed? Do characters have control of their lives? Are the characters aware of these controlling forces? How do they deal with these forces? What are the moral conflicts in the story? Are they clear-cut or ambiguous? To what extent are characters to blame for their actions? Are there moral values in conflict with one another? Again, these are questions designed to help you develop a thesis for an essay.

SETTING - The time, place, general environment, occupations and manner of daily living of the
characters in a book or story are the elements that make up its setting. To reveal what effect the setting

may or may not have on a story, several questions should be considered: When and where does the action take place? What is the relationship between the setting and the plot? How does the time in which the story is set affect the situations with which the characters are faced? How does nature, weather or season contribute to the plot or theme? How does setting create the mood of the story? Does the writer draw on the setting to evoke a specific atmosphere? How does the setting affect the characters? These questions should provide ideas for developing a thesis.

TONE - The tone of a literary work reveals the author's attitude toward its theme, character, setting,
or event. The tone affects how the reader interprets and responds to the work. The author conveys his or her attitude through several types of literary devices. He or she may state point-blank how he or she feels, but more often the tone is conveyed indirectly. An author's tone may be serious, angry, humorous, sympathetic, satirical, ironic, instructive, persuasive, and so forth. By using subjective language, an author can evoke certain feelings in his or her readers. Certain connotative words or facts make the reader feel a certain way about the topic. Several questions to consider when writing about tone are: How does the writer make me feel about the subject? What types of connotative words are used to develop the tone? What method of presentation is used? What types of figurative language help to develop the author's tone? Does the author use imagery, similes, metaphors, or symbols?

SYMBOL - "In the broadest sense, a symbol is something that represents something else. In
literature, a symbol is an object that has meaning beyond itself. The object is concrete and the meanings are abstract" (69). For example, fire is a concrete thing, but it could symbolize passion (flames of desire), or hell (the fiery furnace). However, symbols are not metaphors and are never the second part of simile. Symbols are usually obvious because writers want their readers to recognize a symbol's abstract meaning. If no meaning is suggested beyond the concrete meaning of an object, then it probably was not meant to be a symbol. Do not confuse symbols from ordinary significant details; the reader must make a major mental leap to identify the symbol with its meaning. The best symbols never stand for only one idea. They are only meant to suggest a concept. To discover if there are symbols in a literary work, you must ask several questions. What symbols does the work seem to have? How do you know they are symbols? What does the author do that gives symbolic meaning to the elements you see as symbols. What does the symbol mean? What does the symbol add to the meaning of the work? Use this definition and these questions to develop a thesis about one of the stories.

IRONY - Irony has several components. "Irony is a visible contrast between appearance and reality"
(65). An ironic point of view is apparent when the reader senses a sharp distinction between the narrator of a story and the author. Irony is likely to occur, especially when the narrator is telling us something that we are clearly expected to doubt or to interpret very differently. Verbal irony is a sarcastic statement. Characters either say the opposite of what they mean, understate what they say, minimizing its nature, or overstate what they say, exaggerating its nature. Situational irony occurs when the situation is different from what most people expect and common sense indicates it is, should be or will be. Cosmic irony is a form of situational irony which suggests that some malicious fate is deliberately frustrating human efforts. Attitudinal irony results from what one person expects. An individual thinks reality is one way when, in fact, it is very different. Dramatic irony occurs when characters believe something to be true but the other characters or the readers believe otherwise. The first question to ask is, what are the most obvious ironies in the work? The second is, How are they important? What, for example, are their implications? Analysis material adapted from Griffith Kelley, Jr. Writing Essays About Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet. 3rd ed. New York: Harcourt, 1990.