Source K.

Grifth: Writing Essays about Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet ()

Checklist for
interpreting
literature
(p. )
Understand all the details of the work. Clarify any confusion about what goes on in the work.
Use your imagination to relate the work to your experiences.
Develop hunches (hypotheses) about the meaning of the work as you read.
If you own the work, mark it (underline, draw arrows, etc.) and write comments in the margin to help you generate ideas and to
remember key passages when you review the work.
Seek out ideas of otherscritics, teachers, and other students. Compare your ideas with theirs.
Checklist for
the elements
of literature
(p. z)
Note the qualities of language that make the work youre studying literary. (Literature is language, pages 1-1.)
Spot the ways in which the author uses invented materials. (Literature is ctional, page 1.)
Explore how the author stylizes the work to make it seem ctional. (Literature Is ctional, pages 16-18.)
Underline those places where the author states ideas directly. (Literature is true, pages 18-1.)
Explore how the work might be allegoricalhow characters, actions, and physical details embody ideas.
(Literature Is true, pages zo-z1.)
Explain how the characters are typical or atypical of real human beings. (Literature is true, pages 1-zo.)
Show how the events and actions of characters are probable or improbable. (Literature is true, pages 1-zo.)
Indicate how the work makes you experience its subject matter. (Literature is true, pages z1-zz.)
Explain how the work gives you pleasure. If it does not, say why. (Literature is aesthetic, pages z-zq.)
Compare works that are alluded to in the work or that are similar to it. (Literature is intertextual, pages zq-z.)
Identify the genre of the work. (Literature is intertextual, pages zq-z.)
Note how the work abides by and departs from the conventions of the genre. (Literature is intertextual, pages zq-z.)
Speculate about why the author chose this genre to present the ideas of the work. (Literature is intertextual, pages zq-z.)
Checklist for
interpreting
fction
(p.)z)
inzHzs (pages z-))
State some of the important subjects.
Formulate themes that emerge from these subjects.
Mark statements by narrators and characters that might
serve as themes. Assess the validity of these statements as
themes.
Use philosophical questions to probe thematic implications
of the work.
If there is a moral center, describe that character. Explain
why this and any other character could be considered a
moral center.
oiui or vizv (pages )-qz)
Indicate the point of viewwho narrates.
Describe the narrator's tone.
Assess the reliability of the narrator.
Explain who the audiencenarratee(s)of the narrative is.
ioi (pages qq-q)
Compare arrangements of events In the plot and story.
Outline the pattern of the plotFreytags pattern or other
patterns.
If there are multiple plot lines, summarize each one. Indicate
their connections to one another.
Indicate the true beginning of the plot. Assess the
appropriateness of the ending. Identify the major conicts.
Explain what the protagonists ght for and against what or
whom (antagonists).
Show how any embedded stories or frame stories illuminate
the; main plots.
Indicate examples of summary narration and scenic
narration. Speculate about why the author uses each.
cnAAcizizAiiou (pages q-6o)
Explain the traits of at characters.
Describe how round characters are complex.
Indicate which characters change and why.
Show what method or methods the author uses to
render characters thoughts.
Summarize epiphanies characters have. Explain what
causes and leads to the epiphanies.
Mark passages where the narrator or characters make
descriptive and judgmental statements about
characters.
sziiiuc (pages 61-66)
Describe the place of the setting.
Indicate how the place aects characters.
Explain the timehistorical period, passage of time,
perception of timeof the narrative.
Characterize the social environment and how
characters respond to it.
Describe the atmosphere. Indicate what causes it.
iouv (pages 66-6)
Explore how irony contributes to other elements
especially characterization, tone, and themes.
svHaoiisH (pages 6-)1)
Describe key symbols.
Explain why you think they are symbols and what
they represent.