Tips for writing a solid Literary

Analysis Essay
• Write in the present tense.

• EXAMPLE: In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," the

townspeople visit Emily Grierson's house because it
smells bad.

• NOT: In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," the townspeople

visited Emily Grierson's house because it smelled bad.

• Normally, keep yourself out of your analysis; in

other words, use the third person (no I or you).
Examples of Point of View (person)
• FIRST PERSON: I believe that the narrator in "Sonny's Blues" is a
dynamic character because I read many details about the changes
in his attitude toward and relationship with Sonny.

• THIRD PERSON: The narrator in "Sonny's Blues" is a dynamic

character who changes his attitude toward and relationship with
Sonny as the story progresses.

• SECOND PERSON: At the end of "Everyday Use," Mama realizes

that Maggie is like her but has not received the attention you should
give your daughter to help her attain self-esteem.

• THIRD PERSON: At the end of "Everyday Use," Mama realizes that

Maggie is like her but has not received enough attention to build
self-esteem.
 The introduction…
• The introduction to your literary analysis essay should try
to arouse interest in your reader. To bring immediate
focus to your subject, you may want to use a quotation, a
provocative question, a personal anecdote, a startling
statement, or a combination of these. You may also want
to include background information relevant to your thesis
and necessary for the reader to understand the position
you are taking.

• In addition, you need to include the title of the work of

literature and name of the author.

• The following are satisfactory introductory paragraphs

which include appropriate thesis statements:
 Example intro…
What would you expect to be the personality of a
man who has his wife sent away to a convent (or
perhaps has had her murdered) because she took too
much pleasure in the sunset and in a compliment paid to
her by another man? It is just such a man – a
Renaissance duke -- that Robert Browning portrays in
his poem “My Last Duchess.” Through what he says
about himself, through his actions, and through his
interpretation of earlier incidents, the Duke reveals the
arrogance, jealousy, and materialism that are his most
conspicuous traits.
 Intro continued…
The setting of John Updike’s story “A & P” is crucial
to our understanding of Sammy’s decision to quit his job.
Even though Sammy knows that his quitting will make
life more difficult for him, he instinctively insists upon
rejecting what the A & P represents in the story. When
he rings up a “No Sale” and “saunter[s]” out of the store,
Sammy leaves behind not only a job but the rigid state of
mind associated with the A & P. Although Sammy is the
central character in the story and we learn much about
him, Updike seems to invest as much effort in describing
the setting as he does Sammy. The title, after all, is not
“Youthful Rebellion” or “Sammy Quits” but “A & P.” In
fact, the setting is the antagonist of the story and plays a
role that is as important as Sammy’s.
 Thesis Statement
Include a clear thesis statement which addresses
something meaningful about the literature, often
about the theme.

The thesis statement tells your reader what to expect: it

is a restricted, precisely worded
declarative sentence that states the purpose of your
essay -- the point you are trying to make.

Without a carefully conceived thesis, an essay has

no chance of success.
 What to do in the body of the paper…
Well, avoid summarizing the plot for one!
• (i.e., retelling the story literally). Instead analyze
(form a thesis about and explain) the story in literary
terms.
• Example of what not to do…
PLOT SUMMARY: In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale
Heart," the mad narrator explains in detail how he kills
the old man, who screams as he dies. After being alerted
by a neighbor, the police arrive, and the madman gives
them a tour through the house, finally halting in the old
man's bedroom, where he has buried the man beneath
the floor planks under the bed. As he is talking, the
narrator hears what he thinks is the old man's heart
beating loudly, and he is driven to confess the murder.
 This is what you want to do…
• ANALYSIS: Though the narrator claims he is not mad,
the reader realizes that the narrator in "The Telltale
Heart" is unreliable and lies about his sanity. For
example, the mad narrator says he can hear "all things in
the heaven and in the earth." Sane people cannot. He
also lies to the police when he tells them that the shriek
they hear occurs in his dream. Though sane people do
lie, most do not meticulously plan murders, lie to the
police, and then confess without prompting. Finally, the
madman is so plagued with guilt that he hears his own
conscience in the form of the old man's heart beating
loudly. Dead hearts do not beat, nor do sane people
confuse their consciences with the sounds of external
objects.
 Use Literary Terms to your
advantage
• Use literary terms to discuss your points (i.e.,
character, theme, setting, rhyme, point of view,
alliteration, symbols, imagery, figurative language,
protagonist, and so forth).
NO, NO

• NON-LITERARY TERMS: To show that women are

important, Adrienne Rich writes about Aunt Jennifer and
the tigers that she creates in her needlework.

• LITERARY TERMS: The poem "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers"

contains vivid images and symbols which reveal a
feminist perspective.
Oh, yeah!
 Support?
• Support your points with many
quotations and paraphrases, but write
the majority of your paper in your own
words with your own ideas.
 Since you have a research
element, too…
• When writing a research paper that
includes literary criticism, make sure
that you form your own opinion rather
than merely restate those of the critics.
You may, however, use the critics'
views to support yours.
 One final note on the body
paragraphs…
• The substance of each of your developmental
paragraphs (the body of your essay) will be the
explanations, summaries, paraphrases, specific details,
and direct quotations you need to support and develop
the more general statement you have made in your topic
sentence. The following is the first developmental
paragraph after one of the example introductory
paragraphs.

• TOPIC SENTENCE…EXPLANATIONS… AND

TEXTUAL EVIDENCE…TRANSITIONS (that is the
crux of it)
 Example body paragraph…
Sammy's descriptions of the A & P present a setting that is ugly,
monotonous, and rigidly regulated. We can identify with the uniformity
Sammy describes because we have all been in chain stores. The
fluorescent light is as blandly cool as the "checkerboard green-and-cream
rubber tile floor" (486). The "usual traffic in the store moves in one direction
(except for the swim suited girls, who move against it), and everything is
neatly organized and categorized in tidy aisles. The dehumanizing routine of
this environment is suggested by Sammy's offhand references to the typical
shoppers as "sheep,“ "house slaves," and "pigs." These regular customers
seem to walk through the store in a stupor; as Sammy tells us, not even
dynamite could move them out of their routine (485).

This paragraph is a strong one because it is developed through the use of

quotations, summary, details, and explanation to support the topic sentence.

• Notice how it relates back to the thesis statement.

 Finally…
• Be sure your conclusion creates a satisfactory end
to your essay and sends the reader away with a final
point that you are making which relates back to your
thesis, but reiterates your own original idea about
the work.

• Cite prose, poetry, drama, critics, and any other

sources used according to specialized MLA
standards. (See the current edition of the MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.)

• You can also use OWL (Purdue’s online writing lab—

a great tool!)