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 just need to use the original text to defend and explain your argument to the reader.

Allegory – narrative form in which the characters are representative of some larger humanistic trait (i.e. greed, vanity, or bravery) and attempt to convey some larger lesson or meaning to life. Although allegory was originally and traditionally character based, modern allegories tend to parallel story and theme.

William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily– the decline of the Old South
District 9– South African Apartheid
X Men- the evils of prejudice
Harry Potter– the dangers of seeking “racial purity”

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

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.

Connotation – implied meaning of word. BEWARE! Connotations can change over time.

confidence/ arrogance
mouse/ rat
cautious/ scared
curious/ nosey
frugal/ cheap

Denotation – dictionary definition of a word

Diction – word choice that both conveys and emphasizes the meaning or theme of a poem through distinctions in sound, look, rhythm, syllable, letters, and definition

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
Simile – contrasting to seemingly unalike things to enhance the meaning of a situation or theme using like or as
Hyperbole – exaggeration
Personification – giving non-human objects human characteristics

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 etc) or even physical response.

Meter – measure or structuring of rhythm in a poem

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.

Rhythm – often thought of as a poem’s timing. Rhythm is the juxtaposition of stressed and unstressed beats in a poem, and is often used to give the reader a lens through which to move through the work. (See meter and foot)

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. We also see this type of emphasis on setting in Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice.

Speaker – the person delivering the poem. Remember, a poem does not have to have a speaker, and the speaker and the poet are not necessarily one in the same.

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.

Structure (poetry) – The pattern of organization of a poem. For example, a Shakespearean sonnet is a 14-line poem written in iambic pentameter. Because the sonnet is strictly constrained, it is considered a closed or fixed form. An open or free form poem has looser form, or perhaps one of the author’s invention, but it is important to remember that these poems are not necessarily formless.

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 poem. Is it hopeful, pessimistic, dreary, worried? A poet conveys tone by combining all of the elements listed above to create a precise impression on the reader.