From what I have been taught, analyzing literature takes and depends on multiple factors. Since numerous components go into the process of analyzing one's work, the individual should expect the procedure to be complicated. Analyzing includes scanning the text and understanding what the author is trying to portray. The author, to complete his book or other literary folios, made individual choices and chose them for a reason. Literary analysis of his work would require for the reader to dive into his thoughts and decipher the significance of his decision. Though there are other steps and tasks to interpret what the author is trying to convey adequately, the most important steps I think are needed to examine his work are the characters, the plot, …show more content…
The last two points include structure and the tone of the narrator, or author. As I disclosed earlier, recognizing and paying attention to the structure of the story is important. The structure of the story, combined with the theme and plot, would help inform and reflect back on each other. When starting off the story with the framework and other literary elements, they all rely on structure. When the author develops the story, the structure is what holds all of his ideas together. When looking at structure, I was informed to look for repeated elements, such as actions or dialogue, as well as shifts in focus or time. While reading the memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, I realized that the narrator went back and forth between the timeline with flashbacks. The content of the memoir was supposed to be serious, but with the constant flashbacks and the insightful humor he rendered, it seemed like the author did not write this memoir seriously. Tone implies the attitude of the author/narrator towards the subject, events, characters of the story or towards the audience. There are different types of tone the author can retain such as informal, melancholy, angry, and furthermore. I learned that tone could also be used to describe the theme, which can sharpen my analysis of literature even more. Throughout the essay, while writing about what I learned, I was able to collect the importance of the elements in which I need to analyze any literary work. What I was able to perceive was that a lot of the points I had, related to theme. To find the theme, you would need to take many measures to do so. The theme of any literary work is comprised of various things, such as symbolism, tone, structure, plot, and even the characters. The theme is one of the main
In To Kill a Mockingbird, the theme plays an important role during the course of the novel. Theme is a central idea in a work of literature that contains more than one word. It is usually based on an author’s opinion on a subject. The theme of innocence should be protected is found in conflicts, characters, and symbols. In To Kill a Mockingbird, a conflict that connects to the theme that innocence should be protected is the death of Tom Robinson.
One example of the theme occurs when the author first introduces the story. “But the summer I was 9 years old, the town I had always loved morphed into a beautifully heartbreaking and complicated place.” (pg. 1). The author is saying that the year she turned nine, she found out something about her town that broke her heart and changed the way she saw it. This quote is important because it supports the theme. It shows that now she is older she has learned something about her town that made her wiser than when she was younger. She is now more informed because the new information changed her and caused her to begin to mature.
Theme is the subject of talk, a topic, or morals that the author is trying to get readers to comprehend. When reading an excerpt, the theme is not directly stated in the text, so you must dig deeper into the context to understand the matter trying to be portrayed. In both Angela's Ashes and The Street, we can distinguish a like theme of struggling through life’s complications. After reading the two different stories, we could select the theme from using character, events, and the setting.
Elements that make for the best literary short story are character, meaning, tone and tension. These four literary elements make your story have a plot. These elements also contribute to your story’s purpose and ambition. The short stories we have read this semester integrate these elements, making successful and literary filled works.
Poverty and homelessness are often, intertwined with the idea of gross mentality. illness and innate evil. In urban areas all across the United States, just like that of Seattle. in Sherman Alexie’s New Yorker piece, What You Pawn I Will Redeem, the downtrodden. are stereotyped as vicious addicts who would rob a child of its last penny if it meant a bottle of whiskey.
What should the student's understand about the text's major themes? How was the theme conveyed throughout the text?
...rves the way for the plot, the theme is the central idea around which a literary piece revolves. Without the theme the plot would be meaningless and there would be nothing for the readers to derive from the literary piece. Without the plot, the theme would be meaningless as there would be nowhere to consign the message the writer intends to give the reader. It can be said that the plot and theme are the two most important literary elements of a literary piece and are inter-dependant.
“Often fear of one evil leads us into a worse”(Despreaux). Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux is saying that fear consumes oneself and often times results in a worse fate. William Golding shares a similar viewpoint in his novel Lord of the Flies. A group of boys devastatingly land on a deserted island. Ralph and his friend Piggy form a group. Slowly, they become increasingly fearful. Then a boy named Jack rebels and forms his own tribe with a few boys such as Roger and Bill. Many things such as their environment, personalities and their own minds contribute to their change. Eventually, many of the boys revert to their inherently evil nature and become savage and only two boys remain civilized. The boys deal with many trials, including each other, and true colors show. In the end they are being rescued, but too much is lost. Their innocence is forever lost along with the lives Simon, a peaceful boy, and an intelligent boy, Piggy. Throughout the novel, Golding uses symbolism and characterization to show that savagery and evil are a direct effect of fear.
Theme is the underlying power beneath a story; the “force” that makes the whole experience worthwhile. Theme is “an idea or message that the writer wishes to convey” (Holt 874). A theme can be either stated or implied. A stated theme is a theme “that the other expresses directly in his work (protic.net); an implied theme is a theme “that is not directly stated in the work” (protic.net). As mentioned before, both of these stories have an implied theme, which now is revealed to mean that the author of the story insinuated it. Themes exist in all stories (verbal or written) and can be long, short, true or false. “Earth people will beat out any other intelligent life-form in any and all competitions” is a theme, but “good always beats evil” is one too. “Once upon a time . . .” stories have themes too, except they are more one-dimensional. For example,...
Theme plays a very important part in this short story. Theme is the idea of a literary work abstracted from its details of language, character and action. The great example of theme that is evident throughout the entire short story is the duty to perform certain acts. We can see here that the Irishman Donovan is very big on obeying his duty to carry out orders that have been authorized to him.
Every story has a theme: a major message shown throughout the story. These themes can be vast and some stories have multiple themes. Most of the time, the theme of a story isn’t clearly stated in the story and you often have to look for it. Because of this, different people are often able to come up with different themes for one story. Many critics question the themes that have been found by other people and even argue why those themes are or are not legit themes for that story. There are many different elements in a story that can be used to prove whether or not the themes given really fit the story. One of the themes commonly believed fit for To Build a Fire, by Jack London is that instinct triumphs over intellect. In To Build a Fire, by Jack London, the theme instinct over intellect is expressed through characters, plot, and point of view.
Amigo Brothers is a great story to learn different terms on and has a large vocabulary. For instance, Tone, Mood, Theme, Point of View, Author’s Intended Purpose, and Author’s Intent Purpose are examples that can teach you different ways to analyze the story or any kind of story. As I stated earlier tone was one of many ways you can use to analyze the story. Tone refers to the author’s use of words and writing style to convey his or hers attitude towards a topic. For instance, when he says “i’ve been worrying about our fight, too” he’s showing that he cares about his friend.
For an abundance of authors, the driving force that aids them in creation of a novel is the theme or number of themes implemented throughout the novel. Often times the author doesn’t consciously identify the theme they’re trying to present. Usually a theme is a concept, principle or belief that is significant to an author. Not only does the theme create the backbone of the story, but it also guides the author by controlling the events that happen in a story, what emotions are dispersed, what are the actions of characters, and what emotions are presented within each environment to engage the readers in many
Attempting a psychoanalytic reading of a given text is a bit like attempting to understand a city by examining its sewer system: helpful, yet limited.
Literary criticism is used as a guideline to help analyze, deconstruct, interpret, or even evaluate literary works. Each type of criticism offers its own methods that help the reader to delve deeper into the text, revealing all of its innermost features. New Criticism portrays how a work is unified, Reader-Response Criticism establishes how the reader reacts to a work, Deconstructive Criticism demonstrates how a work falls apart, Historical Criticism illustrates how the history of the author and the author’s time period influence a text, and last of all, Psychological Criticism expresses how unconscious motivations drive the author in the creation of their work as well as how the reader’s motivations influence their own interpretation of the text (Lynn 139, 191). This creates a deep level of understanding of literature that simply cannot be gained through surface level reading. If not one criticism is beneficial to the reader, then taking all criticisms or a mixture of specific criticisms into consideration might be the best way to approach literary