novel analysis assignments

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Introduction

You’ve been assigned a literary analysis paper—what does that even mean? Is it like a book report that you used to write in high school? Well, not really.

A literary analysis essay asks you to make an original argument about a poem, play, or work of fiction and support that argument with research and evidence from your careful reading of the text.

It can take many forms, such as a close reading of a text, critiquing the text through a particular literary theory, comparing one text to another, or criticizing another critic’s interpretation of the text. While there are many ways to structure a literary essay, writing this kind of essay follows generally follows a similar process for everyone

Crafting a good literary analysis essay begins with good close reading of the text, in which you have kept notes and observations as you read. This will help you with the first step, which is selecting a topic to write about—what jumped out as you read, what are you genuinely interested in? The next step is to focus your topic, developing it into an argument—why is this subject or observation important? Why should your reader care about it as much as you do? The third step is to gather evidence to support your argument, for literary analysis, support comes in the form of evidence from the text and from your research on what other literary critics have said about your topic. Only after you have performed these steps, are you ready to begin actually writing your essay.

Writing a Literary Analysis Essay

How to create a topic and conduct research:.

Writing an Analysis of a Poem, Story, or Play

If you are taking a literature course, it is important that you know how to write an analysis—sometimes called an interpretation or a literary analysis or a critical reading or a critical analysis—of a story, a poem, and a play. Your instructor will probably assign such an analysis as part of the course assessment. On your mid-term or final exam, you might have to write an analysis of one or more of the poems and/or stories on your reading list. Or the dreaded “sight poem or story” might appear on an exam, a work that is not on the reading list, that you have not read before, but one your instructor includes on the exam to examine your ability to apply the active reading skills you have learned in class to produce, independently, an effective literary analysis.You might be asked to write instead or, or in addition to an analysis of a literary work, a more sophisticated essay in which you compare and contrast the protagonists of two stories, or the use of form and metaphor in two poems, or the tragic heroes in two plays.

You might learn some literary theory in your course and be asked to apply theory—feminist, Marxist, reader-response, psychoanalytic, new historicist, for example—to one or more of the works on your reading list. But the seminal assignment in a literature course is the analysis of the single poem, story, novel, or play, and, even if you do not have to complete this assignment specifically, it will form the basis of most of the other writing assignments you will be required to undertake in your literature class. There are several ways of structuring a literary analysis, and your instructor might issue specific instructions on how he or she wants this assignment done. The method presented here might not be identical to the one your instructor wants you to follow, but it will be easy enough to modify, if your instructor expects something a bit different, and it is a good default method, if your instructor does not issue more specific guidelines.You want to begin your analysis with a paragraph that provides the context of the work you are analyzing and a brief account of what you believe to be the poem or story or play’s main theme. At a minimum, your account of the work’s context will include the name of the author, the title of the work, its genre, and the date and place of publication. If there is an important biographical or historical context to the work, you should include that, as well.Try to express the work’s theme in one or two sentences. Theme, you will recall, is that insight into human experience the author offers to readers, usually revealed as the content, the drama, the plot of the poem, story, or play unfolds and the characters interact. Assessing theme can be a complex task. Authors usually show the theme; they don’t tell it. They rarely say, at the end of the story, words to this effect: “and the moral of my story is…” They tell their story, develop their characters, provide some kind of conflict—and from all of this theme emerges. Because identifying theme can be challenging and subjective, it is often a good idea to work through the rest of the analysis, then return to the beginning and assess theme in light of your analysis of the work’s other literary elements.Here is a good example of an introductory paragraph from Ben’s analysis of William Butler Yeats’ poem, “Among School Children.”

“Among School Children” was published in Yeats’ 1928 collection of poems The Tower. It was inspired by a visit Yeats made in 1926 to school in Waterford, an official visit in his capacity as a senator of the Irish Free State. In the course of the tour, Yeats reflects upon his own youth and the experiences that shaped the “sixty-year old, smiling public man” (line 8) he has become. Through his reflection, the theme of the poem emerges: a life has meaning when connections among apparently disparate experiences are forged into a unified whole.

In the body of your literature analysis, you want to guide your readers through a tour of the poem, story, or play, pausing along the way to comment on, analyze, interpret, and explain key incidents, descriptions, dialogue, symbols, the writer’s use of figurative language—any of the elements of literature that are relevant to a sound analysis of this particular work. Your main goal is to explain how the elements of literature work to elucidate, augment, and develop the theme. The elements of literature are common across genres: a story, a narrative poem, and a play all have a plot and characters. But certain genres privilege certain literary elements. In a poem, for example, form, imagery and metaphor might be especially important; in a story, setting and point-of-view might be more important than they are in a poem; in a play, dialogue, stage directions, lighting serve functions rarely relevant in the analysis of a story or poem.

The length of the body of an analysis of a literary work will usually depend upon the length of work being analyzed—the longer the work, the longer the analysis—though your instructor will likely establish a word limit for this assignment. Make certain that you do not simply paraphrase the plot of the story or play or the content of the poem. This is a common weakness in student literary analyses, especially when the analysis is of a poem or a play.

Here is a good example of two body paragraphs from Amelia’s analysis of “Araby” by James Joyce.

Within the story’s first few paragraphs occur several religious references which will accumulate as the story progresses. The narrator is a student at the Christian Brothers’ School; the former tenant of his house was a priest; he left behind books called The Abbot and The Devout Communicant. Near the end of the story’s second paragraph the narrator describes a “central apple tree” in the garden, under which is “the late tenant’s rusty bicycle pump.” We may begin to suspect the tree symbolizes the apple tree in the Garden of Eden and the bicycle pump, the snake which corrupted Eve, a stretch, perhaps, until Joyce’s fall-of-innocence theme becomes more apparent.

The narrator must continue to help his aunt with her errands, but, even when he is so occupied, his mind is on Mangan’s sister, as he tries to sort out his feelings for her. Here Joyce provides vivid insight into the mind of an adolescent boy at once elated and bewildered by his first crush. He wants to tell her of his “confused adoration,” but he does not know if he will ever have the chance. Joyce’s description of the pleasant tension consuming the narrator is conveyed in a striking simile, which continues to develop the narrator’s character, while echoing the religious imagery, so important to the story’s theme: “But my body was like a harp, and her words and gestures were like fingers, running along the wires.”

The concluding paragraph of your analysis should realize two goals. First, it should present your own opinion on the quality of the poem or story or play about which you have been writing. And, second, it should comment on the current relevance of the work. You should certainly comment on the enduring social relevance of the work you are explicating. You may comment, though you should never be obliged to do so, on the personal relevance of the work. Here is the concluding paragraph from Dao-Ming’s analysis of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.

First performed in 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest has been made into a film, as recently as 2002 and is regularly revived by professional and amateur theatre companies. It endures not only because of the comic brilliance of its characters and their dialogue, but also because its satire still resonates with contemporary audiences. I am still amazed that I see in my own Asian mother a shadow of Lady Bracknell, with her obsession with finding for her daughter a husband who will maintain, if not, ideally, increase the family’s social status. We might like to think we are more liberated and socially sophisticated than our Victorian ancestors, but the starlets and eligible bachelors who star in current reality television programs illustrate the extent to which superficial concerns still influence decisions about love and even marriage. Even now, we can turn to Oscar Wilde to help us understand and laugh at those who are earnest in name only.

Dao-Ming’s conclusion is brief, but she does manage to praise the play, reaffirm its main theme, and explain its enduring appeal. And note how her last sentence cleverly establishes that sense of closure that is also a feature of an effective analysis.

You may, of course, modify the template that is presented here. Your instructor might favour a somewhat different approach to literary analysis. Its essence, though, will be your understanding and interpretation of the theme of the poem, story, or play and the skill with which the author shapes the elements of literature—plot, character, form, diction, setting, point of view—to support the theme.

Academic Writing Tips : How to Write a Literary Analysis Paper. Authored by: eHow. Located at: https://youtu.be/8adKfLwIrVk. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube license

BC Open Textbooks: English Literature Victorians and Moderns: https://opentextbc.ca/englishliterature/back-matter/appendix-5-writing-an-analysis-of-a-poem-story-and-play/

Literary Analysis

The challenges of writing about english literature.

Writing begins with the act of reading . While this statement is true for most college papers, strong English papers tend to be the product of highly attentive reading (and rereading). When your instructors ask you to do a “close reading,” they are asking you to read not only for content, but also for structures and patterns. When you perform a close reading, then, you observe how form and content interact. In some cases, form reinforces content: for example, in John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 14, where the speaker invites God’s “force” “to break, blow, burn and make [him] new.” Here, the stressed monosyllables of the verbs “break,” “blow” and “burn” evoke aurally the force that the speaker invites from God. In other cases, form raises questions about content: for example, a repeated denial of guilt will likely raise questions about the speaker’s professed innocence. When you close read, take an inductive approach. Start by observing particular details in the text, such as a repeated image or word, an unexpected development, or even a contradiction. Often, a detail–such as a repeated image–can help you to identify a question about the text that warrants further examination. So annotate details that strike you as you read. Some of those details will eventually help you to work towards a thesis. And don’t worry if a detail seems trivial. If you can make a case about how an apparently trivial detail reveals something significant about the text, then your paper will have a thought-provoking thesis to argue.

Common Types of English Papers Many assignments will ask you to analyze a single text. Others, however, will ask you to read two or more texts in relation to each other, or to consider a text in light of claims made by other scholars and critics. For most assignments, close reading will be central to your paper. While some assignment guidelines will suggest topics and spell out expectations in detail, others will offer little more than a page limit. Approaching the writing process in the absence of assigned topics can be daunting, but remember that you have resources: in section, you will probably have encountered some examples of close reading; in lecture, you will have encountered some of the course’s central questions and claims. The paper is a chance for you to extend a claim offered in lecture, or to analyze a passage neglected in lecture. In either case, your analysis should do more than recapitulate claims aired in lecture and section. Because different instructors have different goals for an assignment, you should always ask your professor or TF if you have questions. These general guidelines should apply in most cases:

• A close reading of a single text: Depending on the length of the text, you will need to be more or less selective about what you choose to consider. In the case of a sonnet, you will probably have enough room to analyze the text more thoroughly than you would in the case of a novel, for example, though even here you will probably not analyze every single detail. By contrast, in the case of a novel, you might analyze a repeated scene, image, or object (for example, scenes of train travel, images of decay, or objects such as or typewriters). Alternately, you might analyze a perplexing scene (such as a novel’s ending, albeit probably in relation to an earlier moment in the novel). But even when analyzing shorter works, you will need to be selective. Although you might notice numerous interesting details as you read, not all of those details will help you to organize a focused argument about the text. For example, if you are focusing on depictions of sensory experience in Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale,” you probably do not need to analyze the image of a homeless Ruth in stanza 7, unless this image helps you to develop your case about sensory experience in the poem.
• A theoretically-informed close reading. In some courses, you will be asked to analyze a poem, a play, or a novel by using a critical theory (psychoanalytic, postcolonial, gender, etc). For example, you might use Kristeva’s theory of abjection to analyze mother-daughter relations in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. Critical theories provide focus for your analysis; if “abjection” is the guiding concept for your paper, you should focus on the scenes in the novel that are most relevant to the concept.
• A historically-informed close reading. In courses with a historicist orientation, you might use less self-consciously literary documents, such as newspapers or devotional manuals, to develop your analysis of a literary work. For example, to analyze how Robinson Crusoe makes sense of his island experiences, you might use Puritan tracts that narrate events in terms of how God organizes them. The tracts could help you to show not only how Robinson Crusoe draws on Puritan narrative conventions, but also—more significantly—how the novel revises those conventions.
• A comparison of two texts When analyzing two texts, you might look for unexpected contrasts between apparently similar texts, or unexpected similarities between apparently dissimilar texts, or for how one text revises or transforms the other. Keep in mind that not all of the similarities, differences, and transformations you identify will be relevant to an argument about the relationship between the two texts. As you work towards a thesis, you will need to decide which of those similarities, differences, or transformations to focus on. Moreover, unless instructed otherwise, you do not need to allot equal space to each text (unless this 50/50 allocation serves your thesis well, of course). Often you will find that one text helps to develop your analysis of another text. For example, you might analyze the transformation of Ariel’s song from The Tempest in T. S. Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land. Insofar as this analysis is interested in the afterlife of Ariel’s song in a later poem, you would likely allot more space to analyzing allusions to Ariel’s song in The Waste Land (after initially establishing the song’s significance in Shakespeare’s play, of course).
• A response paper A response paper is a great opportunity to practice your close reading skills without having to develop an entire argument. In most cases, a solid approach is to select a rich passage that rewards analysis (for example, one that depicts an important scene or a recurring image) and close read it. While response papers are a flexible genre, they are not invitations for impressionistic accounts of whether you liked the work or a particular character. Instead, you might use your close reading to raise a question about the text—to open up further investigation, rather than to supply a solution.
• A research paper. In most cases, you will receive guidance from the professor on the scope of the research paper. It is likely that you will be expected to consult sources other than the assigned readings. Hollis is your best bet for book titles, and the MLA bibliography (available through e-resources) for articles. When reading articles, make sure that they have been peer reviewed; you might also ask your TF to recommend reputable journals in the field.

Harvard College Writing Program: https://writingproject.fas.harvard.edu/files/hwp/files/bg_writing_english.pdf

In the same way that we talk with our friends about the latest episode of Game of Thrones or newest Marvel movie, scholars communicate their ideas and interpretations of literature through written literary analysis essays. Literary analysis essays make us better readers of literature.

Only through careful reading and well-argued analysis can we reach new understandings and interpretations of texts that are sometimes hundreds of years old. Literary analysis brings new meaning and can shed new light on texts. Building from careful reading and selecting a topic that you are genuinely interested in, your argument supports how you read and understand a text. Using examples from the text you are discussing in the form of textual evidence further supports your reading. Well-researched literary analysis also includes information about what other scholars have written about a specific text or topic.

Literary analysis helps us to refine our ideas, question what we think we know, and often generates new knowledge about literature. Literary analysis essays allow you to discuss your own interpretation of a given text through careful examination of the choices the original author made in the text.

ENG134 – Literary Genres Copyright © by The American Women's College and Jessica Egan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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10 of the Best Literary Analysis Activities to Elevate Thinking

Inside this Post: Ready to elevate your literary analysis lessons? This post is full of engaging and effective activities to help students master literary analysis topics.

Literary analysis has become the beating heart of English classes around the world. When students read a text, we want them to peel back the layers one by one, appreciating the deeper meaning that lies within each sentence. As English teachers, many of us connect with texts easily and persevere through complex literature naturally. For our students, this process is not always as enjoyable.

In this post, you’ll find suggestions for elevating thinking with middle and high school students. These ideas can be used with paired or individual texts and can be differentiated to reach a variety of learners.

Engaging and Effective Literary Analysis Activities

Literary analysis elements are best when they are engaging and elevate thinking without frustrating students. I’ve played around with different approaches, and these are the key elements that resonate most with students.

1. Thinking Aloud

One of the best feelings as a teacher is knowing you have an entire class full of teenagers engaged. It’s amazing how every single student in a classroom is in tune with think alouds. Something about making thinking transparent challenges students of all readiness levels. With literary analysis lessons, I love providing think alouds with the whole class. Whether we do this via face to face instruction or by creating a short video for virtual classrooms, we have to model our thinking.

Here’s an example with “All the world’s a stage” from William Shakespeare’s As You Like It …

This speech, at first, seems complicated. But, Shakespeare is talking about the world being a stage, and I think there is something deeper to what he is saying. Let’s go back again and look for clues. The men and women are players on the stage. He writes that they have their exits and entrances. I’m trying to visualize that in my head now. The world is a stage, the people are actors, and when they walk on and off the stage, that is their theatrical entrance and exit. Now that I understand he is using this speech as an extended metaphor, I wonder why would Shakespeare is choosing to compare these two things?

When modeling literary analysis, we can break down our thought process. If we write a written response, we can scaffold by color coding our thoughts in order to highlight the necessary critical thinking steps.

• First, acknowledge what is confusing or uncertain about the text. What might we be missing as readers?
• Second, make observations.
• Third, apply reading strategies (in this case, I used visualizing).
• Last, teach students to ask questions that probe at the deeper meaning and reason for the writing.

2. Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are one of my go-to strategies for elevating thinking . We can use them to differentiate and to guide students as we work in small groups. I like to keep a variety of literary analysis graphic organizers for any text on hand so that I can be responsive. If students show a need to work on analyzing a specific literary element – characterization, plot, theme, conflict, etcetera – I use a graphic organizer as we read a text or excerpt together, modeling my thinking. Then, students can practice using the same organizer in small groups, partners, or independently.

Literary analysis consists of asking a bunch of questions to lead students to deeper thinking, and graphic organizers are a bridge that walks students down that path of purposeful questioning.

Grab this print and digital literary analysis graphic organizer for analyzing song lyrics – one of secondary students’ favorite texts to pick apart!

Nothing grabs a student’s attention like an image! Visuals are amazing tools for introducing literary analysis skills. I always begin my literary analysis unit with pictures. Using an image, we can quickly show students how to differentiate between summarizing and analyzing . Then, we can walk them through the steps of acknowledging what we might be missing, making observations, applying reading strategies, and questioning for deeper meaning.

Consider using images from a variety of sources. We can try historical images, political cartoons, famous paintings, graphic novels, wordless picture books, advertisements, or even just regular photographs.

I even work this type of analytical thinking into my vocabulary activities ! Students get used to interpreting photos and using textual evidence to support their thinking.

4. One Pagers

One pagers are one of my favorite literary analysis activities. In order to make them meaningful, I incorporate scaffolding . So, students have access to standards-aligned goals and questions that prompt their responses to the text. Choice helps as well. We can allow students to choose digital or traditional , response angles, and even texts.

In terms of literary analysis benefits, we can really focus on asking students to cite textual evidence to track a universal theme. While doing so, students can draw conclusions about how literary elements work together or how they provide tension to impact a reader’s overall takeaway.

5. Colorful Charts

Mood and tone can be tricky for students to analyze. So that they can understand the difference between them but also so that they see how mood and tone work in tandem, I began using an equalizer metaphor . Students can use color and amplification to analyze how mood and tone change throughout a literary work. By creating a visual representation, there’s a direct connection between the mood and the storyline.

How does setting impact mood , and how does mood impact the conflict in the story?

For instance, the quiet beauty of the Capulet garden sets the stage for a romantic balcony scene, but the noisy bustle of the lewd fighting in the Verona streets helps to define the conflict and tension between the two feuding families.

With tone , how does the author’s word choice and sentence structure in each section convey his or her attitude in the work?

As we study the amplification of tone in the play Romeo and Juliet , we see a consistent change from light-hearted comedy to an intensely poetic and tragic seriousness. Over the course of the play, one might say that Shakespeare’s juxtaposition creates an overall sympathetic tone toward the star-crossed lovers.

6. Get Moving

One of the issues when it comes to citing evidence in a literary analysis essay is finding relevant support. Sometimes, it seems like the lines students select from literature are completely disconnected from what they are writing. That may be because they don’t truly understand how their thesis connects to their main points or how their main points connect to the evidence. For some students, there are too many degrees of separation!

A kinesthetic option to address this issue involves Post-Its (or colored text boxes if you are doing this digitally) and a t-chart. At the top of the paper (use big paper or a white board if you can do this together in the classroom!), write the analytical point. What conclusion can students draw about characters, setting, or another literary element that would support their thesis statement?

Under that, label the T-Chart as “Relevant” and “Off Topic.” Then, you have some options.

BASIC: You identify support for students in advance and have them sort the support based on its relevance. Could they use it to analyze the text, or is it off topic?

ADVANCE: Ask students to find examples of relevant and off-topic lines from the text.

A MIXTURE:   Provide students with a handful of lines they can sort into relevant and off-topic categories, and then ask them to find a couple more examples on their own.

To increase the engagement factor, use some washi tape on the floor in the shape of whatever makes the most sense – a character outline for analyzing character, a house for analyzing setting, a circle for analyzing a universal theme. Then, have students stick their Post-It notes inside or outside of the shape. Inside indicates that the evidence is relevant, and outside means it’s off-topic.

7. Children’s Books

We don’t always think to use picture books with older students , but they are one of my absolute favorite ways to scaffold literary analysis! Because picture books are short, we can cover an entire (and often complex) story in a short period of time. And, we can continually refer back to that text throughout the school year. Because picture books are accessible for all students, they will remember sharing the story together, and you can really make significant strides with whole-class discussions and small group lessons.

Try using picture books to teach Notice and Note signposts, language, aesthetics, and theme . One of my favorite ways to use picture books is teaching students to analyze how dialogue impacts decisions, propels action, and develops characters. For example, in the book Elbow Grease , the protagonist is motivated to participate in a race for which he is the underdog simply because some crass comments from his friends make him angry. This really is the turning point in the story, which makes it convenient to analyze how dialogue can lead to decisions and actions that change the course of a storyline.

8. Short Films

For a thousand and one reasons, I adore short films. They’re short (obvious, I know), which makes them ideal for modeling and mini lessons. Plus, they are visually captivating and apply to a wide age range. And, generally, they hold quite a bit of depth and leave room for a variety of interpretations.

During first quarter with ninth graders, I built in a yearly routine of watching short films during our literary analysis unit and having students complete their first full analytical essay. It’s fun. I can model using a short film I enjoy. Then, I get to read a wide range of responses from students who choose different texts. To scaffold for struggling writers, I suggest a few short films I am very familiar with; this way, I can guide them if they get stuck or confused.

You can also build in short films by using them with poetry for paired text analysis .

9. Reading Strategies

One of the building blocks of literary analysis is having a good foundation in apply reading strategies. It’s fun to model what readers do. We can show students how analyzing texts and re-reading for deeper meaning helps us with writing and then ask students to practice those skills.

For instance, when students begin to understand that authors have a purposeful craft that impacts their reading experience, it empowers them to pick that craft apart, studying the nuances of what makes it work. And, it gives them an advantage as authors themselves. They may think,  I remember how the author’s purposeful use of short, staccato sentences and onomatopoeias increased the suspense during that scene. Maybe I should use those techniques in this part of my story to add an emotional element for my readers.

These are some of the graphic organizers I’ve used to scaffold reading strategy work with the whole class, and then students can transfer those skills to small group or independent practice, using the same organizer if necessary.

10. Social Media Activities

Social media is everywhere. We might as well use it as a relevant option for analyzing literature! One of my favorites is booksnaps , and I tie in Snapchat by having them take a photo of part of the text they want to analyze. Then, they add interpretations, images, and text as well as a caption with a more detailed analysis. I call these Snap-a-Books.  I also created a Spot-a-Book analysis option, reminiscent of Spotify playlists. Students can create playlists relevant to character analysis, setting analysis, conflict analysis, and more!

And, that’s ten! I hope you’ve found some meaningful literary analysis activities to spark creative, critical thinking in your classroom.

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Literary Analysis

How to analyze a novel.

Setting is a description of where and when the story takes place.

• Geography, weather, time of day, social conditions?
• What role does setting play in the story? Is it an important part of the plot or theme? Or is it just a backdrop against which the action takes place?
• Study the time period which is also part of the setting
• Does it take place in the present, the past, or the future?
• How does the time period affect the language, atmosphere or social circumstances of the novel?

Characterization

Characterization deals with how the characters are described.

• through dialogue?
• by the way they speak?
• physical appearance? thoughts and feelings?
• interaction – the way they act towards other characters?
• Are they static characters who do not change?
• Do they develop by the end of the story?
• What type of characters are they?
• What qualities stand out?
• Are they stereotypes?
• Are the characters believable?

Plot and structure

The plot is the main sequence of events that make up the story.

• What are the most important events?
• How is the plot structured? Is it linear, chronological or does it move back and forth?
• Are there turning points, a climax and/or an anticlimax?
• Is the plot believable?

Narrator and Point of view

The narrator is the person telling the story. Point of view : whose eyes the story is being told through.

• Who is the narrator or speaker in the story?
• Is the narrator the main character?
• Does the author speak through one of the characters?
• Is the story written in the first person “I” point of view?
• Is the story written in a detached third person “he/she” point of view?
• Is the story written in an “all-knowing” 3rd person who can reveal what all the characters are thinking and doing at all times and in all places?

Conflict or tension is usually the heart of the novel and is related to the main character.

• Is it internal where the character suffers inwardly?
• is it external caused by the surroundings or environment the main character finds himself/herself in?

The theme is the main idea, lesson or message in the novel. It is usually an abstract, universal idea about the human condition, society or life, to name a few.

• How does the theme shine through in the story?
• Are any elements repeated that may suggest a theme?
• What other themes are there?

The author’s style has to do with the author’s vocabulary, use of imagery, tone or feeling of the story. It has to do with his attitude towards the subject. In some novels the tone can be ironic, humorous, cold or dramatic.

• Is the text full of figurative language?
• Does the author use a lot of symbolism? Metaphors, similes? An example of a metaphor is when someone says, “My love, you are a rose”. An example of a simile is “My darling, you are like a rose.”
• What images are used?

Your literary analysis of a novel will often be in the form of an essay or book report where you will be asked to give your opinions of the novel at the end. To conclude, choose the elements that made the greatest impression on you. Point out which characters you liked best or least and always support your arguments. Try to view the novel as a whole and try to give a balanced analysis.

• How to Analyze a Novel. Authored by : Carol Dwankowski, Celia Suzanna Sandor, and Catharine Ruud. Provided by : NDLA. Located at : http://ndla.no/en/node/13288?fag=42 . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

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12.14: Sample Student Literary Analysis Essays

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• Heather Ringo & Athena Kashyap
• City College of San Francisco via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative

The following examples are essays where student writers focused on close-reading a literary work.

While reading these examples, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the essay's thesis statement, and how do you know it is the thesis statement?
• What is the main idea or topic sentence of each body paragraph, and how does it relate back to the thesis statement?
• Where and how does each essay use evidence (quotes or paraphrase from the literature)?
• What are some of the literary devices or structures the essays analyze or discuss?
• How does each author structure their conclusion, and how does their conclusion differ from their introduction?

Example 1: Poetry

Victoria Morillo

Instructor Heather Ringo

3 August 2022

How Nguyen’s Structure Solidifies the Impact of Sexual Violence in “The Study”

Stripped of innocence, your body taken from you. No matter how much you try to block out the instance in which these two things occurred, memories surface and come back to haunt you. How does a person, a young boy , cope with an event that forever changes his life? Hieu Minh Nguyen deconstructs this very way in which an act of sexual violence affects a survivor. In his poem, “The Study,” the poem's speaker recounts the year in which his molestation took place, describing how his memory filters in and out. Throughout the poem, Nguyen writes in free verse, permitting a structural liberation to become the foundation for his message to shine through. While he moves the readers with this poignant narrative, Nguyen effectively conveys the resulting internal struggles of feeling alone and unseen.

The speaker recalls his experience with such painful memory through the use of specific punctuation choices. Just by looking at the poem, we see that the first period doesn’t appear until line 14. It finally comes after the speaker reveals to his readers the possible, central purpose for writing this poem: the speaker's molestation. In the first half, the poem makes use of commas, em dashes, and colons, which lends itself to the idea of the speaker stringing along all of these details to make sense of this time in his life. If reading the poem following the conventions of punctuation, a sense of urgency is present here, as well. This is exemplified by the lack of periods to finalize a thought; and instead, Nguyen uses other punctuation marks to connect them. Serving as another connector of thoughts, the two em dashes give emphasis to the role memory plays when the speaker discusses how “no one [had] a face” during that time (Nguyen 9-11). He speaks in this urgent manner until the 14th line, and when he finally gets it off his chest, the pace of the poem changes, as does the more frequent use of the period. This stream-of-consciousness-like section when juxtaposed with the latter half of the poem, causes readers to slow down and pay attention to the details. It also splits the poem in two: a section that talks of the fogginess of memory then transitions into one that remembers it all.

In tandem with the fluctuating nature of memory, the utilization of line breaks and word choice help reflect the damage the molestation has had. Within the first couple of lines of the poem, the poem demands the readers’ attention when the line breaks from “floating” to “dead” as the speaker describes his memory of Little Billy (Nguyen 1-4). This line break averts the readers’ expectation of the direction of the narrative and immediately shifts the tone of the poem. The break also speaks to the effect his trauma has ingrained in him and how “[f]or the longest time,” his only memory of that year revolves around an image of a boy’s death. In a way, the speaker sees himself in Little Billy; or perhaps, he’s representative of the tragic death of his boyhood, how the speaker felt so “dead” after enduring such a traumatic experience, even referring to himself as a “ghost” that he tries to evict from his conscience (Nguyen 24). The feeling that a part of him has died is solidified at the very end of the poem when the speaker describes himself as a nine-year-old boy who’s been “fossilized,” forever changed by this act (Nguyen 29). By choosing words associated with permanence and death, the speaker tries to recreate the atmosphere (for which he felt trapped in) in order for readers to understand the loneliness that came as a result of his trauma. With the assistance of line breaks, more attention is drawn to the speaker's words, intensifying their importance, and demanding to be felt by the readers.

Most importantly, the speaker expresses eloquently, and so heartbreakingly, about the effect sexual violence has on a person. Perhaps what seems to be the most frustrating are the people who fail to believe survivors of these types of crimes. This is evident when he describes “how angry” the tenants were when they filled the pool with cement (Nguyen 4). They seem to represent how people in the speaker's life were dismissive of his assault and who viewed his tragedy as a nuisance of some sorts. This sentiment is bookended when he says, “They say, give us details , so I give them my body. / They say, give us proof , so I give them my body,” (Nguyen 25-26). The repetition of these two lines reinforces the feeling many feel in these scenarios, as they’re often left to deal with trying to make people believe them, or to even see them.

It’s important to recognize how the structure of this poem gives the speaker space to express the pain he’s had to carry for so long. As a characteristic of free verse, the poem doesn’t follow any structured rhyme scheme or meter; which in turn, allows him to not have any constraints in telling his story the way he wants to. The speaker has the freedom to display his experience in a way that evades predictability and engenders authenticity of a story very personal to him. As readers, we abandon anticipating the next rhyme, and instead focus our attention to the other ways, like his punctuation or word choice, in which he effectively tells his story. The speaker recognizes that some part of him no longer belongs to himself, but by writing “The Study,” he shows other survivors that they’re not alone and encourages hope that eventually, they will be freed from the shackles of sexual violence.

Works Cited

Nguyen, Hieu Minh. “The Study” Poets.Org. Academy of American Poets, Coffee House Press, 2018, https://poets.org/poem/study-0 .

Example 2: Fiction

Todd Goodwin

Professor Stan Matyshak

Advanced Expository Writing

Sept. 17, 20—

Poe’s “Usher”: A Mirror of the Fall of the House of Humanity

Right from the outset of the grim story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Edgar Allan Poe enmeshes us in a dark, gloomy, hopeless world, alienating his characters and the reader from any sort of physical or psychological norm where such values as hope and happiness could possibly exist. He fatalistically tells the story of how a man (the narrator) comes from the outside world of hope, religion, and everyday society and tries to bring some kind of redeeming happiness to his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, who not only has physically and psychologically wasted away but is entrapped in a dilapidated house of ever-looming terror with an emaciated and deranged twin sister. Roderick Usher embodies the wasting away of what once was vibrant and alive, and his house of “insufferable gloom” (273), which contains his morbid sister, seems to mirror or reflect this fear of death and annihilation that he most horribly endures. A close reading of the story reveals that Poe uses mirror images, or reflections, to contribute to the fatalistic theme of “Usher”: each reflection serves to intensify an already prevalent tone of hopelessness, darkness, and fatalism.

It could be argued that the house of Roderick Usher is a “house of mirrors,” whose unpleasant and grim reflections create a dark and hopeless setting. For example, the narrator first approaches “the melancholy house of Usher on a dark and soundless day,” and finds a building which causes him a “sense of insufferable gloom,” which “pervades his spirit and causes an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an undiscerned dreariness of thought” (273). The narrator then optimistically states: “I reflected that a mere different arrangement of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression” (274). But the narrator then sees the reflection of the house in the tarn and experiences a “shudder even more thrilling than before” (274). Thus the reader begins to realize that the narrator cannot change or stop the impending doom that will befall the house of Usher, and maybe humanity. The story cleverly plays with the word reflection : the narrator sees a physical reflection that leads him to a mental reflection about Usher’s surroundings.

The narrator’s disillusionment by such grim reflection continues in the story. For example, he describes Roderick Usher’s face as distinct with signs of old strength but lost vigor: the remains of what used to be. He describes the house as a once happy and vibrant place, which, like Roderick, lost its vitality. Also, the narrator describes Usher’s hair as growing wild on his rather obtrusive head, which directly mirrors the eerie moss and straw covering the outside of the house. The narrator continually longs to see these bleak reflections as a dream, for he states: “Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building” (276). He does not want to face the reality that Usher and his home are doomed to fall, regardless of what he does.

Although there are almost countless examples of these mirror images, two others stand out as important. First, Roderick and his sister, Madeline, are twins. The narrator aptly states just as he and Roderick are entombing Madeline that there is “a striking similitude between brother and sister” (288). Indeed, they are mirror images of each other. Madeline is fading away psychologically and physically, and Roderick is not too far behind! The reflection of “doom” that these two share helps intensify and symbolize the hopelessness of the entire situation; thus, they further develop the fatalistic theme. Second, in the climactic scene where Madeline has been mistakenly entombed alive, there is a pairing of images and sounds as the narrator tries to calm Roderick by reading him a romance story. Events in the story simultaneously unfold with events of the sister escaping her tomb. In the story, the hero breaks out of the coffin. Then, in the story, the dragon’s shriek as he is slain parallels Madeline’s shriek. Finally, the story tells of the clangor of a shield, matched by the sister’s clanging along a metal passageway. As the suspense reaches its climax, Roderick shrieks his last words to his “friend,” the narrator: “Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door” (296).

Roderick, who slowly falls into insanity, ironically calls the narrator the “Madman.” We are left to reflect on what Poe means by this ironic twist. Poe’s bleak and dark imagery, and his use of mirror reflections, seem only to intensify the hopelessness of “Usher.” We can plausibly conclude that, indeed, the narrator is the “Madman,” for he comes from everyday society, which is a place where hope and faith exist. Poe would probably argue that such a place is opposite to the world of Usher because a world where death is inevitable could not possibly hold such positive values. Therefore, just as Roderick mirrors his sister, the reflection in the tarn mirrors the dilapidation of the house, and the story mirrors the final actions before the death of Usher. “The Fall of the House of Usher” reflects Poe’s view that humanity is hopelessly doomed.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Fall of the House of Usher.” 1839. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library . 1995. Web. 1 July 2012. < http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PoeFall.html >.

Example 3: Poetry

Amy Chisnell

Professor Laura Neary

Writing and Literature

April 17, 20—

Don’t Listen to the Egg!: A Close Reading of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”

“You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,” said Alice. “Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called ‘Jabberwocky’?”

“Let’s hear it,” said Humpty Dumpty. “I can explain all the poems that ever were invented—and a good many that haven’t been invented just yet.” (Carroll 164)

In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass , Humpty Dumpty confidently translates (to a not so confident Alice) the complicated language of the poem “Jabberwocky.” The words of the poem, though nonsense, aptly tell the story of the slaying of the Jabberwock. Upon finding “Jabberwocky” on a table in the looking-glass room, Alice is confused by the strange words. She is quite certain that “ somebody killed something ,” but she does not understand much more than that. When later she encounters Humpty Dumpty, she seizes the opportunity at having the knowledgeable egg interpret—or translate—the poem. Since Humpty Dumpty professes to be able to “make a word work” for him, he is quick to agree. Thus he acts like a New Critic who interprets the poem by performing a close reading of it. Through Humpty’s interpretation of the first stanza, however, we see the poem’s deeper comment concerning the practice of interpreting poetry and literature in general—that strict analytical translation destroys the beauty of a poem. In fact, Humpty Dumpty commits the “heresy of paraphrase,” for he fails to understand that meaning cannot be separated from the form or structure of the literary work.

Of the 71 words found in “Jabberwocky,” 43 have no known meaning. They are simply nonsense. Yet through this nonsensical language, the poem manages not only to tell a story but also gives the reader a sense of setting and characterization. One feels, rather than concretely knows, that the setting is dark, wooded, and frightening. The characters, such as the Jubjub bird, the Bandersnatch, and the doomed Jabberwock, also appear in the reader’s head, even though they will not be found in the local zoo. Even though most of the words are not real, the reader is able to understand what goes on because he or she is given free license to imagine what the words denote and connote. Simply, the poem’s nonsense words are the meaning.

Therefore, when Humpty interprets “Jabberwocky” for Alice, he is not doing her any favors, for he actually misreads the poem. Although the poem in its original is constructed from nonsense words, by the time Humpty is done interpreting it, it truly does not make any sense. The first stanza of the original poem is as follows:

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogroves,

An the mome raths outgrabe. (Carroll 164)

If we replace, however, the nonsense words of “Jabberwocky” with Humpty’s translated words, the effect would be something like this:

’Twas four o’clock in the afternoon, and the lithe and slimy badger-lizard-corkscrew creatures

Did go round and round and make holes in the grass-plot round the sun-dial:

All flimsy and miserable were the shabby-looking birds

with mop feathers,

And the lost green pigs bellowed-sneezed-whistled.

By translating the poem in such a way, Humpty removes the charm or essence—and the beauty, grace, and rhythm—from the poem. The poetry is sacrificed for meaning. Humpty Dumpty commits the heresy of paraphrase. As Cleanth Brooks argues, “The structure of a poem resembles that of a ballet or musical composition. It is a pattern of resolutions and balances and harmonizations” (203). When the poem is left as nonsense, the reader can easily imagine what a “slithy tove” might be, but when Humpty tells us what it is, he takes that imaginative license away from the reader. The beauty (if that is the proper word) of “Jabberwocky” is in not knowing what the words mean, and yet understanding. By translating the poem, Humpty takes that privilege from the reader. In addition, Humpty fails to recognize that meaning cannot be separated from the structure itself: the nonsense poem reflects this literally—it means “nothing” and achieves this meaning by using “nonsense” words.

Furthermore, the nonsense words Carroll chooses to use in “Jabberwocky” have a magical effect upon the reader; the shadowy sound of the words create the atmosphere, which may be described as a trance-like mood. When Alice first reads the poem, she says it seems to fill her head “with ideas.” The strange-sounding words in the original poem do give one ideas. Why is this? Even though the reader has never heard these words before, he or she is instantly aware of the murky, mysterious mood they set. In other words, diction operates not on the denotative level (the dictionary meaning) but on the connotative level (the emotion(s) they evoke). Thus “Jabberwocky” creates a shadowy mood, and the nonsense words are instrumental in creating this mood. Carroll could not have simply used any nonsense words.

For example, let us change the “dark,” “ominous” words of the first stanza to “lighter,” more “comic” words:

’Twas mearly, and the churly pells

Did bimble and ringle in the tink;

All timpy were the brimbledimps,

And the bip plips outlink.

Shifting the sounds of the words from dark to light merely takes a shift in thought. To create a specific mood using nonsense words, one must create new words from old words that convey the desired mood. In “Jabberwocky,” Carroll mixes “slimy,” a grim idea, “lithe,” a pliable image, to get a new adjective: “slithy” (a portmanteau word). In this translation, brighter words were used to get a lighter effect. “Mearly” is a combination of “morning” and “early,” and “ringle” is a blend of “ring” and "dingle.” The point is that “Jabberwocky’s” nonsense words are created specifically to convey this shadowy or mysterious mood and are integral to the “meaning.”

Consequently, Humpty’s rendering of the poem leaves the reader with a completely different feeling than does the original poem, which provided us with a sense of ethereal mystery, of a dark and foreign land with exotic creatures and fantastic settings. The mysteriousness is destroyed by Humpty’s literal paraphrase of the creatures and the setting; by doing so, he has taken the beauty away from the poem in his attempt to understand it. He has committed the heresy of paraphrase: “If we allow ourselves to be misled by it [this heresy], we distort the relation of the poem to its ‘truth’… we split the poem between its ‘form’ and its ‘content’” (Brooks 201). Humpty Dumpty’s ultimate demise might be seen to symbolize the heretical split between form and content: as a literary creation, Humpty Dumpty is an egg, a well-wrought urn of nonsense. His fall from the wall cracks him and separates the contents from the container, and not even all the King’s men can put the scrambled egg back together again!

Through the odd characters of a little girl and a foolish egg, “Jabberwocky” suggests a bit of sage advice about reading poetry, advice that the New Critics built their theories on. The importance lies not solely within strict analytical translation or interpretation, but in the overall effect of the imagery and word choice that evokes a meaning inseparable from those literary devices. As Archibald MacLeish so aptly writes: “A poem should not mean / But be.” Sometimes it takes a little nonsense to show us the sense in something.

Brooks, Cleanth. The Well-Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry . 1942. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1956. Print.

Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking-Glass. Alice in Wonderland . 2nd ed. Ed. Donald J. Gray. New York: Norton, 1992. Print.

MacLeish, Archibald. “Ars Poetica.” The Oxford Book of American Poetry . Ed. David Lehman. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. 385–86. Print.

Attribution

• Sample Essay 1 received permission from Victoria Morillo to publish, licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International ( CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 )
• Sample Essays 2 and 3 adapted from Cordell, Ryan and John Pennington. "2.5: Student Sample Papers" from Creating Literary Analysis. 2012. Licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported ( CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 )

10+ literary analysis practice worksheets + activities for your ELA class

by mindroar | Oct 10, 2022 | blog | 0 comments

Now, our previous post was about how to teach your students to do a literary analysis or critical analysis.  By now, you might be wondering if you can easily find a literary analysis practice worksheet to help your ELA students learn critical analysis skills. 

I figured that a follow-up post of worksheets and activities that you can quickly and easily use would be in order.

So if you are teaching your students literary analysis skills and you need a little help, check out these great literary analysis activities and worksheets to use in your ELA classroom.

1. Nouvelle ELA – quote analysis

The first resource we have for you today is this PowerPoint and analyzing quotes activity by Nouvelle ELA.  

The aim of the resources is to help your students learn to analyze and embed quotes in their writing.

In this fun literary analysis lesson, students analyze movie quotes and then have scaffolded help to practice embedding those quotes into their writing.  Students practice the skills of:

• Identifying who said the quote
• Summarizing the context of the quote, and
• Analyzing why the quote matters

Included in the activity are

• an editable PowerPoint that introduces how to analyze quotes
• an Interactive notebook lesson
• literary quote analysis homework worksheet that is print and go
• and an editable literary quote analysis homework sheet

2. A moonlighting English teacher – prose analysis and close reading

The second literary analysis practice worksheet we have today is this prose analysis and close reading bundle by A moonlighting English teacher.

The bundle includes activities to help students understand over 55 high-level literary terms, as well as practice and improve their skills in close reading and critical analysis.

While most of the resources were designed with specific texts in mind, most are able to stand alone as individual lessons or resources and are easily adaptable to whatever texts you are using in your class.  

Included in the bundle are:

• a list of every literary term and definition covered in each activity  in the bundle
• AP Literature prose analysis essay materials, including prose analysis passages and activities from The Poisonwood Bible , The Things They Carried , The Good Earth , Nectar in a Sieve , and Remembering
• an AP Literature prose analysis essay activity that helps students break down two official sample essays
• AP Literature prose essay materials, including advice and model outlines, a self-assessment, an a general rubric
• seven creative activities to analyze literary devices in any novel or story, which is also distance-learning compatible
• an activity to scaffold improving prose analysis commentary using Nectar in a Sieve
• an activity on diction and motifs using The Good Earth
• two quote analysis activities using The Good Earth
• a nonfiction analysis and a rhetorical analysis handout
• an activity on humor using The Poisonwood Bible
• an activity on specific syntax devices using The Poisonwood Bible and an activity on the usage of low diction using The Things They Carried
• a general AP Literature prose analysis essay practice/outline worksheet
• creative activities on tone using The Poisonwood Bible and irony using Cry, the Beloved Country
• and a self-created prose essay assignment 

3. Reading the rapids – identifying literary elements

Other great literary analysis lessons include these ones by Reading the rapids.  This fun bundle will help your students identify literary elements.

Students learn and reinforce their learning by watching animated shorts, using graphic organizers, applying their learning in activities, and assessing their peers.  Literary elements students learn about include:

• direct and indirect characterization 
• types of conflict (man vs self/man/society/technology/nature/supernatural) 
• what is and is not an inference
• types of irony 
• juxtaposition
• mood and tone
• personification

The bundle covers many different CCSS and each lesson plan states which skills are covered in that lesson.

The author also has this great free literary device inventory and reflection to help you work out your students’ level of knowledge about literary devices.  It also uses animated shorts so that the activity is fun and engaging for students to complete.

3. Tracee Orman – showing evidence from the text

The next literary analysis practice worksheet is included in this activity by Tracee Orman. In the activities, students will learn how to adequately show evidence from the text. 

In the activity, students use three non-fiction texts and questions to practice citing evidence from the text.  Suggested answers for each question are included, as well as the evidence students should use.

The passages include interesting scenarios including

• a woman and her son are sprayed with poop from a plane flying overhead
• a woman takes in two kittens only to find out they’re bobcats
• a federal court rules on whether a monkey (or other animal/non-human) can sue for copyright infringement.

The files are provided as non-editable PDFs or a Google slides version of the worksheet for students to respond to digitally.

4. Reading and writing haven – analyzing different text types

The next literary analysis practice worksheet we have for you is this bundle by Reading and writing haven. The bundle enables students to practice analyzing a variety of texts, including non-fiction, fiction, paired texts, short films, movies, advertisements, and poetry.  

The materials and the scaffolding guiding questions and prompts enable students to better understand how to analyze texts.  Included in the bundle are  

• a direct instruction presentation and guided notes that breaks down the concept of analyzing 
• a whole-class analyzing activity that uses a poem, a short film, and two political cartoons (suggested use is included) 
• an assignment that contains scaffolded questions to use with any text
• a short film analysis assignment (of Night and Day ) with scaffolded questions and an extended response (film available on YouTube)
• seven graphic organizers to use with a variety of texts (commercials, songs, fiction, nonfiction, poems, movies, and paired texts – text suggestions/recommendations with links are included)
• a pre- and post-assessment 
• a literary analysis essay example to help move students from analyzing verbally to analyzing in a literary analysis format
• an editable single-point rubric and outline with guiding questions to accompany the literary analysis essay
• a unit overview (recommendations for order and text ideas)
• suggested texts and links to sources to use for whole-class modeling purposes

5. Secondary Sara – finding evidence from the text

Another way to get your students to practice literary analysis when studying any novel is by using this fun activity by Secondary Sara.

The Common Core-aligned activity is set up as a “conspiracy theory” that students have to “prove”.  To do so, students practice finding and using evidence to back up a claim. 

In the activity, student groups choose a question about the novel and come up with a “conspiracy theory” (thesis) to answer that question.

While reading, small groups gather text evidence from the novel and analyze it using a four-step method: What does it SAY?, What does it MEAN?, Why does it MATTER?, How does it prove your THESIS?

Once they have completed the novel and graphic organizer, students give presentations on their thesis and the evidence they collected to support it. 

The rest of the class actively listens by following along with their own listening guide to track who said what.

You can also use an optional follow-up essay assignment to individually assess literary analysis skills.

Included in the download are:

• a rubric that clearly assesses speaking standards
• teacher guide that provides essential questions, I Can statements, CCSS standards for grades 6-8, a sample calendar of lessons, and tips for successful implementation of the group project. 
• directions sheet and rubric
• thesis statement development/approval sheet
• case file planning sheet (chart to collect and analyze text evidence while reading)
• listening guide for presentations
• sample PowerPoint template to give students so they know how to format and organize all of their evidence (and it helps them transition into an essay later)
• literary analysis essay assignment (directions and rubric)
• Google, Word, and PDF versions
• bonus pages: a nonfiction activity to research what conspiracy theories are, evaluating evidence in a theory mini-lesson, and analyzing the quality of an essay’s claims mini-lesson 

7. Write on with Miss G – low-risk literary analysis practice

Another fun literary analysis practice worksheet is included in this speed-dating lesson by Write on with Miss G.  The discussion and literary analysis activities work with any novel.

In the activity, students are paired up to discuss questions aligned with the Common Core standards.  After each round, students rotate to a new partner and discuss a new question.

By the end of class, students will have interacted with 15+ peers and discussed 15+ questions! This means students get lots of low-risk, repeated practice in the peer-to-peer setting. 

This literary analysis practice activity enables your entire class to participate in literary analysis in a low-risk setting and set students up for success in whole-class discussions (that you can do following the speed-dating lesson).

This activity works best at the end of a novel, as it contains questions that ask about “the big picture” (theme, symbolism, etc.)

• detailed teacher instructions
• editable student worksheet with an exit ticket
• 27 editable  Common Core-aligned question cards 
• blank question cards (so you can add your own questions)

Literary elements covered in the questions include

• author’s choices
• author’s purpose
• character development
• word choice
• point of view
• objective summary
• and structure

8. Tracee Orman – interactive flipbook

Another literary analysis practice worksheet is included in this interactive notebook flipbook for any novel by Tracee Orman.

You can choose to use the literary analysis activity as an interactive flipbook, or you can choose to use them as literary analysis practice worksheets.  

The activities cover six main areas.  These areas are

• character development: students must analyze how the setting, events, and other characters have influenced each other
• setting: students analyze how the setting affects the tone of the story and how different themes utilize the setting to convey their messages
• point-of-view: students evaluate either first-person, third-person limited, or third-person omniscient narration–depending on the novel or story–and how different events, the setting, and other characters impact the way it is narrated; students also analyze why the author chose that perspective and how it influences different themes 
• plot analysis: students choose different events from the novel and analyze how each contributes to the tension and conflict in the story; students also evaluate the author’s structure of the story and why/how the author uses various literary techniques for storytelling
• literary and figurative devices: students examine the words used in various quotes and how they change or impact the tone and mood of the story; students also identify and explain various figurative language devices such as simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, idiom, and imagery
• overall effects: students dissect a theme to see which characters, events, and elements of the setting helped deepen its meaning of it.

Using these literary analysis practice worksheets or interactive notebooks, students practice higher-level critical-thinking skills which include analysis, synthesis, inference, summarizing, and more.

The activities can be used at any point in the text and can be reused at any point, making them even more versatile. They are perfect for stations, group work, or individual independent reading.

9. Teen tech university – analyzing author’s tone

The next literary analysis practice worksheet is included in this activity by Teen tech university, which focuses on teaching students how to analyze the author’s tone in writing.  

Included in the product are

• an analyzing tone Google Slides presentation (30+ slides)
• DIDLS charts for strategic tone analysis – they show students how to analyze diction, imagery, details, language, and syntax
• four poems to analyze – they are all on the same subject but have a different tone
• teacher’s key for ALL poems and activities
• tone tweets activity – students analyze 15 real-life tweets with a student handout and a teacher answer key
• engaging reading passages for practice and application
• an assessable application activity – a high school graduation where two teens with very different viewpoints
• a writing application activity – My greatest fear
• tone words reference sheet (positive, neutral, and negative connotation)
• annotation activities for active reading and examples
• teacher notes and pacing guide
• Google Drive sharing links for all resources AND pdf handouts provided for printing options.

10. Celebrating Secondary – literary analysis of short films

Another fun way to get your students to practice literary analysis is to use short films to introduce, practice, or review the process.  This bundle by Celebrating secondary enables students to practice literary analysis in a low-risk setting by analyzing short films.

Included in the bundle are two products: Literary analysis using Pixar short films and Literary analysis using short films.  Literary topics and skills covered by the activities include:

• characterization
• connotation
• social commentary
• author’s purpose
• and many more

The product includes links to Pixar shorts, including Bao, Lou, Lifted, Partly Cloudy, and La Luna .  It also includes links to short films, including Lambs, Nuggets, Snack Attack, Soar, and The Little Shoemaker .

A suggested answer key is included, but because the activities are analysis-based answers will vary.  

11. Miss Fits – “recipe” of a text analysis

The last literary analysis practice worksheet is included in this recipe book project by Miss Fits.

In the CCSS-aligned project, students show their understanding and interpretation of the main ideas and themes of a literary work in a fun and creative way. They will practice citing textual evidence to support their examination of a literary work, including themes and characterization. 

This activity works fantastically with books that have a large emphasis on food, such as 

Lara Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate , Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler, or The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.  

However, it can also be used with other texts, with the creator saying she’s used it with a class reading George Orwell’s 1984 and another student using it as an alternative project for  The Handmaid’s Tale.

Included in the product are:

• an assignment sheet explaining the objective and instructions for the project
• rubric (editable version also included)
• an imagery tracker
• a creative symbolism exercise
• step-by-step recipe worksheet to help students create their projects, and
• sample entries

Want more literary analysis content?

Check out these blog posts

• Literary analysis: how to teach your ELA students to analyze
• 5 research-backed reasons you should be teaching mind mapping

Want a literary analysis example to show your ELA students? Sign up to have an example literary analysis of Jane Austen’s Emma delivered to your inbox.

&   Literary Analysis Paper &

Prewriting: Read the short stories which were distributed in class. Read " The Story of an Hour ." In class, you will read a student essay which analyzes it.

Assignment: You will write a 2-3 page standard literary analysis that explains your interpretation of short story.

These handouts may help you:

• good questions to ask yourself when trying to interpret and analyze a story
• a suggested structure for your literary analysis
• Integrating quotations well in a literary analysis

  "Where to Put Your Hands" by Lee Tonouchi

"Say Yes" by Tobias Wolff

"Dog Life" by Mark Strand

"Can-Can" by Arturo Vivante

         Your aim is to convince readers that you have a reasonable analysis based on a thoughtful and imaginative reading of the story. Make sure you tell the reader in your first paragraph which story you're analyzing and who the author is.   Use quotation marks to enclose whatever you quote.   Use the MLA style of documentation. Do not make a separate Works Cited page for this assignment, since you are using only one source; instead, make a Work Cited entry at the end of your paper.   (600-750 words, typed, double-spaced). Click here for the information your need to do your Work Cited entry.

For the standard literary analysis, you might answer one of the following questions.   Your answer to the question will be your thesis.   Your interpretation of the story is valid as long as you can support it with quotes and information from the story.

Questions for your Literary Analysis paper: The answer to the question is your thesis.   Choose only one story to write about.

"Where to Put Your Hands" by Lee Tonouchi

What is the significance of hands in "Where to Put Your Hands" and how do they illustrate the narrator's growth in the story?

   What   do you think and/or feel about the husband's character in this story and what do you think Tobias Wolff is suggesting about the nature of racial prejudice through the husband's character and other images or descriptions in the story? What is the possible symbolism of the imagery of the domestic chores in "Say Yes" and what do they imply about the main characters' marriage?

What do you think the story is really about?    What descriptions and events in the story contribute to your interpretation?

"Can-Can" by Arturo Vivante.  

What do you think the author is suggesting about infidelity   in "Can-Can?" Support your interpretation with evidence from the story.

  Deadlines:   Rough draft due Monday, June 23.

                 Final draft due Tuesday, June 24.

Grading Criteria for regular literary analysis:

American Psycho

Bret easton ellis, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

American Psycho: Introduction

American psycho: plot summary, american psycho: detailed summary & analysis, american psycho: themes, american psycho: quotes, american psycho: characters, american psycho: symbols, american psycho: theme wheel, brief biography of bret easton ellis.

Historical Context of American Psycho

Other books related to american psycho.

• Full Title: American Psycho
• When Written: the late 1980s and early 1990s
• Where Written: New York City
• When Published: 1991
• Literary Period: Contemporary American Fiction, Postmodernism, Satire
• Genre: Novel
• Setting: New York City, the late 1980s
• Climax: Bateman’s police chase and his confessional voicemails to his lawyer, Harold Carnes
• Point of View: First-Person

Extra Credit for American Psycho

Take Your Money and Go. American Psycho was originally slated to be published by Simon & Schuster. However in November of 1990, the company, citing “aesthetic differences,” dropped the book over its graphic and misogynistic content. Bret Easton Ellis got to keep the money anyway. Later that year, it was picked up and published by Vintage Books.

Is He or Isn’t He?. Bret Easton Ellis revealed in a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone that he’s never made a firm decision about whether or not Patrick Bateman is truly committing the heinous crimes he describes in the novel, saying, “That was what was so interesting to me about it. You can read the book either way.”

Lit & More

March 5, 2023 ·

The Book Bento: A Visual Literary Analysis Assignment

9-10 ELA Strategies

I first heard about Book Bentos a few years ago on Instagram. “Cute!” I said, then scrolled on. However, the image stayed with me. A few months later I sought it out with Google and saw a few images of Book Bentos.

A Book Bento is a flat lay photo of a book, surrounded by images that correlate with the plot, themes, or setting. Check out their Instagram page here !

For my first Book Bento assignment, I made it optional as one of several creative book reports during Covid. Only a few students did the assignment, but the ones I got were intriguing.

Last year, I assigned Book Bentos to my AP English Literature students and made it an option for extra credit to the rest of my classes. The results were amazing!

This quarter, I used it as a replacement for a timed writing (my choice: I’m swamped with grading). My students liked it so much they requested to do it for future assignments as well. I also beefed up my rubric to emphasize analysis more, so the responses I got were surprisingly analytic and text-based.

Student Examples

Here are a few examples of the book bentos I got for this assignment, with portions of their analysis included.

The Midnight Library

Born a Crime

There are several reasons to implement a book bento assignment into any of your classes this year.

• They require less grading than an essay. I got through a stack of 15 today in 20 minutes, when grading their on-demand essays usually takes over an hour.
• They integrate analysis in a way that goes beyond writing. This is a great assignment to allow creative and visual minds to shine. While writing is still included, it isn’t the sole requirement.
• It helps me get to know my students. I get to see the way their minds work and how they find items for their photo. While some students raided our theater department’s prop closets, most of the students used items from around their homes.
• Book Bentos are more challenging than they seem. The items for the book take a while to think up and find. But even more challenging is the layout and photography elements. Flat lays are difficult, especially when required to avoid shadows and glares. Most of my students tried several layouts and spent a long time editing on their phones before submitting.
• It’s fun! My students asked to see each other’s Book Bentos, so we did a little photo gallery so they could appreciate each other’s works. Many have already asked to do the assignment all over again!

If you’re interested in a simple rubric for scoring Book Bentos, here’s a file I created. It’s editable so you can change it to suit your needs. All I ask is that you don’t charge for these materials!

I hope this inspires you to try Book Bentos sometime this year in your classes. Be sure to check out my TpT store for other teaching resources, both free and paid, for 9-10 grade and AP Lit classes.

Reader Interactions

March 5, 2023 at 8:16 am

This looks fun! Did they share a photo with you along with the write-up and then you created the gallery of photos for the class?

March 5, 2023 at 8:26 am

Yes. I print them and display them in the hallway outside my classroom.

March 5, 2023 at 10:46 am

Could you share your rubric?

March 5, 2023 at 10:47 am

The file is linked at the bottom of the blog post

[…] another alternative: the Book Bento (Lit and […]

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Novel analysis

Your analysis of a classic novel should demonstrate why the work is considered to be good literature

Part 2: A Literary Analysis of a Classic Novel 

Read one of the classic novels to the right. M ake a literary analysis in w hich you demonstrate why the novel is considered to be good literature. The analysis should aim at biography, literary trends and society. 

You will find the instructions in the document Literary Analysis of a Classic Novel below to the left.  

In the document below to the right you will find literary terms, some of which you might find useful during the speaking test.   Note that you are not supposed to send in a written analysis. 

Classic Novels

The 19th century

Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice; Emma

Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre

Charles Dickens: Great Expectations; A Tale of Two Cities 

Mary Shelley: Frankenstein 

Mark Twain : The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The 20th century   

Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway

George Orwell: 1984

JD Salinger: Catcher in the Rye

Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird

William Golding: Lord of the Flies

Frank McCourt: Angela’s Ashes

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Educational Resources for Educators

Activities to Use for Any Novel Study

Each year I like to do a different novel study with my students. I’m always on the lookout for novel study activities for any novel. This year I chose the book, “The City of Ember” because it fit in nicely with my science and social studies units (Light and Sound for science and Ancient Civilizations for social studies).

We did so many great activities throughout this unit that would work well for ANY novel study so I thought I would compile a list for you!

Great activities that you can do with ANY novel study!

Activities to Use for ANY Novel Study:

If also got a ton of activities specific to the novel Refugee that you can read about in this blog post here .

April 29, 2019 at 8:11 pm

Thank you, this was very helpful. Sometimes it is hard to find interesting activities to engage the students.

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