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How to Write a Literary Analysis

To analyze means to break a unit down into its separate components and examine them individually. Then you can understand the entire unit better. This may be done with a work of literature, such as a short story, poem, song, film, novel, or play. There are several steps to follow and some terms to understand before you write a literary analysis.

First, do not write a summary of the story or merely a plot. The plot is just the sequence of events in the story, given in a certain order. To analyze, you must dig deeper into some other aspects of the work in question. Setting is a good place to start. Setting is the season, time, mood, or weather in the story. It may or may not have some deeper meaning; this depends on what else happens in the story.

Second, consider the symbolism, if there is any. Symbols signal themselves through position, emphasis, and repetition. Symbols may be found in names, objects, actions, and events. Some writers use symbols because of the compressed nature of a short work of fiction; they get more mileage out of the words this way. Symbols carry meaning beyond the literal definitions.
Irony often occurs in conjunction with symbolism. Irony is a discrepancy or incongruity, a reversal of expectations. Irony may be verbal, situational, or dramatic.

Third, look for the theme.
A theme is not a moral or a lesson; it is a generalized statement about human behavior or the human experience.
It is usually implied rather than implicitly stated. A theme must be supportable through evidence you can find for it in the story. Theme often requires a second or third reading before you find it, and it may be hard to articulate until you work it out for a while.

Fourth, consider characters.
They may be well developed or flat, changing or static, major or minor. They may be actively involved in events or in the background and observing. A character might narrate the story in the first person, but most stories are in the third person. This is where point of view comes in. Stories are told in the first or third person point of view; the latter may be omniscient, limited omniscient, or objective.

Choose two or three aspects mentioned above as the key points in your literary analysis. Your analysis should contain a thesis statement that is supported by these aspects of the work. With a proper thesis statement, adequate supporting evidence, and a little flair for writing, you will find a literary analysis is well within your level of expertise.

Learn more about this author, Kaarina St. John.
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