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Analyzing a short story is not an exact science. If the notion of analyzing a short story makes you feel apprehensive, you should remember that there is no such thing as a right or wrong interpretation. Literary analysis is both an objective and a subjective task. However, there should be discrepancies between good and bad interpretations. Whether you are a beginner or a veteran literary critic you should always use other sources to assist you in your analysis. Library books are the best sources, but the internet is also a helpful research tool, especially if you have access to Jstor, Muse, and other scholarly databases.

It is impossible to analyze a story to its full extent, and critics have many different techniques and modes of analysis; however, there are certain elements that most critics agree should be taken into account when writing a serious literary analysis.

Learn about the author - Before reading a story you should always look up information on the author first. Reading a short synopsis about the writer's life will tell you the time frame in which the author lived as well where the author was from. It will also tell you about the author's family and educational background and list the author's other works and accomplishments. This helps you to know what point of view the author is writing from. It also helps you to put the work into its historical context, and it may give you some insight into the work's meaning.

Read the story Read the story in its entirety. Do not spend a lot of time underlining during your initial read; however, if a particular quote catches your eye go ahead and underline it. Also, underline any words that you do not know so that you can look them up in the dictionary later.

Re-read and look at important passages - After reading through the story, go back and re-read. Each time you re-read the story, it is like taking a journey. Upon reading the story a second time, you should notice things that you did not notice during the first read. Carefully underline any additional passages that you find interesting. Now that you are finished reading, you should examine the passages you underlined. Why do you think these passages are important? Upon looking through the underlined passages, you may feel that some are more important than others. In this case, you may want to come up with another way to mark the "very important" passages. (Perhaps draw a star in the margin.) Also, at this time you should look up any words that you did not understand.

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