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Literary analysis essay

Approaches to a literary analysis


introduction
Always set context in some way
1. Start with an overview that sets the literal context
Tim OBrien wrote the novel The Things They Carried in
1990, twenty years after the war in Vietnam. In the novel,
OBrien ________ (give a brief, 1-3 sentence synopsis of
what the work is about). Yet the novel is more than just a
description of a particular war. In The Things They
Carried, Tim OBrien (does what) to show that (purpose).

Introduction (cont)
2. Start with a point of debate or contention for context
Tim OBriens novel The Things They Carried is a wellknown, prize-winning work of literature, but some
readers have questioned the portrayal of women. While
few women appear in the novel, those that do Martha,
Mary Anne, and Kathleen, for instance all might be seen
as just support or even wish fulfillment for the male
characters or even the author himself. Yet a close reading
of the novel suggests otherwise. In The Things They
Carried, Tim OBrien actually (does what) to show
(contrasting view to what you started with).

Introduction (cont)
3. Start with language from the work that sets a context
Its Rat Kiley who says it most clearly: Vietnam had the effect
of a powerful drug: that mix of unnamed terror and unnamed
pleasure that comes as the needle slips in (OBrien 109).
Kiley, a character in the novel The Things They Carried, is
describing the effect of the war on one particular character,
but the pattern he sets is characteristic of the novel as a
whole. There are many characters in the novel, but perhaps
the one that is most often missed is the country itself. In The
Things They Carried, Tim OBrien develops Vietnam itself as a
character, changing setting to participant, in order to
(purpose).

Development and organization


Think of the thesis as a blueprint:
In the novel Kindred, Octavia Butler compares
and contrasts the characters Dana and Alice to
show that judgments about how people should
have acted in extreme circumstances like slavery
are all too often glib and unjustified.

First point
Then your first paragraph needs to follow the
blueprint both in content and in words on the
page:
The comparison of Dana and Alice,
showing their similarities, is obvious in the
novel, and suggests that we can easily decide
today how people should have acted in extreme
situations of the past.

First point (cont)


Repetition of exact or similar words and the
tie to the first element (the comparison) that
is listed in the thesis blueprint
The stage of the overall point you are making
that the paragraph will deal with.
You could add a verbal transition (First of all
), but this is probably clear enough.

Next point
Should pick up on the next step of the blueprint,
and may need a bit more of a transition:
However, the contrasts between Dana and
Alice are even more striking; this implies that
simple comparisons are just too easy.

Following points
Should follow the same model:
Taken together, the similarities and differences
between these two characters lead the reader
to conclude that we must take care not to
oversimplify our judgments of the past.

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