Writing About Literature

CONSIDERATIONS FOR WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE

The complexity of the work involves:
 1)  Use of language
 2)  Point of view—narrative position
 3)  Setting
 4)  Development of character

A prose piece or a poem is not a concentrically figured target with a single central point.  Rather, a work of prose or poetry reveals ideas about something.

 Jane Eyre is the story of a governess. – TARGET
 
 The social status of a governess is central to the development of Jane Eyre’s
 character. – IDEAS ABOUT

 Blake’s "Little Black Boy" is a poem with the universal theme of racism. – TARGET
 
 In Blake’s "Little Black Boy," the speaker of the poem is a young child who believes he will  be loved by God even though he is black. – IDEAS ABOUT
 

Poetry

Poetry involves:  Language, image, metaphor, symbol, sound, rhythm, meter, rhyme

Questions to ask when writing about poetry:
 1) What is the simple experience the poem relates?
 2) What elements extend the significance of that story?
 3) Which sound patterns emphasize ideas in the poem?
 4) Who is the speaker of the poem?
 5) What is the speaker’s attitude?  Why?
 
When writing about fiction ask yourself:
   Characters:

    What are the decisions the characters make?
    How do the decisions change the characters?
    What motivates the characters?
    What are the character’s views of themselves?
    What determines the character’s choice?
   Narrator:
    Who tells the story?
    What is the narrator’s view of the characters?  Of their situation?
    Is the narrator detached or involved? In what way?
   Setting:
    What about the environment influences the characters?  Influences the reader?
    What does the historical period reveal?
    Which images repeat within the setting?
 
Questions leading to an analysis:
 1) What interests or disturbs you as a reader?
 2) What ideas, words, images, settings, and/or symbols recur?
 3) Where/when do they occur?
 4) How do these repetitions effect your reading?
 5) How is the plot structured?
 6) What conflicts are present in the characters?  In the story as a whole?
 

HELPFUL HINTS

Analyzing parts:
 What to do with a quote—
   Which words in the quote are the most important?
   What do these words mean—literally?
   What is the connotation of key words within the quote?
   How do these meanings relate to the ideas you are discussing?

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