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Why Write a Literary Analysis?

Literature teaches us about the value of conflict. We experience conflict in our personal relationships and in our interactions with society. A literary analysis helps us recognize the conflict at work in literature; this gives us greater insight into the personal conflicts that we face. In addition, learning how to closely read, analyze, and critique a text is beneficial beyond a literature course in that it improves our writing, reading, and critiquing abilities overall.

How to Write a Literary Analysis

It is important to understand that some conflicts in literature might not always be obvious. Considering how an author addresses conflict via literary techniques can reveal other more complex conflicts or different kinds of conflicts that interact in multiple ways. Analyzing those more complicated elements can help you discover what literature represents about the human experience and condition. With this in mind, consider that your thesis might be a claim about how conflict is represented in a work, whether through character, setting, or tone. This is not a personal reflection on conflict in general or a conflict you face but an analysis of how literary elements are used to express a conflict in a given literary work—in this case, a short story.

The literary analysis should be organized around your rough draft and thesis statement. Your thesis is the controlling idea of the entire essay. In the Week One assignment you submitted a proposal in which you chose a topic based on the List of Writing Prompts. You also identified a short story to analyze from the List of Literary Works. In Week Two you compiled an annotated bibliography in which you identified your primary and secondary sources. In Week Three, you created a rough draft and revised your working thesis. You also incorporated research into this draft.

Assignment Instructions

In this assignment, you will refine that thesis and essay even further and develop your argument. You are required to incorporate your instructor’s feedback in your Final Paper and to take peer feedback into consideration. In your paper,

• Create a detailed introduction that contains a thesis that offers a debatable claim based on one of the prompts on the list. 
• Apply critical thought by analyzing the primary source you selected from the approved List of Literary Works. Avoid summary and personal reflection. 
• Develop body paragraphs that contain clear topic sentences and examples that support the argument. 
• Write a conclusion that reaffirms the thesis statement and includes a summary of the key ideas in essay.
• Apply your knowledge of literary elements and other concepts in your response to the prompt. Reference the list of literary elements found in Week Two of the course and discussion forums.
• Incorporate research from the primary and secondary sources.