How To Write A Literary Analysis

In this video, I'm going to give you some tips on how to write a literary analysis. Now, the word "analysis" tells you that you're going to be breaking something down into its component parts and looking at some of those and how they fit together. In the case of literary analysis, there are many things you could consider: for example, what is the theme, or the bigger message of the book, the one that's kind of hiding behind the plot; you might look at the relationships of the characters, you might look at the style of the author - the important thing is to pick one component that you are going to focus on in your literary analysis.

So, for example, if you decide to look at the theme, then if you're analyzing Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", the theme would be something like the dangers of man tampering with things reserved for God - so creation of life and the dangers of that. Or, if you're doing one on "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens, you might find that the theme is around the idea of the dangers of social climbing - of how social ambition can endanger authentic relationships and authentic love. So, when you have decided which one you are going to focus on, then your title should give some clue as to what it is.

You don't have to necessarily give the name of the book, but allude to what you are writing about. So, for example, in the case of "Great Expectations", the title might be something like "The Price of Climbing the Social Ladder". Now, the central idea doesn't have to be your first sentence.

Often, you're looking for a first sentence that's more provocative in some way, that pulls the reader in, but you do want to express your central thesis in the first paragraph, and then after that, you want to support this idea that you've discovered, so you want to give examples from the book of the things that you are talking about. Now when you've done all of that, you bring it together in your concluding paragraph that kind of wraps up and summarizes your thesis, again. So, let me do that now, with you.

To summarize how to write a literary analysis, you pick one part to analyze, you create a thesis for it or a statement of fact that you believe about this particular book. You support it with lots of evidence, and then you end with a concluding paragraph that sums everything up and brings it to a nice close. .