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• How to write a literary analysis essay | A step-by-step guide

How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay | A Step-by-Step Guide

Published on January 30, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 14, 2023.

Literary analysis means closely studying a text, interpreting its meanings, and exploring why the author made certain choices. It can be applied to novels, short stories, plays, poems, or any other form of literary writing.

A literary analysis essay is not a rhetorical analysis , nor is it just a summary of the plot or a book review. Instead, it is a type of argumentative essay where you need to analyze elements such as the language, perspective, and structure of the text, and explain how the author uses literary devices to create effects and convey ideas.

Before beginning a literary analysis essay, it’s essential to carefully read the text and c ome up with a thesis statement to keep your essay focused. As you write, follow the standard structure of an academic essay :

• An introduction that tells the reader what your essay will focus on.
• A main body, divided into paragraphs , that builds an argument using evidence from the text.
• A conclusion that clearly states the main point that you have shown with your analysis.

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Table of contents

Step 1: reading the text and identifying literary devices, step 2: coming up with a thesis, step 3: writing a title and introduction, step 4: writing the body of the essay, step 5: writing a conclusion, other interesting articles.

The first step is to carefully read the text(s) and take initial notes. As you read, pay attention to the things that are most intriguing, surprising, or even confusing in the writing—these are things you can dig into in your analysis.

Your goal in literary analysis is not simply to explain the events described in the text, but to analyze the writing itself and discuss how the text works on a deeper level. Primarily, you’re looking out for literary devices —textual elements that writers use to convey meaning and create effects. If you’re comparing and contrasting multiple texts, you can also look for connections between different texts.

To get started with your analysis, there are several key areas that you can focus on. As you analyze each aspect of the text, try to think about how they all relate to each other. You can use highlights or notes to keep track of important passages and quotes.

Language choices

Consider what style of language the author uses. Are the sentences short and simple or more complex and poetic?

What word choices stand out as interesting or unusual? Are words used figuratively to mean something other than their literal definition? Figurative language includes things like metaphor (e.g. “her eyes were oceans”) and simile (e.g. “her eyes were like oceans”).

Also keep an eye out for imagery in the text—recurring images that create a certain atmosphere or symbolize something important. Remember that language is used in literary texts to say more than it means on the surface.

Narrative voice

Ask yourself:

• Who is telling the story?
• How are they telling it?

Is it a first-person narrator (“I”) who is personally involved in the story, or a third-person narrator who tells us about the characters from a distance?

Consider the narrator’s perspective . Is the narrator omniscient (where they know everything about all the characters and events), or do they only have partial knowledge? Are they an unreliable narrator who we are not supposed to take at face value? Authors often hint that their narrator might be giving us a distorted or dishonest version of events.

The tone of the text is also worth considering. Is the story intended to be comic, tragic, or something else? Are usually serious topics treated as funny, or vice versa ? Is the story realistic or fantastical (or somewhere in between)?

Consider how the text is structured, and how the structure relates to the story being told.

• Novels are often divided into chapters and parts.
• Poems are divided into lines, stanzas, and sometime cantos.
• Plays are divided into scenes and acts.

Think about why the author chose to divide the different parts of the text in the way they did.

There are also less formal structural elements to take into account. Does the story unfold in chronological order, or does it jump back and forth in time? Does it begin in medias res —in the middle of the action? Does the plot advance towards a clearly defined climax?

With poetry, consider how the rhyme and meter shape your understanding of the text and your impression of the tone. Try reading the poem aloud to get a sense of this.

In a play, you might consider how relationships between characters are built up through different scenes, and how the setting relates to the action. Watch out for  dramatic irony , where the audience knows some detail that the characters don’t, creating a double meaning in their words, thoughts, or actions.

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Your thesis in a literary analysis essay is the point you want to make about the text. It’s the core argument that gives your essay direction and prevents it from just being a collection of random observations about a text.

If you’re given a prompt for your essay, your thesis must answer or relate to the prompt. For example:

Essay question example

Is Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” a religious parable?

Your thesis statement should be an answer to this question—not a simple yes or no, but a statement of why this is or isn’t the case:

Thesis statement example

Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” is not a religious parable, but a story about bureaucratic alienation.

Sometimes you’ll be given freedom to choose your own topic; in this case, you’ll have to come up with an original thesis. Consider what stood out to you in the text; ask yourself questions about the elements that interested you, and consider how you might answer them.

Your thesis should be something arguable—that is, something that you think is true about the text, but which is not a simple matter of fact. It must be complex enough to develop through evidence and arguments across the course of your essay.

Say you’re analyzing the novel Frankenstein . You could start by asking yourself:

Your initial answer might be a surface-level description:

The character Frankenstein is portrayed negatively in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

However, this statement is too simple to be an interesting thesis. After reading the text and analyzing its narrative voice and structure, you can develop the answer into a more nuanced and arguable thesis statement:

Mary Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

Remember that you can revise your thesis statement throughout the writing process , so it doesn’t need to be perfectly formulated at this stage. The aim is to keep you focused as you analyze the text.

Finding textual evidence

To support your thesis statement, your essay will build an argument using textual evidence —specific parts of the text that demonstrate your point. This evidence is quoted and analyzed throughout your essay to explain your argument to the reader.

It can be useful to comb through the text in search of relevant quotations before you start writing. You might not end up using everything you find, and you may have to return to the text for more evidence as you write, but collecting textual evidence from the beginning will help you to structure your arguments and assess whether they’re convincing.

To start your literary analysis paper, you’ll need two things: a good title, and an introduction.

Your title should clearly indicate what your analysis will focus on. It usually contains the name of the author and text(s) you’re analyzing. Keep it as concise and engaging as possible.

A common approach to the title is to use a relevant quote from the text, followed by a colon and then the rest of your title.

If you struggle to come up with a good title at first, don’t worry—this will be easier once you’ve begun writing the essay and have a better sense of your arguments.

“Fearful symmetry” : The violence of creation in William Blake’s “The Tyger”

The introduction

The essay introduction provides a quick overview of where your argument is going. It should include your thesis statement and a summary of the essay’s structure.

A typical structure for an introduction is to begin with a general statement about the text and author, using this to lead into your thesis statement. You might refer to a commonly held idea about the text and show how your thesis will contradict it, or zoom in on a particular device you intend to focus on.

Then you can end with a brief indication of what’s coming up in the main body of the essay. This is called signposting. It will be more elaborate in longer essays, but in a short five-paragraph essay structure, it shouldn’t be more than one sentence.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, protagonist Victor Frankenstein is a stable representation of the callous ambition of modern science throughout the novel. This essay, however, argues that far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as. This essay begins by exploring the positive portrayal of Frankenstein in the first volume, then moves on to the creature’s perception of him, and finally discusses the third volume’s narrative shift toward viewing Frankenstein as the creature views him.

Some students prefer to write the introduction later in the process, and it’s not a bad idea. After all, you’ll have a clearer idea of the overall shape of your arguments once you’ve begun writing them!

If you do write the introduction first, you should still return to it later to make sure it lines up with what you ended up writing, and edit as necessary.

The body of your essay is everything between the introduction and conclusion. It contains your arguments and the textual evidence that supports them.

Paragraph structure

A typical structure for a high school literary analysis essay consists of five paragraphs : the three paragraphs of the body, plus the introduction and conclusion.

Each paragraph in the main body should focus on one topic. In the five-paragraph model, try to divide your argument into three main areas of analysis, all linked to your thesis. Don’t try to include everything you can think of to say about the text—only analysis that drives your argument.

In longer essays, the same principle applies on a broader scale. For example, you might have two or three sections in your main body, each with multiple paragraphs. Within these sections, you still want to begin new paragraphs at logical moments—a turn in the argument or the introduction of a new idea.

Robert’s first encounter with Gil-Martin suggests something of his sinister power. Robert feels “a sort of invisible power that drew me towards him.” He identifies the moment of their meeting as “the beginning of a series of adventures which has puzzled myself, and will puzzle the world when I am no more in it” (p. 89). Gil-Martin’s “invisible power” seems to be at work even at this distance from the moment described; before continuing the story, Robert feels compelled to anticipate at length what readers will make of his narrative after his approaching death. With this interjection, Hogg emphasizes the fatal influence Gil-Martin exercises from his first appearance.

Topic sentences

To keep your points focused, it’s important to use a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph.

A good topic sentence allows a reader to see at a glance what the paragraph is about. It can introduce a new line of argument and connect or contrast it with the previous paragraph. Transition words like “however” or “moreover” are useful for creating smooth transitions:

… The story’s focus, therefore, is not upon the divine revelation that may be waiting beyond the door, but upon the mundane process of aging undergone by the man as he waits.

Nevertheless, the “radiance” that appears to stream from the door is typically treated as religious symbolism.

This topic sentence signals that the paragraph will address the question of religious symbolism, while the linking word “nevertheless” points out a contrast with the previous paragraph’s conclusion.

Using textual evidence

A key part of literary analysis is backing up your arguments with relevant evidence from the text. This involves introducing quotes from the text and explaining their significance to your point.

It’s important to contextualize quotes and explain why you’re using them; they should be properly introduced and analyzed, not treated as self-explanatory:

It isn’t always necessary to use a quote. Quoting is useful when you’re discussing the author’s language, but sometimes you’ll have to refer to plot points or structural elements that can’t be captured in a short quote.

In these cases, it’s more appropriate to paraphrase or summarize parts of the text—that is, to describe the relevant part in your own words:

The conclusion of your analysis shouldn’t introduce any new quotations or arguments. Instead, it’s about wrapping up the essay. Here, you summarize your key points and try to emphasize their significance to the reader.

A good way to approach this is to briefly summarize your key arguments, and then stress the conclusion they’ve led you to, highlighting the new perspective your thesis provides on the text as a whole:

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By tracing the depiction of Frankenstein through the novel’s three volumes, I have demonstrated how the narrative structure shifts our perception of the character. While the Frankenstein of the first volume is depicted as having innocent intentions, the second and third volumes—first in the creature’s accusatory voice, and then in his own voice—increasingly undermine him, causing him to appear alternately ridiculous and vindictive. Far from the one-dimensional villain he is often taken to be, the character of Frankenstein is compelling because of the dynamic narrative frame in which he is placed. In this frame, Frankenstein’s narrative self-presentation responds to the images of him we see from others’ perspectives. This conclusion sheds new light on the novel, foregrounding Shelley’s unique layering of narrative perspectives and its importance for the depiction of character.

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Short Story Analysis Essay

Almost everyone has read a couple of short stories from the time they were kids up until today. Although, depending on how old you are, you analyze the stories you read differently. As a kid, you often point out who is the good guy and the bad guy. You even express your complaints if you do not like the ending. Now, in high school or maybe in college, you pretty much do the same, but you need to incorporate your critical thinking skills and follow appropriate formatting. That said, to present the results of your literature review, compose a short story analysis essay.

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What Is a Short Story Analysis Essay?

A short story analysis essay is a composition that aims to examine the plot and the aspects of the story. In writing this document, the writer needs to take the necessary elements of a short story into account. In addition, one purpose of writing this type of analysis essay is to identify the theme of the story. As well as try to make connections between the different aspects. 

How to Compose a Critical Short Story Analysis Essay

Having the assignment to write a short story analysis can be overwhelming. Reading the short story is easy enough. Evaluating and writing down your essay is the challenging part. A short story analysis essay follows a different format from other literature essays . That said, to help with that, here are instructive steps and helpful tips.

1. Take Down Notes

Considering that you have read the short story a couple of times, the first step you should take before writing your essay is to summarize and write down your notes. To help you with this, you can utilize flow charts to determine the arcs the twists of the short story. Include the parts and segments that affected you the most, as well as the ones that hold significance for the whole story. 

2. Compose Your Thesis Statement

Before composing your thesis statement for the introductory paragraph of your essay, first, you need to identify the thematic statement of the story. This sentence should present the underlying message of the entire literature. It is where the story revolves around. After that, you can use it as a basis and proceed with composing your thesis statement. It should provide the readers an overview of the content of your analysis paper.

3. Analyze the Concepts

One of the essential segments of your paper is, of course, the analysis part. In the body of your essay, you should present arguments that discuss the concepts that you were able to identify. To support your point, you should provide evidence and quote sentences from the story. If you present strong supporting sentences, it will make your composition more effective. To help with the organization and the structure, you can utilize an analysis paper outline .

4. Craft Your Conclusion

The last part of the process is to craft a conclusion for your essay . Aside from restating the crucial points and the thesis statement, there is another factor that you should consider for the ending paragraph. That said, you should also present your understanding regarding why the author wrote the story that way. In addition, you can also wrap it up by expressing how the story made you feel.

How to run an in-depth analysis of a short story?

In analyzing a short story, you should individually examine the elements of a short story. That said, you need to study the characters, setting, tone, and plot. In addition, you should also consider evaluating the author’s point of view, writing style, and story-telling method. Also, it involves studying how the story affects you personally.

Why is it necessary to compose analysis essays?

Composing analysis essays tests how well a person understands a reading material. It is a good alternative for reading comprehension worksheets . Another advantage of devising this paper is it encourages people to look at a story from different angles and perspectives. In addition to this, it lets the students enhance their article writing potential.

What is critical writing?

Conducting a critical analysis requires an individual to examine the details and facts in the literature closely. It involves breaking down ideas as well as linking them to develop a point or argument. Despite that, the prime purpose of a critical essay is to give a literary criticism of the things the author did well and the things they did poorly.

People enjoy reading short stories. It is for the reason that aside from being brief, they also present meaningful messages and themes. In addition to that, it also brings you to a memorable ride with its entertaining conflicts and plot twists. That said, as a sign of respect to the well-crafted literature, you should present your thoughts about it by generating a well-founded short story analysis essay. 

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Literary Analysis Essay

Literary Analysis Essay Writing

Last updated on: May 21, 2023

Literary Analysis Essay - Ultimate Guide By Professionals

By: Cordon J.

Reviewed By: Rylee W.

Published on: Dec 3, 2019

A literary analysis essay specifically examines and evaluates a piece of literature or a literary work. It also understands and explains the links between the small parts to their whole information.

It is important for students to understand the meaning and the true essence of literature to write a literary essay.

One of the most difficult assignments for students is writing a literary analysis essay. It can be hard to come up with an original idea or find enough material to write about. You might think you need years of experience in order to create a good paper, but that's not true.

This blog post will show you how easy it can be when you follow the steps given here.Writing such an essay involves the breakdown of a book into small parts and understanding each part separately. It seems easy, right?

Trust us, it is not as hard as good book reports but it may also not be extremely easy. You will have to take into account different approaches and explain them in relation with the chosen literary work.

It is a common high school and college assignment and you can learn everything in this blog.

Continue reading for some useful tips with an example to write a literary analysis essay that will be on point. You can also explore our detailed article on writing an analytical essay .

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What is a Literary Analysis Essay?

A literary analysis essay is an important kind of essay that focuses on the detailed analysis of the work of literature.

The purpose of a literary analysis essay is to explain why the author has used a specific theme for his work. Or examine the characters, themes, literary devices , figurative language, and settings in the story.

This type of essay encourages students to think about how the book or the short story has been written. And why the author has created this work.

The method used in the literary analysis essay differs from other types of essays. It primarily focuses on the type of work and literature that is being analyzed.

Mostly, you will be going to break down the work into various parts. In order to develop a better understanding of the idea being discussed, each part will be discussed separately.

The essay should explain the choices of the author and point of view along with your answers and personal analysis.

How To Write A Literary Analysis Essay

So how to start a literary analysis essay? The answer to this question is quite simple.

The following sections are required to write an effective literary analysis essay. By following the guidelines given in the following sections, you will be able to craft a winning literary analysis essay.

Introduction

The aim of the introduction is to establish a context for readers. You have to give a brief on the background of the selected topic.

It should contain the name of the author of the literary work along with its title. The introduction should be effective enough to grab the reader’s attention.

In the body section, you have to retell the story that the writer has narrated. It is a good idea to create a summary as it is one of the important tips of literary analysis.

Other than that, you are required to develop ideas and disclose the observed information related to the issue. The ideal length of the body section is around 1000 words.

To write the body section, your observation should be based on evidence and your own style of writing.

It would be great if the body of your essay is divided into three paragraphs. Make a strong argument with facts related to the thesis statement in all of the paragraphs in the body section.

Start writing each paragraph with a topic sentence and use transition words when moving to the next paragraph.

Summarize the important points of your literary analysis essay in this section. It is important to compose a short and strong conclusion to help you make a final impression of your essay.

Pay attention that this section does not contain any new information. It should provide a sense of completion by restating the main idea with a short description of your arguments. End the conclusion with your supporting details.

You have to explain why the book is important. Also, elaborate on the means that the authors used to convey her/his opinion regarding the issue.

For further understanding, here is a downloadable literary analysis essay outline. This outline will help you structure and format your essay properly and earn an A easily.

DOWNLOADABLE LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY OUTLINE (PDF)

Types of Literary Analysis Essay

• Close reading - This method involves attentive reading and detailed analysis. No need for a lot of knowledge and inspiration to write an essay that shows your creative skills.
• Theoretical - In this type, you will rely on theories related to the selected topic.
• Historical - This type of essay concerns the discipline of history. Sometimes historical analysis is required to explain events in detail.
• Applied - This type involves analysis of a specific issue from a practical perspective.
• Comparative - This type of writing is based on when two or more alternatives are compared

Examples of Literary Analysis Essay

Examples are great to understand any concept, especially if it is related to writing. Below are some great literary analysis essay examples that showcase how this type of essay is written.

A ROSE FOR EMILY LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY

THE GREAT GATSBY LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY

If you do not have experience in writing essays, this will be a very chaotic process for you. In that case, it is very important for you to conduct good research on the topic before writing.

There are two important points that you should keep in mind when writing a literary analysis essay.

First, remember that it is very important to select a topic in which you are interested. Choose something that really inspires you. This will help you to catch the attention of a reader.

The selected topic should reflect the main idea of writing. In addition to that, it should also express your point of view as well.

Another important thing is to draft a good outline for your literary analysis essay. It will help you to define a central point and division of this into parts for further discussion.

Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Literary analysis essays are mostly based on artistic works like books, movies, paintings, and other forms of art. However, generally, students choose novels and books to write their literary essays.

Some cool, fresh, and good topics and ideas are listed below:

• Role of the Three Witches in flaming Macbeth’s ambition.
• Analyze the themes of the Play Antigone,
• Discuss Ajax as a tragic hero.
• The Judgement of Paris: Analyze the Reasons and their Consequences.
• Oedipus Rex: A Doomed Son or a Conqueror?
• Describe the Oedipus complex and Electra complex in relation to their respective myths.
• Betrayal is a common theme of Shakespearean tragedies. Discuss
• Identify and analyze the traits of history in T.S Eliot’s ‘Gerontion’.
• Analyze the theme of identity crisis in The Great Gatsby.
• Analyze the writing style of Emily Dickinson.

If you are still in doubt then there is nothing bad in getting professional writers’ help.

We at 5StarEssays.com can help you get a custom paper as per your specified requirements with our do essay for me service.

Our essay writers will help you write outstanding literary essays or any other type of essay. Such as compare and contrast essays, descriptive essays, rhetorical essays. We cover all of these.

So don’t waste your time browsing the internet and place your order now to get your well-written custom paper.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should a literary analysis essay include.

A good literary analysis essay must include a proper and in-depth explanation of your ideas. They must be backed with examples and evidence from the text. Textual evidence includes summaries, paraphrased text, original work details, and direct quotes.

What are the 4 components of literary analysis?

Here are the 4 essential parts of a literary analysis essay;

No literary work is explained properly without discussing and explaining these 4 things.

How do you start a literary analysis essay?

Start your literary analysis essay with the name of the work and the title. Hook your readers by introducing the main ideas that you will discuss in your essay and engage them from the start.

How do you do a literary analysis?

In a literary analysis essay, you study the text closely, understand and interpret its meanings. And try to find out the reasons behind why the author has used certain symbols, themes, and objects in the work.

Why is literary analysis important?

It encourages the students to think beyond their existing knowledge, experiences, and belief and build empathy. This helps in improving the writing skills also.

What is the fundamental characteristic of a literary analysis essay?

Interpretation is the fundamental and important feature of a literary analysis essay. The essay is based on how well the writer explains and interprets the work.

Law, Finance Essay

Cordon. is a published author and writing specialist. He has worked in the publishing industry for many years, providing writing services and digital content. His own writing career began with a focus on literature and linguistics, which he continues to pursue. Cordon is an engaging and professional individual, always looking to help others achieve their goals.

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Story Analysis: How to Analyze a Short Story Step-by-Step

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Have there been times that you have read a short story in class and tried to analyze its meaning by deep-diving into the text to understand it better? If yes, this article is for you.

Short stories are relatively much shorter and less complex than most novels or plays. But that does not mean that they don’t require an in-depth analysis of what is written in the text and what messages the author of the book intends to convey to its readers.

In this article, you will learn how to analyze a short story step-by-step, along with the essential elements of a short story.

What are the Elements of a Short Story

In order to analyze a short story step-by-step, it is important to know the basics of story analysis. Let’s take a look at the five key elements of a short story.

Characters (both major and minor) are what bring life to a story. Writers use them to transcend important messages throughout the plotline.

Every character has a purpose, a particular personality, and a developmental arc. To analyze these characters for your short story, you must have the answer to the following questions:

• Who is the plotline’s protagonist?
• Do you have your antagonist? If yes, who is it? What antagonistic qualities do they have?
• Are the characters dynamic (changing) or static (unchanging)?
• How does the author describe the character's appearance, personality, mindset, and actions?
• What are your thoughts, feelings, or opinions about the characters?
• What is the relationship between all the characters?

People get invested in fictional characters, relate to them, and see them as real individuals with real personalities, going through real hardships in life.

That's the key motive of the author, and that's what needs to be analyzed.

Setting or Theme

The setting of a short story depicts the theme of the plot through key metaphors. It revolves around three important points:

• Circumstances

This also aids the flow of the plotline, distinguishes the characters, influences viewpoints, and creates an aura for your story.

Even if a story is placed in a historic time and place, from when and where it was originally written, it can influence the entire context of the narrative.

Many stories would seem different and altered if their original setting was changed completely and is thus very crucial in interpreting the concept of the story.

Thus, try to assess how the setting affects the story and how it motivates its characters. Analyze why the author has chosen this particular setting, how the readers respond to it, as well as if there’s any symbolic meaning behind it.

The plotline makes a story by giving it a pattern and a structure to the events that are about to happen. Identifying and analyzing these plotlines will help in giving insights into the explanation of the story.

In short stories, the plot is majorly centered around one important character and their actions, or around one key experience that impacts the story greatly.

Usually, a short story plot has one major storyline, unlike novels, which have multiple trajectories of storylines. Thus, short stories are easier to analyze.

Authors use symbolism to convey messages poetically or indirectly, through their stories, making them more interesting and complex pieces.

Symbolism is depicted using a physical object or even a person to be an abstract idea. For example, a dove represents love and peace and a storm represents hostility and turmoil.

Symbolism can also be used as a metaphor in the narrative, such as life is a roller coaster which portrays life to have its ups and downs.

Similarly, in short story novels, authors symbolize certain conflicts and important issues by using a metaphor or a simile in their story. For example, in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the officials dismantled the coronations of Caesar's statues, foreshadowing their plan to topple him.

Lastly, the reason you are reading the short story is to identify what you have learned from it and what the moral of the narrative is.

Even though short story novels are crisp, interesting, and entertaining, there is always a life lesson behind each of them. This moral is implied to help the readers understand the author’s perspective, what they want to convey, and what lesson you should learn from the text.

How to Analyze a Short Story Step-by-Step

Now that we know the major elements that are involved in crafting an exceptional story analysis, let's take a look at five tips for how to analyze a short story step-by-step.

Read and summarize

As you prepare to analyze the short story assigned to you, it is recommended to read and re-read it multiple times. Since it is a short story, you’ll have plenty of time to understand all the details included within the story and the context of the plot.

To analyze the book, divide the narrative into sections. Read each of these sections and write down key points and essential details that are related to these portions of the story. As you do that, summarize your interpretation of the plot into a more understandable and easy piece.

Brainstorm and take notes

While reading the text, if you come across an interesting subplot, a challenging character arc, or even a major theme that isn't showcased through the text, make it a point of writing them down.

These notes will be your crutch as you begin analyzing your short story for your class assignment. Taking notes brings organization to your thoughts and ideas, as well as gives you proper knowledge about every detail you find in the short story.

Brainstorm multiple ideas and write down the concepts that you find fascinating while reading the book. Always pay close attention to the details to understand the purpose of the text, as well as the author’s point of view on multiple important situations or events.

Here’s an interesting video by Jesse on how to take notes while reading

Identify crucial concepts

Identifying important concepts in the short story, such as the main conflict that helps with creating the primary argument for the thesis statement, the characters’ personalities, their defining traits, the choices they make, and also the point of view of the narrator.

The point of view is an essential aspect of the storyline as it creates a lens for the reader to understand and analyze themes, details, characters, and important events in the story.

While examining these concepts, you will realize the intention of the author, how the story was significant to them, and why they made certain choices while writing the short story.

Similarly, exploring the literary devices of the short story, such as the setting, mood, tone, and style of the text, will help further in analyzing the plotline in a more notable way.

Include examples and evidence

When you state an argument in your story analysis, it is always better to back it up with credible sources and accurate evidence. For example, you can paraphrase or directly quote a sentence from your assigned story to claim your point.

However, quotations cannot become evidence unless it is explained how it proves the claims that are being made.

Having good sources for your story analysis gives you a higher level of authority over the book that you are writing about and also makes it easier for the reader to understand the author’s perspective.

Craft the thesis statement

It is important to make sure that all the points that have been made for the analysis tie together and ultimately support your thesis.

Keep in mind that the thesis for your short story should not just summarize the plot, and neither should it be a review of the book. Your thesis statement should be an interpretation of the text or an argument that is based on the storyline.

Writing a quality analysis for short stories requires a solid thought process, an organized structure , and the ability to dive deep into the literary meaning of a text.

Here, you understand and think through the author's perspective of the book and why they have chosen to write their thoughts and ideas through this narrative.

Hence, to know how to analyze a short story step-by-step for your class assignments and also score high, you need proper guidance, key steps, and other tips and tricks that put your analysis at the front of the line. This article is here just for that!

If you still find yourself to be stuck, reach out to our analytical essay writing service . Our team of professional writers are experts in analyzing stories and will help you deliver a 100% original short story analysis written from scratch.

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Example of an Insightful Literary Analysis Essay

• DESCRIPTION Student writing Insightful Literary Analysis Essay
• SOURCE Wavebreakmedia / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Get a sense of what to do right with this literary analysis essay example. A literary analysis is more than a book report ; it goes deeper into the text, examining the themes, literary devices, characters, and more. To write a great literary analysis essay, you need a good thesis and a good grasp of the novel , story, poem, or other literary work you’re discussing. You also need examples for inspiration.

Sample Literary Analysis Essay for Middle School or High School

At the middle school level, a literary analysis essay can be as short as one page. For high schoolers, the essay may become much longer as they progress. Often, this type of essay will focus on a specific area of literary analysis , such as character development or imagery within a text. Students can sometimes choose the story, novel, or book series they wish to write about, and they learn to use quotes from the text to support their thesis statements.

This sample essay focuses on the character development of Laura in the book By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The thesis statement for this literary analysis essay is, “When her eldest sister loses her sight, Laura must suddenly take on the role of the oldest child in the family and grow in maturity.”

Literary Analysis of By the Shores of Silver Lake

In By the Shores of Silver Lake , Laura Ingalls Wilder focuses on the theme of coming of age, especially as it relates to her main character, Laura. Although this theme runs throughout the novel, it’s especially apparent as Laura’s role in the family changes. The novel begins with Laura’s older sister, Mary, losing her sight due to scarlet fever. This directly affects Laura, who must go from being a middle child to suddenly assuming the role of the oldest and acting as Mary’s eyes. It’s a role she has had no experience with, and as she learns to accept it and grow to meet her responsibilities, she begins to leave childhood behind.

In previous novels in the “Little House” series, Laura and Mary have a typical sibling relationship. Mary is the oldest and is often placed in charge of Laura, such as when Pa and Ma go to town and leave them alone together in the chapter “Keeping House” in On the Banks of Plum Creek . The two sometimes fight, and Laura plainly resents Mary’s bossiness while at the same time looking up to her sister. This relationship changes at the beginning of By the Shores of Silver Lake , which opens with a simple description of Mary’s rapidly fading eyesight and eventual blindness.

Throughout the first chapters, the reader sees the impact of Mary’s blindness on the family’s daily life. Mary can no longer see to care for herself, and as the family sets out on a journey to their new homestead in South Dakota, Laura’s responsibilities increase. She must guide Mary carefully at the depot as they board the train. In the boarding house, she must cut Mary’s meat for her at dinner and help her find her silverware and food. In the wagon that takes them farther west, she must sit on the uncomfortable end of a board seat to give Mary the safer spot in the middle. At the age of 12, Laura must suddenly make countless small adjustments to show she is responsible for Mary’s safety and well-being.

Even more significantly, Laura must “see out loud” for Mary, as is described in the chapter “Riding the Cars”: “On that dreadful morning when Mary could not see even sunshine full in her eyes, Pa had said that Laura must see for her.” Being Mary’s eyes is perhaps one of the most essential duties Laura takes on. She is not only responsible for Mary’s safety and practical needs, but she must also share her outlook on the world in a way that allows Mary to experience it too. This is no light burden, although Laura carries it well.

By the end of the novel, Laura has taken on the role of eldest. She even takes over Mary’s dream of becoming a school teacher. Laura swears to Mary that she will study hard and become a teacher so she can help finance Mary’s college education. She no longer has the option of sitting back and allowing her sister to lead. Instead, she must literally guide her sister from place to place. She must offer direction with her vision and words, and she must provide a means for her sister to achieve her dreams. Although Laura is only 13 at the end of the novel, she has grown significantly in maturity due to her changing role within the family.

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• DESCRIPTION Literary Analysis Essay Example
• SOURCE Created by Beth Wiggins for LoveToKnow

Why This Essay Is Successful

There are several qualities that make this an insightful literary analysis essay:

• Clear thesis statement - The thesis statement is clear and each point in the essay relates back to it.
• Supporting evidence - The details from the text, including quotes and specific examples, help to prove the thesis.
• Good introduction - The introduction clearly establishes the literary text being discussed and the thesis that will be proven in the essay.
• Strong conclusion - The conclusion restates the thesis and uses parallel structure to give the essay a sense of importance and finality.
• Transitions - Each paragraph in this essay begins or ends with a transition , allowing the words to flow smoothly from one section to the next.

Remember Your Style

As you write your essay don’t forget to document your sources and use the proper style guide. Whether you’re writing an essay in MLA style or a different style, you’ll find that proper formatting will help you get a better grade on any literary essay.

Reading and Interpreting Literary Texts

How to analyze a short story.

Old Fence. A short story has a structure and a message. Can you analyze this picture in much the same way as a short story?

What Is a Short Story?

A short story is a work of short, narrative prose that is usually centered around one single event. It is limited in scope and has an introduction, body and conclusion. Although a short story has much in common with a novel (See How to Analyze a Novel), it is written with much greater precision. You will often be asked to write a literary analysis. An analysis of a short story requires basic knowledge of literary elements. The following guide and questions may help you:

Setting is a description of where and when the story takes place. In a short story there are fewer settings compared to a novel. The time is more limited. Ask yourself the following questions:

• How is the setting created? Consider geography, weather, time of day, social conditions, etc.
• What role does setting play in the story? Is it an important part of the plot or theme? Or is it just a backdrop against which the action takes place?

Study the time period, which is also part of the setting, and ask yourself the following:

• When was the story written?
• Does it take place in the present, the past, or the future?
• How does the time period affect the language, atmosphere or social circumstances of the short story?

Characterization

Characterization deals with how the characters in the story are described. In short stories there are usually fewer characters compared to a novel. They usually focus on one central character or protagonist. Ask yourself the following:

• Who is the main character?
• Are the main character and other characters described through dialogue – by the way they speak (dialect or slang for instance)?
• Has the author described the characters by physical appearance, thoughts and feelings, and interaction (the way they act towards others)?
• Are they static/flat characters who do not change?
• Are they dynamic/round characters who DO change?
• What type of characters are they? What qualities stand out? Are they stereotypes?
• Are the characters believable?

Plot and structure

The plot is the main sequence of events that make up the story. In short stories the plot is usually centered around one experience or significant moment. Consider the following questions:

• What is the most important event?
• How is the plot structured? Is it linear, chronological or does it move around?
• Is the plot believable?

Narrator and Point of view

The narrator is the person telling the story.  Consider this question: Are the narrator and the main character the same?

By point of view we mean from whose eyes the story is being told. Short stories tend to be told through one character’s point of view. The following are important questions to consider:

• Who is the narrator or speaker in the story?
• Does the author speak through the main character?
• Is the story written in the first person “I” point of view?
• Is the story written in a detached third person “he/she” point of view?
• Is there an “all-knowing” third person who can reveal what all the characters are thinking and doing at all times and in all places?

Conflict or tension is usually the heart of the short story and is related to the main character. In a short story there is usually one main struggle.

• How would you describe the main conflict?
• Is it an internal conflict within the character?
• Is it an external conflict caused by the surroundings or environment the main character finds himself/herself in?

The climax is the point of greatest tension or intensity in the short story. It can also be the point where events take a major turn as the story races towards its conclusion. Ask yourself:

• Is there a turning point in the story?
• When does the climax take place?

The theme is the main idea, lesson, or message in the short story. It may be an abstract idea about the human condition, society, or life. Ask yourself:

• How is the theme expressed?
• Are any elements repeated and therefore suggest a theme?
• Is there more than one theme?

The author’s style has to do with the his or her vocabulary, use of imagery, tone, or the feeling of the story. It has to do with the author’s attitude toward the subject. In some short stories the tone can be ironic, humorous, cold, or dramatic.

• Is the author’s language full of figurative language?
• What images are used?
• Does the author use a lot of symbolism? Metaphors (comparisons that do not use “as” or “like”) or similes (comparisons that use “as” or “like”)?

Your literary analysis of a short story will often be in the form of an essay where you may be asked to give your opinions of the short story at the end. Choose the elements that made the greatest impression on you. Point out which character/characters you liked best or least and always support your arguments.

• How to Analyze a Short Story. Authored by : Carol Dwankowski. Provided by : ndla.no. Located at : http://ndla.no/en/node/9075?fag=42&meny=102113 . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

Short Story Analysis: How to Write It Step by Step [New]

Have you ever tried to write a story analysis but ended up being completely confused and lost? Well, the task might be challenging if you don’t know the essential rules for literary analysis creation.

Our specialists will write a custom essay specially for you!

But don’t get frustrated! We know how to write a short story analysis, and we are willing to share some tips with you.

Below you will find some tips that will help you:

• to analyze the story while reading;
• to put the findings in words;
• to edit and polish your work.

Our team listed the essential guide for writing an analysis of a short story. Check it out to nail your paper!

• 👣 How to Analyze a Story
• ✒️ Methods of Story Analysis
• ✍️ Analysis Format
• 📜 Proofreading Tips
• 📝 Analysis Example

👣 How to Analyze a Short Story Step by Step

Have you ever felt confused analyzing short stories for your school or college assignment? Not this time! We have prepared for you a step-by-step guide on how to analyze a short piece of writing quickly and effectively. 

Step 1: Read Smart

The key to smart reading is to be critical. Criticism can be positive or negative. In your short story analysis, you need to have confidence in your own views of the work, regardless of the author’s reputation or whatever anyone else thinks.

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The bottom line with literary criticism is that there are no right or wrong answers. As long as you back everything up with evidence, you can still attain a top grade if you take the opposite view to the author, your teacher, or the best student in your class.

But your reading needs to be methodical.

Step 2: Analyze & Find Examples

After you read the short story, you need to summarize it in your own words in no more than two sentences. This way, you will ensure that you’ve grasped its main idea.

Next, read the story one more time, paying attention to its literary elements, such as allusion, figurative language, plot, symbolism , etc. Analyze how they help the author convey the intended message. In addition, find relevant examples, quotes, or important passages that you can cite in your essay afterward.

Step 3: Create an Outline

Outlining is a crucial aspect of essay writing. It will help you understand how you can link all the facts to support the thesis statement and the paper’s arguments. Your short story analysis outline should look the following way: 

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• Introduction of the work (the author and title)
• A short summary of the story
• Thesis statement
• Topic sentence
• Example from the text
• Analysis of the example
• Restated thesis
• Summary of main points
• Concluding statement

If you need help outlining your short story analysis, try our free essay outline generator .

Step 4: Write Your Short Story Analysis

Now, it’s time to start drafting your essay. Here’s how to do it:

• At the beginning of your short story analysis, indicate the work’s title and the author’s name. Next, provide background information that may be helpful for understanding the story. End your introduction with an analytical thesis statement , clearly stating your evaluation of the text.
• Then, create body paragraphs based on your outline, including topic sentences and supporting examples.  
• In the concluding paragraph , restate your thesis statement and highlight the important points you have made throughout the essay, giving the reader a feeling of closure. 

Step 5: Revise and Proofread

Last but not least, proofread your short story analysis. It will help you to avoid grammatical mistakes, spelling errors, and typos.

If you have questions regarding your essay’s format or topic, it is always a good idea to ask for help from your teacher or classmate. Their experience and insights can help you adjust your analysis and improve its overall quality. 

✒️ How to Analyze a Short Story: 6 Methods

When analyzing a short story, it is essential to examine all its main elements. In the following sections, we will discuss how to analyze the plot, characters, setting, themes, point of view, and style in detail.

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Analyzing the Plot

For the first sitting, focus on the sequence of events that takes place throughout the story.

An analysis of a short story’s plot is easy because, unlike novels, which can contain multiple plotlines, short stories usually have only one.

To make the process even easier, here are some questions that you can ask yourself as you read:

• Does the plot hold your interest from beginning to end?
• What are the most important events, and why?
• Is plotline realistic?
• Are there any parts of the plotline that seem irrelevant to the main story?
• Does the plot deal with external conflict, internal conflict, or both?
• What is the moral of the story?

Next, you can look at the way the author portrays the characters in the story.

Short stories will not have many characters and often center around one main character, known as the protagonist.

Analyzing Characterization

Wondering how to analyze characters in a short story? The best way is to ask these questions:

• Who is the protagonist?
• How effectively does the author describe the characters’ actions, appearance, and thoughts?
• What are your feelings towards the characters?
• Does the way the characters speak give you any information about their personality?
• Do the characters change throughout the story?
• If the story contains minor characters, are they necessary and effective?

Alongside plot and characters, there is a third element that is a crucial part of any story:

Analyzing the Setting

Short stories are usually set in a single location and period, but some do have more than one.

These questions will help you master the setting :

• How does the author describe the location of the events?
• Does the story take place in the past, the present, or the future (or all three)?
• What are the broader circumstances surrounding the story’s setting?
• Does the setting play an essential role in the story?
• Do the place and time in which the author lived and worked affect the location and period in which the story is set?
• Has the author successfully given you a feeling of really being in the story’s setting?

Your next read-through might require some creative thinking and detective work as you consider the ideas, messages, or lessons behind the story.

Analyzing Themes

Analyzing a theme is your chance to stand out. While some themes are apparent and intended by the author, it is also possible to find more obscure ones. Even the author may not have been aware of them.

Answer these questions, and you’ve nailed the theme:

• What is the central theme? Are there any others?
• How is the theme conveyed?
• If the author is using the story to deliver a particular message, are you convinced by it?
• What does the theme reveal about the author?

Now you’re confident you understand the author’s message and can explore it in your short story analysis. Not so fast! You need to think about who is telling the story.

Analyzing the Point of View

Analyzing the point of view will give a more in-depth insight into all of the previous aspects you have dealt with. So ask yourself:

• Who is narrating the story?
• Does the author use a consistent point of view?
• Is the narrator telling the truth?
• Does the author have the same mindset as the narrator?
• Would the story be different if it were narrated from another point of view?

Finally, you need to look at the way the author uses language to tell the story.

Analyzing the Style

Ask the following questions when analyzing style :

• What is the author’s tone? Humorous? Serious? Sarcastic? Sentimental?
• Does the author use any unusual words or phrases? What effect do they have?
• Is there anything in the story – an object, for example – that has any special meaning?
• Does the author’s use of literary devices affect your enjoyment of the story in any way?
• What would the story be like if the author used a different style?

By now, you should be familiar with analyzing a short story and have enough great ideas to produce an A+ essay . Look again at the set question, and decide on the main direction you want your literary criticism essay to take.

Because now it’s time to wipe the dust off that keyboard:

✍️ Short Story Analysis Format

To get how to write a short story analysis step by step, you have to keep in mind the two golden rules:

• Your essay must be focused on the set question.
• Your opinions are only valid if you can support them with evidence.

Divide your work into three sections:

• Introduction (about 10% of the total word count)
• Main body (about 80% of the total word count)
• Conclusion (about 10% of the total word count)

Start with an Introduction

Your introduction should consist of one or two paragraphs that outline your statement of intent. You do not need to provide any evidence to back up your assertions at this stage – save that for the main body.

Here are the ingredients for a perfect introduction:

• An engaging opening line that captures the reader’s interest.
• The title of the short story and the name of the author.
• A brief outline of the main points and arguments that you intend to make.

Provide Arguments

Any story analysis has to list your points with proof. The main body is used to set out your case in detail and provide evidence to support it. Each paragraph should deal with a different point and follow a logical order that develops your overall argument.

Your main body is ready for the beach when it has:

• A persuasive and articulate argument.
• Evidence and quotes from the short story and external references, where appropriate, to support your case.
• Acknowledgment of any competing arguments to provide balance.
• Clear and concise language, with no repetition or irrelevant material.
• A clear focus on the set question.

Finish with a Bang

A conclusion ties everything together and briefly sums up your response to the set question. Like the introduction, it should be only one paragraph long and should not contain any new arguments, information, or evidence. If you can’t get rid of excessive fullf in your text, we’d suggest trying to use a paragraph shortener .

To finish your essay with a bang, you will need:

• A summary of the ideas that you have presented in the main body.
• Acknowledgment of any issues that need to be considered in the future.
• A powerful closing statement that encapsulates your overall position.

Once you have finished writing your literary analysis essay, the best thing you can do is take a break. When you return to review what you have done, it will be with a refreshed mind.

You’ve had fun criticizing the author. Now it’s time to look in the mirror:

📜 Short Story Analysis: Proofreading Tips

As usual, good things come in threes. Break your review down into these stages:

• Content editing
• Copy-editing
• Proofreading

For the first of these, you need to look at your essay as a whole and consider:

• Does your essay deal exclusively with the set question?
• Does your introduction accurately preview the content of the main body?
• Does each paragraph in the main body follow a logical order?
• Does your essay contain any repetition, inaccuracy, or irrelevant material?
• Does your conclusion successfully sum up your argument?
• Are your references accurate and appropriate?
• Will your reader find your essay to be enjoyable, easy to understand, and persuasive?

Once you are happy with your essay’s content, you can review it in more detail to deal with the text’s accuracy and consistency.

Reading carefully, line by line, ask yourself:

• Is your language as clear and concise as possible?
• Are your grammar and spelling correct?
• Have you presented acronyms, abbreviations, capitalization correctly and consistently?
• Are your quotations and references in the correct format?
• Are there any other formatting issues with your document?

Take another break, then review your essay one last time . Use your spellchecker, then print off a copy and read slowly and carefully, line by line. Hopefully, there won’t be too many errors by this stage but think of this process as a final polish to make your work really shine.

📝 Short Story Analysis Example

We have prepared an analysis example of the short story “The Last Leaf” by O. Henry. You can use it to find inspiration and see how everything works in practice. 

In O. Henry’s “The Last Leaf,” a sick artist named Johnsy sees hope fading with each falling leaf outside her window. She is convinced that she will die when the last leaf falls. But two things stand against her despair: Behrman, an old, seemingly failed artist, and Sue, Johnsy’s loyal friend. This story shows how the actions of Johnsy’s companions become her lifelines, proving that art and friendship can blossom even in the direst circumstances. 

Behrman’s sacrifice is one of the key themes in the story. O. Henry devotes much of his story to describing Behrman, a loser who drinks too much gin and lives a mostly wasted life. He appears to have no family and has not produced any notable work despite identifying himself as an artist: “Behrman was a failure in art. Forty years he had wielded the brush without getting near enough to touch the hem of his Mistress’s robe.” Despite Behrman’s never being successful in his craft, the realistic painting of a leaf he created before his death saved Johnsy’s life. 

Friendship is another important motif in the story. Sue and Johnsy are more than just good friends; they are like sisters. Sue’s care and support have also played a key role in helping Johnsy recover. When Johnsy asks Sue to leave, Sue says, “I’d rather be here by you.” And she is actually there for Johnsy, caring for her in the worst moments of her life. 

“The Last Leaf” reminds us that even when darkness creeps in, the power of art and friendship can bring light. Through Behrman’s final masterpiece and Sue’s unwavering support, Johnsy finds her way back from the brink. This simple story leaves readers with a powerful message: even in the darkest times, hope can be a driving force that can save a human life.

📚 Short Story Analysis Topics

• Analysis of Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily .
• Discuss the clues that suggest the unreliability of the narrator in E. A. Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher .
• Describe the stylistic devices James Joyce uses in his short story Araby .
• Irony and double denouement in O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi .
• Analysis of A&P by John Updike .
• Interpret Raymond Carver’s message in his story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love .
• Examine the theme of the short story The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman .
• Analyze the rhetoric means used in Edith Wharton’s The Other Two .
• Literature analysis of Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery .
• The impact of gender and racial stereotypes in Sweat by Hurston .
• Discuss August Wilson’s presentation of conflicts in the short story Fences.
• Symbolism in Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants .
• Describe the rhetoric techniques Nathaniel Hawthorne uses in his short story The Birth-Mark .
• The Minister’s Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne analysis.
• Analyze the social issues presented in Toni Bambara’s The Lesson .
• Explore the central theme of the story Alien by Riley Brett .
• Social problems of women and role of racial differences in Kate Chopin’s Desiree’s Baby .
• Discuss the central ethical dilemma presented by Sarah Hall in Theatre 6 .
• Analysis of A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway .
• Examine the techniques Edwidge Danticat uses to paint a picture of life in Haiti in A Wall of Fire Rising .
• Discuss the core idea of The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien .
• Literary devices in The Dinner Party short story by Mona Gardner .
• Analyze the author’s message in Lore Segal’s The Arbus Factor .
• Interpret the meaning of symbols in Rip Van Winkle by W. Irving .
• The meaning of setting in The Boarder by Isaac Bashevis Singer .
• Describe the different layers of meaning presented in Joyce Carol Oates’ Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
• Analyze the tone of the story The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe .
• Allegory in The Devil and Tom Walker short story by Washington Irving .
• Analyze the main female character of the short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor .
• Discuss the rhetoric used by Guy de Maupassant in The Necklace .
• Examine the symbols in Mr. Green by Olen Butler .
• Explore the main theme of James Joyce’s The Dead .
• Interpret the meaning of the dolls in a short story Barbie-Q by Sandra Cisneros
• Symbolism in A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell .
• Analyze the core idea of Jack London’s To Build a Fire .
• The conflict between the expectations and reality in Jamel Brinkley’s A Family .
• Examine the message E. Hemingway includes in his short story The Killer .
• Discuss the stylistic means used by Anton Chekhov in Sleepy .
• Describe the ideas O. Henry uses to present the moral lesson in The Last Leaf .
• Analysis of The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte .
• Psychologism and mystique in W. W. Jacob’s The Monkey’s Paw .
• Analyze the symbols in the story A Worn Path by Eudora Welty .
• Describe how William Faulkner presents a theme of revenge in Barn Burning .
• Interpret creativity Kate Chopin’s The Storm .
• Discuss the techniques E. A. Poe uses to create the suspense in the short story Cask of the Amontillado .
• Cathedral by Raymond Carver analysis .
• The issues of stereotypes and isolation in Margaret Atwood’s Lusus Naturae .
• Magic realism in The Secret Miracle by Jorge Luis Borges .
• Interpret the meaning of symbols used by Flannery O’Connor in Good Country People .
• Technology development and its effect on human in Ray Bradbury’s The Veldt .

So, now you know how to analyze a short story step by step. A flawless piece of work will be a pleasure for your reader to behold! Share the page with others who may find it useful. And thanks for reading it!

Learn more on this topic:

• How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay Step by Step
• How to Write an Analysis Essay: Rules for a Good Analysis
• Case Study Analysis Example + How-to Guide
• Literary Analysis Essay Topics Ideas
• How to Write a Film Analysis Essay
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Miss Brill's Fragile Fantasy

A Critical Essay of Katherine Mansfield's Short Story

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• Writing Essays
• Writing Research Papers
• English Grammar
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

After you have finished reading Miss Brill , by Katherine Mansfield, compare your response to the short story with the analysis offered in this sample critical essay . Next, compare "Miss Brill's Fragile Fantasy" with another paper on the same topic, "Poor, Pitiful Miss Brill."

Sharing Her Perceptions

In "Miss Brill," Katherine Mansfield introduces readers to an uncommunicative and apparently simple-minded woman who eavesdrops on strangers, who imagines herself to be an actress in an absurd musical, and whose dearest friend in life appears to be a shabby fur stole. And yet we are encouraged neither to laugh at Miss Brill nor to dismiss her as a grotesque madwoman. Through Mansfield's skillful handling of point of view, characterization, and plot development , Miss Brill comes across as a convincing character who evokes our sympathy.

By telling the story from the third-person limited omniscient point of view , Mansfield allows us both to share Miss Brill's perceptions and to recognize that those perceptions are highly romanticized. This dramatic irony is essential to our understanding of her character. Miss Brill's view of the world on this Sunday afternoon in early autumn is a delightful one, and we are invited to share in her pleasure: the day "so brilliantly fine," the children "swooping and laughing," the band sounding "louder and gayer" than on previous Sundays. And yet, because the point of view is the third person (that is, told from the outside), we're encouraged to look at Miss Brill herself as well as share her perceptions. What we see is a lonely woman sitting on a park bench. This dual perspective encourages us to view Miss Brill as someone who has resorted to fantasy (i.e., her romanticized perceptions) rather than self-pity (our view of her as a lonely person).

Other "Performers" in the Story

Miss Brill reveals herself to us through her perceptions of the other people in the park--the other players in the "company." Since she doesn't really know anyone, she characterizes these people by the clothes they wear (for example, "a fine old man in a velvet coat," an Englishman "wearing a dreadful Panama hat," "little boys with big white silk bows under their chins"), observing these costumes with the careful eye of a wardrobe mistress. They are performing for her benefit, she thinks, even though to us it appears that they (like the band which "didn't care how it played if there weren't any strangers present") are oblivious to her existence. Some of these characters are not very appealing: the silent couple beside her on the bench, the vain woman who chatters about the spectacles she should be wearing, the "beautiful" woman who throws away a bunch of violets "as if they'd been poisoned," and the four girls who nearly knock over an old man (this last incident foreshadowing her own encounter with careless youths at the end of the story). Miss Brill is annoyed by some of these people, sympathetic toward others, but she reacts to them all as if they were characters on stage. Miss Brill appears to be too innocent and isolated from life to even comprehend human nastiness. But is she really so childlike, or is she, in fact, a kind of actress?

An Unconcious Link

There is one character whom Miss Brill appears to identify with--the woman wearing "the ermine toque she'd bought when her hair was yellow." The description of the "shabby ermine" and the woman's hand as a "tiny yellowish paw" suggests that Miss Brill is making an unconscious link with herself. (Miss Brill would never use the word "shabby" to describe her own fur, though we know that it is.) The "gentleman in gray" is very rude to the woman: he blows smoke into her face and abandons her. Now, like Miss Brill herself, the "ermine toque" is alone. But to Miss Brill, this is all just a stage performance (with the band playing music that suits the scene), and the true nature of this curious encounter is never made clear to the reader. Could the woman be a prostitute? Possibly, but Miss Brill would never consider this. She has identified with the woman (perhaps because she herself knows what it's like to be snubbed) in the same way that playgoers identify with certain stage characters. Could the woman herself be playing a game? "The ermine toque turned, raised her hand as though she'd seen someone else, much nicer, just over there, and pattered away." The woman's humiliation in this episode anticipates Miss Brill's humiliation at the end of the story, but here the scene ends happily. We see that Miss Brill is living vicariously, not so much through the lives of others, but through their performances as Miss Brill interprets them.

Ironically, it is with her own kind, the old people on the benches, that Miss Brill refuses to identify:

"They were odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they stared they looked as though they'd just come from dark little rooms or even--even cupboards!"

But later in the story, as Miss Brill's enthusiasm builds, we're offered an important insight into her character:

"And then she too, she too, and the others on the benches--they would come in with a kind of accompaniment--something low, that scarcely rose or fell, something so beautiful--moving."

Almost despite herself, it seems, she does identify with these marginal figures--these minor characters.

A More Complex Character

We suspect that Miss Brill may not be as simple-minded as she first appears. There are hints in the story that self-awareness (not to mention self-pity) is something Miss Brill avoids, not something of which she is incapable. In the first paragraph, she describes a feeling as "light and sad"; then she corrects this: "no, not sad exactly--something gentle seemed to move in her bosom." And later in the afternoon, she again calls up this feeling of sadness, only to deny it, as she describes the music played by the band: "And what they played warm, sunny, yet there was just a faint chill--a something, what was it--not sadness--no, not sadness--a something that made you want to sing." Mansfield suggests that sadness is just below the surface, something Miss Brill has suppressed. Similarly, Miss Brill's "queer, shy feeling" when she tells her pupils how she spends her Sunday afternoons suggests a partial awareness, at least, that this is an admission of loneliness.

Miss Brill appears to resist sadness by giving life to what she sees and hears the brilliant colors noted throughout the story (contrasted to the "little dark room" she returns to at the end), her sensitive reactions to the music, her delight in small details. By refusing to accept the role of a lonely woman, she  is  an actress. More importantly, she is a dramatist, actively countering sadness and self-pity, and this evokes our sympathy, even our admiration. A chief reason that we feel such pity for Miss Brill at the end of the story is the sharp contrast with the liveliness and beauty  she  gave to that ordinary scene in the park. Are the other characters without illusions? Are they in any way better than Miss Brill?

Sympathizing With Miss Brill

Finally, it's the artful construction of the  plot  that leaves us feeling sympathetic toward Miss Brill. We are made to share her increasing excitement as she imagines that she is not only an observer but also a participant. No, we don't believe that the whole company will suddenly start singing and dancing, but we may feel that Miss Brill is on the verge of a more genuine kind of self-acceptance: her role in life is a minor one, but she has a role all the same. Our perspective of the scene is different from Miss Brill's, but her enthusiasm is contagious and we are led to expect something momentous when the two-star players appear. The letdown is terrible. These giggling, thoughtless adolescents ( themselves  putting on an act for each other) have insulted her fur--the emblem of her identity. So Miss Brill has no role to play after all. In Mansfield's carefully controlled and understated conclusion, Miss Brill packs  herself  away in her "little, dark room." We sympathize with her not because "the truth hurts," but because she has been denied the simple truth that she does, indeed, have a role to play in life.

Miss Brill is an actor, as are the other people in the park, as we all are in social situations. And we sympathize with her at the end of the story not because she is a pitiful, curious object but because she has been laughed off the stage, and that is a fear we all have. Mansfield has managed not so much to touch our hearts in any gushing, sentimental way, but to touch our fears.

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Example of Short Story Analysis

The appreciation of art

– an analysis of the short story "a fable" by mark twain.

Headline: Having a headline is important. Here, you give the reader an indication of what the text will be about, so that they can decide if they want to read on or not.

It is tempting to go for a title like "An Analysis of the short story 'A Fable' by Mark Twain", however, this doesn't really say anything about what the text will focus on, and it doesn't excite the reader. It can therefore be a good solution to have a main headline and a subheadline, as in the present example, or to just have a main headline that says something about what the focus of the text will be.

Here, the title draws attention to art appreciation, which the analysis will later claim is the theme of the short story.

"A Fable" is a short story written by Mark Twain, first published in 1909. The text explores the relationship between an artist’s intention and the audience’s reaction. This analysis will study the short story closely and explore how literary devices contribute to making the text’s theme clear.

Introduction : It is important to have a clear introduction to the text. Here, we see that the short story that will be analysed is presented with title, name of author, and year of publication. This introduction also mentions what the focus of the analysis will be. It is usually a good idea to have worked on the analysis for a while before you write this part, as reading closely and thinking about the text will make it clearer what your analysis will show.

"A Fable" starts with a description of an artist who has painted a picture he is very pleased with. To experience the work of art fully, it must be looked at in a mirror: “This doubles the distance and softens it, and it is twice as lovely as it was before.” The artist’s cat tells his friends about the painting. Hearing that it is very beautiful, the animals are eager to see it. One by one they come and look in the mirror, but not knowing where to stand, they only see themselves, not the picture. It seems clear from the story that the theme of the text is art and how an audience perceives a work of art in a different way than the artist intended. The animals all come to see the picture with the expectation that they will see a work of unusual beauty, but they only see themselves.

First paragraph: It is common to use the first paragraph of an analysis to give a brief plot summary of the text you are analysing. An analysis is not a review, so don't worry about spoilers. You can write about all of the text, and you don't have to leave out how it ends.

Among the animals that hear the cat’s story are Baloo the Bear and Hathi the elephant. This is an allusion to Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book , where we find the same animals with the same names. By using the allusion, Twain places his text in the universe that Kipling created. The readers will accept this world of animals that can talk and communicate across species because they have accepted it before. By making the allusion to The Jungle Book, Twain helps the audience suspend disbelief and accept the story. It is also possible that Twain regards Kipling’s story as one of the works of art that is misunderstood by the audience, and that he has included it so that the reader will think about whether they have understood the story fully. Perhaps he is saying that The Jungle Book is also a fable, and that the audience should learn a moral lesson from it.

Second paragraph: In the second paragraph of an analysis, we begin to analyse the text by looking at literary devices or language features.

This paragraph deals with the literary device allusion . Allusion is a relatively common literary device, but it can be difficult to spot if you are not familiar with the work that is alluded to. However, The Jungle Book is as famous today as it was at Mark Twain's time, thanks to the Disney films that are based on the book. Here, the literary device is first identified, then the text goes on to explore what is achieved by using the device. Make sure you do the same when you analyse: it is not enough to point out that a device is used; you also have to try to explain what is achieved by using it.

When writing an analysis, it is easy to opt for modal verbs such as "may", "might", "could be", or adverbs such as "possibly", "perhaps", or "maybe". Try to limit the use of such words as they make you sound as if you lack confidence in what you are saying. Nobody will arrest you for making the wrong interpretation in an analysis, so you may as well express yourself as if you are sure that you are right.

Contrast is used as a literary device in the text. We see a contrast between the cat and the other animals. The cat is a household pet, while the other animals are farm animals or wild animals. The cat has more knowledge than the others; he is providing both the information about the painting and the moral of the story. However, he does not have enough knowledge to help the other animals see the painting correctly. The use of contrast makes the cat seem superior to the other animals; he offers the moral of the story and therefore seems to have wisdom. This makes the reader pay extra attention to what he has to say.

Third paragraph:

One way to structure a paragraph in an analysis is to start by pointing out a literary device found in the text, then show where in the text the device is used, before you explain what is achieved by using this literary device.

In this paragraph, the writer points out the use of the literary device contrast in the text. They claim that there is a difference between the cat and the other animals. The evidence for this is that the cat lives in the house with the artist, and that it knows about art and provides the moral of the story. It is claimed that contrast is used to draw attention to the cat and what he has to say.

On the other hand, the different groups of animals may be intended to be understood symbolically. The cat may represent people who belong to the upper classes; they don't have to work but are provided food and shelter. They have knowledge of art and have defining power over morality. The working class is represented by working animals, such as the ass, the cow, and the camel. These are animals kept by humans to work for them, in the same way that working-class people work for employers. The wild animals can be seen as representing the middle class. Living in the wild, they are not dependent on humans (employers) to survive. They are ignorant of art but interested in it. The different groups of animals are recreating a class-divided society. If we look at the groups of animals as representing society, we realise that Twain is being satirical. He is making a comment on society, saying that just because you belong to a higher class, it does not mean that you understand art any better.

Fourth paragraph: Don't be afraid to make bold claims in your analysis. If you see something in a text you find interesting, it is OK to explore that. Just remember that you have to provide evidence for what you suggest.

This paragraph continues the discussion started in the previous paragraph about the use of contrast and the significance of the different groups of animals. The phrase "on the other hand" is used to link the two paragraphs together.

In this paragraph, the literary device symbolism is explored. It is suggested that the animals represent society. The idea that the different groups of animals represent different groups in society may seem far-fetched, but the writer is able to link this idea to facts from the text. We don't have to agree, but we accept that there is some evidence in the text that can support this interpretation. Had the writer instead suggested that the different groups of animals represent different reality shows on TV, there would not have been evidence in the text (or in what we know about the author and the background for the text) to support that claim.

At first glance, it seems that this story is intended for children. The text makes extensive use of anthropomorphism: we meet animals that talk, have friendships, and care about art. In other words, they are given human characteristics. This is something we are familiar with from children’s stories, such as The Jungle Book or Disney’s Mickey Mouse . There is also an eclectic mix of animals: a cow, an ass, a bear, an elephant, a tiger, a leopard, and a camel. This is reminiscent of picture books for very young children, used to teach children about different animals.

Fifth paragraph: This paragraph asks the question: Does the fact that the characters are all talking animals make this a text for children? Evidence given in support of this idea is that anhropomorphism is extensively used in the text, which is usually associated with comic books and stories for children, and that the selection of animals is similar to what is found in a picture book. No conclusion is drawn based on this evidence, as the discussion continues in the following paragraph.

However, the theme of the story is very grown-up: it discusses how an audience reacts to a work of art, and how their experiences and reactions are very different from what the artist first intended. The diction also supports the understanding that this is a story for adults, since words like "sesquipedalian adjectives", "unappeasable", and "ethereal" would not be understood by most children. All in all, the text seems to be a story for adults disguised as a story for children. This is a method often used to discuss a complex issue in a simple way.

Sixth paragraph: This paragraph continues the discussion of whether this is a children's story or not. The paragraph concludes that the story is best suited for adults. The evidence is that the theme is not something children would care about, and that the language used is too complicated for children.

The fifth and sixth paragraphs are closely linked, and the word "however" is used to make that clear. Both paragraphs discuss the same question and present evidence for two sides before concluding. This demonstrates that it is possible to discuss the use of a literary device, or other elements in the text, across several paragraphs.

The story ends with a moral provided by the cat: "You can find in a text whatever you bring, if you will stand between it and the mirror of your imagination. You may not see your ears, but they will be there." This shows us that the theme of the text is related to writing in particular, rather than art in general. The animals in the story represent us, the readers. The author is suggesting that when reading the story, we bring so much of ourselves to it that we cannot understand the text as it was intended.

Seventh paragraph: Finding the theme of a story can sometimes be difficult. We have to ask ourselves: Why has the author chosen to write this story in this way?

This paragraph highlights the cat's moral as a key to understanding the theme in "A Fable" .

The puzzling part of the cat's moral is the line "You may not see your ears, but they will be there." This line seems intended to confuse the readers. It makes us unsure whether we have in fact interpreted the story correctly when we assume it is about the relationship between an artist/author and their audience. The line suggests that the author is poking fun at the audience: We are ignorant animals, who cannot see his writing as he intended because we are too busy studying ourselves. This underscores the author's point that the audience will not understand a work the way the author intended.

Eighth paragraph: If you notice something that you think is odd or confusing in a text, it is OK to share that with your reader. Make sure you reflect on why the author has chosen to include the element.

Here the writer suggests that the author deliberately aims to confuse the reader, to underline the theme of the text.

In sum, it seems clear that Mark Twain's story "A Fable" is meant to make us think about the way an audience perceives a work of art, whether it is a painting or a literary work. We may believe that we are smart enough to understand the work the way the artist or author intended, but in reality, our perception is coloured by who we are, and what we bring with us when we see a painting or read a story.

Conclusion: The conclusion rounds off the analysis and draws attention to the most important things that have been discovered about the text.

An easy trap to fall into is to simply give a list of literary devices found – or to repeat things that have been said previously in the text. That makes for a very dull conclusion. Focus on pointing out the most important things you discovered about the text and try to say this without repeating yourself.

Here, the writer believes that the theme of the story is the most important thing discussed in the analysis, so that is what is in focus in the conclusion.

The linking phrase "in sum" is used to indicate that this is a conclusion.

Source list:

Twain, M., 1909, "A Fable".

Masterclass, 2021, "Writing 101: What Is a Fable? Learn About the 4 Central Characteristics of a Fable and 4 Famous Fable Examples". Retrieved from: Link to article about fables on the Masterclass webpage.

Mark Twain House & Museum, "About Mark Twain". Retrieved from: Mark Twain House & Museum webpage.

Always include a source list. The text you have analysed should be on the source list. Also include other sources you have used.

If you have quoted or paraphrased source material inside your analysis, include a reference to the source in parenthesis. This is not necessary if you are quoting from the text you are analysing; however, if you are analysing a longer text, like a novel, it is a good idea to include a reference and the page number where the quotation is from.

Short story analysis checklist:

Title: Have a title that is relevant for the text you have written. Original titles are more likely to make the reader want to read your text. Introduction: Introduce the work you are going to analyse by naming the author, year of publication, and perhaps something about the context in which the work was written. Then go on to explain what your analysis will focus on. You learn more about the text the deeper you go into the analysis, therefore it may be a good idea to wait a while before you write the introduction. First paragraph: Give a short plot summary of the text you are going to analyse. In an analysis, you can summarise all parts of the text, and you don't have to worry about spoilers. Make sure the summary is no more than a paragraph long. Next paragraphs (minimum three more) : Look at text features or literary devices you have noticed in the text. Give each text feature or literary device its own paragraph. Point out where in the text the feature/device is used and explain what is achieved by using the feature/device in the text. Conclusion: Draw a conclusion. You have looked at text features and literary devices: What do they in sum tell you about the text? Avoid writing an ending where you just repeat what you have already said. Source list: Remember to include the text you are analysing. You should also include other sources you have used. You can use Kildekompasset to find out how to make a source list. Link to the webpage Kildekompasset.

Relatert innhold

Mark Twain's short story story "A Fable" .

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Text Development

Mahasweta Devi: Short Stories

By mahasweta devi, mahasweta devi: short stories summary and analysis of "draupadi".

The first part is written in the form of a dossier: Dopdi Mejhen is twenty-seven and wanted by police. Her husband was Dulna Majhi, now deceased. Information is wanted about this “ most notorious female.” She and her husband were the main culprits in murdering Surja Sahu and his sons, and managed to escape capture by pretending to be dead during Operation Bakuli, an attack by Special Forces. The two went underground and stories of the “hair-raising details” of the “black-skinned couple” and other rebels circulated.

Captain Arjan Singh is frustrated and feels like Dopdi has exacerbated his diabetes. He has so “irrational a dread of black-skinned people that whenever he saw a black person in a ballbag, he swooned, saying ‘they’re killing me,’ and drank and passed a lot of water.”

He meets with Mr. Senanayak, a Bengali specialist in combat and extreme Left politics. He “knows the activities and capacities of the opposition better than they themselves do.” He touts the value of the Army Handbook, which says all guerilla fighters must be eradicated. Dopdi and Dulna are this type of fighter. Senanayak should not be trifled with; he respects the opposition, though he is trying to get rid of them.

After escaping from Bakuli, Dopdi and Dulna worked at the houses of landowners to inform the killers of everything about the targets. Dulna was killed when soldiers infiltrated the forest and shot him dead. As he was dying he yelled out “Ma-ho,” a phrase which flummoxed the Department of Defense. The soldiers left his body as bait and hoped that someone would come claim him and they could shoot them, but no one did.

The search for Dopdi now continues. Initially the fugitives were easy to catch, but now they are not. There is not much information about what is happening, about how many there are, how many were killed, if it is worth the expense of keeping the battalion in the forest. It is also unclear how Dopdi fits in. Thus, the Operation Jharkhani Forest cannot stop.

Dopdi is walking through the forest. She hears her name and does not respond; she never does, as she is not going by that name now. She was talking to Mushai’s wife earlier, who suggested she run away. Dopdi replied that she has run away so many times, but promised that she will reveal no one’s name. She knows what she would do if she is tortured, which is to bite off her own tongue.

She is walking and hears “Dopdi!” again, but she is Upi Mejhen now. Her mind flicks through who it might be. Maybe it is someone from Bakuli, as only Mushai and his wife know her real name here.

She thinks of Operation Bakuli and the corrupt Surja Sahu. His house was surrounded at night and the rebels tied him up and he loosed his bowels. Dulna wanted the first blow because his “great grandfather took a bit of paddy from him, and I still give him free labor to repay that debt.” Dopdi said she would be next and would pull out his eyes because “His mouth watered when he looked at me.” Then messages came that the army was near. There was burning, guns, flame throwers, men women and children dying, Dulna and Dopdi crawling on their stomachs to escape. They made it to Bhupati and Tapa’s house. It was decided they would work around the forest belt. Dulna told Dopdi it would mean they would not have family and children, but they could wipe out landowners, moneylenders, and policeman someday.

Dopdi keeps walking. She only wants to make it to the forest. It will be time to change hideouts soon. She thinks with pride of her forefathers, the “pure unadulterated black blood of Champabhumi.”

It is two miles to the camp. The footsteps maintain their distance but are still following her. She decides she will not try to lose him or outrun him in the forest, this “fucking jackal of a cop, deadly afraid of death.” She cannot go to the hideout as she has been compromised, but it will be clear to her where Arijit has moved it. Dopdi decides to lead the cop to the burning ghat.

But a moment later lumps of rock stand up and yell out to apprehend Dopdi. Senanayak is elated, for clearly he still knows the enemy well. Yet Dopdi could not trick him, which is bothersome. Dopdi raises her arms and her face to the sky and ululates “with the force of her entire being” and “the echo of the call travels far.”

She is apprehended at 6:53pm and taken to the camp. Senayayak tells his men to “make,” or rape, her. She wakes from a daze and feels her arms and legs tied to posts. She has no gag but is incredibly thirsty. Her vagina is bleeding and her bottom and waist are sticky. She does not know how many men came. Her breasts are raw and her nipples torn. She hopes for a moment that she’s been left for the foxes to devour but she hears more men. They come to her and rape her again.

Morning comes and she is brought to the tent and a piece of cloth is thrown over her body. A man comes in and orders her to Burra Sahib’s tent. She stands, and instead of drinking the water brought to her, pours it on the ground. Instead of wearing the cloth, she tears it with her teeth. The man thinks she has gone crazy and runs for orders.

There is a commotion and Senanayak walks out and is surprised to see Draupadi walking naked towards him with her head held high. The “nervous guards” are behind her. He is about to bark out to ask what this is, but she comes closer with her hands on her hips and laughs that she is Dopdi Mejhen, the object of his search, and he told his men to rape her and they did.

Senanayak asks where her clothes are and the men say she tore them. Draupadi shakes with laughter and in a terrifying voice emanating from her bleeding lips, asks what the use of clothes is—they can strip her, but they cannot clothe her again. She spits a bloody gob on his shirt and says “There isn’t a man here that I should be ashamed. I will not let you put my cloth on me. What more can you do? Come on, counter me—come on, counter me—?”

She pushes her “mangled breasts” on Senanayak and “for the first time Senanayak is afraid to stand before an unarmed target, terribly afraid.”

“Draupadi” is one of Mahasweta Devi ’s most acclaimed short stories. The tale of a young tribal woman who is part of the rural resistance against corrupt landowners and government officials, it explores themes of gender discrimination and violence, political resistance, and the status of the subaltern in late 20th-century Indian society.

To begin, Devi’s story and its titular heroine are named for a heroine of the Indian epic The Mahabharata; the wife of Surya Sahu bestows this name on Dopdi, a move which literary critic (and the translator of this story) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak notes is “the usual mood of benevolence felt by the oppressor’s wife toward the tribal bond servant.” The original Draupadi has five husbands, the Pandavas, which is against Hindu law. The men lose everything in a game of dice with their cousins, the Kauravas, and Draupadi, being one of their last possessions, is dragged into court and ordered to be stripped and humiliated. Draupadi prays and Lord Krishna intervenes, preventing the humiliation.

The second thing to note initially is that Dopdi has joined the Naxalites, an armed rural rebellion. The tribes in India are Austro-Asiatic and live an agrarian life in the forests; they have long been exploited and exiled. Dopdi is, as Arunima Ray notes, “not romanticized by Mahasweta . . . she is a normal woman who loves her husband and enjoys ordinary and mundane things of life. But she is an intelligent and determined woman who has experienced exploitation and wants to do away with it. She is a trained guerrilla fighter and adept at self-concealment.”

Devi renders Dopdi as a “racialized recreation” of the Mahabharata tale, Cielo G. Festino and Lilim Christina Marins write, for “If women like Draupadi were doubly colonized by patriarchal society and the colonizer, Dopdi is triply colonized, considering that to these two layers of submission a third one should be added, as she is racialized by the upper castes and classes.” This is clearly demonstrated in Captain Arjan Singh’s fear of Dopdi and Dulna: “Learning from Intelligence that the above-mentioned ululating and dancing couple was the escaped corpses, Arjan Singh fell for a bit into a zombielike state and finally acquired so irrational a dread of black-skinned people that whenever he saw a black person in a ballbag, he swooned, saying ‘they're killing me,’ and drank and passed a lot of water.” Dopdi’s “black” skin further marginalizes and others her to Singh and Senanayak.

Dopdi’s subjectivity is suggested throughout the story, but it is her act of resistance at the end that sees her truly embodying her subjecthood. Senanayak orders his men to rape her, and then to bring her before him, clothed. She throws aside the cloth, refusing to put it on, and asserts herself before all of the men: “Draupadi's black body comes even closer. Draupadi shakes with an indomitable laughter that Senanayak simply cannot understand. Her ravaged lips bleed as she begins laughing. Draupadi wipes the blood on her palm and says in a voice that is as terrifying, sky splitting, and sharp as her ululation, What's the use of clothes? You can strip me, but how can you clothe me again? Are you a man? She looks around and chooses the front of Senanayak's white bush shirt to spit a bloody gob at and says, There isn't a man here that I should be ashamed. I will not let you put my cloth on me. What more can you do? Come on, counter me-come on, counter me-? Draupadi pushes Senanayak with her two mangled breasts, and for the first time Senanayak is afraid to stand before an unarmed target, terribly afraid.” Akshaya Ramesh explains that “Draupadi looks like a victim but acts like an agent. Indeed, the binary of victim and agent falls apart as Draupadi effectively separates violation from victimhood. As she stands insistently naked before her violators, Dopdi manages to wield her wounded body as a weapon to terrify them.”

Spivak and Festino/Marins assess the importance of Dopdi’s action and its relation to the ancient Draupadi. Spivak says “It would be a mistake, I think, to read the modern story as a refutation of the ancient. Dopdi is (as heroic as) Draupadi. She is also what Draupadi—written into the patriarchal and authoritative sacred text as proof of male power—could not be,” and Festino/Marins write that through Dopdi’s refusal to let the rapes weaken her or to capitulate to anything that erodes her humanity and subjectivity, “Dopdi rejects the values of dominant and patriarchal society, which leaves the aggressor confused and speechless, and transforms her into a superior being. She becomes a sign that the police officer is unable to translate. The rewriting of the Indian epic through the recreation of Draupadi as Dopdi can be understood as Mahasweta Devi’s tribute to Tribal women.”

Mahasweta Devi: Short Stories Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Mahasweta Devi: Short Stories is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Justly the title bayen

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Stylistic analysis of breast giver by mahasweta devi

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https://www.gradesaver.com/mahasweta-devi-short-stories/study-guide/summary-breast-giver

Later he is distressed, remembering how much he loved her. Bhagirath is astonished and frightened that his father talked to a bayen, as doing so is supposed to mean sudden death. He has heard bayens are not human beings and he cannot fathom how he...

Study Guide for Mahasweta Devi: Short Stories

Mahasweta Devi: Short Stories study guide contains a biography of Mahasweta Devi, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Mahasweta Devi: Short Stories
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Essays for Mahasweta Devi: Short Stories

Mahasweta Devi: Short Stories essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Mahasweta Devi: Short Stories by Mahasweta Devi.

• Postcolonial Reading of Mahasveta Devi’s ‘Draupadi’ or ‘Dopdi’ as Translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak  
• Narrative Radicalism as Strategy of Representing the Unrepresented: Analyzing Mahashweta Devi’s Douloti the Bountiful as a Subaltern Text

Lesson Plan for Mahasweta Devi: Short Stories

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8.15: Sample Student Literary Analysis Essays

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• Heather Ringo & Athena Kashyap
• City College of San Francisco via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative

The following examples are essays where student writers focused on close-reading a literary work.

While reading these examples, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the essay's thesis statement, and how do you know it is the thesis statement?
• What is the main idea or topic sentence of each body paragraph, and how does it relate back to the thesis statement?
• Where and how does each essay use evidence (quotes or paraphrase from the literature)?
• What are some of the literary devices or structures the essays analyze or discuss?
• How does each author structure their conclusion, and how does their conclusion differ from their introduction?

Example 1: Poetry

Victoria Morillo

Instructor Heather Ringo

3 August 2022

How Nguyen’s Structure Solidifies the Impact of Sexual Violence in “The Study”

Stripped of innocence, your body taken from you. No matter how much you try to block out the instance in which these two things occurred, memories surface and come back to haunt you. How does a person, a young boy , cope with an event that forever changes his life? Hieu Minh Nguyen deconstructs this very way in which an act of sexual violence affects a survivor. In his poem, “The Study,” the poem's speaker recounts the year in which his molestation took place, describing how his memory filters in and out. Throughout the poem, Nguyen writes in free verse, permitting a structural liberation to become the foundation for his message to shine through. While he moves the readers with this poignant narrative, Nguyen effectively conveys the resulting internal struggles of feeling alone and unseen.

The speaker recalls his experience with such painful memory through the use of specific punctuation choices. Just by looking at the poem, we see that the first period doesn’t appear until line 14. It finally comes after the speaker reveals to his readers the possible, central purpose for writing this poem: the speaker's molestation. In the first half, the poem makes use of commas, em dashes, and colons, which lends itself to the idea of the speaker stringing along all of these details to make sense of this time in his life. If reading the poem following the conventions of punctuation, a sense of urgency is present here, as well. This is exemplified by the lack of periods to finalize a thought; and instead, Nguyen uses other punctuation marks to connect them. Serving as another connector of thoughts, the two em dashes give emphasis to the role memory plays when the speaker discusses how “no one [had] a face” during that time (Nguyen 9-11). He speaks in this urgent manner until the 14th line, and when he finally gets it off his chest, the pace of the poem changes, as does the more frequent use of the period. This stream-of-consciousness-like section when juxtaposed with the latter half of the poem, causes readers to slow down and pay attention to the details. It also splits the poem in two: a section that talks of the fogginess of memory then transitions into one that remembers it all.

In tandem with the fluctuating nature of memory, the utilization of line breaks and word choice help reflect the damage the molestation has had. Within the first couple of lines of the poem, the poem demands the readers’ attention when the line breaks from “floating” to “dead” as the speaker describes his memory of Little Billy (Nguyen 1-4). This line break averts the readers’ expectation of the direction of the narrative and immediately shifts the tone of the poem. The break also speaks to the effect his trauma has ingrained in him and how “[f]or the longest time,” his only memory of that year revolves around an image of a boy’s death. In a way, the speaker sees himself in Little Billy; or perhaps, he’s representative of the tragic death of his boyhood, how the speaker felt so “dead” after enduring such a traumatic experience, even referring to himself as a “ghost” that he tries to evict from his conscience (Nguyen 24). The feeling that a part of him has died is solidified at the very end of the poem when the speaker describes himself as a nine-year-old boy who’s been “fossilized,” forever changed by this act (Nguyen 29). By choosing words associated with permanence and death, the speaker tries to recreate the atmosphere (for which he felt trapped in) in order for readers to understand the loneliness that came as a result of his trauma. With the assistance of line breaks, more attention is drawn to the speaker's words, intensifying their importance, and demanding to be felt by the readers.

Most importantly, the speaker expresses eloquently, and so heartbreakingly, about the effect sexual violence has on a person. Perhaps what seems to be the most frustrating are the people who fail to believe survivors of these types of crimes. This is evident when he describes “how angry” the tenants were when they filled the pool with cement (Nguyen 4). They seem to represent how people in the speaker's life were dismissive of his assault and who viewed his tragedy as a nuisance of some sorts. This sentiment is bookended when he says, “They say, give us details , so I give them my body. / They say, give us proof , so I give them my body,” (Nguyen 25-26). The repetition of these two lines reinforces the feeling many feel in these scenarios, as they’re often left to deal with trying to make people believe them, or to even see them.

It’s important to recognize how the structure of this poem gives the speaker space to express the pain he’s had to carry for so long. As a characteristic of free verse, the poem doesn’t follow any structured rhyme scheme or meter; which in turn, allows him to not have any constraints in telling his story the way he wants to. The speaker has the freedom to display his experience in a way that evades predictability and engenders authenticity of a story very personal to him. As readers, we abandon anticipating the next rhyme, and instead focus our attention to the other ways, like his punctuation or word choice, in which he effectively tells his story. The speaker recognizes that some part of him no longer belongs to himself, but by writing “The Study,” he shows other survivors that they’re not alone and encourages hope that eventually, they will be freed from the shackles of sexual violence.

Works Cited

Nguyen, Hieu Minh. “The Study” Poets.Org. Academy of American Poets, Coffee House Press, 2018, https://poets.org/poem/study-0 .

Example 2: Fiction

Todd Goodwin

Professor Stan Matyshak

Advanced Expository Writing

Sept. 17, 20—

Poe’s “Usher”: A Mirror of the Fall of the House of Humanity

Right from the outset of the grim story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Edgar Allan Poe enmeshes us in a dark, gloomy, hopeless world, alienating his characters and the reader from any sort of physical or psychological norm where such values as hope and happiness could possibly exist. He fatalistically tells the story of how a man (the narrator) comes from the outside world of hope, religion, and everyday society and tries to bring some kind of redeeming happiness to his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, who not only has physically and psychologically wasted away but is entrapped in a dilapidated house of ever-looming terror with an emaciated and deranged twin sister. Roderick Usher embodies the wasting away of what once was vibrant and alive, and his house of “insufferable gloom” (273), which contains his morbid sister, seems to mirror or reflect this fear of death and annihilation that he most horribly endures. A close reading of the story reveals that Poe uses mirror images, or reflections, to contribute to the fatalistic theme of “Usher”: each reflection serves to intensify an already prevalent tone of hopelessness, darkness, and fatalism.

It could be argued that the house of Roderick Usher is a “house of mirrors,” whose unpleasant and grim reflections create a dark and hopeless setting. For example, the narrator first approaches “the melancholy house of Usher on a dark and soundless day,” and finds a building which causes him a “sense of insufferable gloom,” which “pervades his spirit and causes an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an undiscerned dreariness of thought” (273). The narrator then optimistically states: “I reflected that a mere different arrangement of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression” (274). But the narrator then sees the reflection of the house in the tarn and experiences a “shudder even more thrilling than before” (274). Thus the reader begins to realize that the narrator cannot change or stop the impending doom that will befall the house of Usher, and maybe humanity. The story cleverly plays with the word reflection : the narrator sees a physical reflection that leads him to a mental reflection about Usher’s surroundings.

The narrator’s disillusionment by such grim reflection continues in the story. For example, he describes Roderick Usher’s face as distinct with signs of old strength but lost vigor: the remains of what used to be. He describes the house as a once happy and vibrant place, which, like Roderick, lost its vitality. Also, the narrator describes Usher’s hair as growing wild on his rather obtrusive head, which directly mirrors the eerie moss and straw covering the outside of the house. The narrator continually longs to see these bleak reflections as a dream, for he states: “Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building” (276). He does not want to face the reality that Usher and his home are doomed to fall, regardless of what he does.

Although there are almost countless examples of these mirror images, two others stand out as important. First, Roderick and his sister, Madeline, are twins. The narrator aptly states just as he and Roderick are entombing Madeline that there is “a striking similitude between brother and sister” (288). Indeed, they are mirror images of each other. Madeline is fading away psychologically and physically, and Roderick is not too far behind! The reflection of “doom” that these two share helps intensify and symbolize the hopelessness of the entire situation; thus, they further develop the fatalistic theme. Second, in the climactic scene where Madeline has been mistakenly entombed alive, there is a pairing of images and sounds as the narrator tries to calm Roderick by reading him a romance story. Events in the story simultaneously unfold with events of the sister escaping her tomb. In the story, the hero breaks out of the coffin. Then, in the story, the dragon’s shriek as he is slain parallels Madeline’s shriek. Finally, the story tells of the clangor of a shield, matched by the sister’s clanging along a metal passageway. As the suspense reaches its climax, Roderick shrieks his last words to his “friend,” the narrator: “Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door” (296).

Roderick, who slowly falls into insanity, ironically calls the narrator the “Madman.” We are left to reflect on what Poe means by this ironic twist. Poe’s bleak and dark imagery, and his use of mirror reflections, seem only to intensify the hopelessness of “Usher.” We can plausibly conclude that, indeed, the narrator is the “Madman,” for he comes from everyday society, which is a place where hope and faith exist. Poe would probably argue that such a place is opposite to the world of Usher because a world where death is inevitable could not possibly hold such positive values. Therefore, just as Roderick mirrors his sister, the reflection in the tarn mirrors the dilapidation of the house, and the story mirrors the final actions before the death of Usher. “The Fall of the House of Usher” reflects Poe’s view that humanity is hopelessly doomed.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Fall of the House of Usher.” 1839. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library . 1995. Web. 1 July 2012. < http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PoeFall.html >.

Example 3: Poetry

Amy Chisnell

Professor Laura Neary

Writing and Literature

April 17, 20—

Don’t Listen to the Egg!: A Close Reading of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”

“You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,” said Alice. “Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called ‘Jabberwocky’?”

“Let’s hear it,” said Humpty Dumpty. “I can explain all the poems that ever were invented—and a good many that haven’t been invented just yet.” (Carroll 164)

In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass , Humpty Dumpty confidently translates (to a not so confident Alice) the complicated language of the poem “Jabberwocky.” The words of the poem, though nonsense, aptly tell the story of the slaying of the Jabberwock. Upon finding “Jabberwocky” on a table in the looking-glass room, Alice is confused by the strange words. She is quite certain that “ somebody killed something ,” but she does not understand much more than that. When later she encounters Humpty Dumpty, she seizes the opportunity at having the knowledgeable egg interpret—or translate—the poem. Since Humpty Dumpty professes to be able to “make a word work” for him, he is quick to agree. Thus he acts like a New Critic who interprets the poem by performing a close reading of it. Through Humpty’s interpretation of the first stanza, however, we see the poem’s deeper comment concerning the practice of interpreting poetry and literature in general—that strict analytical translation destroys the beauty of a poem. In fact, Humpty Dumpty commits the “heresy of paraphrase,” for he fails to understand that meaning cannot be separated from the form or structure of the literary work.

Of the 71 words found in “Jabberwocky,” 43 have no known meaning. They are simply nonsense. Yet through this nonsensical language, the poem manages not only to tell a story but also gives the reader a sense of setting and characterization. One feels, rather than concretely knows, that the setting is dark, wooded, and frightening. The characters, such as the Jubjub bird, the Bandersnatch, and the doomed Jabberwock, also appear in the reader’s head, even though they will not be found in the local zoo. Even though most of the words are not real, the reader is able to understand what goes on because he or she is given free license to imagine what the words denote and connote. Simply, the poem’s nonsense words are the meaning.

Therefore, when Humpty interprets “Jabberwocky” for Alice, he is not doing her any favors, for he actually misreads the poem. Although the poem in its original is constructed from nonsense words, by the time Humpty is done interpreting it, it truly does not make any sense. The first stanza of the original poem is as follows:

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogroves,

An the mome raths outgrabe. (Carroll 164)

If we replace, however, the nonsense words of “Jabberwocky” with Humpty’s translated words, the effect would be something like this:

’Twas four o’clock in the afternoon, and the lithe and slimy badger-lizard-corkscrew creatures

Did go round and round and make holes in the grass-plot round the sun-dial:

All flimsy and miserable were the shabby-looking birds

with mop feathers,

And the lost green pigs bellowed-sneezed-whistled.

By translating the poem in such a way, Humpty removes the charm or essence—and the beauty, grace, and rhythm—from the poem. The poetry is sacrificed for meaning. Humpty Dumpty commits the heresy of paraphrase. As Cleanth Brooks argues, “The structure of a poem resembles that of a ballet or musical composition. It is a pattern of resolutions and balances and harmonizations” (203). When the poem is left as nonsense, the reader can easily imagine what a “slithy tove” might be, but when Humpty tells us what it is, he takes that imaginative license away from the reader. The beauty (if that is the proper word) of “Jabberwocky” is in not knowing what the words mean, and yet understanding. By translating the poem, Humpty takes that privilege from the reader. In addition, Humpty fails to recognize that meaning cannot be separated from the structure itself: the nonsense poem reflects this literally—it means “nothing” and achieves this meaning by using “nonsense” words.

Furthermore, the nonsense words Carroll chooses to use in “Jabberwocky” have a magical effect upon the reader; the shadowy sound of the words create the atmosphere, which may be described as a trance-like mood. When Alice first reads the poem, she says it seems to fill her head “with ideas.” The strange-sounding words in the original poem do give one ideas. Why is this? Even though the reader has never heard these words before, he or she is instantly aware of the murky, mysterious mood they set. In other words, diction operates not on the denotative level (the dictionary meaning) but on the connotative level (the emotion(s) they evoke). Thus “Jabberwocky” creates a shadowy mood, and the nonsense words are instrumental in creating this mood. Carroll could not have simply used any nonsense words.

For example, let us change the “dark,” “ominous” words of the first stanza to “lighter,” more “comic” words:

’Twas mearly, and the churly pells

Did bimble and ringle in the tink;

All timpy were the brimbledimps,

And the bip plips outlink.

Shifting the sounds of the words from dark to light merely takes a shift in thought. To create a specific mood using nonsense words, one must create new words from old words that convey the desired mood. In “Jabberwocky,” Carroll mixes “slimy,” a grim idea, “lithe,” a pliable image, to get a new adjective: “slithy” (a portmanteau word). In this translation, brighter words were used to get a lighter effect. “Mearly” is a combination of “morning” and “early,” and “ringle” is a blend of “ring” and "dingle.” The point is that “Jabberwocky’s” nonsense words are created specifically to convey this shadowy or mysterious mood and are integral to the “meaning.”

Consequently, Humpty’s rendering of the poem leaves the reader with a completely different feeling than does the original poem, which provided us with a sense of ethereal mystery, of a dark and foreign land with exotic creatures and fantastic settings. The mysteriousness is destroyed by Humpty’s literal paraphrase of the creatures and the setting; by doing so, he has taken the beauty away from the poem in his attempt to understand it. He has committed the heresy of paraphrase: “If we allow ourselves to be misled by it [this heresy], we distort the relation of the poem to its ‘truth’… we split the poem between its ‘form’ and its ‘content’” (Brooks 201). Humpty Dumpty’s ultimate demise might be seen to symbolize the heretical split between form and content: as a literary creation, Humpty Dumpty is an egg, a well-wrought urn of nonsense. His fall from the wall cracks him and separates the contents from the container, and not even all the King’s men can put the scrambled egg back together again!

Through the odd characters of a little girl and a foolish egg, “Jabberwocky” suggests a bit of sage advice about reading poetry, advice that the New Critics built their theories on. The importance lies not solely within strict analytical translation or interpretation, but in the overall effect of the imagery and word choice that evokes a meaning inseparable from those literary devices. As Archibald MacLeish so aptly writes: “A poem should not mean / But be.” Sometimes it takes a little nonsense to show us the sense in something.

Brooks, Cleanth. The Well-Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry . 1942. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1956. Print.

Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking-Glass. Alice in Wonderland . 2nd ed. Ed. Donald J. Gray. New York: Norton, 1992. Print.

MacLeish, Archibald. “Ars Poetica.” The Oxford Book of American Poetry . Ed. David Lehman. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. 385–86. Print.

Attribution

• Sample Essay 1 received permission from Victoria Morillo to publish, licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International ( CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 )
• Sample Essays 2 and 3 adapted from Cordell, Ryan and John Pennington. "2.5: Student Sample Papers" from Creating Literary Analysis. 2012. Licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported ( CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 )

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