Dr. Travis Rozier
ENGL 203
14 June 2021
: Marital Conflict in “A Red Girl’s Reasoning”
In writing “A Red Girl’s Reasoning,” Johnson explores through Christie McDonald, a mixed-race young woman like herself. Like Christie, Johnson was both a part of and yet separate from Canadian middle-class society in the early 1900s because of her Indian heritage. Christie, unlike Johnson, marries a young white man named Charlie McDonald. In Charlie, though, Christie does not find mooring for her liminality.
At the beginning of “A Red Girl’s Reasoning,” Charlie is introduced to the reader in conversation with his father-in-law while waiting for Christie to appear. When Jimmy Robinson tells Charlie that he does not understand Indigenous people or their cultures , who has lived over twenty years in native lands, Charlie balks at this assessment: “But I’m just as fond of them” and “I get on with them too, now, don’t I?” are his cries in response (Johnson 1). This incident highlights Charlie’s insistence on always being correct, regardless of whether or not he is actually right or not. It also foreshadows how his insistence at always being right will later create marital conflict with his new bride.
He also becomes jealous; at the thought, instigated by Mrs. Stuart, that Joe does not love Christie nearly as much as she deserves, he confronts his brother about the matter. “I’ve never asked you yet what you thought of her, Joe,” he ponders with his brother (4). Unsatisfied with his brother’s answer of “I’m glad she loves you,” Charlie tells Joe that “If she hated you, you’d get out. If she loved you I’d you get out” (4). This scene, while seemingly a minor incident in the text, becomes alarming when coupled with Charlie’s discussion with Jimmy Robinson. Like everyone else in Ottawa, he perceives her as “a potent charm to acquire popularity” (3).
At the party, when confronted by numerous individuals as to the nature of her father and mother’s marriage, Christie admits that they were not married by a priest. Horrified by this lack of propriety and despite her clarification that “the marriage was performed by Indian rites,” guests like Captain Logan and Mrs. Stuart immediately begin to gossip at hints of impropriety in Christie and Charlie’s marriage itself (Johnson 6). “Poor old Charlie has always thought so much of honorable birth,” Captain Logan says, perhaps the most damning indictment of Charlie’s character in the short story (6). Charlie, who was not made privy to this information before his marriage, is beyond angry by this news. What he is angry about is not the information being withheld from him, though; instead, he is angry with Christie at ruining her, and therefore his, reputation.
Immediately after the disastrous party, Charlies skulks off by himself before returning home to confront Christie. At the sight of her, he cries “You have disgraced me; and, moreover, you have disgraced yourself and both your parents” (Johnson 7). When Christie throws in his face the fact that he “who [has] studied my race and their laws for years” accuses her of bastardry, Charlie is affronted: “Your father was a fool not to insist upon the law, and so was the priest” (6-7). Despite studying and understanding Indian culture for years and marrying an Indian woman, Charlie insists that Christie’s parents “live in more civilized times” and should therefore have had a Christian wedding with a priest in order to authorize their marriage (8). Ultimately, however, Christie wears down Charlie’s ignorant arguments until he cries “the trouble is they won’t keep their mouths shut” (8). Even in this moment of intense argument with Christie over a subject that ultimately proves the end of their marriage, Charlie cannot stop prioritizing the opinions of those in white Ottawan society. Because of her announcement, Charlie has been made a fool in front of his friends, colleagues, and the city writ-large, and his anger at this prompts him to announce “God knows” when Christie asks whether it would have made a difference when deciding to marry her (8).
He alienates Christie from white society by castigating her for her parents’ lack of “propriety” (by a white man’s standard) and refusing to recognize the validity of her people’s customs. Christie occupies a liminal space between being white and being Indigenous that cannot support Charlie’s racist attempts to capitalize on her beauty and appeal to society as the new “rage” for his own social gain. Through Christie, Pauline Johnson explores the fraught nature of being an Indian in a white man’s world, while through Charlie, Johnson exposes how white society commodifies the lives and cultures of Indigenous people during the early twentieth century.
Works Cited
Attribution:
Bowling, Hannah Elizabeth. “Short Story: ‘Blood for Blood’: Marital Conflict in ‘A Red Girl’s Reasoning.’” In Surface and Subtext: Literature, Research, Writing . 3rd ed. Edited by Claire Carly-Miles, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Christie Anders, Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt, R. Paul Cooper, and Matt McKinney. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2024. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .
Rozier, Travis, and R. Paul Cooper. “Short Story: Sample Analysis of a Short Story.” In Surface and Subtext: Literature, Research, Writing . 3rd ed. Edited by Claire Carly-Miles, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Christie Anders, Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt, R. Paul Cooper, and Matt McKinney. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2024. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .
3.7--Sample Analysis of a Short Story Copyright © 2024 by Travis Rozier and R. Paul Cooper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
Aug 25, 2023
Discover the allure of literature with our literary analysis essay examples. Uncover the hidden meanings, symbolisms, and develop your writing skills. Let's dive into these examples and master the art of literary analysis together!
Literary analysis essays offer a critical examination of a literary work, exploring how various elements contribute to an overarching theme. While crafting an impactful essay can be challenging, especially when identifying unique themes or accumulating adequate knowledge, it's entirely achievable with fundamental essay writing principles and a solid plan. This form of essay is prevalent in high school and college and plays an integral role in literary criticism. In this guide, we'll equip you with practical tips and a sample to steer your writing process. Let's delve deeper.
A literary analysis is an essay that focuses on either a single element or multiple elements within a piece of writing to determine how they contribute to the main theme or purpose. This process involves a meticulous examination of the work's structure to explain or interpret the integration of its components. Writing a literary analysis may sound intimidating, but it's entirely attainable even for beginners. It involves the careful evaluation of a written piece to unearth its deeper meanings and understand the author's choices. It's not simply a summary or book review; rather, it shares similarities with an argumentative essay, providing a detailed examination of the work's language, perspective, and structure.
Furthermore, it includes an exploration of how the author employs literary devices to generate specific effects and convey ideas. Gaining inspiration for a literary analysis essay may involve understanding the work's historical context, themes, and symbolism. With these guidelines, anyone - beginners and seasoned writers alike - can create a thoughtful literary analysis essay that offers insightful interpretations of a literary work.
Learning from other literary analysis essays can facilitate the writing process. This method helps understand different approaches and ways to analyze a subject. Furthermore, exploring the work of scholars and critics on your chosen literature can provide fresh perspectives and novel ideas for your essay. Here's a simplified guide of eight crucial steps to help you compose a thoughtful and well-crafted literary analysis essay.
Carefully Read the Text: Familiarize yourself with the literature you'll analyze. Understand its message by reading it multiple times, especially for shorter pieces like poetry.
Brainstorm a Topic: After comprehensively studying the work, generate a unique topic for your essay. A few probing questions can stimulate creative ideas.
Collect and Interpret Evidence: Analyze the available evidence supporting your proposed topic. Highlight key sections as you read, including contradicting evidence that could support your argument.
Write a Thesis: This is the central argument guiding your essay. Choose a debatable topic, rather than stating something universally acknowledged.
Develop and Organize Your Arguments: Organize your evidence and create a robust thesis statement . Modify your argument as needed to match the evidence.
Write a Rough Draft: Focus on delivering a thorough argument supported by textual evidence. Don't worry about perfect grammar or complex sentences at this stage.
Refine Your Arguments and Review: Be ruthless while editing. Pay attention to grammar, sentence structure, and ensure your essay aligns with your thesis.
Get Another Opinion and Finalize: Seek feedback on your essay. Analyze your writing carefully and ensure it aligns with your thesis.
In summary, following these steps will not only make your literary essay writing process more structured, but will also enhance your analytical thinking and writing skills . Keep practicing, and each essay will be a step towards mastery in literary analysis.
Embarking on the journey of writing a literary analysis essay requires a roadmap to ensure a logical and coherent argument. One effective way to organize your thoughts and ideas is by creating an outline. This outline not only structures your essay, but it also guides your analysis, helping to illuminate the path from your introduction to your conclusion.
Think of your outline as a skeleton: the backbone of your essay, providing structure and support. It allows you to arrange your points systematically, ensuring you don't overlook essential elements and maintain a logical flow throughout your analysis. The following sections are the key components of this framework, each having a specific role and purpose in your essay:
Introduction: This initial section draws your readers into the world of your analysis. Providing the author's name and the work's title lays the groundwork. A thematic statement then broadens this base, offering a glimpse into the wider theme of your analysis. As your introduction unfolds, provide some contextual information about the work to highlight its relevance. Nearing the end of this section, present your readers with your thesis statement—an unambiguous declaration that encapsulates the purpose of your analysis.
Body: The body serves as the battlefield of your essay, where you tackle the issues stated in your thesis. Your primary goal is to demonstrate how the author utilized the techniques discussed in your thesis. Use persuasive evidence such as quotes and literary devices to fortify your arguments. Always keep your thesis as the central pillar of your discussion, wrapping up each paragraph with a robust statement that fortifies your argument.
Conclusion: Here, you reaffirm your thesis and show how the ideas discussed in the body support its claims. Your conclusion recaps your main points, reinforcing their significance and leaving a lasting impression on your readers regarding the depth and relevance of your analysis.
This segment presents three instances of literary analysis essays on acclaimed pieces of literature. Studying these examples will offer you insights into the various methods and strategies employed by proficient writers for literary evaluation, focusing on the elucidation of thematic undertones, symbolism interpretation, and character motivation exploration.
God Help the Child by Toni Morrison: An Analysis of Childhood Trauma
Introduction:
Toni Morrison's novel 'God Help the Child' is a powerful exploration of childhood trauma and its implications. It probes the intricate layers of the trauma experience by centralizing the narrative around an African American character, Bride.
Morrison unravels the theme of childhood trauma via Bride's life experiences. The early abandonment by her mother due to her dark skin color manifests in Bride's adulthood, influencing her relationships and self-worth. Morrison uses vivid symbolism and imagery to convey the depth of Bride's trauma, such as her white attire representing her longing for purity and acceptance. Bride's interpersonal relationships, strained by her past trauma, are realistically portrayed, aiding readers in empathizing with her experiences.
Conclusion:
In 'God Help the Child', Morrison seamlessly explores the impact of childhood trauma on individuals and society. The novel's potent imagery and symbolism simplify the complexities of trauma, making it an essential read for those interested in this theme.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker: An Examination of Gender and Identity
Alice Walker's 'The Color Purple' delves into the intricate web of gender, race, and identity during the early 20th century American South.
The novel uniquely presents the theme of gender by depicting the struggles of African American women against oppression. It also discusses the theme of identity through the protagonist Celie's life journey. Walker's symbolism, such as the color purple signifying strength and resilience, contributes to the novel's potent portrayal of gender and identity. Walker's epistolary format and colloquial language use immerse the reader in the experiences of African American women of that era.
'The Color Purple' provides a compelling narrative about gender and identity struggles. Walker's distinct use of symbolism, imagery, and language gives the novel a multifaceted perspective on these themes, securing its place in African American literature.
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: A Study of the Supernatural
Edgar Allan Poe's short story 'The Fall of the House of Usher' examines the supernatural's influence on the human psyche.
The story is replete with supernatural elements contributing to its eerie Gothic atmosphere. These elements, such as the haunted mansion and its inhabitants' bizarre behaviors, elicit fear and unease in the reader. Poe masterfully uses these supernatural components to underline fear and terror's psychological effects. The haunted mansion symbolizes the Usher family's decay and societal decline, while the blood-red moon during the mansion's final collapse underlines the events' supernatural nature.
'The Fall of the House of Usher' successfully explores supernatural themes and their psychological implications. Poe's atmospheric storytelling and symbolism use underscore the themes of death and decay, solidifying the story's place in the Gothic tradition.
Conclusively, to craft a compelling literary analysis essay, you should select a captivating topic, meticulously evaluate the text, and present a well-organized argument. The inclusion of textual evidence and considering the broader context are equally vital. Proficient writing skills are indispensable for formulating an influential essay that manifests a profound comprehension of the text and engages the readers.
If you face challenges in crafting a literary analysis essay, consider using tools like Jenni.ai . This AI-powered platform aids in essay creation across various topics, enhancing efficiency and easing the process. It's particularly helpful when you need a persuasive essay but lack confidence in your writing skills. Give it a shot and experience a streamlined essay-writing process.
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What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word “interpretive”? For me, a couple things come to mind—interpretive dance, language interpretation, and fortune telling.
Hear me out on the last one for a second.
Think about Professor Trelawney ’s class—what was one of the first things they did? Read tea leaves. Those young witches and wizards had to look at the tea leaves in a different way to interpret what they meant.
And that’s exactly what you’ll be doing. No! Not reading tea leaves—interpreting literature. I’ll help you learn what an interpretive essay is and how to write one.
Before we get into the how , we have to figure out the what . You can think of an interpretive essay the same way you think about a literary analysis .
Like the name suggests, an interpretive essay is one in which you interpret a piece of literature—a book, essay, play, or poem. It doesn’t have to be, and actually shouldn’t be, about every element you can think of.
Instead, choose one or two elements of the piece to focus on, unless you’re given a specific prompt (in which case, just follow the prompt). If you don’t have a prompt, figuring out what to write about can be a little difficult.
My suggestion is to find something that’s interesting to you. The author’s use of foreshadowing or metaphors, or a certain theme, setting, or character. Once you have this broad topic picked out, you can interpret it by breaking it down into pieces.
If this still sounds a little too theoretical and not practical enough, don’t worry. We’re just getting warmed up.
Before we get into how to write your interpretive essay, it’s important to know what not to do from the very beginning.
If you’re working on an interpretive essay where you’re describing what Professor Trelawney’s impact is in Harry Potter , for example, you wouldn’t just tell your reader what Trelawney is like.
Describing her profession, visions, or personality is way too surface-level. You need to dig deeper and make connections as to why her visions are important.
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While most interpretive essays focus on the smaller aspects of a piece of literature, some students choose to focus on the broader meaning of the work as a whole. Keep in mind, though, that you should do one or the other, not both.
Writing about the big picture and small parts can make your work seem too jumbled. So pick one, and stick to it.
For ideas on what elements to look out for—big or small—check out this super-helpful list of various elements of literature .
Now that you have a couple things to look out for as you write your interpretive essay, it’s time to talk about what you should do.
Like any essay you write for class, you’re going to want a thesis statement for your interpretive essay.
A thesis usually consists of one, sometimes two sentences that tell the reader what you’re going to write about. It clearly states your viewpoint and offers a summary of your supporting reasons for that viewpoint.
If I were to write my entire interpretive essay on the role of Professor Trelawney in Harry Potter , my thesis statement might look like this:
Though Professor Sybil Trelawney does not have many visions during her tenure at Hogwarts, the one she does have is crucial to the plot of the entire Harry Potter series. Her prophecy lets Dumbledore know how important Harry is to the fate of the wizarding world and allows Harry to find out what he must do to defeat Voldemort.
As you can see, this thesis statement describes what I’m interpreting—Trelawny’s importance to the plot—and offers the supporting points that I’ll be discussing in the body paragraphs.
Speaking of the body paragraphs, you want to make sure they all balance out. In fact, you want to make sure your whole essay balances out.
What I mean by this is that you should have a brief introduction that introduces what you’re going to write about, followed by body paragraphs of similar lengths, then a brief conclusion that nicely wraps it all up.
In my interpretive essay, my first body paragraph or section would discuss how Trelawney’s prophecy showed Dumbledore how important Harry is to the fate of the wizarding world, as well as the repercussions of this knowledge. This would include Dumbledore’s protection of Harry throughout the years.
The second section would discuss how the prophecy showed Harry how to defeat Voldemort and the responsibility that comes with that knowledge. “Neither can live while the other survives” means one has to die, which is pretty heavy stuff for a teenager to deal with.
Both sections should be roughly the same length (no need to count words exactly, just don’t make one super short and the other super long).
It’s also important to note that you do not need to follow a five-paragraph structure unless instructed to do so. That’s why I refer to these as “sections.” Each section can be one or several paragraphs, depending on the flow.
In essay-writing, you’re opinion is no good unless you can back it up.
How do you do that?
You use support from the text and outside sources . Supporting your argument gives you credibility and lets the reader not only know you understand the text, but also helps them understand it better too.
If you use support from an outside source, make sure it’s credible and not some meme you saw on Facebook. And always, ALWAYS cite your sources. If the idea isn’t yours, you have to give credit to the original source—even if you’re not quoting directly .
For my first body section, my support would include three points:
The three “should dos”above will get you a decent interpretive essay. But we can do better than decent, right?
To have a truly great essay, you’ll need more than content—you’ll need the right kind of flow. And to get that flow, using using effective transitions is key. (You might also want to check out 97 Transition Words for Essays You Need to Know .)
Transitions are how you get from one idea to another. In elementary school, you might’ve learned using “first,” “second,” and “third” to introduce the body paragraphs. But you and your writing have both evolved since then. So it’s time to use some grown-up transitions.
Effective transitions are more conversational. Not to say that your essay should read like you’re chatting with a friend … just that it should go from one idea to the next with no abrupt stops or awkward pauses.
So to get from my first body paragraph to the second, I might write something like this:
Dumbledore was not the only one to see and be affected by Trelawney’s prophecy; it also impacted Harry by giving him the knowledge he needed to defeat Voldemort.
And then I would proceed naturally into my next point.
Your flow is also going to depend on how much fun you have when you’re writing.
I know, your essay probably isn’t on something like Professor Trelawney’s prophecy, but injecting some of your personality into your interpretive essay makes it read easier and stand out (in a good way) from the 20 or more other essays your teacher has to read.
Plus, it makes it much more enjoyable to write.
Now that you know what to do and what not to do when you write your interpretive essay, it’s time to get to it.
Many students find writing an outline before they begin can save them time and make the writing process easier. Doing so will let you organize your thoughts, so all you have to do is fill in the information.
And don’t forget, if you want to avoid making grammar mistakes or you want to know whether your support is okay, the Kibin editors are always here to help make sure you’re reading those tea leaves right.
Psst... 98% of Kibin users report better grades! Get inspiration from over 500,000 example essays .
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Eden Meirow is a full-time copywriter and part-time freelance writer. Along with her BS in marketing from Florida State University and MA in museum studies from Johns Hopkins University, she has spent the past 7 years learning how best to reach and teach people using the power of words. When she's not working, she's constantly trying to expand her creativity through music, writing, art, and animation.
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Analysis is one of those ubiquitous words that can mean anything. You can analyze a piece of literature , or you can analyze a beautiful puppy’s eyes as it smiles directly at you. An analytical essay might not be as cute as that, but it can potentially be as fun or elucidating, as long as you know what you’re looking for.
An analytical essay is a type of essay that involves looking at a subject of interest and explaining what it is saying.
Analysis can mean a lot of things here, but analyzing something usually involves dissecting it into its discrete parts and interpreting what each of those parts means, individually and as a whole.
For example, your analytical essay may involve a close-reading of a poem where you break it down line by line and discuss the metaphors , word choice, and other language elements that the text is working with.
Analytical essays are common in school, but they also appear in magazines, newspapers , and scholarly periodicals. These essays can cover a broad range of subjects, from pieces of art and media to historical events and scientific theories.
Students and educators alike tend to confuse analytical essays and critical analysis essays , and for good reason. There’s a lot of overlap in that both require you to analyze something. Like an analytical essay, a critical analysis essay will involve breaking down a text.
One big difference is objectivity. Analytical essays are objective in nature, so you’re not really writing about your own opinions. While it’s generally fine to state a thought of your own in an analytical essay, any larger opinions or arguments about the text should come from the subject or the author of the subject.
Essentially, it comes down to taking that next step. With an analytical essay, it’s “Let’s analyze what this text is saying.” With a critical analysis essay, it’s “Let’s analyze what this text is saying, and here’s what I think about what it’s trying to say.”
Analytical essays can come in a few different forms with their own structures. Cause and effect essays are a type of analytical essay that looks at the cause of one thing and its effect on other things. Compare and contrast essays are a type of analytical essay that looks at the similarities and differences between two pieces (or elements within a single piece).
A “straightforward” analytical essay will generally include the main parts of an essay :
As much as we appreciate you, we can’t write your essay for you, but it’s only because we want to help you exercise your analytical abilities (and we don’t advocate cheating). However, along with all the information and tips for writing an analytical essay , seeing a simple example of one might help you figure out how to build out an essay of your own.
Like nearly every other essay form, you want your analytical essay introduction to be captivating in some way, without diverging too far from the actual topic at hand. No matter how great your analysis, you want to give people a reason to even start reading your essay in the first place.
Unlike other essays, the thesis statement in your introduction doesn’t have to really be an argument. It is much more about stating what you intend to interpret in a text or work, as opposed to stating an opinion about it (even if it might seem like an opinion).
No one can truly understand the sensation of jumping directly onto a turtle, but this is just one of many characteristics bestowed upon the main character in the book Super Plumber Guy . The book depicts a brightly lit world of wonder, fungi, and amphibians in varying biomes. While the main character, Mr. Plumber, is depicted as an everyman, his distinct look, style, and behaviors as described in the book show that he is anything but.
You’ll want to spend most of your time on the body paragraphs. This is where you’ll really dive into the content and dissect the topic. Unlike other essays, an analytical essay typically doesn’t require outside texts or sources to support your argument — specifically because you’re not arguing anything. Your sole focus is the text at hand, so don’t be afraid to really get in there.
Mr. Plumber was originally written as something of an everyday character that the reader could embody. He has no true personality, nor does he have a voice, often allowing secondary characters around him to fill in the gaps. The reader does know that he wears a brightly colored hat, jumps high, and enjoys mushrooms. These are humble characteristics that bring out the humanity of the character. Most people are not a list of unique characteristics but a mosaic of smaller idiosyncrasies.
It can be really easy to overthink a conclusion . Don’t worry about saying something profound or summing up the entirety of human existence by way of your analysis. Instead, consider further questions or things that you might be wondering.
Super Plumber Guy remains a popular read containing a human character that many might consider boring or free of personality. However, Mr. Plumber is an exceedingly human character who acts as a blank slate for the reader. Diving deeper into other characters and their interactions with him may glean further insight into Mr. Plumber’s motivations and inner psychology.
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Published on August 28, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.
A rhetorical analysis is a type of essay that looks at a text in terms of rhetoric. This means it is less concerned with what the author is saying than with how they say it: their goals, techniques, and appeals to the audience.
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Key concepts in rhetoric, analyzing the text, introducing your rhetorical analysis, the body: doing the analysis, concluding a rhetorical analysis, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about rhetorical analysis.
Rhetoric, the art of effective speaking and writing, is a subject that trains you to look at texts, arguments and speeches in terms of how they are designed to persuade the audience. This section introduces a few of the key concepts of this field.
Appeals are how the author convinces their audience. Three central appeals are discussed in rhetoric, established by the philosopher Aristotle and sometimes called the rhetorical triangle: logos, ethos, and pathos.
Logos , or the logical appeal, refers to the use of reasoned argument to persuade. This is the dominant approach in academic writing , where arguments are built up using reasoning and evidence.
Ethos , or the ethical appeal, involves the author presenting themselves as an authority on their subject. For example, someone making a moral argument might highlight their own morally admirable behavior; someone speaking about a technical subject might present themselves as an expert by mentioning their qualifications.
Pathos , or the pathetic appeal, evokes the audience’s emotions. This might involve speaking in a passionate way, employing vivid imagery, or trying to provoke anger, sympathy, or any other emotional response in the audience.
These three appeals are all treated as integral parts of rhetoric, and a given author may combine all three of them to convince their audience.
In rhetoric, a text is not necessarily a piece of writing (though it may be this). A text is whatever piece of communication you are analyzing. This could be, for example, a speech, an advertisement, or a satirical image.
In these cases, your analysis would focus on more than just language—you might look at visual or sonic elements of the text too.
The context is everything surrounding the text: Who is the author (or speaker, designer, etc.)? Who is their (intended or actual) audience? When and where was the text produced, and for what purpose?
Looking at the context can help to inform your rhetorical analysis. For example, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech has universal power, but the context of the civil rights movement is an important part of understanding why.
A piece of rhetoric is always making some sort of argument, whether it’s a very clearly defined and logical one (e.g. in a philosophy essay) or one that the reader has to infer (e.g. in a satirical article). These arguments are built up with claims, supports, and warrants.
A claim is the fact or idea the author wants to convince the reader of. An argument might center on a single claim, or be built up out of many. Claims are usually explicitly stated, but they may also just be implied in some kinds of text.
The author uses supports to back up each claim they make. These might range from hard evidence to emotional appeals—anything that is used to convince the reader to accept a claim.
The warrant is the logic or assumption that connects a support with a claim. Outside of quite formal argumentation, the warrant is often unstated—the author assumes their audience will understand the connection without it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still explore the implicit warrant in these cases.
For example, look at the following statement:
We can see a claim and a support here, but the warrant is implicit. Here, the warrant is the assumption that more likeable candidates would have inspired greater turnout. We might be more or less convinced by the argument depending on whether we think this is a fair assumption.
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Rhetorical analysis isn’t a matter of choosing concepts in advance and applying them to a text. Instead, it starts with looking at the text in detail and asking the appropriate questions about how it works:
By asking these questions, you’ll discover the various rhetorical devices the text uses. Don’t feel that you have to cram in every rhetorical term you know—focus on those that are most important to the text.
The following sections show how to write the different parts of a rhetorical analysis.
Like all essays, a rhetorical analysis begins with an introduction . The introduction tells readers what text you’ll be discussing, provides relevant background information, and presents your thesis statement .
Hover over different parts of the example below to see how an introduction works.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech is widely regarded as one of the most important pieces of oratory in American history. Delivered in 1963 to thousands of civil rights activists outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the speech has come to symbolize the spirit of the civil rights movement and even to function as a major part of the American national myth. This rhetorical analysis argues that King’s assumption of the prophetic voice, amplified by the historic size of his audience, creates a powerful sense of ethos that has retained its inspirational power over the years.
The body of your rhetorical analysis is where you’ll tackle the text directly. It’s often divided into three paragraphs, although it may be more in a longer essay.
Each paragraph should focus on a different element of the text, and they should all contribute to your overall argument for your thesis statement.
Hover over the example to explore how a typical body paragraph is constructed.
King’s speech is infused with prophetic language throughout. Even before the famous “dream” part of the speech, King’s language consistently strikes a prophetic tone. He refers to the Lincoln Memorial as a “hallowed spot” and speaks of rising “from the dark and desolate valley of segregation” to “make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” The assumption of this prophetic voice constitutes the text’s strongest ethical appeal; after linking himself with political figures like Lincoln and the Founding Fathers, King’s ethos adopts a distinctly religious tone, recalling Biblical prophets and preachers of change from across history. This adds significant force to his words; standing before an audience of hundreds of thousands, he states not just what the future should be, but what it will be: “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” This warning is almost apocalyptic in tone, though it concludes with the positive image of the “bright day of justice.” The power of King’s rhetoric thus stems not only from the pathos of his vision of a brighter future, but from the ethos of the prophetic voice he adopts in expressing this vision.
The conclusion of a rhetorical analysis wraps up the essay by restating the main argument and showing how it has been developed by your analysis. It may also try to link the text, and your analysis of it, with broader concerns.
Explore the example below to get a sense of the conclusion.
It is clear from this analysis that the effectiveness of King’s rhetoric stems less from the pathetic appeal of his utopian “dream” than it does from the ethos he carefully constructs to give force to his statements. By framing contemporary upheavals as part of a prophecy whose fulfillment will result in the better future he imagines, King ensures not only the effectiveness of his words in the moment but their continuing resonance today. Even if we have not yet achieved King’s dream, we cannot deny the role his words played in setting us on the path toward it.
If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!
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The goal of a rhetorical analysis is to explain the effect a piece of writing or oratory has on its audience, how successful it is, and the devices and appeals it uses to achieve its goals.
Unlike a standard argumentative essay , it’s less about taking a position on the arguments presented, and more about exploring how they are constructed.
The term “text” in a rhetorical analysis essay refers to whatever object you’re analyzing. It’s frequently a piece of writing or a speech, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, you could also treat an advertisement or political cartoon as a text.
Logos appeals to the audience’s reason, building up logical arguments . Ethos appeals to the speaker’s status or authority, making the audience more likely to trust them. Pathos appeals to the emotions, trying to make the audience feel angry or sympathetic, for example.
Collectively, these three appeals are sometimes called the rhetorical triangle . They are central to rhetorical analysis , though a piece of rhetoric might not necessarily use all of them.
In rhetorical analysis , a claim is something the author wants the audience to believe. A support is the evidence or appeal they use to convince the reader to believe the claim. A warrant is the (often implicit) assumption that links the support with the claim.
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Writing an analytical essay can be tough for students. It requires a deep understanding of the topic and the ability to break it down into smaller parts. This can cause stress, lower grades, and frustration among students.
But don't worry! We have a solution for you. In this blog, we'll give you great analytical examples and simple tips for writing amazing analytical essays.
Ready to tackle the analytical essay? Let's get started!
An analytical essay is a type of academic writing that looks into a specific subject, dissecting it into its various components and examining how they interrelate.
It requires the writer to not only present a clear understanding of the topic but also to analyze and evaluate it critically.
Unlike a descriptive essay , an analytical essay demands a more in-depth exploration, often involving an argument or thesis statement that guides the critical analysis.
To truly understand the art of analytical essay writing, one of the most effective methods is to examine practical examples.
Analytical essay examples provide a clear blueprint of how to approach this type of essay successfully. So, read the examples below to find inspiration for writing a clear analytical essay.
Here are some analytical essay examples for students in PDF form that you can read and download for free:
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Analytical Essay Examples For High School
Short Analytical Essay Example
If you are still having difficulty, here are some more examples of analytical essays to help you get inspired.
How To Write An Analytical Essay - Example
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When tackling an analytical essay create an outline that is well structured. This outline serves as a roadmap, guiding you through the essay-writing process. The proper structure ensures you don't miss vital elements.
Let's break down the essential sections of an analytical essay outline with examples:
In the introduction , your aim is to set the stage for your analysis. This section should introduce the topic, provide context, and present a clear thesis statement that outlines the main argument or focus of your essay.
In George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984," the author paints a bleak picture of a totalitarian society where the government exerts complete control over its citizens' lives . Through the protagonist Winston Smith, Orwell explores themes of surveillance, manipulation, and the suppression of individuality . By analyzing Orwell's portrayal of technology, language, and power dynamics, this essay will look into the ways in which the Party maintains its grip on society. Furthermore, it will examine the implications of such control on personal freedom and the human psyche. Through a close examination of key passages and literary devices, this essay aims to shed light on Orwell's warning about the dangers of unchecked authoritarianism and the importance of safeguarding individual liberties . |
Let’s take a look at another thesis statement for an analytical essay example:
In Shakespeare's "Hamlet," the protagonist's tragic flaw of indecision, compounded by the complexities of revenge and morality, ultimately leads to his downfall. Through an analysis of Hamlet's soliloquies, interactions with other characters, and the play's themes, this essay will explore how Hamlet's internal conflict shapes the narrative and contributes to the overarching tragedy of the story. |
The body paragraphs of your analytical essay typically are where the real analysis takes place. This section can be divided into multiple paragraphs, each addressing a specific point or aspect related to your thesis.
Here, you should provide evidence, examples, and critical analysis to support your argument.
Orwell's depiction of surveillance in "1984" reveals its role in fostering fear and paranoia . The omnipresent telescreens and Thought Police monitor citizens' every move, symbolizing the Party's control . This surveillance extends to thought itself, exemplified by the concept of thoughtcrime, showcasing the Party's desire for absolute control .
Orwell highlights the Party's manipulation of language to control thought and erase individuality . Newspeak limits citizens' ability to express dissent, while doublethink perpetuates contradictory beliefs . Through Newspeak and doublethink, Orwell underscores language's power in perpetuating totalitarianism and suppressing resistance . |
As you reach the essay conclusion , it's time to tie it all together. Summarize your main points, restate your thesis statement, and underscore the importance of your analysis.
Remember, this is not the place to introduce new background information. Instead, offer insights and an impactful recap of your discoveries.
Conclusion for analytical essay example:
In conclusion, George Orwell's "1984" serves as a chilling warning about the dangers of unchecked government control and the erosion of individual freedoms. Through the lens of surveillance technology and linguistic manipulation, Orwell paints a dystopian world where conformity is enforced through fear and oppression. By examining the Party's use of surveillance to monitor citizens' every move and manipulate language to control thought, it becomes clear that Orwell's message transcends time and remains relevant in today's society. The novel underscores the importance of safeguarding personal liberties and remaining vigilant against encroachments on individual autonomy. In an era marked by technological advancements and growing concerns about privacy, Orwell's cautionary tale serves as a poignant reminder of the enduring struggle for freedom in the face of tyranny. |
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Choosing the right type of essay topic is an important first step when writing an analytical essay. The topic you select should be engaging, relevant, and suitable for in-depth analysis.
Here are some thought-provoking analytical essay topics to consider:
Are you still having trouble coming up with a good analytical essay topic? Check out this blog for more than 150 compelling analytical essay topics .
Writing an effective analytical essay requires a structured approach and attention to detail. Here are some valuable tips to help you craft a compelling analytical essay:
In conclusion, the analytical essay stands as a potent tool for honing your skills and conveying your understanding of complex subjects.
Through this guide, we've explored the essence of analytical essays and the essential steps to compose a compelling piece.
If you are assigned to write an analytical essay, take help from the above-mentioned examples. Another option is to get assistance from a professional analytical essay writer.
The top analytical essay writing service at MyPerfectWords.com can assist you and provide customized written essays and papers for every academic level. We offer the best essay writing service.
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What is an example of an analytical sentence.
A concise example of an analytical sentence is: In "To Kill a Mockingbird," Harper Lee uses the character of Atticus Finch to explore themes of morality and justice in the face of racial prejudice.
Here is an example of analysis: Through Atticus Finch's unwavering commitment to defending Tom Robinson, despite facing societal backlash, Lee highlights the importance of integrity and standing up for what is right, even in the face of adversity.
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Analysis essay generator.
There are still a lot of things that man has yet to discover. We still have not reached the core of the earth nor the depths of the oceans and we are still on the process of exploration. The human mind is capable of understanding any complex task or idea.
In the quest of knowledge and information, we need to incorporate different strategies. That is why even in writing, we have to discover new styles and processes of expressing or telling a narrative. Essay writing is just one of the many tools that a writer uses in order to convey his/her thoughts and opinions.
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An analysis essay is an article or a writing piece that involves the use of evaluation of an idea, an object, or an opinion. It involves a detailed assessment plan of a complex subject and break it down into smaller and simpler ideas in order to present its true meaning or essence.
In its true form, writing an analysis essay requires keen observation of the subject as well as unbiased judgment when presenting an idea. It avoids providing conclusions for essays or statements that may come from personal opinion or unformulated reasoning making this piece of literature helpful in presenting factual data and impartial inferences.
There are two forms of an essay, one is formal and the other is informal. The former takes a standard structure while the latter is considered free essay writing where a writer can express or use any method as he/she pleases. While, for an analysis essay, it has to take the formal pattern. It should consist of an introduction, the body, and the conclusion or summary.
In addition to these three basic parts of an essay , you also need to make a title. It should be one that should follow or embody the whole point of your analysis as well as to give a preview of what it is all about.
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There are many guidelines on how to write an effective essay, especially what that will present a detailed idea or interpretation of a more complex topic.
Essay writing is a more common task that you see in schools. Students are often complaining when they are asked to write one especially an analysis essay. However, what we should understand is that writing an analysis essay has a lot of benefits that we might not be aware of.
First, you become better in writing effective essays . You will be exposed to a lot of thinking which is very important when you write.
The second one is it makes you a critical thinker. You become attentive to anything that crosses your path while at the same time being cautious of it. This attitude helps you in better decision-making.
Text prompt
Analyze in an analysis essay the themes of freedom and confinement in "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Discuss in an analysis essay the portrayal of technology in dystopian literature
When you’re writing an interpretive essay, you definitely want to identify the author’s methods. What tone did the author use? What were the major characters? What was the main event? The plot of the story? Where was the setting? All of those things are important, but it’s not the only thing you want to do. This is only step 1. Step 2 is to evaluate and analyze the author’s methods. If you only identify them, you’re only going so far.
To have an effective interpretive essay, you want to evaluate the methods the author used instead of simply identifying them. One thing to keep in mind when you’re doing this is that there is a certain ambiguity in most literary works. This is the presence of multiple, somewhat inconsistent truths in a literary work. When you’re evaluating, you may say, “Oh, there was this good guy, but he made a bad decision. He did a bad thing.” You have to maybe come to a judgment on that person. Do you think that they were a good person or a bad person? Were they bad because of the bad thing they did, or was it forgivable because overall they were a good person?
There is a lot of ambiguity and a lot of questions that come up in great literary works. That is because great literary works attempt to show life in all of its messy reality. It’s true; life is messy. Nothing is as cut and dry as it seems. You may see someone steal a loaf of bread and some peanut butter, but if they’re doing it because they’re bringing it home to their five small children because they’ve been laid off, then it’s harder to judge them for stealing the bread and peanut butter.
Keep in mind ambiguity whenever you’re coming up with your interpretation of literary works. A lot of literary works are going to pose more questions than answers. That’s good. They make you think. They don’t just tell you the answers; you’re left wondering, “I wonder what the author meant by that,” or “Was it really bad of this person to do that, or was it okay because of the situation? How do you feel about that?” Works that make you ask yourself questions like that tend to be the great literary works.
Whenever you are writing your interpretive essay, you want to respond to the likely questions of readers. If it’s a question you had, then it’s likely that other readers have the same question. They’ll be interested in your essay, because it’s going to answer or give a possible answer to one of the same questions that they had. One of the best ways to make your interpretive essay effective is to let other people read your early drafts. This may be hard, especially if you’re a shy or self-conscious writer, but you’re hopefully showing your writing to someone that you trust. That is, someone that’s going to give you not always positive but at least helpful criticism.
One thing you should do is work their questions in. If they ask you, “Well, why did you say this?” or “I really thought the characters seemed this way. How did you get to this idea?” Work those questions in, because if your early readers are having those questions, your same readers reading the final draft are going to have those kinds of questions. Does your argument hold up? If you argued that someone was a good person, despite the bad thing they did, you have to make sure you put enough defense in there for your argument to hold up. Is the thesis statement effective? If you put in a thesis statement about honesty being the best policy always, then it’s going to be hard for you to write about how sometimes it’s alright to bend the rules.
You need to make sure that your interpretation is going to support your thesis statement. You may need to rewrite the thesis statement if you find that the rest of your paper doesn’t support your original one. This is one of the harder ones. Don’t get defensive if your readers are telling you things that you need to fix or change, or that they don’t like. You might be apt to get defensive, but, remember, they are people you trust. They’re your friends, and they’re telling you these things to help you, not to be mean. Another way to help yourself not be defensive and maybe edit your own paper is to try to view it as a reader.
Try to be detached and not view your paper as the author, but as someone reading something that they found in the newspaper, not necessarily something that you wrote. Then, it may be easier for you to be objective about what you need to change. The last, but very important, step here is to remember that early drafts are meant to be improved upon. It’s a draft for a reason. No one’s going to write a perfect paper the first time they write something down. There’s going to be something they can add to make it better. There is going to be some grammatical error they need to fix. Remember, it’s a draft. It’s meant to be drafted more times, edited, and added to until you get that final copy that you are really proud of.
When you’re writing an interpretive essay, first identify the author’s methods, but, most importantly, go back and evaluate those methods and come up with your own interpretation of the text. Because you’re interpreting it one way, you have to remember that there is ambiguity. Other people may interpret things other ways. Make sure that you are responding to some likely questions, but you’re leaving room for other answers whenever you’re coming up with your interpretation.
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General Education
Do you need to write an analytical essay for school? What sets this kind of essay apart from other types, and what must you include when you write your own analytical essay? In this guide, we break down the process of writing an analytical essay by explaining the key factors your essay needs to have, providing you with an outline to help you structure your essay, and analyzing a complete analytical essay example so you can see what a finished essay looks like.
Before you begin writing an analytical essay, you must know what this type of essay is and what it includes. Analytical essays analyze something, often (but not always) a piece of writing or a film.
An analytical essay is more than just a synopsis of the issue though; in this type of essay you need to go beyond surface-level analysis and look at what the key arguments/points of this issue are and why. If you’re writing an analytical essay about a piece of writing, you’ll look into how the text was written and why the author chose to write it that way. Instead of summarizing, an analytical essay typically takes a narrower focus and looks at areas such as major themes in the work, how the author constructed and supported their argument, how the essay used literary devices to enhance its messages, etc.
While you certainly want people to agree with what you’ve written, unlike with persuasive and argumentative essays, your main purpose when writing an analytical essay isn’t to try to convert readers to your side of the issue. Therefore, you won’t be using strong persuasive language like you would in those essay types. Rather, your goal is to have enough analysis and examples that the strength of your argument is clear to readers.
Besides typical essay components like an introduction and conclusion, a good analytical essay will include:
In the rest of this article, we’ll explain how to include each of these in your analytical essay.
Analytical essays are structured similarly to many other essays you’ve written, with an introduction (including a thesis), several body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Below is an outline you can follow when structuring your essay, and in the next section we go into more detail on how to write an analytical essay.
Your introduction will begin with some sort of attention-grabbing sentence to get your audience interested, then you’ll give a few sentences setting up the topic so that readers have some context, and you’ll end with your thesis statement. Your introduction will include:
Your analytical essay will typically have three or four body paragraphs, each covering a different point of analysis. Begin each body paragraph with a sentence that sets up the main point you’ll be discussing. Then you’ll give some analysis on that point, backing it up with evidence to support your claim. Continue analyzing and giving evidence for your analysis until you’re out of strong points for the topic. At the end of each body paragraph, you may choose to have a transition sentence that sets up what the next paragraph will be about, but this isn’t required. Body paragraphs will include:
You won’t be making any new points in your conclusion; at this point you’re just reiterating key points you’ve already made and wrapping things up. Begin by rephrasing your thesis and summarizing the main points you made in the essay. Someone who reads just your conclusion should be able to come away with a basic idea of what your essay was about and how it was structured. After this, you may choose to make some final concluding thoughts, potentially by connecting your essay topic to larger issues to show why it’s important. A conclusion will include:
Follow these five tips to break down writing an analytical essay into manageable steps. By the end, you’ll have a fully-crafted analytical essay with both in-depth analysis and enough evidence to support your argument. All of these steps use the completed analytical essay in the next section as an example.
You may have already had a topic assigned to you, and if that’s the case, you can skip this step. However, if you haven’t, or if the topic you’ve been assigned is broad enough that you still need to narrow it down, then you’ll need to decide on a topic for yourself. Choosing the right topic can mean the difference between an analytical essay that’s easy to research (and gets you a good grade) and one that takes hours just to find a few decent points to analyze
Before you decide on an analytical essay topic, do a bit of research to make sure you have enough examples to support your analysis. If you choose a topic that’s too narrow, you’ll struggle to find enough to write about.
For example, say your teacher assigns you to write an analytical essay about the theme in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath of exposing injustices against migrants. For it to be an analytical essay, you can’t just recount the injustices characters in the book faced; that’s only a summary and doesn’t include analysis. You need to choose a topic that allows you to analyze the theme. One of the best ways to explore a theme is to analyze how the author made his/her argument. One example here is that Steinbeck used literary devices in the intercalary chapters (short chapters that didn’t relate to the plot or contain the main characters of the book) to show what life was like for migrants as a whole during the Dust Bowl.
You could write about how Steinbeck used literary devices throughout the whole book, but, in the essay below, I chose to just focus on the intercalary chapters since they gave me enough examples. Having a narrower focus will nearly always result in a tighter and more convincing essay (and can make compiling examples less overwhelming).
Your thesis statement is the most important sentence of your essay; a reader should be able to read just your thesis and understand what the entire essay is about and what you’ll be analyzing. When you begin writing, remember that each sentence in your analytical essay should relate back to your thesis
In the analytical essay example below, the thesis is the final sentence of the first paragraph (the traditional spot for it). The thesis is: “In The Grapes of Wrath’s intercalary chapters, John Steinbeck employs a variety of literary devices and stylistic choices to better expose the injustices committed against migrants in the 1930s.” So what will this essay analyze? How Steinbeck used literary devices in the intercalary chapters to show how rough migrants could have it. Crystal clear.
This is where you determine the bulk of your analysis--the information that makes your essay an analytical essay. My preferred method is to list every idea that I can think of, then research each of those and use the three or four strongest ones for your essay. Weaker points may be those that don’t relate back to the thesis, that you don’t have much analysis to discuss, or that you can’t find good examples for. A good rule of thumb is to have one body paragraph per main point
This essay has four main points, each of which analyzes a different literary device Steinbeck uses to better illustrate how difficult life was for migrants during the Dust Bowl. The four literary devices and their impact on the book are:
Now that you have your main points, you need to back them up. If you’re writing a paper about a text or film, use passages/clips from it as your main source of evidence. If you’re writing about something else, your evidence can come from a variety of sources, such as surveys, experiments, quotes from knowledgeable sources etc. Any evidence that would work for a regular research paper works here.
In this example, I quoted multiple passages from The Grapes of Wrath in each paragraph to support my argument. You should be able to back up every claim you make with evidence in order to have a strong essay.
Now it's time to begin writing your essay, if you haven’t already. Create an introductory paragraph that ends with the thesis, make a body paragraph for each of your main points, including both analysis and evidence to back up your claims, and wrap it all up with a conclusion that recaps your thesis and main points and potentially explains the big picture importance of the topic.
So that you can see for yourself what a completed analytical essay looks like, here’s an essay I wrote back in my high school days. It’s followed by analysis of how I structured my essay, what its strengths are, and how it could be improved.
One way Steinbeck illustrates the connections all migrant people possessed and the struggles they faced is by refraining from using specific titles and names in his intercalary chapters. While The Grapes of Wrath focuses on the Joad family, the intercalary chapters show that all migrants share the same struggles and triumphs as the Joads. No individual names are used in these chapters; instead the people are referred to as part of a group. Steinbeck writes, “Frantic men pounded on the doors of the doctors; and the doctors were busy. And sad men left word at country stores for the coroner to send a car,” (555). By using generic terms, Steinbeck shows how the migrants are all linked because they have gone through the same experiences. The grievances committed against one family were committed against thousands of other families; the abuse extends far beyond what the Joads experienced. The Grapes of Wrath frequently refers to the importance of coming together; how, when people connect with others their power and influence multiplies immensely. Throughout the novel, the goal of the migrants, the key to their triumph, has been to unite. While their plans are repeatedly frustrated by the government and police, Steinbeck’s intercalary chapters provide a way for the migrants to relate to one another because they have encountered the same experiences. Hundreds of thousands of migrants fled to the promised land of California, but Steinbeck was aware that numbers alone were impersonal and lacked the passion he desired to spread. Steinbeck created the intercalary chapters to show the massive numbers of people suffering, and he created the Joad family to evoke compassion from readers. Because readers come to sympathize with the Joads, they become more sensitive to the struggles of migrants in general. However, John Steinbeck frequently made clear that the Joads were not an isolated incident; they were not unique. Their struggles and triumphs were part of something greater. Refraining from specific names in his intercalary chapters allows Steinbeck to show the vastness of the atrocities committed against migrants.
Steinbeck also creates significant parallels to the Bible in his intercalary chapters in order to enhance his writing and characters. By using simple sentences and stylized writing, Steinbeck evokes Biblical passages. The migrants despair, “No work till spring. No work,” (556). Short, direct sentences help to better convey the desperateness of the migrants’ situation. Throughout his novel, John Steinbeck makes connections to the Bible through his characters and storyline. Jim Casy’s allusions to Christ and the cycle of drought and flooding are clear biblical references. By choosing to relate The Grapes of Wrath to the Bible, Steinbeck’s characters become greater than themselves. Starving migrants become more than destitute vagrants; they are now the chosen people escaping to the promised land. When a forgotten man dies alone and unnoticed, it becomes a tragedy. Steinbeck writes, “If [the migrants] were shot at, they did not run, but splashed sullenly away; and if they were hit, they sank tiredly in the mud,” (556). Injustices committed against the migrants become greater because they are seen as children of God through Steinbeck’s choice of language. Referencing the Bible strengthens Steinbeck’s novel and purpose: to create understanding for the dispossessed. It is easy for people to feel disdain for shabby vagabonds, but connecting them to such a fundamental aspect of Christianity induces sympathy from readers who might have otherwise disregarded the migrants as so many other people did.
The simple, uneducated dialogue Steinbeck employs also helps to create a more honest and meaningful representation of the migrants, and it makes the migrants more relatable to readers. Steinbeck chooses to accurately represent the language of the migrants in order to more clearly illustrate their lives and make them seem more like real paper than just characters in a book. The migrants lament, “They ain’t gonna be no kinda work for three months,” (555). There are multiple grammatical errors in that single sentence, but it vividly conveys the despair the migrants felt better than a technically perfect sentence would. The Grapes of Wrath is intended to show the severe difficulties facing the migrants so Steinbeck employs a clear, pragmatic style of writing. Steinbeck shows the harsh, truthful realities of the migrants’ lives and he would be hypocritical if he chose to give the migrants a more refined voice and not portray them with all their shortcomings. The depiction of the migrants as imperfect through their language also makes them easier to relate to. Steinbeck’s primary audience was the middle class, the less affluent of society. Repeatedly in The Grapes of Wrath , the wealthy make it obvious that they scorn the plight of the migrants. The wealthy, not bad luck or natural disasters, were the prominent cause of the suffering of migrant families such as the Joads. Thus, Steinbeck turns to the less prosperous for support in his novel. When referring to the superior living conditions barnyard animals have, the migrants remark, “Them’s horses-we’re men,” (556). The perfect simplicity of this quote expresses the absurdness of the migrants’ situation better than any flowery expression could.
In The Grapes of Wrath , John Steinbeck uses metaphors, particularly about nature, in order to illustrate the mood and the overall plight of migrants. Throughout most of the book, the land is described as dusty, barren, and dead. Towards the end, however; floods come and the landscape begins to change. At the end of chapter twenty-nine, Steinbeck describes a hill after the floods saying, “Tiny points of grass came through the earth, and in a few days the hills were pale green with the beginning year,” (556). This description offers a stark contrast from the earlier passages which were filled with despair and destruction. Steinbeck’s tone from the beginning of the chapter changes drastically. Early in the chapter, Steinbeck had used heavy imagery in order to convey the destruction caused by the rain, “The streams and the little rivers edged up to the bank sides and worked at willows and tree roots, bent the willows deep in the current, cut out the roots of cottonwoods and brought down the trees,” (553). However, at the end of the chapter the rain has caused new life to grow in California. The new grass becomes a metaphor representing hope. When the migrants are at a loss over how they will survive the winter, the grass offers reassurance. The story of the migrants in the intercalary chapters parallels that of the Joads. At the end of the novel, the family is breaking apart and has been forced to flee their home. However, both the book and final intercalary chapter end on a hopeful note after so much suffering has occurred. The grass metaphor strengthens Steinbeck’s message because it offers a tangible example of hope. Through his language Steinbeck’s themes become apparent at the end of the novel. Steinbeck affirms that persistence, even when problems appear insurmountable, leads to success. These metaphors help to strengthen Steinbeck’s themes in The Grapes of Wrath because they provide a more memorable way to recall important messages.
John Steinbeck’s language choices help to intensify his writing in his intercalary chapters and allow him to more clearly show how difficult life for migrants could be. Refraining from using specific names and terms allows Steinbeck to show that many thousands of migrants suffered through the same wrongs. Imitating the style of the Bible strengthens Steinbeck’s characters and connects them to the Bible, perhaps the most famous book in history. When Steinbeck writes in the imperfect dialogue of the migrants, he creates a more accurate portrayal and makes the migrants easier to relate to for a less affluent audience. Metaphors, particularly relating to nature, strengthen the themes in The Grapes of Wrath by enhancing the mood Steinbeck wants readers to feel at different points in the book. Overall, the intercalary chapters that Steinbeck includes improve his novel by making it more memorable and reinforcing the themes Steinbeck embraces throughout the novel. Exemplary stylistic devices further persuade readers of John Steinbeck’s personal beliefs. Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath to bring to light cruelties against migrants, and by using literary devices effectively, he continuously reminds readers of his purpose. Steinbeck’s impressive language choices in his intercalary chapters advance the entire novel and help to create a classic work of literature that people still are able to relate to today.
This essay sticks pretty closely to the standard analytical essay outline. It starts with an introduction, where I chose to use a quote to start off the essay. (This became my favorite way to start essays in high school because, if I wasn’t sure what to say, I could outsource the work and find a quote that related to what I’d be writing about.) The quote in this essay doesn’t relate to the themes I’m discussing quite as much as it could, but it’s still a slightly different way to start an essay and can intrigue readers. I then give a bit of background on The Grapes of Wrath and its themes before ending the intro paragraph with my thesis: that Steinbeck used literary devices in intercalary chapters to show how rough migrants had it.
Each of my four body paragraphs is formatted in roughly the same way: an intro sentence that explains what I’ll be discussing, analysis of that main point, and at least two quotes from the book as evidence.
My conclusion restates my thesis, summarizes each of four points I discussed in my body paragraphs, and ends the essay by briefly discussing how Steinbeck’s writing helped introduce a world of readers to the injustices migrants experienced during the dust bowl.
What does this analytical essay example do well? For starters, it contains everything that a strong analytical essay should, and it makes that easy to find. The thesis clearly lays out what the essay will be about, the first sentence of each of the body paragraph introduces the topic it’ll cover, and the conclusion neatly recaps all the main points. Within each of the body paragraphs, there’s analysis along with multiple excerpts from the book in order to add legitimacy to my points.
Additionally, the essay does a good job of taking an in-depth look at the issue introduced in the thesis. Four ways Steinbeck used literary devices are discussed, and for each of the examples are given and analysis is provided so readers can understand why Steinbeck included those devices and how they helped shaped how readers viewed migrants and their plight.
Where could this essay be improved? I believe the weakest body paragraph is the third one, the one that discusses how Steinbeck used plain, grammatically incorrect language to both accurately depict the migrants and make them more relatable to readers. The paragraph tries to touch on both of those reasons and ends up being somewhat unfocused as a result. It would have been better for it to focus on just one of those reasons (likely how it made the migrants more relatable) in order to be clearer and more effective. It’s a good example of how adding more ideas to an essay often doesn’t make it better if they don’t work with the rest of what you’re writing. This essay also could explain the excerpts that are included more and how they relate to the points being made. Sometimes they’re just dropped in the essay with the expectation that the readers will make the connection between the example and the analysis. This is perhaps especially true in the second body paragraph, the one that discusses similarities to Biblical passages. Additional analysis of the quotes would have strengthened it.
What is an analytical essay? A critical analytical essay analyzes a topic, often a text or film. The analysis paper uses evidence to support the argument, such as excerpts from the piece of writing. All analytical papers include a thesis, analysis of the topic, and evidence to support that analysis.
When developing an analytical essay outline and writing your essay, follow these five steps:
Reading analytical essay examples can also give you a better sense of how to structure your essay and what to include in it.
Learning about different writing styles in school? There are four main writing styles, and it's important to understand each of them. Learn about them in our guide to writing styles , complete with examples.
Writing a research paper for school but not sure what to write about? Our guide to research paper topics has over 100 topics in ten categories so you can be sure to find the perfect topic for you.
Literary devices can both be used to enhance your writing and communication. Check out this list of 31 literary devices to learn more !
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An essay is one of the most common types of tasks assigned to students in high school and college. If you are wondering why instructors give you this writing project once you’ve just finished with a previous one, keep reading the article!
Why interpretive essays are assigned so often? First of all, such tasks reflect your thinking, so teachers can see whether you understand key concepts and theories in their discipline. In fact, it’s impossible to fake your knowledge with random information because experienced instructors can easily notice it. Secondly, essays are considered better assessment tools than tests.
Why so? Probably, because it’s impossible to guess answers or find clues. Also, essays demonstrate a wide set of skills you’ve gained in class. Alongside your understanding of a certain discipline, an essay paper indicates how you can make research, organize your thoughts, and provide arguments.
An interpretive essay is a type of writing often required in subjects like English, history, literature, philosophy, and religion. In this essay, you are expected to critically think about a topic and then present your ideas to readers in a way that can be either objective or subjective, depending on the assignment’s requirements.
If you are looking for the most comprehensive interpretive essay definition, here it is: an interpretive essay is a piece of writing that identifies, evaluates, and analyzes the methods used by the author in a particular work. The interpretation answers the questions like ‘What were the main characters and events?’, ‘What tone was used by the author?’, ‘Where was the setting?’, and so on.
An interpretive essay is a piece of writing that identifies, evaluates, and analyzes the methods used by the author in a particular work.
The key focus of an interpretive essay is on your personal feelings, analysis, and presentation of a subject. It involves making a case for your ideas, aiming to be informative and persuasive, while also keeping the writing interesting. This form of writing is distinctly personal, reflecting your views, arguments, and subjective opinions.
This type of assignment allows you to provide any opinion about a piece of writing as long as you can support it. In fact, there is no “right or wrong” answer because it’s all about explaining your thoughts about the piece. An interpretive essay requires profound knowledge and genuine interest in the writing piece you’ve chosen. You also need to make thorough research of the subject to provide a defendable interpretation and build it logically.
The effectiveness of an interpretive essay depends on how well you can persuade and critically engage with the subject, which is influenced by the specific guidelines of the assignment. Understanding the purpose of your writing and who your audience is plays a crucial role in crafting an effective interpretive essay. Additionally, it’s important to be aware of your instructor’s expectations and be familiar with different writing formats. If you’re ever uncertain, it’s advisable to ask questions and use available resources like a reading writing center.
Before you start writing an interpretive essay, read the poem, story, or novel chapter you were assigned a few times. While reading, highlight various literary elements like symbols, character descriptions, activities, settings, etc. Then write down those of them that you are going to interpret. Once you have a full list of literary elements to analyze, you can move to the introduction. Let’s consider in detail how to write it.
Start your introduction with a short summary of the piece. Write it in 3-4 sentences, so the reader can get familiar with the content. You shouldn’t give your opinion about it, just summarize the work. Don’t forget to mention the full title of the writing piece, the author’s name and the literary elements you will interpret in body paragraphs. Then come up with your thesis statement in one sentence.
The essay body is the part where you have to do your analysis by stating what you think the text is about. Note that your opinion must be supported with relevant examples, so add quotations and paraphrases to your arguments. If you provide some ideas about patterns, symbols and themes, make sure you can back up each of them.
Analyzing literary elements requires you to explain their meaning, compare them and contrast them with each other. Your teacher will also appreciate it if you apply a literary theory to each element. Basically, logical analysis with the right structure will definitely bring you the highest grade.
It’s really important to organize your paragraphs in order of the elements you are going to interpret. Start each of them with a statement to create the roadmap for your readers.
Generally, every paragraph must include a particular idea answering the questions like:
as well as supporting arguments and a clear takeaway message.
It would be great to pose implicit questions that engage the reader in reflection. They may sound like “Although the author doesn’t mention it, there is the reason to believe…”, “The idea is very ambiguous, and there’s room for dispute…”, etc.
In conclusion, you have to unify the main literary elements you have interpreted in your essay. In general, this part of your paper summarizes the main points of your analysis. Basically, it must explain how the interpreted piece of writing fits into the big picture of life or literature as well as how it added to your personal growth. You can also make it clear how your analysis could contribute to understanding the society or literature of people who read it.
📌 create a mind map.
One of the most powerful tools to organize your thoughts before writing itself is visualization. You can draw an essay map on paper or use a smartphone app for this purpose. When you see the whole picture of your ideas and the connections between them, it will be much easier to start writing your essay.
This action has a similar goal to the previous one, which is basically to guide you while writing. To make your paper properly structured, create a list of questions that must be necessarily answered in your essay. Then rearrange them in the best way possible and start answering one question in each paragraph.
If you check the best interpretive essay examples, you will notice that they have a rich vocabulary. To enhance the wording, use a thesaurus. It will help you to get rid of tautologies across the text, replace some words with more appropriate equivalents, and choose synonyms.
To spot imperfections and improve your essay, you should reread it after finishing your work. It would be better to read the text out loud, so you can better understand what thoughts may seem unclear or vague.
In short, an excellent paper provides a brief summary of the literary work in its introduction, gives a clear interpretation of the author’s message as well as includes details, quotes, and other evidence supporting your interpretation.
Interpretive writing can take various forms, including summaries, analyses, critiques, research papers, and essays. Each of these forms requires a unique approach but shares the common goal of presenting a thoughtful, well-reasoned interpretation of the subject matter.
So if you want to get the highest grade for your essay, make sure to add all the mentioned above to it. Although a solid interpretive essay requires much effort and time, it’s much easier to complete if you follow the tips given above.
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The following examples are essays where student writers focused on close-reading a literary work.
While reading these examples, ask yourself the following questions:
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 .
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 >.
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.
An analysis / analytical essay is a standard assignment in college or university. You might be asked to conduct an in-depth analysis of a research paper, a report, a movie, a company, a book, or an event. In this article, you’ll find out how to write an analysis paper introduction, thesis, main body, and conclusion, and analytical essay example.
So, what is an analytical essay? This type of assignment implies that you set up an argument and analyze it using a range of claims. The claims should be supported by appropriate empirical evidence. Note that you need to explore both the positive and negative sides of the issue fully.
Analytical skills are the key to getting through your academic career. Moreover, they can be useful in many real-life situations. Keep reading this article by Custom-writing experts to learn how to write an analysis!
Before you learn how to start an analysis essay, you should understand some fundamentals of writing this type of paper. It implies that you analyze an argument using a range of claims supported by facts . It is essential to understand that in your analysis essay, you’ll need to explore the negative sides of the issue and the positive ones. That’s what distinguishes an analytical essay from, say, a persuasive one.
These are the steps to write an academic paper :
You are usually assigned to analyze an article, a book, a movie, or an event. If you need to write your analytical essay on a book or an article, you’ll have to analyze the style of the text, its main points, and the author’s purported goals.
The key to writing an analysis paper is to choose an argument that you will defend throughout it. For example: maybe you are writing a critical analysis paper on George Orwell’s Animal Farm The first and imperative task is to think about your thesis statement. In the case of Animal Farm , the argument could be:
In Orwell’s Animal Farm , rhetoric and language prove to be more effective ways to keep social control than physical power.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill gives a great explanation of the thesis statement , how to create one, and what its function is.
But that’s not all. Once you have your thesis statement, you need to break down how you will approach your analysis essay to prove your thesis. To do this, follow these steps:
At this point, you should have a clear understanding of both the topic and your thesis statement. You should also have a clear direction for your analysis paper firmly planted in your mind and recorded in writing.
This will give you what you need to produce the paper’s outline.
An outline is the starting point for your work. A typical analytical essay features the usual essay structure. A 500-word essay should consist of a one-paragraph introduction, a three-paragraph body, and a one-paragraph conclusion. Find below a great analytical essay outline sample. Feel free to use it as an example when doing your own work!
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal”. Animal Farm abounds in ironic and provocative phrases to start an analytical essay.
In Animal Farm, Orwell uses different irony types to ridicule totalitarianism to manifest its inability to make every member of society equal and happy.
The analytical essay structure requires 2-3 developmental paragraphs, each dedicated to one separate idea confirming your thesis statement. The following template should be used for each of the body paragraphs.
Dramatic irony is used in Animal Farm to point out society’s ignorance.
Animals are unaware of the fact that Boxer was never sent to the hospital. He was sent to the slaughterhouse. However, the reader and writer understand that this is a lie.
By allowing the readers to learn some essential facts before the characters, dramatic irony creates suspense and shows how easy it is to persuade and manipulate the public.
The next four points will give you a short instruction on how to conclude an analytical essay.
Choosing a title seems like not a significant step, but it is actually very important. The title of your critical analysis paper should:
In the Animal Farm example, your title could be:
“How Do the Pigs Manage to Keep Social Control on Animal Farm?”
You must understand how to compose an introduction to an analysis paper. The University of Wollongong describes the introduction as a “map” of any writing. When writing the introduction, follow these steps:
Watch this great video for further instructions on how to write an introduction to an analysis essay.
“Four legs good, two legs bad” is one of the many postulates invented by George Orwell for his characters in Animal Farm to vest them with socialist ideology and control over the animal population. The social revolution on Manor Farm was built on language instruments, first for the collective success of the animals, and later for the power consolidation by the pigs. The novel was written in 1945 when the transition from limitless freedoms of socialist countries transformed into dictatorship. Through his animal protagonists, the author analyzes the reasons for peoples’ belief in the totalitarian regime. In Orwell’s Animal Farm , rhetoric and language prove to be more effective ways to keep social control than physical power.
The body of the paper may be compared to its heart. This is the part where you show off your talent for analysis by providing convincing, well-researched, and well-thought-out arguments to support your thesis statement. You have already gathered the information, and now all you may start crafting your paper.
To make the body of an analytical essay, keep the following in mind:
The bottom line is: you want to offer opposing views, but you must pose your arguments so they will counter those opposing views and prove your point of view. Follow these steps when constructing each body paragraph:
Literacy can grant power, provided that there are animals who cannot read or write. In the beginning, the animals’ literacy and intellect are relatively the same. Old Major is the cleverest pig; he is the kind old philosopher, like Karl Marx or Vladimir Lenin. During his retirement, he develops a theory that all humans are the root of evil. His speech was the foundation for the pigs’ assumption of power. They refined his ideas into a new ideology and called it Animalism. They also learned how to read. It allowed the pigs to declare themselves the “mind workers.” Therefore, the pigs’ literacy assured the illiterate animals in their objective superiority.
Meanwhile, as the pigs were the intellectual elite, they were not supposed to work, which raised their social status by itself. Snowball tried to promote education among all the animals, but most of them failed to master the alphabet. This is a metaphor for the general public being predominantly ignorant and easy to manipulate. At the same time, Boxer and other animals that spend most of the day in hard work merely have no time to develop their intellect. Thus, the pigs’ intention to build a school for pig children was highly efficient. Unequal access to education and unequal ability to express one’s thoughts in perspective reinforce the social divide, making the pigs smarter and more powerful and undermining other animals’ self-esteem.
At this point, the pigs resort to propaganda and rhetoric. Squealer uses his oratorical gift to refine the pigs’ message to the other animals. Upon Napoleon’s order, he breaks the Seven Commandments of farm governance. At night, he climbs the ladder to change them, and once even falls from the ladder trying to change the commandment on alcohol. The “proletarian” animals soon forget what the Seven Commandments were like in the first place and are unsure if they have ever been altered. Further on, Minimus writes a poem praising Napoleon. Finally, Squealer replaces the Commandments with a single assertion: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Language is no longer used to convince. It is used to control and manipulate.
The conclusion is short and sweet. It summarizes everything you just wrote in the essay and wraps it up with a beautiful shiny bow. Follow these steps to write a convincing conclusion:
Because of everything mentioned above, it becomes clear that language and rhetoric can rise to power, establish authority, and manipulate ordinary people. Animal Farm is the simplified version of a communist society. It shows how wise philosophers’ good intentions can be used by mean leaders to gain unopposed power and unconditional trust. Unfortunately, this can lead to the death of many innocent animals, i.e., people, as totalitarianism has nothing to do with people’s rule. Therefore, language and oratory are potent tools that can keep people oppressed and weak, deprive them of any chance for improvement and growth, and make them think that there is no other possible existence.
Now you are ready to write an analysis essay! See, it’s easier than you thought.
Of course, it’s always helpful to see other analysis essay examples. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock provides some great examples of an analytical paper .
A great analytical paper should be well-structured, cohesive, and logically consistent. Each part of the essay should be in its place, creating a smooth and easy-to-read text. Most importantly, the statements should be objective and backed by arguments and examples.
It is a paper devoted to analyzing a certain topic or subject. An analysis essay is all about reviewing certain details of the subject and interpreting them. For example, such an analysis for a poem includes a description of artistic means that helped the poet convey the idea.
Writing an analytical essay on a book/movie/poem start with an outline. Point out what catches the eye when reviewing the subject. See how these details can be interpreted. Make sure that you refer to the main idea/message. Add an appropriate introduction and a logical conclusion.
Being more analytical in writing can be essential for a student. This is a skill that can be self-taught: try to start noticing subtle details and describe them. As you write, interpret the facts and strive to draw conclusions. Try to be as objective as possible.
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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The House on Mango Street — Character Analysis of Esperanza in The House On Mango Street
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Published: Aug 1, 2024
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Physical appearance and its influence, personality traits and their significance, implications and growth.
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The House on Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros, explores the concept of the American dream through the story of Esperanza Cordero, a young girl of Mexican descent. The novel follows Esperanza as she navigates her way [...]
A House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a poignant and powerful coming-of-age novel that delves into the experiences of a young Latina girl growing up in a working-class neighborhood in Chicago. The novel is a collection [...]
Sandra Cisneros' novel "The House on Mango Street" is a coming-of-age story that follows the experiences of a young Latina girl growing up in a poor neighborhood in Chicago. Throughout the novel, Cisneros employs vivid imagery [...]
Sandra Cisneros’ novel, The House on Mango Street, is a poignant coming-of-age story that follows the life of a young Latina girl named Esperanza Cordero as she navigates the complexities of growing up in a poor and marginalized [...]
In Sandra Cisneros’ work The House on Mango Street, young Esperanza must face the trials and tribulations that accompany growing up. This daunting task is made all the more difficult by society’s views of her race and gender. As [...]
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat, and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan all have one thing in common…food. Each novel from within the heart of their own history magnifies the important [...]
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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.
Heather Ringo & Athena Kashyap. City College of San Francisco via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative. Table of contents. Example 1: Poetry. Example 2: Fiction. Example 3: Poetry. Attribution. The following examples are essays where student writers focused on close-reading a literary work.
Attributions. Images and video created by Dr. Sandi Van Lieu and licensed under CC BY NC SA. Student essay example by Janelle Devin and used with permission. Previous: Sample Paper in MLA and APA. Next: YC Writing Resources.
Literary Analysis: Sample Essay. We turn once more to Joanna Wolfe's and Laura Wilder's Digging into Literature: Strategies for Reading, Writing, and Analysis (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2016) in order to show you their example of a strong student essay that has a strong central claim elucidated by multiple surface/depth arguments ...
Key Elements of an Interpretive Essay: Thesis: This is the main idea or interpretation that drives your essay.; Evidence: Use facts, quotes, and details from the source material to back up your thesis.; Interpretation: Add your own insights and perspectives to deepen the analysis.; Grasping these basics is crucial for crafting an essay that doesn't just analyze but also brings an engaging ...
Microsoft Word - Literary analysis.rtf. The purpose of a literary analysis essay is to carefully examine and sometimes evaluate a work of literature or an aspect of a work of literature. As with any analysis, this requires you to break the subject down into its component parts. Examining the different elements of a piece of literature is not an ...
Assignment Description: For this essay, you will choose a short story and write an analysis that offers an interpretation of the text. You should identify some debatable aspect of the text and argue for your interpretation using your analysis of the story supported by textual evidence. Content: The essay should have a clear argumentative thesis ...
Discover the allure of literature with our literary analysis essay examples. Uncover the hidden meanings, symbolisms, and develop your writing skills. Let's dive into these examples and master the art of literary analysis together! Literary analysis essays offer a critical examination of a literary work, exploring how various elements ...
1. A thoughtful thesis. Like any essay you write for class, you're going to want a thesis statement for your interpretive essay. A thesis usually consists of one, sometimes two sentences that tell the reader what you're going to write about. It clearly states your viewpoint and offers a summary of your supporting reasons for that viewpoint.
An analytical essay is a type of essay that involves looking at a subject of interest and explaining what it is saying. Whatever topic you choose, your writing better dissect, dissect, dissect.
Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Jun 7, 2021 • 3 min read. Analytical essays provide a way to share your insights about a work of literature, scientific study, or historical event. Explore. Articles. Sitemap. Gifts. About. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
A rhetorical analysis is a type of essay that looks at a text in terms of rhetoric. This means it is less concerned with what the author is saying than with how they say it: their goals, techniques, and appeals to the audience. A rhetorical analysis is structured similarly to other essays: an introduction presenting the thesis, a body analyzing ...
Let's take a look at another thesis statement for an analytical essay example: In Shakespeare's "Hamlet," the protagonist's tragic flaw of indecision, compounded by the complexities of revenge and morality, ultimately leads to his downfall. Through an analysis of Hamlet's soliloquies, interactions with other characters, and the play's themes ...
An analysis essay is an article or a writing piece that involves the use of evaluation of an idea, an object, or an opinion. It involves a detailed assessment plan of a complex subject and break it down into smaller and simpler ideas in order to present its true meaning or essence. In its true form, writing an analysis essay requires keen ...
All of those things are important, but it's not the only thing you want to do. This is only step 1. Step 2 is to evaluate and analyze the author's methods. If you only identify them, you're only going so far. To have an effective interpretive essay, you want to evaluate the methods the author used instead of simply identifying them.
The analysis paper uses evidence to support the argument, such as excerpts from the piece of writing. All analytical papers include a thesis, analysis of the topic, and evidence to support that analysis. When developing an analytical essay outline and writing your essay, follow these five steps: #1: Choose a topic. #2: Write your thesis.
Critical analysis of an article aims to analyze the writing strategies and techniques an author uses to develop their argument. The process is a little different than persuading the reader to accept a particular point of view. Here is a sample outline: Introduction. Introduce the author and the work under analysis.
The key focus of an interpretive essay is on your personal feelings, analysis, and presentation of a subject. It involves making a case for your ideas, aiming to be informative and persuasive, while also keeping the writing interesting. This form of writing is distinctly personal, reflecting your views, arguments, and subjective opinions.
Heather Ringo & Athena Kashyap. City College of San Francisco via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative. Table of contents. Example 1: Poetry. Example 2: Fiction. Example 3: Poetry. Attribution. The following examples are essays where student writers focused on close-reading a literary work.
A typical analytical essay features the usual essay structure. A 500-word essay should consist of a one-paragraph introduction, a three-paragraph body, and a one-paragraph conclusion. Find below a great analytical essay outline sample. Feel free to use it as an example when doing your own work! Analysis Essay: Introduction
Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Jun 7, 2021 • 3 min read. Critical analysis essays can be a daunting form of academic writing, but crafting a good critical analysis paper can be straightforward if you have the right approach. Explore.
What does Esperanza look like? This is a question that is often asked throughout the novel The House by author Sandra Cisneros. In this essay, we will analyze the character of Esperanza, delving into her physical appearance as well as her personality traits, and how these aspects contribute to her overall development and growth.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Test of Chivalry In the poem, Sir Gawain is presented with a series of tests that challenge his adherence to the code of chivalry. When the Green Knight arrives at King Arthur's court and issues a challenge, Sir Gawain steps forward to accept it, demonstrating his courage and sense of duty. However, the Green Knight's subsequent tests, including the exchange ...