Literary Analysis - by the road cormac mccarthy

Overview

It is now time to write the literary analysis of the novel that you have read. Hopefully you have kept notes while reading to make it easier to complete this assignment.

Please note that this is not a book review. Your own opinion of the story is not relevant to the assignment itself and you should not retell the whole story - only describe the parts that are relevant to your analysis.

Do not forget to add information about the publisher, year of publication and number of pages. If you have read an online book, add a link/URL.

Instructions

The analysis should consist of three parts: Main Character, Main Theme and Language. In each part you need to use quotes from the novel to base your analysis on.

Important: Quotes do not count towards the specified number of words in each part.

Part one: Main character (ca 300 words + quotes)

For the first part of the text, you should analyze the main character. Some novels have more than one main character; in that case you should pick one. Keep in mind that there is a difference between an analysis and a description. You should not simply describe the character, but discuss why you think the character acts the way they do.

 You should use two quotes which you think show important aspects of the character. This can be about the character's progression throughout the novel, certain traits (karaktärsdrag) that the character has, etc. Some questions you can ask yourself when reading:

- What is the main character like? How does the main character's personality impact the story?

- What is the main character's motivation?

- Does the main character change during the novel? If so, how and why?

- What role does the main character have in the story?

Part 2: Main Theme (ca 300 words + quotes)

The theme of a novel can be seen as the message the author wants to convey. Quite often the theme is not explicitly stated, so you have to read between the lines to figure out what the author wants to say. Keep in mind that the theme is not the same as the plot of the novel - for example, Harry Potter is about a teenage wizard, but that does not mean that "wizards" is a theme of the novel; one of the larger themes in Harry Potter would be "courage", because the novel discusses different kinds of courage, why it is important etc.

You should base your analysis on two quotes which support your interpretation of the novel. A novel usually has more than one theme, so for this analysis you should focus on what you consider to be the main theme. Some questions you can ask yourself when reading:

- What message do you think the author wanted to convey to the reader?

- Does the novel tell us something about the world or life in general? Is there a general lesson to be learned from the novel?

Part three: Language (ca 200 words + quotes)

Finally, you should discuss the language of the novel. Just like the first part, there is a difference between description and analysis; for example, if you think that the novel has simple language, you should then think about why the novel is written like that.

Use one quote to exemplify something you think is important or interesting about the language of the novel. This can be anything from the way dialogue is written to how descriptions are used, what kind of vocabulary is in the novel, or even the formatting of the novel (see the example text for a good example of this). Some questions to ask yourself when reading:

- How does the language of the novel impact the reading experience?

- Is there something characteristic or unique about the way the novel is written? If so, what?

- Why do you think the author wrote the novel like they did?

Quotes

If the quote is shorter than two lines use “…”, for example “When Anna saw the huge bear she was terrified”(page 32) If the quote is longer, make the text smaller and make an indentation:

When Anna saw the bear she was terrified. When she realised that it was moving towards her she didn’t know what to do. Should she run? No, she knew she wasn’t faster than a bear so that wouldn’t be of any use. Could she perhaps hit the bear on the nose and thereby surprise it? No, now she knew what to do, lie down in the moss and curl herself up as a ball and hope the bear would not harm her. (page 32)

Try to use short quotes that say a lot about what you want to analyse.

Example Analysis

Below, you will find an example analysis written by a teacher. It has been commented to point out things that you can think about when writing your own analysis.

Assessment

What your teacher focuses on while assessing this assignment is the following:

Reading comprehension:

* Has the student read and understood the instructions?

* Has the student read and understood the novel?

* Can the student find quotes which show what is important in the novel?

Written production:

* Can the student write a cohesive text which follows the instructions?

* Can the student express analytical thoughts?

You can find the criteria that this assignment aims to fulfill at the bottom of this page