Literary Analysis On "The Story Of An Hour" By Kate Chopin
https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/webtexts/hour/
Your goal here is to use the thesis model you were given to analyze a piece of literature (any poem, short story, or our novel) for a commentary on society. You will prove in your essay that the text is communicating that commentary through literary terms that you found. Your paragraphs should use the CDW model that you were given with examples of literary terms from the text that you found as the core or "data" from the paragraphs. Your thesis statement could be outlined as follows:
I argue that ______name of text_______________ makes a commentary on society that _____________(commentary on society)_________________________________
because of its use of ___1st literary element______________, __________2nd literary element______________, and _____________________3rd literary element____________.
So, what you're doing is, essentially, proving your specific interpretation of the text through the literary elements you found. As an example, imagine me asking you, "how did the symbols you saw in the text lead you to believe that the text was making a commentary on the poor treatment of the mentally ill in society?"
Please define and provide an example for the following literary terms:
Allusion: reference(s) to outside literary text(s).
EX: biblical allusion
Diction: word choice
EX: using the word “battered” versus “beat-up”
Figure of Speech:
EX: hyperbole, metaphor, personification, simile, and understatement
Metaphor: a comparison of two things that does not use “like” or “as”
EX: My friend Trey is such a pig.
Simile: a comparison using “like” or “as”
EX: Her makeup was like Kim Kardashian’s.
Personification: to give human characteristics to non-living things
EX: The willow wept and waved in the wind as I walked away.
(^this is also ALLITERATION.)
Imagery: where a piece of text is invoking one or more of your 5 SENSES:
(hearing, taste, touch, smell, sight).
Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are near one
another in a sentence.
Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds in words that are next to one another in the sentence.
Onomatopoeia: BAM! Words that are sounds. SMACK!
Stanza: the “paragraphs” in the poem.
For a further guide on literary devices, please see the following website:
http://literary-devices.com/