Literary Analysis
Elizabeth Sapp
What is it?
Literary analysis is dissecting a story by breaking it down to further understand the character roles, the plot (main points of the story), the setting (where the story takes place), the conflict (what the issue the characters in the story are dealing with), and theme (the underlined meaning and overall purpose of the story or book).
When do you use it/ do it?
One would use literary analysis when wanting to dig deeper and further understand the literature piece. By breaking down the story and finding these devices, the reader can further understand the overall purpose.
How do you use it?
In order to use literary analysis, the reader has to read the whole literature piece then break down the story one by one. The reader can use textual evidence to support their ideas of what the character, plot, setting, conflict and theme could all be. **Note that not all answers are the same when multiple readers are conducting a literary analysis covering the same literature piece**