Writing about literature offers several benefits. Weighing and recording your thought on the different elements sharpen your critical thinking ability. Literary papers also pay artistic dividends, as careful reading and subsequent writing deepen your appreciation of the writer’s craft. Focusing, gathering information, organizing, writing, revising, and editing—the old familiar trail leads to success here too.
8.1 The Elements of Literature
Most writing assignments on literature will probably feature one or more of the following elements: plot, point of view, character, setting, symbols, irony, and theme.
Depending on the work, some of these will be more important than others.
8.1.1 Plot
Plot is the series of events that moves a narrative along. The opening introduces important characters and sets the stage for what happens.
Action gradually builds to a climax, where events take a decisive turn. The ending can do a number of things—clear up unanswered questions, hint at the future, state a theme, or reestablish some sort of relationship between two foes.
Foreshadowing
The writer hints at later developments, thus creating interest and building suspense.
Flashback
The writer interrupts the flow of events to relate one or more happenings that occurred before the point at which the story opened, then resumes the narrative at or near the point of interruption. Flashbacks supply essential information and either create or resolve suspense.
Writing about Plot
- Don’t merely repeat what happens in the story. Instead, help your reader understand what’s special about the plot and how it functions. Does it build suspense, mirror a character’s confusion, shape a conflict, show how different lives can intersect, or help reveal a theme?
- Ask yourself why the writer chose that sequence and asses the reason for any use of foreshadowing of flashback. Does it build, create, or resolve suspense?
- If there’s something unique about the plot—perhaps a surprise event that works well—describe it and tell how it functions in the story.
- Present a thesis and then support it with examples taken from the text.
8.1.2 Point of View
The point of view is the vantage point from which the writer of a literary work views its events.
In first-person narration, someone in the work tells what happens and is identified by works like I, me, mine, and my. A third-person narrator stays completely out of the story and is never mentioned in any way.
With limited omniscience, one enters the heads o several characters, while still others display full omniscience and know everything in the literary work, including all thoughts and feelings of all characters.
- Writing about Point of View
- Ask yourself what point of view is used and why, whether it is suitable, and if the narrator is reliable.
8.1.3 Character
The characters in a literary work function in various ways. Some tell how they are, others are inferred by the way they act. Some characters remain static; others mature, gain insight, or deteriorate in some telling way.
Writing about Character
Show any changes and interactions of the most important and lesser characters and how they got to that point.
8.1.4 Setting
Setting locates characters in a time, place, and culture so they can think, feel, and act against this background. Writers can generate feelings and moods by describing settings. Settings can also help reveal a character’s personality.
Settings sometimes function as symbols, reinforcing the workings of the other elements. At times, setting provides a clue to some observation about life. Shifts in setting often trigger shifts in a character’s emotional or psychological state.
- Writing about Setting
- Write about its key features, what it accomplishes, and in what ways it supports or interferes.
8.1.5 Symbols
To strengthen and deepen their messages, writers use symbols: names, persons, objects, places, colors, or actions that have significance beyond their surface meaning.
A private symbol has special significance within a literary work but not outside of it. Conventional symbols are deeply rooted in our culture, and almost everyone knows what they represent.
Writing about Symbols
- Write about the symbols used and where they appear, whether they are private or conventional, their meaning, and what textual evidence would support your interpretation.
8.1.6 Irony
Irony features some discrepancy, some difference between appearance and reality, expectation and outcome. At times the ending of a work doesn’t square with what the reader expects. The emotional impact of an ironic ending depends upon the circumstances of plot and character.
Writing about Irony
Write about where it occurs, what it accomplishes, what it represents, and how your assumption can be supported using text references.
In probing for irony, check for statements that say one thing and mean something else, situations in which one character knows something that another doesn’t, and contrast between the ways characters should and do behave. Review the plot to see whether the outcome matches the expectations.
To prove that irony is intended, examine the context in which the works are spoken or the events occur. Also, tell the reader what the irony accomplishes.
8.1.7 Theme
The theme of a literary work is its controlling idea, some observation or insight about life or the conditions and terms of living. Many literary works suggest several themes: sometimes one primary motif and several related ones, sometimes a number of unrelated motifs. Theme is a central to a work of literature; frequently all of the other elements help develop and support it.
On occasion, the writer or a character states the theme directly. Ordinarily, though, the theme remains unstated and must be deduced by examining the other elements of the literary work.
Writing about Theme
- Ask yourself what the theme is, what elements support it, and what elements create it.
- Check the comments of the characters and the narrator to see whether they state the themes directly. If they don’t, assess the interaction of characters, events, settings, symbols, and other elements to determine them.
- A paper on theme is basically an argument, first presenting our interpretation and then supporting it with textual evidence.
8.2 Writing a Paper on Literature
8.2.1 The Writing Procedure
A. Understand the assignment
B. Decide on a suitable topic
- Reread the work carefully and then reflect on it
C. Gather information
- List all pertinent information that might help develop a character analysis
D. Organize your information
- Write an outline
E. Develop a thesis statement
F. Write a first draft
- Use your notes and follow your previously written outline
