Literary Analysis Essay Example

In literary analyses, writers deconstruct the words, theme, setting, and tone of literature and interpret what the author conveyed through their words. Reading works is only superficial, but by analyzing them, students evaluate the author’s writing and understand the author’s language. They familiarize themselves with the text’s powerful and weak junctures to craft an opinion on the composition. As a result of a literary analysis, students can determine whether a work of literature is worthy of recommendation to other people.

Literary Analysis Essay Definition

The literary analysis defines the process of thoroughly reading literary works and using critical thinking to express why their authors made confident word choices and used different literary techniques. A literary analysis essay is not a summary of a work of literature because a summary only looks at what happens in the work and not why events happen. Instead, a literary analysis essay is a logical argument. It presents a point and explains that point in detail. In exploring the thesis, the paper scrutinizes literary elements, including plot, character structure and development, and events. Students try to understand the author’s choices and why the author made those choices in writing the work.

What Is the Purpose of a Literary Analysis Essay?

The principal purpose of a literary analysis essay is to gain insight as to why an author applies particular literary techniques, motifs, or sentence structures to communicate messages to their readers. Students can furthermore assess their reading skills and how well they can recognize an author’s literary devices. Authors frequently use rhetorical tools to emphasize their storytelling and assert their stances. They also express their feelings through words to evoke emotions from their readers. In short, academic writers must be able to exercise their critical thinking to ensure they understand the literary text, prove their argument about it, and support their corroborations.

Literary Analysis Essay Outline 

So how to write a literary analysis essay? The primary elements of an outline are the introduction to a literary analysis essay, body paragraphs that expound upon the thesis statement, and a conclusion to summarize the argument. To determine their thesis, students must understand the text they read and their analysis prompt. For example, the prompt could analyze why an author used a metaphor to depict an analogy for a distinct subplot in a literary work. The body paragraphs investigate evidence of an author’s literary techniques and explain why they exist. Collectively, they support the thesis through textual quotes and passages. Lastly, students encapsulate their findings in the concluding paragraph and finalize their main argument.