A Literary Analysis Essay Guide

 

What is a Literary Analysis Essay?

Literary Essays are a great way to analyze a literary work, evaluate its characters and interpret the author's intentions. It can be a single work from an author or a group of works. The imagery and prose are also analyzed when the work is that of poetry. Unlike stories and plays, in poems, you will also be required to talk about the symbolism and the imagery. 

 

An analysis essay doesn't make you, the  free  essay writer  of doing research on the topic. In fact, it requires you to analyze the writing and talk about the conflicts, underlying themes, and the setting. 

Steps You Need to Follow

  1. Read and re-read the text as a whole
  2. Know about the author and about her style of writing. Note if the literature at hand conforms to her writing style and where it veers away from it. 
  3. Upon the analyzes and knowing the subject from a historical perspective, you will come to realize the central theme of the essay. It is the main idea that the author wants to convey to the audience. 
  4. Form a thesis statement about the three salient points that you will talk on. Explaining to the reader why they are of importance to understanding the text. 

 

 

What goes into it?

While analyzing the literature you must dive into the text at hand. Just like every piece of an art form, through re-reading, you will grasp the structures and connections that you missed early on. The  essay writing service  will ask you to analyze the text and talk about:

 

  • Character conflicts and analysis
  • Intentions behind the theme and the setting 
  • The use of symbolism
  • The imagery, analogies and the use of diction. 

 

Structure of the Essay ('Night Stand' by Daniel Woodrell)

Introduction: 

 

Brief introduction : The short story revolves around the protagonist Pelham, a Vietnam War veteran. It paints a picture of the difficulty and confusion Pelham finds himself in when his past emotional conflicts surface due to an incident. 

 

Thesis Statement : It follows Pelham in his struggle with his emotions and post-traumatic stress and their influence upon his daily life.

 

Body Para 1

Topic Sentence:  Woodrell paints a very vivid and dark opening for the story, putting Pelham in a state of war and conflict that he has gone through in his past.

Evidence and analysis: 

Pelham finds a naked man growing over his bed. Pelham out of instinct having put down the threat went one step further to slice at his throat. The boy (intruder) died slapping on the wooden floor.

Body Para 2

Topic Sentence:  The murder or the act of self-defense made Pelham open up about being a soldier in Vietnam as a young man.

Evidence and analysis:  Woodrell shows us throughout the story, how the brief time that Pelham served Vietnam had a huge impact on his emotions, something that Pelham does not realize, having shut that part of his life out.

Body Para 3

Topic Sentence:  After the incident, Pelham's traumatic PTSD past begins manifesting itself in his daily life.

Evidence and analysis:  After the incident, Pelham and his wife started receiving death threats and heard locals speak about their involvement in a negative tone: PTSD gradually seeped through this hostile situation, also check  write my essay  for more great guidelines.

Body Para 4

Topic Sentence:  Woodrell's way of writing this story shows Pelham's internal struggle once he realizes there is more Davies Jr. in him than he anticipated in the opening, traumatic, scene.

Evidence and analysis:  His initial nonchalance escapes him as he learns Davies Jr. was also in the military and that gives full way to the oncoming of PTSD.

Conclusion

Summary:  Only in taking a life, did he realize the fury of his locked-up emotions and his misunderstood frustrations. The emotions caught up to him, and Davies Jr.'s behavior became just that.

Concluding remark:  The unresolved emotional strains, bound up in oneself, eventually burst upon the scene.