Chris Sutterfield

English III

Paper 3: Analysis

Analysis Paper

Paper Length: 3 -5 pages

Worth: See Syllaus

The third assignment topic asks that you write an analysis paper over Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Thus, to get started a good question to ask is: What does it mean to analyze? Well, a good way to look at it is that you are focusing on a particular part(s), character, or image within a work to see how it contributes to the whole meaning of the work. For example, in this assignment you are analyze how the three of the five elements or traits of Romanticism are depicted in the story, or analyze how the Usher twins, Roderick and Madeline, embody the two distinct and contrasting themes of Rationalism (the intellect) and Romanticism (the emotions). When choosing either of these topics, you’ll need to draw upon your lecture notes to guide your think and writing.

Guidelines for Writing an Analysis:

1. An analysis looks at parts (or a part) in relationship to the whole to which they belong.
2. A literary analysis often focuses on one or more elements of literature including—but not limited to—the following:
• Sound (rhyme and rhythm)
• Structure (patterns of lines and stanzas; organization and structure of paragraphs and/or dialogue)
• Figurative language (such as metaphors, similes, personification, symbols)
• Characters
• Development of plot and action (particularly conflict/resolution)
• Irony

3. An analysis shows how the element or elements being considered contribute to the whole meaning of the work; each part of the discussion, therefore, must relate to a clear, central idea.

4. An analysis is not a paraphrase (a restatement of the ideas of the work in your own words); instead, it is an explanation of the way a work communicates.

5. Develop a clear, focused thesis.

Questions for a Literary Analysis:

• Plot: the relationships and patterns of events in a short story or poem.

What actions happen?

How are the events connected?

How do the actions begin or end?

• Character: the people the author creates.

Who are the principal people in the story, play, or poem?

How do they stay the same? Why?

How do they change? Why?

• Point of view: the perspective or attitude of the speaker in a poem or the voice who tells a story. The point of view of a narrator may be 1^st person (I) or 3^rd person (he, she, it, they). If 3^rd person, it may be omniscient, limited, or objective.

Who is the narrator? Is he or she identified?

What are the significance and effect of the author’s choice of narrator and point

of view?

Is the narrator subjective or objective? Is he or she trustworthy?

• Tone: the feelings conveyed; the predominant attitude.

Do the words sound sad? Happy? Something else?

Does the narrator have an ironic tome, saying one thing and meaning another?

What does the tone say about the author’s attitudes and intentions?

• Images: word pictures or visual details.

What image does the writer use? What pictures do they evoke?

What is the significance of images in conveying the author’s meaning?

• Setting: the place where the action happens.

What is the principal setting, and what does it contribute to the author’s meaning?

When the scene shifts, why does it?

• Theme: the main idea or general meaning of the work.

What do all the other elements point to as the author’s intended meaning?