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A Literary analysis paragraph presents evidence and analysis to support a claim or topic sentence about some aspect of a literary text.
These literary paragraphs are important first steps for writing insightful responses to literary texts.
It's also expected of you on the Georgia Milestones.
And it's what I look for in my classroom, either as short response to a question on test or as an exercise in class, or as part of a larger assignment like an essay.
A complete sentence that states an opinion about the suggested or implied meaning of the text.
It can be a connection you notice in the text, a contradiction, or something about a symbol, theme, diction, figurative language, or character in the text.
What do I notice in the text that stands out?
What do I want to say about the text?
What do I think this means? (the characters' actions, for example, the dark setting, the short dialogue, the figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, etc), the tone, etc)
Why is this important for understanding the literary text?
A claim is not a fact that can be discovered in the literary text: what happens to the characters, what the characters do, etc.
It is about why something happens the way it does, or why a character acts or behaves the way he/or she does.
It is a point that needs analysis to be proven. It requires textual evidence to support your claim.
There must only be one claim/main idea per paragraph.
Refer to the literary text:
Example #1: “In the excerpt from King's “I Have a Dream” speech, King...
Example #2: "The poem Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy uses symbolism to
represent...
The significance is usually your interpretation of an implied or suggested idea or theme in the story or poem.
Remember: texts and interpretations are subjective, so you may notice and assume one thing about a particular action, setting, theme, and someone else may think something different, but that's okay! This is where you argue your point with evidence and analysis (sandwich method).
Use a verb such as “reveals,” “suggests,” “indicates,” and so on to introduce the significance in the literary text.
A. The descriptive language in "Outsiders" indicates that Ponyboy is a selfless person.
B. In today's world some people do not care about other people's feelings.
C. "Outsiders" suggests that we should never judge a book by it's cover.
D. In "Outsiders" the greasers are at war with the socs.
Reference to literary text
Verb to introduce idea/connecting verb
The repetition used in “Stop the Sun” implies Terry’s confusion regarding his father’s behavior.
The implied or suggested idea
A and C are analytical claims because they point out ideas suggested by the text:
B and D are facts that cannot really be refuted or argued:
In the text, it states, “there would be a long pause while his eyes went away, far away...his father’s eyes started going away more and more often.” This reveals that Terry is confused about what happened at Vietnam that caused his father to check out any time or any place. Furthermore, it foreshadows Terry father’s PTSD incident at the mall. By repeating that his father’s eyes started going away more, the reader can infer that something is going to happen when Terry and his father separate at the mall. Through the use of diction, Gary Paulsen is able to create a sharp, tense atmosphere for Terry and his father.