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The color blue is ironic in In the Mouth of Madness. Blue is typically associated with calmness and tranquility. It’s used in places like hospitals in order to psychologically calm us (Smith 87). In the movie, however, items turn blue when John hallucinates, causing him to panic. This is the opposite of how most people would react to this color, and it shows how disconnected he has become from normal reactions.
Thank you, and please stop by the Writing Center!
Location: Dr. Billy F. Cowart Hall, 203
Phone: 956-326-2884
E-mail: writingcenter@tamiu.edu
Find us online!
Website: tamiu.edu/uc/writingcenter
Appointments are encouraged, but walk-ins are accepted.
1. Topic Sentence
What are you trying to prove?
2. Evidence
How do you know your opinion is true? Who backs you up?
3. Explanation
What does your quote/citation mean?
4. Repeat 2 and 3 until you prove your point.
Look at the following poem and apply what we've discussed. Think of imagery, character, theme, etc.
Remember there are no wrong answers, just answers without support.
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
Explain your thought process. This is an argument, so you need to show how you came to your conclusion.
Use secondary sources to lend credibility to your thesis, but don't build your paper around just quoting others.
What's YOUR contribution?
Questions to Consider when Analyzing Characters
Sample Element: Symbolism
A character is a person depicted in a story or poem. The qualities of a character are revealed in a few ways: through dialogue, descriptions, and conflict. Put all together, these qualities can influence other aspects of a text, such as theme and tone.
Questions to Consider when Analyzing Symbolism
Examine how the ideas and elements in a text relate to a broad social, political, or cultural situation.
For example, analyze the symbolism and the depiction or social representation of American Indians/Native Americans in Sherman Alexie’s “Evolution.”
Examine the elements in relation to a piece of literature.
For example, examine the theme of isolation in Robert Frost's poetry. What can we infer from the treatment of isolation in Frost's work?
When you analyze literature, or any art for that matter, you're trying to come to a deeper understanding of its meaning and its place in the world.
There are several literary elements/concepts writers can use when analyzing a piece of literature. The following sections will go over some common elements and how to use them.
Analyzing literature provides writers with an opportunity to think critically about a text. This practice will enhance critical thinking skills which are important in other disciplines, too.
This presentation was created by the TAMIU Writing Center to guide students on possible approaches and reasoning in analyzing and writing about literature.
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Look at the following poem. It's filled with vivid images and surreal elements, but it's trying to say something.
What is it?
How does it go about doing this?
Treasure Island was written in the 19th century and is set in the 18th century. It's portrayal of Long John Silver sheds light on Victorian ideas of crime, but we can also use it to discuss the modern fascination with outlaws.
"Where the Sidewalk Ends," by Shel Silverstein
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.”
For example, "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written over a hundred years ago, but we can read it in the context of the modern 21st century and apply modern women's rights and modern women's struggles to the ideas in the book.
Analysis does not mean you must figure out exactly what the author intended. It's unlikely the author meant any one thing by writing a piece of work, and many authors don't write poems or stories with themes and metaphors in mind. The purpose is not to guess what the author intended.
Dracula is a vampire, an undead creature, so he represents death. Since he can spread his vampirism to others, he's like a plague, a disease.
Dracula gets rid of his accent before arriving in London. As a noble from a foreign country, he is in a position to spread his influence to the population, subverting British culture as a reverse-colonizer, a fear of the Victorian reader, thus representing not just physical but social death.
Deep analysis aims to find meaning not readily apparent at a first or even second reading.
A superficial reading points out an obvious or otherwise blatant aspect of the story and either repeats itself or uses summary to show an "argument" that almost anyone could make.