Literary Criticism

1. Literary Criticism June Olson Mountain Pointe High School 2005-6

2. Your paper grows from your own curiosity regarding the effectiveness of the author to tell the story in counterpoint with your own interpretation of the novel. It seeks to • judge and justify your evaluation of the novel. • To begin, ask: • What did I best like about this novel? • How did the author create characters you could care about/abhor? • What truth about life does this story tell? • What questions do you have about the author’s life that might give you insight into the novel? If you could meet the author, what would you ask him/her? • How does the setting of the novel influence the characters? • Which quotes in the book seem carry the most meaning? • Literary criticism seeks to interpret a work of art. Throughout your search, your seek verification that your/critic’s interpretation is reasonable and supportable.

3. As you read your book, be observant. Highlight and write on the pages: • Significant developments in the PLOT • Which events have the most impact on the developing characters or create twists in the sequence of events? • Which events parallel important stories from other literature? Remember those stories to enrich your understanding of this one.

4. Structure of the book and its impact on your ability to follow and understand plot and characters • Modern authors often experiment with unconventional structures to more accurately represent modern life. The resulting chaos confuses readers. • How does this disorganization carry over to the characters? To you as a reader? • Optional structures: memoir, intercalary, loosely-connect short stories, shifting focus on multiple characters

5. Plot-related Thesis Statements In (Title), (Author) employs episodic structure to mimic the verisimilitude of contemporary life. Despite placing the climax of (Title) after the first third of the novel, (Author) keeps the reader engaged through deeper character development. In The Color Purple, Alice Walker effectively develops plot, characters, and themes through the literary vehicle of letter writing. Through the novel Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut portrays himself as Billy Pilgrim in order to tell his survival story of the bombing of Dresden. In Tim O’Brien’s If I die in a Combat Zone, Box me up and Send me Home, the narrator is constantly hampered by duty and courage in a time of violence and war. As art mirrors life, Arthur Miller’s protagonists in Death of a Salesman and TheCrucible’s chief nemeses are their own tragic flaws, reflecting the corruptibility of human nature.

6. Setting • Where (place, time in history, culture) does the story take place? • How do the events during that time influence the characters? • How does the landscape itself limit or expand the characterizations? • How do the values of the times influence the characters? • How does the author’s first-hand knowledge of the setting help paint the picture more vividly?

7. Setting-related Thesis Statements The Mississippi River and its inhabitants represent a major character in (Title), offering a counterpoint to Huck and Jim’s naiveté in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. (Time/Location detail) is the antagonist in (Author’s) (Title), greatly limiting the ability of characters to make wholesome decisions for themselves. In (Author’s) (Title), the protagonist’s oppression represents the social and psychological oppression of women during the (Time). Employing detailed description of (Location) as a vehicle for symbolism, the (geography) comes to represent Nature, a source of major conflict in the (Author’s) (Time). The historical setting of (Time) presents a source of cultural conflict for all characters, major and minor, in (Author’s) (Title). Although Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street demonstrates that despite oppression by their patriarchal society, Hispanic women’s roles have positively changed by the end of the novel.

8. Character development • Is the character an archetype, one fashioned after a cultural or trans-cultural pattern? • How does the character change? What prompts that change? • How does the character perceive him/herself, events in life, others? • How does the character deal with situations? • What motivates the character? • How do you connect with the character’s experience? • What strata socio-economic level do the characters represent? How does their status influence their motivation, choices?

9. Character-related Thesis Statements In (Title), (Character A) is a universal archetype representing the mentor-adviser to the naïve (Character B), helping him/her eventually develop into a significant, American, cultural hero. (Character) exemplifies the contemporary struggles of youth in the post-modern literary masterpiece (Author’s) (Title) through conflict against the mores of society. Throughout (Author’s) (Title), (Character) struggles against the morals of socio-economic forces, both literally and figuratively, emerging battered but whole in the end.

10. (Author’s) (Character) asserts his/her willfulness despite ironic feminist/masculine restrictions on individuals during (Time) in (Title). In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield struggles with internal as well as external conflicts that consume his life. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses the innocence of Christ-figure Billy Pilgrim as an instrument to display his cynical, anti-war views about the effects of war on both the individual and society. The nameless protagonist seeks his identity while trying on various social roles in Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man. Earnest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying presents one man’s search for the purpose of living in counterpoint to another man’s quest for dignity in light of injustice and death.

11. Point of view • Is the story in first or third person (limited or omniscient)? • How does the point of view influence your perception of • the characters? • What is the author showing through this “voice?” • How is this voice unique in all literature with which you are familiar? • To what extent can you trust the perspective of the narrator?

12. Point-of-view-related Thesis Statements In (Title), (Author) effectively maintains suspense through third-person limited point of view by controlling the reader’s access to character motivation and perspectives. By using first person point of view, (Author) gives the reader of (Title) the privilege of intimate knowledge of a mind clouded by (Mental Illness). Through Sylvia Plath’s greatest literary work, The Bell Jar, the reader views the “tranquil 50’s” through the eyes of an oppressed young woman, Esther Greenwood. In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caulfield, effectively portrays the complexities of American adolescence during the mid-twentieth century through the vehicle of first person point of view.

13. Author Style • What types of recurring imagery, metaphors, similes does the author use? How do they affect you as the reader? • How does the author set the tone of the book? What exact passages accomplish that task? Note them. • Closely examine wording employed in imagery. What senses does the author use? Are there any pet patterns (such are repetition) used to convey images? • What metaphors seem to permeate the book? What effect do they have on you as a reader? • How does use of similes enable you to see and understand better? • What is the predominant sentence structure used throughout the book? Long sentences or short, terse sentences?

14. Style-related Thesis Statements (Author’s) intimate knowledge of (Location) is evident in his/her poetic style through (Title). Ray Bradbury uses powerful metaphors to symbolize the fragile, dystrophic world of Fahrenheit 451 through his extensive use of imagery and parallelism. Margaret Mitchell expertly uses character names to symbolize their personalities and functions to deepen the plot of Gone with the Wind. In Henry James’ A Portrait of a Lady, the imagery of architecture is used to create characterization.

15. Kurt Vonnegut’s extensive use of Black Humor in Slaughterhouse-Five deepens the reader’s understand of the irony during World War II. Willa Cather’s use of visual and tactile imagery to poetically create the Nebraskan prairie in My Antonia surpasses her monumental ability of storytelling. John Gardner’s Grendel serves as an modern allegorical warning of the need for social awareness.

16. Symbolism • What recurring images seem to carry meaning throughout the novel? • Pay attention to objects, colors, people, situations. • Themes • What meaning or messages jumps out at you as you read the book? How do these themes unify the novel’s puzzle pieces?

17. Symbol and Theme-related Thesis Statements Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima displays contrastive religious and secular symbolism to mark Antonio Marez’s soul search. As exemplified by his novel A Prayer for Own Meany, John Irving’s work is marked by violent, contrastive symbols to create a single truth. A close reading of The Grapes of Wrath reveal John Steinbeck’s social concerns during the 1930’s. Throughout Joseph Heller’s writing of Catch-22, he shows that interpretations of power and authority can separate the sane from the insane. In On the Road, Jack Kerouac illustrates the profound change in the American dream of the “beat generation” through the travels of Sal Paradise.

18. Jon Krakauer, survivor of the 1996 disaster and author of Into Thin Air, makes a strong case for reserving Everest for elite, experienced climbers. In A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving uses biblical symbolism to create a parallel between his protagonist Owen Meany and Jesus Christ In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, Randal Patrick McMurphy is a superhero whose powers fight villains and allow others to achieve the extraordiary. Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon is a classic bildungsroman, tracing the journey and development of the main character, Milkman Dead. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the raft becomes a refuge for Huck and Jim along the journey through the morass of human flotsam.