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Using Literary Criticism

Using Literary Criticism. Use LC to: Enhance your points. DO NOT: Use it to tell the story Use it without YOUR commentary. COMMON PROBLEMS:. USE OF OUTSIDE SOURCES IS TOO SIMPLE: don’t use outside sources to convey simple facts from the book, plot summary or obvious information.

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Using Literary Criticism

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  1. Using Literary Criticism • Use LC to: • Enhance your points • DO NOT: • Use it to tell the story • Use it without YOUR commentary

  2. COMMON PROBLEMS: • USE OF OUTSIDE SOURCES IS TOO SIMPLE: • don’t use outside sources to convey simple facts from the book, plot summary or obvious information • “…in fact, Pearl points this out when she “inexplicably runs to Rev. Dimmesdale and clasps his hand” (Smith 3). • “…Pearl even asks the minister if he will stand with them the next day at noon; he promises that they will stand together on judgment day” (Smith 5).

  3. Plot summary • “The letter A she makes herself is not red, but green. . .” • “Pearl plays in the forest and by the seashore with the living flora and fauna” • “In marked contrast to Pearl, these children play at “scourging Quakers . .”

  4. Don’t: “The ‘Tell-Tale Heart’ contains only two characters, both unnamed” (Robinson 160). “The old man in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ listens as though paralyzed” (Robinson 160). Do: “Two levels of chronological development . . .work simultaneously throughout the story” (Robinson 160). USE CRITICISM FOR WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW ON YOUR OWN

  5. COMMON PROBLEMS: • OUTSIDE SOURCES ARE “STUCK IN” RATHER THAN USED OR WOVEN IN • PAPER IS A LIST OF OUTSIDE THEORIES, NOT YOUR COMMENTARY • “She wore the A as a sign of sin, but she wore it on her own terms…” (Smith 3). Critics have suggested other meanings for the A… • “The letter has many implied meanings” (Johnston 128). “Hester’s letter additionally suggests Ambiguity…” (Smith 12). The A can “also stand for atonement, which Hester is trying to do. . .” (Johnston 129).

  6. WELL-USED CRITICISM: SANDWICHED BETWEEN MY COMMENTARY • The final scaffold scene highlights both Dimmesdale’s confession and the change in his character. “In contrast to the first scaffold scene, which Chillingworth comes to dominate, the final scene remains under the control of Dimmesdale” (Smith 10). Chillingworth’s lack of presence is appropriate in the final scene because as Dimmesdale confesses, Chillingworth’s hold on him is relinquished. • The rosebush is astonishingly beautiful despite its surroundings, and may very well be the only thing of beauty in the area. In fact, John E. Hart states, “Just as the prison confines the drab-garbed Hester, relieved only by the scarlet A, so does the prison overshadow the rosebush” (5). Hawthorne uses the rosebush to represent how Hester is in contrast to her society, as the rosebush is in contrast to the dreary prison.

  7. ADDING LITERARY CRITCISM Roger’s murder of Piggy clearly illustrates the depths children can sink to without appropriate supervision. As he stands high above Piggy on the mountain, “Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, lean(s) all his weight on the lever” (Golding 180). His willingness to welcome the moment with “delirious abandonment” clearly demonstrates the level of pleasure that Roger receives by committing this horrific act. In fact, Roger’s ability to commit evil acts “progresses quickly and intensely because he arrives on the island with the innate ability to bully and abuse the younger boys” (Greten 34). The reader is left to wonder how much of each boy’s upbringing impacts how they behave on the island. Does Roger become more evil than the others because he is unsupervised or because he has not been taught the difference between right and wrong? sophisticated commentary woven in and set up quote/ LC used to enhance point of paragraph; additional commentary

  8. What’s wrong with this? • Dialogue is something that Poe lacks in his writing, however, in contrast, Hemingway uses a great deal of dialogue in addition to his descriptions. “Lyrically flowing, poetically sensitive narration contrasts perfectly with the hard-boiled dialogue” (Morris 100). • LITERARY CTITICISM “STUCK IN” • WEAVE ALL QUOTES INTO WRITING • WHICH AUTHOR IS THE QUOTE REFERRING TO? • WHERE IS THE COMMENTARY??

  9. WHAT’S WRONG? • “The protagonist, Prospero, holds a masquerade to forget the suffering beyond his walls” (Hurley 2). • LC USED AS PLOT SUMMARY • YOU DON’T NEED HURLEY TO EXPLAIN THIS TO YOU!!!!!

  10. WHAT’S WRONG? • Hemingway portrays his ideas on death very clearly in the short story, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” “What did he fear? It was not fear or dread. It was nothing that he knew too well.” • SET UP THE QUOTE/WHO IS “HE?” • HOW DOES THIS QUOTE FUNCTION IN THE STORY? (THOUGHTS, NARRATION). • NEEDS COMMENTARY ABOUT QUOTE

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