up
474

To Write a Literary Analysis

  1. Question the situation.
    • Subject: What piece of literature will you analyze?
    • Purpose: What are you trying to accomplish in your literary analysis?
    • Audience: Who will read your analysis? How familiar will the reader be with this piece of literature?
  2. Plan your analysis.
  3. Research your topic.
    • Searching: Read the piece once without stopping. Then read it again more carefully, looking closely at its content and structure.
    • Focusing: Narrow your focus by concentrating on a specific literary element—theme, structure, context, and so on.

      Topic: The Lord of the Rings

      Thought: Tolkien’s life traumas

      Thesis statement: In The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien depicts such life traumas as his childhood kidnapping in South Africa, the industrial ravaging of his home city of Birmingham, and his near death from illness contracted during the Battle of the Somme.

  4. Create the first draftof your analysis.
    • Begin by naming the author and title and expressing your thesis statement.
    • Follow with middle paragraphs that support the thesis by including evidence from the original work.
    • End with a paragraph that brings all your points together and demonstrates the significance of your analysis.
  5. Improve your first draft.
    • Evaluate your first draft.

      Purpose: Does the analysis fulfill your purpose?

      Audience: Will the reader understand your point?

    • Revise your writing.

      Rewrite parts that are confusing or unclear.

      Add details to explain or make your point more convincing.

      Cut parts that don’t support your analysis.

    • Edit your writing.

      Check your writing for accuracy using pages 190–195 as a guide.

  6. Present your analysis to your class or on a literary wiki.
475

Literary Analysis

Grieving for the Lost Captain

The beginning introduces the topic, names the work and author, and provides the thesis statement (underlined).

Grief is a common theme in literature, especially in poetry. Poets express their personal grief for lost lovers, mothers, fathers, and children. Grief can also be expressed on a larger stage. In “O Captain! My Captain!” Walt Whitman does just that by lamenting the loss of President Lincoln after his assassination by John Wilkes Booth. Experts say there are seven stages of grief. In “O Captain! My Captain!” Whitman displays three of the initial stages.

Each middle paragraph analyzes a different part of the poem, drawing inferences from evidence.

The first stage of grief is shock and denial. In the opening lines of his poem, Whitman declares “O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, / The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won.” He is praising Lincoln, his captain, for leading the United States to victory in the Civil War. He continues, “The port is near, the bells I hear, the people are exulting.” Loyal citizens are ready to celebrate the victory won by their great leader. Here, Whitman is clearly in denial.

The writer preserves the line breaks by using slashes.

In the second stage, after the initial shock, the griever acknowledges his loss and expresses his suffering. Whitman does this at the end of stanza one: “But O heart! heart! heart! / O the bleeding drops of red, / Where on the deck my Captain lies, / Fallen cold and dead.” Stating that Lincoln has “fallen cold and dead” is a stark reminder that the captain has passed on and there will be no rejoicing.

Grieving is not a linear process. At the beginning of the second stanza, Whitman regresses to denial: “O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; / Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills.” Then in the last two lines of this stanza, Whitman wonders if what has happened is just part of a bad dream: “It is some dream that on the deck, / You’ve fallen cold and dead.” Then reality intrudes.

The writer discusses the poem and poet in the present tense, showing that both still speak.

In the beginning of the final stanza, Whitman states, “My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; / My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will.” Whitman is facing the finality of the assassination. At this point, some people express anger (stage three), but Whitman skips to depression (stage four). Those on shore may exult, “But I, with mournful tread, / Walk the deck my Captain lies, / Fallen cold and dead.” His depression will soon strike the whole nation.

The ending wraps up the analysis and gives a final reflection.

The remaining stages of grief include a period of adjustment (stage five), a time for seeking solutions (stage six), and, finally, an acceptance of a different life (stage seven). In “O Captain! My Captain!” Walt Whitman clearly struggles with the initial stages of grief, but he has a long way to go—perhaps in additional poems—to find a new way forward while still accepting the intense pain of losing his president.

 
up