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LITERARY ANALYSIS
Going Beyond the Author’s Words

A literary analysis is an opinion-based type of essay that makes a point about a work of literature – usually a poem or short
story, though longer works and nonfiction can be used too. Typically, a literary analysis makes a point about a literary
work, then supports that point by discussing the work’s literature elements (e.g. irony, symbolism, and point of view),
main themes, and implied ideas that are not necessarily apparent within the literature itself.

What a Literary Analysis IS

A literary analysis is an opinion. You (the writer) are forming an opinion about a literary work, then presenting that
opinion (and, more importantly, supporting that opinion) in the form of an essay. Essays about literature should be
written in third-person point of view, like any other analytical essay. You should come up with your own title for your
paper (in other words, don’t use the same title as the work you’re analyzing), and when discussing the happenings of the
literature, always use present tense, not past tense.

WRONG: The true irony of this story was when the main character died at the end even though he
thought he had escaped.
RIGHT: The true irony of this story is when the main character dies at the end even though he thinks he has escaped.

Like any other opinion-based essay, a literary analysis is built around a clear thesis statement. It makes a clear point about
the literature, then supports it with lesser points:
The theme of Ambrose Bierce’s story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” is that true freedom is imaginary, and
this theme is conveyed through the story’s unique point of view and through the heavy use of irony.

What a Literary Analysis is NOT

A literary analysis is not a summary. It doesn’t go in-depth about the actual events of the story or poem. Instead, it
assumes that the reader is already familiar with the literature in question. A summary, on the other hand, discusses the
actual story without adding anything to it. Look, for instance, at this example:

Summary (wrong): Farquhar reaches the gate to his home, but then he feels a blow to the back of his neck and sees a
white light, and then the author tells the readers that Farquhar is dead.

The above statement is purely summary; there’s no analysis in it. This is because it’s just a statement of what happens in
the story. In other words, anyone who reads “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” will get the same information
contained in the above example simply by reading the story.

An analysis, on the other hand, goes beyond simply what is contained in the literature. It uses the literature as a starting
point, using it to support an opinion. In other words, when you write a literary analysis, you must “bring something new
to the table.” Usually, this involves discussing the story under the lens of the literary elements. For instance, if we
analyze the story events described above, we might get something like this:

Analysis (right): Farquhar’s demise at the end of the story is the perfect example of situational irony, and the author
uses this to great effect in shattering the reader’s expectations in an emotional way.

This statement is much more analytical in nature because it goes beyond what we see just in the story itself. In fact, the
above statement doesn’t even mention what happens in the story; it doesn’t need to – the reader is already familiar with
the story. Instead, it discusses one of the literary elements (situational irony) and explains how it is used for emotional
effect. Those are inferences; they aren’t apparent in the actual text of the story but are instead supplied by the one
writing the analysis.

Elements of Literature

One way to analyze literature is to closely examine its literary elements – that is, the devices and ideas that make a story
work. Often, these devices can be used to explain a main point. There are far too many different literary elements to
discuss within the scope of a small informational resource, but here are some of the most significant.

Theme. This refers to the primary undertones of the story. If you learned Aesop’s Fables or some classic fairy tales
growing up, you might have learned the “moral of the story.” In the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, for instance, the
theme might be that “slow and steady wins the race.” Modern fiction, however, often involves insights – on behavior, on
the human condition, or on current events – rather than morals, intending to evoke an internal debate for its readers.

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Plot. The plot is essentially the action of the story. This is a difficult element to properly discuss in a literary analysis
because it’s very easy to fall into the trap of discussing what happens in the story (which would be a summary instead of
an analysis). If you’re going to discuss plot in a literary analysis, remember the cardinal rule: don’t spend time discussing
things your reader would know just by reading the story. Instead, discuss how the plot supports your main point; perhaps
there’s something unusual about the plot (for instance, a climax with no falling action, which the author might use to
create some emotional effect). Perhaps the structure of the plot is interesting itself; many short stories, for instance,
have non-linear plots – that is, they use flashbacks, or they jump forward in time. In any case, consider the plot itself
instead of the story events that make up the plot.

Characters. Stories are told through characters, and indeed, a character study can be a strong literary analysis in its own
right. However, as with the other elements, it’s important not to let a character analysis turn into a summary. If you’re
going to write a character analysis, don’t focus on what the characters do. Instead, focus on what the characters are, or
what they represent. Almost any literary character fits into one of three roles:
 Protagonist: A leading character, often characterized as the “hero” or the “good guy” (though this can be
misleading, as the protagonist is not necessarily good or heroic). The protagonist is, simply put, the main
character (or group of characters) of the story.
 Antagonist: Basically, the opponent or adversary of the protagonist, sometimes called the “villain” or “bad guy”
(but as with the protagonist, this can be misleading; the antagonist may not be bad or villainous).
 Catalyst: A character who is neither clearly a protagonist nor antagonist, yet still plays an important role in moving
the action of the story forward.

Characters often have related roles, too. One of the best examples of this (very useful in a character analysis) is the
concept of a foil. A foil is a character who acts as a counterpart to another by exhibiting many of the opposite character
traits – for example, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic detective stories. Holmes is
reclusive, hyper-observant, and slightly eccentric, whereas Watson is outgoing and worldly-wise but tends to miss small
details.

Narrative (Point of View). Every work of fiction has a narrator. When you read a story, you may not be conscious of the
narrator’s existence, but narrative is what makes a story. The narrative is simply the words of the story. However, a story
can be told from many possible perspectives. The point of view of the story is simply the perspective from which the
narrative is given. There are several common points of view for literature.

 Third person limited: In a third-person limited story, the narrative follows a single character at any given time. We
(the readers) see the actions of the story from a perspective that is centered on this character, but is told by an
unseen narrator (not by the character himself or herself – that is, the pronouns I and me will not be present
except in dialogue). We also are privy to this character’s thoughts and emotions, but not the thoughts and
emotions of other characters. The focal character may change throughout the story, but there will only be one
focal character at any particular time. A good example of this is George R.R. Martin’s popular fantasy story, A
Game of Thrones; each chapter of this book follows a different focal character, but the entire work is told in this
third-person limited point of view.

 Third person omniscient: The third-person omniscient narrator is, quite simply, speaking from a godlike
perspective – that is, the narrative is told from a point of view that is disconnected from the characters but sees
all. The omniscient narrator describes not just the thoughts and emotions of a single character, but of all the
characters. This point of view was quite common in the literature of the late 1800s and early 1900s, but has
become less popular in modern works. Some good examples of stories in this point of view are Ernest
Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities.

o Third person objective: This perspective is essentially the opposite of third-person omniscient in that
instead of seeing all of the characters’ thoughts, we don’t see any thoughts or emotions – only actions. In
other words, the narrative is told in much the same way as a reporter might describe the events of a news
story. A good example of this perspective can be found in the Bible: the events of the Gospel of Mark
(the second book of the New Testament) are told from this point of view.

 First person: In first person point of view, the narrator is physically present as one of the characters of the story.
Here, we see the story as told by one of its characters (as one might read a journal or memoir), so pronouns like I
and me are present.
Even though these are the most common perspectives in literature, some stories are told from unusual or
unconventional points of view. For instance, C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters is written from second-person point of
view: the narrator tells the story as a series of letters written to another character using second-person pronouns like
you and your.

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Sometimes a story may take a common point of view but use an interesting narrative technique. One good example
of this is the concept of the unreliable narrator, common in the stories of Edgar Allan Poe (perhaps most notably in
“The Tell-Tale Heart”), where the first-person narrative has a skewed perspective on reality. Other writers may
expose some of the meta-story (that is, the technique and motivation behind the narrative) by breaking an invisible
barrier known in literature as the fourth wall – the barrier between the characters and the audience. A good
example of this can be found in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre, in which the narrator of the story (written in first-
person) directly addresses the reader: “A new chapter in a novel is something like a new scene in a play; and when I
draw up the curtain this time, reader, you must fancy you see a room…”

Irony. One of the most common plot devices in literature is irony. Quite simply put, irony is anything contrary to
expectation. This concept is simple, but because it is often the key element of interest in a short story, it can make for
a very comprehensive literary analysis. Irony can appear in many ways and on multiple levels in the telling of a story.
The entire story can be an exercise in irony, or it may contain examples of irony throughout the story (or, both things
can be true). Most irony can be classified as one of three types:

 Situational irony: This is the most common type of irony in literature; situational irony occurs in a story when
there is a marked difference between what is expected and what happens. L. Frank Baum’s enduring story of The
Wizard of Oz is, in fact, built around situational irony: the four main characters go on a long, perilous journey to
obtain the things they want most, only to discover they have had those things all along.
 Verbal irony: This is when a character says one thing but means or does something else. This could refer to
sarcasm (for instance, a character who comes in out of a blizzard, rolls his eyes, and mockingly says, “My, what
lovely weather we’re having!”), but often it simply refers to a character acting in a manner that doesn’t match
what he or she says. For example, in the classic movie Casablanca, Rick (the protagonist) says multiple times, “I
stick my neck out for nobody,” yet throughout the story, he is seen making gestures and taking risks for the sake
of others.
 Dramatic irony: This refers to a disconnect between a character’s knowledge and the audience’s knowledge. In
other words, dramatic irony is when the audience knows something that a character doesn’t know. A good
example can be found in William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet: Juliet has taken a sleeping draught to
make herself appear dead to her family. The audience is aware that she is not actually dead, but Romeo (her
forbidden lover) finds her before news can reach him, and he commits suicide, thinking that she is truly dead.

Tone. The tone of a story is created by the attitudes of the narrative, often supported by the words and actions of the
story’s characters. Basically, it is the style of the story’s voice. This can be used to great effect to create empathy
between the reader and the characters. In Mark Twain’s short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,”
we (the readers) are able to feel the frustrations of the main character (who is also the narrator) in the ironic tone that he
creates as he relates the events of the story. The main character is asked to inquire after another character’s childhood
friend named Leonidas Smiley. He describes, “I have a lurking suspicion that Leonidas W. Smiley is a myth … and he [the
character who made the initial request to the narrator] would go to work and bore me to death with some exasperating
reminiscence of him as long and tedious as it should be useless to me. If that was the design, it succeeded.” Through the
ironic tone, which in this case is derived primarily from word choice (known as diction) and syntax (the structure and style
of the sentence – a long, unbroken monologue), we can feel the frustration of the narrator as social graces force him to
stand and listen to a story that he finds quite boring. In addition to diction and syntax, tone can also be created through
imagery (the appeal to sight and other senses), language (for instance, figurative language such as similes and
metaphors), and the author’s selection of details (you may have learned this formula for analyzing tone as “DIDLS” –
diction, imagery, details, language, and syntax).

Setting. Every story has some sort of setting. The setting is basically (or even literally, in the case of a play) the stage
where the action of the story happens. Setting refers chiefly to where and when a story’s events take place. For instance,
the setting of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories is Victorian England – that is, England during the time when Queen
Victoria reigned (the late 1800s). However, it’s important to remember that simply identifying the setting isn’t good
enough for a literary analysis; there has to be analysis of the setting. How does the setting illustrate the theme of the
story? How does the author use the setting to control the tone? There are many different ways to analyze the setting.

Purpose of a Literary Analysis

Ultimately, the literary analysis is a work of opinion. When you write a literary analysis, you’re not writing a summary or
even an explanation of the story. Instead, you are “taking the story apart” and looking beyond the text of the story itself.
When you write a literary analysis, you should not focus on what the story is, but instead focus on what makes the story
work. Look at the elements that make up the story, and see beyond the simple paper and ink that drive it.

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A Guide to Writing the Literary Analysis Essay

I. INTRODUCTION: the first paragraph in your essay. It begins creatively in order to catch your reader’s interest, provides
essential background about the literary work, and prepares the reader for your major thesis. The introduction must include the
author and title of the work as well as an explanation of the theme to be discussed. Other essential background may include
setting, an introduction of main characters, etc. The major thesis goes in this paragraph usually at the end. Because the major
thesis sometimes sounds tacked on, make special attempts to link it to the sentence that precedes it by building on a key word or
idea.

A) Creative Opening/Hook: the beginning sentences of the introduction that catch the reader’s interest. Ways of
beginning creatively include the following:

1) A startling fact or bit of information

 Example: Nearly two hundred citizens were arrested as witches during the Salem witch scare of 1692.
Eventually nineteen were hanged, and another was pressed to death (Marks 65).

2) A snatch of dialogue between two characters

 Example: “It is another thing. You [Frederic Henry] cannot know about it unless you have it.” “ Well,” I
said. “If I ever get it I will tell you [priest].” (Hemingway 72). With these words, the priest in Ernest
Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms sends the hero, Frederic, in search of the ambiguous “it” in his life.

3) A meaningful quotation (from the book you are analyzing or another source)
 Example: “To be, or not to be, that is the question” {3.1.57}. This familiar statement expresses the young
prince’s moral dilemma in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

4) A universal idea
 Example: The terrifying scenes a soldier experiences on the front probably follow him throughout his life
—if he manages to survive the war.

5) A rich, vivid description of the setting

 Example: Sleepy Maycomb, like other Southern towns, suffers considerably during the Great Depression.
Poverty reaches from the privileged families, like the Finches, to the Negroes and “white trash” Ewells, who
live on the outskirts of town. Harper Lee paints a vivid picture of life in this humid Alabama town where
tempers and bigotry explode into conflict.

B) Thesis: a statement that provides the subject and overall opinion of your essay. For a literary analysis your major
thesis must
(1) relate to the theme of the work and
(2) suggest how this theme is revealed by the author. A good thesis may also suggest the organization of the paper.

 Example: Through Paul’s experience behind the lines, at a Russian prisoner of war camp, and especially
under bombardment in the trenches, Erich Maria Remarque realistically shows how war dehumanizes a man.

Sometimes a thesis becomes too cumbersome to fit into one sentence. In such cases, you may express the major thesis
as two sentences.

 Example: In a Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens shows the process by which a wasted life can be
redeemed. Sidney Carton, through his love for Lucie Manette, is transformed from a hopeless, bitter man into a
hero whose life and death have meaning.

II. BODY PARAGRAPHS

A) Body: the support paragraphs of your essay. These paragraphs contain supporting
Example: (concrete detail) and analysis/explanation (commentary) for your topic sentences.
Each paragraph in the body includes
(1) a topic sentence, (2) textual evidence (a.k.a. quotes from your reading) and commentary
(a.k.a explanation), and (3) a concluding sentence.
In its simplest form, each body paragraph is organized as follows:
1. topic sentence
2. lead-in to textual evidence 1
3. textual evidence 1
4. commentary
5. transition and lead-in to textual evidence 2
6. textual evidence 2
7. commentary
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8. concluding or clincher sentence

1) Topic Sentence: the first sentence of a body or support paragraph. It identifies one aspect of the major
thesis and states a primary reason why the major thesis is true.

 Example: When he first appears in the novel, Sidney Carton is a loveless outcast who sees little worth in
himself or in others.

2) Textual Evidence: a specific example from the work used to provide evidence for your topic sentence.
Textual evidence can be a combination of paraphrase and direct quotation from the work.

 Example: When Carlton and Darnay first meet at the tavern, Carlton tells him, “I care for no man on this
earth, and no man cares for me” (Dickens 105).

3) Commentary: your explanation and interpretation of the textual evidence. Commentary tells the reader
what the author of the text means or how the textual evidence proves the topic sentence. Commentary may
include interpretation, analysis, argument, insight, and/or reflection.
(Helpful hint: In your body paragraph, you should have twice as much commentary as textual evidence. In
other words, for every sentence of textual evidence, you should have at least two sentences of commentary.)

 Example: Carton makes this statement as if he were excusing his rude behavior to Darnay. Carton,
however, is only pretending to be polite, perhaps to amuse himself. With this seemingly off-the-cuff remark,
Carton reveals a deeper cynicism and his emotional isolation.

4) Transitions: words or phrases that connect or “hook” one idea to the next, both between and within
paragraphs. Transition devices include using connecting words as well as repeating key words or using
synonyms.

 Examples: Finally, in the climax… Another example: … Later in the story… In contrast to this
behavior… Not only…but also… Furthermore…

5) Lead-In: phrase or sentence that prepares the reader for textual evidence by introducing the speaker,
setting, and/or situation.

 Example: Later, however, when the confident Sidney Carton returns alone to his home, his alienation and
unhappiness become apparent: “Climbing into a high chamber in a well of houses, he threw himself down in
his clothes on a neglected bed, and its pillow was wet with wasted tears” (Dickens 211).

6) Clincher/Concluding Sentence: last sentence of the body paragraph. It concludes the paragraph by tying
the textual evidence and commentary back to the thesis.

 Example: Thus, before Carton experiences love, he is able to convince himself that the world has no
meaning.

III. CONCLUSION: last paragraph in your essay. This paragraph should begin by echoing your major thesis without repeating
the words exactly. Then, the conclusion should broaden from the thesis statements to answer the “so what?” question your
reader may have after reading your essay. The conclusion should do one or more of the following:

1) Reflect on how your essay topic relates to the book as a whole

2) Evaluate how successful the author is in achieving his or her goal or message
3) Give a personal statement about the topic
4) Make predictions
5) Connect back to your creative opening
6) Give your opinion of the novel’s value or significance

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HOW TO CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE WITHIN YOUR PAPER

PRIMARY SOURCE: The literary work (novel, play, story, poem) to be discussed in an essay.

 Example: : Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-tale Heart”

**For most literary analysis papers, you will be using ONLY PRIMARY SOURCES

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SECONDARY SOURCE: Any source (other than the primary source) referred to in the essay. Secondary sources can include
critical analyses, biographies of the author, reviews, history books, encyclopedias etc.
When citing primary or secondary sources, follow MLA style for parenthetical documentation and “Works Cited” page.

WORKS CITED: a separate page listing all the works cited in an essay. It simplifies documentation because it permits you to
make only brief references to those works in the test (parenthetical documentation). A “Works Cited” page differs from a
“Bibliography” in that the latter includes sources researched but not actually cited in the paper. All the entries on a “Works
Cited” page are double spaced.

PARENTHETICAL DOCUMENTATION: a brief parenthetical reference placed where a pause would naturally occur to
avoid disrupting the flow of your writing (usually at the end of a sentence, before the period).

Most often you will use the author’s last name and page number clearly referring to a source listed on the “Works
Cited” page:
 Example: Hemingway’s writing declined in his later career (Shien 789).

If you cite the author in the text of your paper, give only the page number in parentheses:
 Example: According to Francis Guerin, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn reflects “those same
nightmarish shadows that even in our own time threaten to obscure the American Dream” (49).

If two works by the same author appear in your “Works Cited,” add the title or a shortened version of it to distinguish
your sources:
 Example: “He wouldn’t rest until he had run a mile or more” (Dickens, A Tale 78).

BLOCK QUOTATION: quotations that are set off from the rest of the paper. Indent one-inch from the left margin only and
double space. Do not use quotation marks unless they appear in the original.

1) For a prose quotation of more than 4 typed lines, start the quotation after a colon and indent each line of the
quotation 10 spaces, placing the citation after the end punctuation

 Example:

Based on rumors and gossip, the children of Maycomb speculate about Boo Radley’s appearance:

Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and
any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw,
you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face;
what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.
(Lee 13)
2) For any prose dialogue involving 2 or more speakers, start the quotation (dialogue) after a colon and have each line
of dialogue as its own paragraph (a 10-space indentation), placing the citation information after the end punctuation.

 Example:
During the trial scene, Bob Ewell immediately shows his disrespect for both the court and his family:
“Are you the father of Mayella Ewell?” was the next question.
“Well, if I ain’t I can’t do nothing about it now, her ma’s dead,” was the answer. (Lee 172)

******************************************************************************************************
ORGANIZATION
 Thesis Statement: Think of the thesis as a contract with your reader. What you say in your thesis will be
demonstrated in the body of your essay. Get right to the point and be as specific as possible.
 Outline. Make a list of points that will be necessary for you to adequately prove your argument. Next to each
point, mark down where the textual evidence for it can be found. Also mark down scholarly criticisms that help
prove the point. An outline helps keep track of all your ideas and may suggest the best order in which to present
them. It also reveals holes and weak areas in your argument.
 Order. Arrange the points of your outline in the logical order that will be easiest for your reader to follow and/or
that best suits your argument. Think of the points as a series of steps: you can’t claim one until you have proved the
first. After you have produced a draft, look at your transitions. If you find yourself relying on the same order as the
events happen in the plot, you may be summarizing rather than analyzing and interpreting. Focus on the order of
your ideas rather than the order of the text’s chronology.

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 Paragraphs. Each paragraph should have only one main idea around which all the sentences revolve. Help the
reader follow your reasoning with clearly worded topic sentences that introduce the point you wish to make while at
the same time building upon the point you made in the previous paragraph. Paragraphs should both develop an idea
and connect with one another. They should also be cohesive, use transitional words and phrases within as well as
between paragraphs to emphasize the logical relationships between sentences and paragraphs.
 Evidence. Support every claim you make with specific evidence from the text. Aim for a balance between your
argument and the voice of the text. You must also include quotes from literary criticisms that support your
claim/thesis. The ideas in the literary criticisms should not drive your ideas; instead, they should support your ideas.
Their purpose is to help support and prove your idea.
Weave your commentary and concrete detail within your paragraphs. The best papers will not follow the formula of
concrete detail, commentary, commentary.
A. Citing your SOURCES:
Make sure you use proper MLA format for all documentation.
Refer to the MLA handout given or research on the Net.
Papers turned in without work/s cited will receive “will not be accepted.”
B. Use of QUOTATIONS:
First, limit the amount of quoted material in your essay. Be very selective.

MECHANICS
A. The “I” question in literary analysis:
Generally speaking, you should avoid the use of first-person “I” in your literary analysis papers. It is redundant to
use phrasing such as, “In this paper, I will examine the use of dialogue in 1984.” Instead, extend the thesis to
include not just your subject but also your focused assertion.
B. Title for your paper
Your title should state your paper’s topic, and the work of literature that it is about.
DO NOT underline or italicize your title (It hasn’t been published!)
C. The use of PRESENT TENSE in literary analysis:
When discussing “works of art,” such as poems, stories, or films, use the present tense, even if the work was written
or produced in the past. The rule here is that the work is still alive. For example” Virginia Wolfe argues (not
argued) the importance of money to artists in A Room of One’s Own.
D. Conjunctions
Do not use conjunctions in formal writing (don’t, it’s, they’re). Instead, spell out the words.

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Sample Essay
(With Primary Source Only)

CHRISTINE GOESSLING
21st Century Literature from the World
ABM 2
February 15, 2019

The Symbolism of the Conch

For centuries philosophers have debated the question of whether man is innately evil. William Golding poses

this question in his realistic novel Lord of the Flies. Set on a tropical island during World War II, the novel begins when

schoolboys from Great Britain are being flown to safety and their plane is shot down. No adults survive, and the boys are left to

govern themselves and get rescued. William Golding uses symbolism in the form of the conch to represents the concept of

society. The boys’ evolving relationship with the conch illustrates Golding’s theme that humans, when removed from the

pressures of civilized authority, will become evil.

In the beginning, the boys view the conch as an important symbol that unites them and gives them the power

to deal with their difficult situation. When the conch is first found and blown, it brings everyone together: “Ralph found his

breath and blew a series of short blasts. Piggy exclaimed, ‘There’s one!’” (Golding 16). Here Piggy observes one boy emerging

from the jungle but soon boys conform all around. Each comes for his own reason: some for plain curiosity, other for the

prospect of rescue. They all form the first assembly thanks to the conch. The first job of this assembly is to unite even further

and choose a leader or chief. Once again the conch plays an important part. It is Ralph who is chosen to be chief, and the main
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reason for this is because he holds the conch. When it is put to a vote, the boys exclaim, “Him with the shell. Ralph! Ralph! Let

him be chief with the trumpet-thing” (Golding 21). Because Ralph possesses the conch, a symbol of power and authority, he is

chosen chief. Thus, at first the conch is an important object bringing civilizing influences to the boys as they work together to

make the best of a bad situation.

Gradually, however, the conch becomes less important to the boys, signifying their gradual turn to evil. When

the boys first start a fire on top of the mountain, Piggy holds the conch and attempts to speak. But Jack rebukes him by saying,

“The conch doesn’t count on top of the mountain, so you shut up” (Golding 39). Boys like Jack begin to place limitations on the

conch and lose respect for it and one another. Then one day at an assembly, Jack places even less importance on the conch

excluding more of the boys and thus diminishing the democratic order and authority that the conch provides. He says, “We

don’t need the conch any more. We know who ought to say thins…It’s time some people knew they’ve got to keep quiet and

leave deciding things to the rest of us” (Golding 92). Jack’s assertion here clearly connects the demise of the conch to a change

in the social order. Jack is slowly becoming a power-hungry dictator, and we wee the orderly influence of the conch replaced by

man’s evil impulses.

In the end, the conch loses significance to all but Piggy, and most of the boys turn into evil savages. Piggy

tells Ralph to call an assembly, and Ralph only laughs. Finally, after Piggy’ glasses are stolen, he tells Ralph, “Blow the conch,

blow as loud as you can.” The forest reechoed; and birds lifted, crying out of the treetops, as on that first morning ages ago”

(Golding 154). Piggy believes that the authority of the conch will once again bring the boys together, but only four boys meet in

this assembly. The rest have joined Jack’s savage tribe. The goal of their last assemble is to get Piggy’s glasses back form

Jack. Therefore, the assembly moves to Castle Rock where Roger, the torturer and executioner of Jack’s group, rolls a boulder

off the mountain and puts an end to the conch and its one true supporter:

The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow form chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand

white fragments and ceased to exist. Piggy, saying nothing, with no time for even a grunt,

traveled through the air sideways form the rock, turning over as he went…Piggy fell forty feet

and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea. His head opened and stuff came

out and turned red. (Golding 164-165)

It is fitting here that the destruction of the conch accompanies the boys’ first intentional act of murder on the

island. Thus their final descent into evil is complete. Now, with the authority of the conch destroyed, Jack’s group is given

license to become total savages. The next day, they would hut Ralph to kill him, thus leaving behind the civilizing influences of

the conch forever.

Golding uses the conch shell to show the slow slide of the boys into savagery, thereby exemplifying the

theme that humans have the capability to turn evil. At first, the conch brings everyone together; then, as its power erodes, the

group breaks into two. Finally, the destruction of the conch signals the plunge into total savagery. By following the role of the

conch in the story, we see how Golding uses it to unify the central events of the story around his theme of inevitable evil.

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 9

Golding is an artist, not a philosopher, but through his art he answers the question debated for centuries by philosophers: Is man

innately evil? According to Lord of the Flies, he is.

Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: The Putnam Publishing Group, 1954.

**This guide has been adapted from “A Guide to Writing the Literary Analysis Essay” at: http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/pusdrbhs/academics/english/curriculum/
literaryguide.pdf

FORMAT

REMEMBER: A literary analysis is an opinion-based type of essay

that makes a point about a work of literature – usually a poem or short
story, though longer works and nonfiction can be used too. Typically, a
literary analysis makes a point about a literary work, then supports that
point by discussing the work’s literature elements (e.g. irony,
symbolism, and point of view), main themes, and implied ideas that are
not necessarily apparent within the literature itself.

FOR YOUR ANALYSIS on the novel Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Paper Size: Letter (short)
Font: Times New Roman, Size: 12
Margin: 1” All sides
Write your name, subject, section, date of submission
(follow the format in the sample essay analysis)
Use MLA format for citations
Send your Analysis to my email : copilingriona@yahoo.com
Deadline of Submission: February 17, 2019

*** To outline your analysis, use the Literary Analysis Graphic

Organizer
*** Be guided with the Rubric

LITERARY ANALYSIS: A REFERENCE SHEET//MODIFIED BY RBCOPILING SOURCES: PHCC WRITING CENTER HTTP://POWAYUSD.SDCOE.K12.CA.US/PUSDRBHS