Literary Analysis Paper

Instructions

The requirements for this essay are 2-3 pages, double-spaced, proper MLA formatting and citation, and to choose a work of fiction – story, novel, audiobook – that you can analyze for a specific message the author is trying to send and how the author attempts to portray that message through literary techniques.

essentially, you want to look for an overriding theme in your story and ask yourself questions like: What is the genre? Who are the characters? Who is the author and what in their biography might clue you in to why they wrote the story or what message they’re trying to send? What is the purpose of the text? In order to help you understand the ways the author uses literary devices and structures to effectively portray their message (or theme) to their audience.

It is VERY important that you focus more on analysis than summary for this essay. Do not spend the entire essay summarizing the text; instead, offer a sentence or two of context for each main idea and then spend the rest of your time providing examples and analyzing those examples.

The story that was chosen to be analyzed was “Who moved my cheese?” by Spencer johnson