How to Write a Paper or Essay - Imagery

All stories have some kind of imagery. Imagery is the descriptive or figurative language that authors use to create a mental image or picture in the readers' minds. (Figurative language includes literary tools such as similes and metaphors - we'll discuss them more next week).

Imagery is a very powerful tool in an author's arsenal, and as such, it's a great tool to discuss when writing a literary analysis. Here are some things to think about when discussing the imagery in a literary work:

• What are some examples of imagery in the work?
• Are there recurring images? What do they mean?
• for instance, say there are images of water throughout a book; streams, lakes, rivers, rain falling, waterfalls, a cup of water being tipped over and trickling off a table, spilling drip by drip onto the floor, echoing the drip, drip of the MC's blood as it flows from his body - what might be the purpose of these images? What does the water represent? (this is getting a bit into symbolism, which often goes hand in hand with imagery). Why are there so many watery images in the story?
• Does the descriptive and figurative language used by the author work well in creating the intended image? Is it too overdone, creating something more amusing than powerful? Would another description or image have worked better or worse?
• What are the most important examples of imagery in the story?
• How do these images relate to the main theme of the book? Do they help enhance the point the author is trying to make? Why or why not?

You could focus on one main image (like our water example) or discuss several instances of imagery in the work you are analyzing. But in each case, discuss the importance of the imagery. Don't just point it out, giving the reader the WHAT...give us the WHY. Why are these images important? Why are they in the book? Why did the author use that particular image? What sort of picture does the imagery paint and does it work better or worse than another might? Why or why not?

How To Write An Essay or Paper - The Author

Sorry for the long break. Had a bit of a fiasco with the move, but things are slowly getting back to normal.

So! On to our essays!

Another aspect to look at when analyzing a literary work is the author. As a writer, I can tell you that a lot of the author bleeds into their work, whether they intend it to or not. So by taking a look at the author, you can sometimes get a deeper glimpse into the story.

Some things you can question might be:

• What is the author's background?
• Where did they grow up?
• What were their experiences?
• What did they study in college?
• What are their beliefs?
• Where is their favorite vacation spot? (and other personal tidbits)
• What are their political views?
  
• What is their education and career background?
• What is their family like?

For example, I once wrote an essay analyzing the poem To Althea, from Prison, by Richard Lovelace. I dissected it for evidence of his political leanings. Lovelace was a Cavalier, a Royalist - he spent a lot of time in prison because he was loyal to his king. The poem is full of Cavalier imagery; specifically the love of women, wine, and king. I went through and discussed the imagery and symbolism and all that fun stuff, but the main point of my paper was that the author's background was the reason behind everything he was saying in the poem.

Taking a look at the author can give you a much deeper insight into their work.

How To Write an Essay or Paper - Tone

Moving on with our literary tools for analysis - let's take a look at tone.

source

The relevant dictionary definition for tone is: The sound of a person's voice, expressing a feeling or mood; (or) the general character of something.

Now, obviously, when talking about literature, the tone isn't a literal, audible sound (unless read aloud). But the concept is the same. The tone of the piece expresses the mood of it and the meaning behind it. The tone of something can put quite a different spin on its meaning. For example, look at the sentence:

She's lame.

Said (or read) with a serious or sad tone, this would mean that the person in question is disabled or injured. With a sarcastic, snide, or mean tone, it would be an insult.

So, when analyzing a piece of literature, see if you can determine the tone of the story or a particular scene. Is it:

• serious?
• saracastic or tongue-in-cheek?
  
• sad?
• excited or happy?
  
• toneless? (a simple narration of facts with no clue as to the meaning behind the words)

Then analyze what the tone does for the piece:

• Does it lighten the mood?
• Make the scene more serious?
• Create drama or tension?
• Create a sense of mystery or danger?
  
• Does the tone affect or influence the reader?
• Or maybe purposely, by lack of tone, not influence the reader in any way?
  
• Would a different tone have worked better?
• Why or why not?

 Go through the piece in question and see what the tone does - try reading lines in different tones and see how it works. What does it do? How does it work? And be sure to back up your statements with outside sources :)

How To Write an Essay or Paper - Settings

The literary analysis is a type of essay or paper that every student will be asked to write at some point in their educational career. In fact, it is probably the most common type of assignment - at least in classes that involve literature.

Simply put, a literary analysis analyzes a piece of literature. Well, I suppose that is pretty obvious :)

But what types of things should you look at when writing a literary analysis? 

You've got your piece of literature, you know you are supposed to analyze it, but what in the world do you talk about?

While there are many ways of going about this, one of the best ways is to analyze different aspects of the book by looking at the literary tools the author has utilized.

What are these tools? 

They include things such as settings, characters, plot, imagery, symbolism and allegories, tone, point of view, and things like metaphors and similies (figurative language).

For today, we'll take a look at Settings. Now, some stories have more pronounced settings than others. In some books, the setting is more of a subtle background, the stage on which the actors play, while in others, the setting is almost a character in and of itself. Either way, the setting is a very important part of a story and as such, is a literary tool that is worthy of exploration.

Say you are asked to write a literary analysis of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Some questions you may want to consider when analyzing the setting of this book are:

• What is the time period? Would this story have worked better set in a different time?
• What is the location? Would the story have worked better elsewhere? Are several locations used in the story? Do they work? Would a specific scene have worked better in another setting? If all the scenes are set in the same location, would the story have worked better set in several different locations?
  
• What season is the story set in? If it is set in winter, would it be better set in summer? Does the season echo what is happening in the story? (example: Do the love scenes occur in the summer while the trial occurs in the winter, or vice versa?)
• What time of day is it when important events in the story take place? Do the sinister things happen at night while the happy things happen during the day? Why do you think this is? 

While the setting may seem like a simple part of the story, it can actually have a huge impact on what is going on. The events detailed in The Scarlet Letter either wouldn't have happened or would have happened in a very different way with a very different outcome if the story had been set someplace like the farthest frontier outpost or an indian village or in the southern states...even during the same time period.

The setting of a story, not just the physical location but everything about it (time of day, season, outside (forest or beach) or inside (and what type of building if inside)) can greatly impact the success of a story. Thoroughly exploring this literary tool can be a great start to your literary analysis.