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A literary analysis essay is an academic type of paper which analyzes a particular literary work or a certain aspect of a literary piece. In essence, it looks into a big idea or theme of a literary piece you have read.
If you are registered for a literature course, you will be supposed to analyze specific literature in writing. The problem is that most professors assign to write a literary essay without even elucidating the essence of it which often results in multiple mistakes.
The Purpose of a Literary Analysis Essay
When tackling a literary essay, you should keep in mind that it has a fixed format. Additionally, you need to observe an adequate style of paper. Dealing with a literary essay boils down to just reading the assigned literature and hammering out an essay that would produce a powerful effect on your professor.
The aim of a literary analysis essay is to display that you have thoroughly examined and analyzed a piece of literature from different angles. But firstly, you need to be fully aware of the term analysis. In fact, it means taking a particular literary work to pieces, and analyzing how their features create the overall impression.
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For instance, Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is extremely effusive in different reviews available on the Internet. You should mind that they are all too personal. Your literary essay may contain your own perception of this book but at the same time, you should concentrate on the analysis of all components of the book and provide an in-depth analysis of it.
While reading, you can perceive a piece of literature from various perspectives. When reading for pleasure, your attention will be drawn mostly to the emotions visualizations of the events and characters. However, when reading a book with the aim of an in-depth analysis, you will be more methodical towards it. In particular, you will pay attention to the following elements:
- Subject
- Form
- Style
- The relationship between form and content
- The relationship between the main plot and the subplot
- Characters’ merits and demerits
- Storyline strong and weak points
What Should a Literary Analysis Essay Contain?
When students are not aware of how to deal with a literary essay, they always resort to free writing. However, it is one of the biggest mistakes since this type of paper does not presuppose writing anything that crops up in your mind about the book. Your literary analysis essay should have a good structure and contain specific elements that will ensure that your paper can be qualified as an analysis:
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- A specific topic which will be based on the central idea you want to put across.
- A central thesis statement which gives the readers an insight into what your paper will be all about. In a way, by means of this statement, you set forth the main point of your essay. Every single sentence in your literary essay will resonate with this idea.
- An introductory part, body, and conclusion – it is the classic structure of an academic paper. The literary analysis is not an exception. What differentiates s literary essay different from all the other academic papers is that it is not obligatory for you to observe the 5-paragraph format. If you want to provide more details in your body, you can include as many paragraphs as you want unless your professor sets requirements for the length of your paper.
Conclusion
The literary analysis is definitely not a piece of cake. However, with avid interest in the assigned book and your acute analytical and intellectual capacities, you will surely tackle this sort of academic paper.
