Reading Comprehension - How to Analyze a Literary Passage

Whole lecture is in the video

Introduction

Analyzing

Analyzing literature is much like reading directions to locate someplace. First, you deal literature passage by reading it once for comprehension.

• Does it make sense as a whole?
• Do you understand the events that lead from the beginning to the middle to the end - the basic plot?
• Are there important parts of the puzzling passage that you need to recognize?

Observe and analyze mood and tone of a scene or character intention or motivation in a specific moment.

Paint a clear portrait in your head through story comprehension and personal interpretation Gather all of the information to create an analytical statement about the piece as a whole.

Comprehension

You know what comprehension means. You read a literary work once to figure out how all of the basic parts fit together as a story. Essentially, it's the basic understanding of:

• Composition
• Characters
• Plot of the whole passage

You think you can do this? Let's practice. For this exercise, we are going to keep things simple with a short version of everyone's favorite, 'The Tortoise and The Hare':

The Tortoise and the Hare

Step Four - Setting Analysis

Step Five - Character Analysis

Step Six - Plot Analysis

Step Seven - Author Style and Language Analysis

What about our beloved story here? Well, let's go through these ones by one.

Point-of-view

Third person omniscient means that the narrator sees the thoughts and feelings of all characters. Third-person limited is when the thoughts and feelings of only one character are revealed.

Imagery

This is the use of language to create vivid images or pictures in the reader's mind. Do we find this in 'the Tortoise and the Hare?' Nope. This story is rather short and gets to the point. Not many vivid images.

Symbolism and other literary devices

Here's where you have to be familiar with the rest of your literary devices. One that immediately jumps out at the reader involves the animals talking to each other - 'personification.'

What's the point of examining all this? It creates a more vivid picture for the reader while taking a close look at language and author choice. These are important steps that lead to final analysis.

Drawing Conclusions

In the final analysis stage, you, the reader, must consider all of the elements previously examined in order to draw conclusions.