Examining Growth in my Analysis of Literature

My process for analyzing literature before this class was limited to some of the basics like theme and character development, with the occasional reference to an author’s diction or use of symbolism. English 251 has helped me to increase my knowledge of literature to be able to analyze literature in a more patterned, structural way than I could before. I begin with the genre, and then take a look at the plot, character, setting, the way it’s narrated, and look to see how these tools are used to advance the story or give it a deeper meaning. I look at formal analysis, and how the way the story is set up and organized contributes to its meaning or quality as a work overall. All of these things contribute to help me as a reader look and analyze the work of other authors to help me become more like a full-fledged literary critic.

In one of my first blog posts about the short film “The Silent Child,” you can see that my ability to read or watch a work and analyze it still has a lot of room to improve. In my analysis, I only focus on two main things, which were the visuals and sound effects of one of my favorite powerful scenes, and the development of the characters as their relationships with each other grew. While these two things are important, I spend way too much time with a laser focus on these two points and never mention anything like the genre, plot, setting, and how these were crucial in establishing the mood of the film that eventually won it an Oscar. After reviewing this post, I realize that if you want to successfully analyze a piece of writing or a film production like this one, you need to consider all of the possible aspects, not just the ones that were obvious or that spoke out to you.

In a more recent blog post of mine, titled, “Angels and Demons: How is our Poetry Really Written?” I think that you can begin to see how I improved on many of the things mentioned above. While this post was more of a draft of my paper to come, I already do a better job of including a greater variety of analysis, and I also include a claim, which is absolutely necessary in successfully analyzing a piece of literature. After we learned about the necessary steps of writing a successful thesis statement, I believe that helped my ability to analyze grow because I began to look for arguable claims about the author’s work in new ways. By learning about the new ways to analyze literature and breaking it down into a step-by-step process I can follow, I am able to find and make stronger claims and give more support in my literary analysis and provide stronger arguments than I could before.