A thesis for a literary analysis must be persuasive in nature.
A formula for the most basic analysis thesis could look something like this:
In (title), (author's name) uses (1st literary device), (2nd literary device), and (3rd literary device) to (analyze/criticize/explain/etc.) (some aspect of human nature).
In "If you Were Coming in the Fall," Emily Dickinson uses simile, diction, and syntax to describe how people wait, hoping to fall in love.
LITERARY ELEMENTS
A literary analysis should focus on one or a combination of the following major literary elements:
Theme - but never alone! Only how it is brought out through use of other techniques.
What message about life and/or people is the author trying to convey?
CONFLICT
Conflict – internal? external? Who’s involved?
Person vs. person
Person vs. him/herself
Person vs. society
Person vs. nature
What does the conflict(s) reveal about the theme?
CHARACTERIZATION
Characterization:
Direct characterization: the author tells the reader directly about a character.
Indirect characterization: revealed through dialogue, character’s own thoughts, actions, thoughts of others, physical description.
Consider why that character is important in the story. How is s/he used to develop the theme?
SETTING
Define the setting (time and place of story).
What does the setting reveal about the theme? Is the author commenting upon the time period in which the story is set?
SYMBOLISM
Symbolism – objects, actions, descriptions, characters can all represent deeper ideas
Analyze the choice of symbols and what they are meant to symbolize or reveal.
Quotes must be smoothly integrated into a sentence of your own. Without quotations marks, the reader should not be able to tell where your words end and the quoted words begin.
Contextualize quotes by providing the context and speaker (if quoting dialogue):
When he hears her answer, Jessup “flies off the handle” and tells her to “Get lost!” (94).
