MASTER MIND of Literary Analysis

In literature, you will learn how to analyse novels, short stories, poems and plays.

How are you going to analyse them? What will you use? Are there any special tools needed to start your analysis?

LITERARY ELEMENT 

 This is what you need in your analysis.

Literary Element consists of :

• Synopsis
• Synopsis tells you what the story is all about, but it only involves the general idea of the story. There will be no specific storyline stated in synopsis. 

• Theme(s)
• It describes the main or central idea of the short stories/novels/poems/plays.
• It should be stated as a generalization of life, for instance, if the story is about a poor young man who faces a lot of obstacles and manages to succeed in life, the theme of this story would be 'Determination is the key to success'
• Note : Theme should be stated in a sentence.

•   Plot
• Consists of Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution.
• Exposition - It provides the introduction of the characters and the settings of the story to the readers. This will help to attract the readers' attention and encourage them to keep reading the story.
• Rising Action - It introduces the conflicts faced by the main characters in the story.
• Climax - This is where the conflict is at its peak. The readers will understand more about the core of the conflicts at this stage.
• Falling Action - At this stage, the readers will be exposed to the solution of the conflicts.
• Resolution - It indicates the end of the story, some stories might have sad endings, and some might have happy endings.

•  Character(s)
• Characters can be divided into two, major and minor characters.
• Major characters are characters that play important parts in the story, while minor characters are characters that support the main characters.

• Settings
• There are Time Setting, Social Setting, and Place Setting
• Time setting explains about when the story takes place, in what year and at what time, for instance.
• Social setting tells the readers about the characteristics of the society in the story. For example, in the play 'Gulp and Gasp', written by John Townsend, it can be seen that the society in the play is greedy for power and wealth.

• Moral Value(s)
• Most of the literary works consist of moral values, thus, the readers will be able to obtain something beneficial while reading and learning them.

CONCLUSION : Now that you already knew all the literary elements, hopefully you will be able to use them in analysing any kind of literary texts given to you in class.