the narrator speaks

American Literature Study Guide

Use this study guide to help you with terms and concepts related to literature.

I. Point of View

II. Types of Essays

III. Critical Approaches for Studying Literature

IV. Literary Terms

V. Ten Steps of Poetry Analysis

I. Point of View – Point of view refers to how a story is told:

 First person narration – the “I” voice; the narrator speaks from his or her own point of

view.

 Third person narration – the “he” or “she” voice.

 Limited omniscient narration – third person narrator who presents only the inner thoughts

of one or two characters.

 Omniscient narration – third person narrator who presents the inner thoughts of ALL of

the characters, capable of describing events happening simultaneously in different places.

 Unreliable narrator – a narrator whose interpretation and evaluation do not coincide with

the implicit beliefs and norms of the values held by the author or reader.

 Reliable narrator – a narrator who is trustworthy, who offers a mainly unbiased account

of the events.

II. Types of Essays

 Reflective essay – an essay in which the writer ponders ideas and offers reflections about

one or more topics. A reflective essay can have a personal tone.

 Compare and Contrast essay – an essay in which a writer discusses the similarities and

differences between two works.

 Analysis essay – an essay in which the writer offers an interpretation of a work,

suggesting what possible meanings might be hidden or embedded in the work.

III. Critical Approaches for Studying Literature

 An approach to literature is defined by a reader’s focus. Below, you will see that

different approaches focus on different aspects of an author’s work:

o Formalist approach – focus on the “formal” elements of a work.

 Structure

 Tone

 Plot

 Character

 Length

 Style

o Biographical approach – use elements from the writer’s life.

 Family background

 Childhood experiences

 Major events

o Psychological approach – examine motivations and unconscious material.

 Of the author: the author may have written things without being

consciously aware of his or her motivation.

 Of the characters: the characters’ actions and personalities may reveal

their “hidden” motivation.

 Of the reader: readers may respond to a work for unconscious reasons.

o Historical approach – examine the historical context to find influences in an

author’s work.

 Economic conditions

 Cultural context

 Major events, such as war

o Feminist approach – consider issues related to women in a work.

 Language used to depict women

 Women characters

 Social conditions for women

 Depictions of motherhood

 Issues related to women writers

o Mythological approach – consider universal ideas and concepts.

 Fear and death

 Love and hope

 Seasons and cycles

 Quests and symbols

o Reader Response approach – consider the reader of a work.

 Ways in which the reader imposes assumptions upon the work due to

background and culture

 Ways in which the reader interprets a work by noticing different things

than another reader might notice

IV. Literary Terms

 Allusion – a reference to another person, place, or event stated or implied.

 Antagonist – the character or force that opposes the protagonist; sometimes the antagonist

is a storm or a situation against which the protagonist is fighting.

 Drama – a narrative involving conflict and usually designed for presentation on a stage.

 Essay – a work most often written in prose in which a topic is presented and discussed.

 Genre – a category used to describe literary works:

o Novel

o Short story

o Drama

o Essay

o Speech

o Poem

o Science Fiction

 Imagery – the visual objects and scenes included in a work; the use of language to

represent people and things descriptively. A work may have dominant types of imagery:

o nature imagery

o weather imagery

o war imagery

o fishing imagery

o technological imagery

 Irony – a humorous or sarcastic use of language of a different or opposite meaning; an

incongruity between what actually happens and what is expected to happen, especially

when this disparity seems absurd or laughable.

 Literature – the term suggests writings that are of superior quality which deal with

universal ideas.

 Metaphor – a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is imaginatively applied to a

person, idea, or object:

o She’s a peach

o That car is a work horse

o My memory is foggy

 Poem – a work written to produce auditory pleasure using sound and metrical or

patterned language.

 Protagonist – the main character in a work, though not always the hero; the protagonist

may be good or evil, but the protagonist is always the main character.

 Setting – the time, location, and social environment of a literary work.

 Short story – a brief work of prose fiction that can be read in one sitting.

 Simile – a figure of speech in which two things are compared using “like” or “as”:

o My love is like a rose

o The child is as pretty as a picture

 Stanza – An arrangement of lines grouped together in a poem

 Style – the features of a work that pertains to a writer’s choice of words.

 Theme – an idea that is central to the work.

 Tone – the mood or attitude of a work:

o Melancholy

o Lighthearted

o Serious

o Playful

o Dramatic

o Formal

o Angry

o Eerie

o Solemn

o Loving

V. Ten Steps of Poetry Analysis

Use this method as a way to approach most poems of short to average length:

 Step 1 – Read the poem out loud.

o Reading the poem out loud will help you to “hear” the sound devices the poet has

used, such as meter and rhyme

o Reading the poem out loud will help you to grasp what is happening in the poem

 Step 2 – Use the dictionary.

o Look up unfamiliar words

o Look up familiar words to refresh your understanding of them

 Step 3 – Focus on the speaker of the poem.

o Who is the speaker?

o Is the speaker male or female?

 The poet may be one gender and the speaker another gender

 Often there are no words that suggest the gender of the speaker, and you

can assume that it is probably the same gender as the writer

o Look for clues about the speaker

 The speaker’s tone

 The speaker’s age

 The speaker’s situation or conflict

 Step 4 – Focus on the audience.

o Does the speaker seem to be talking to a specific group of people, such as

children?

o Are there any words that let you know who the audience might be?

o Quite often, the audience is a general readership, but sometimes a speaker is

talking to a friend, lover, parent, or child.

 Step 5 – Identify the tone, which will relate to moods or feelings.

o Sad, melancholy, subdued

o Contemplative, thoughtful, peaceful

o Chaotic, bitter, angry

o Playful, lighthearted, joyful

 Step 6 – Identify the rhyme or lack of rhyme.

o Examine the end word in each line to see if there is a pattern of sound

o Examine words in the middle of the lines to see if there are internal rhymes

(rhymes that do not occur at the end of the line but somewhere in the middle)

o Chart the rhyme scheme using alphabetical letters.

o For the last word of the first line, use the letter “a.”

o If the last word of the second line rhymes with the last word of the first line, again

use the letter “a.”

o If the last word of the third line does not rhyme with the first and second lines, use

the letter “b.”

o If the last word of the fourth line rhymes with either the first line or the third line,

give it the same designation.

 Example:

 Whose woods these are I think I know

 His house is in the village though

 He will not see me stopping here

 To watch his woods fill up with snow

 The rhyme scheme of this stanza is aaba

 Step 7 – Focus on the stanzas.

o Does the poem have stanzas or is it one long series of lines?

o How many lines are in each stanza?

o Do you see a turning point in a particular stanza?

o If there are no defined stanzas, is there a turning point somewhere in the poem?

 Step 8 – Focus on the sounds.

o Harsh, tense sounds

o Soft, smooth sounds

o Long and short vowel sounds

o Alliteration (repetition of the first consonant)

 “Long, lovely, and lush”

o Do the sounds go along with the content of the poem?

 Is the poem angry, using harsh, tense sounds? (s, sh, z, k)

 Is the poem peaceful, using soft, smooth sounds? (l, m, n, r)

 Step 9 – Look for images and attempt to categorize them.

o Weather

o Seasonal

o Violent

o Technological

o Natural

 Step 10 – Focus on the subject of the poem.

o What is the poem about?

o Can you write out what you think the subject is in a single sentence?

o Can you tell another person what the poem is about?

After going through this process with a poem, you will understand it more clearly.