How Does Literature Mean What It Means

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How Does Literature Mean What It Means?
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Mary Had a Little Lamb What Does It Mean?

• Marys Lamb
• Mary had a little lamb,Its fleece was
  white as snowAnd everywhere that Mary went,The
  lamb was sure to go.It followed her to school
  one dayThat was against the ruleIt made the
  children laugh and playTo see a lamb at school.
• And so the teacher turned it out,But still
  it lingered near,And waited patiently about
• Till Mary did appear.

• And then he ran to her and laid
• His head upon her arm,
• As if he said, Im not afraid
• Youll keep me from all harm.
• "Why does the lamb love Mary so?"The eager
  children cry."Why, Mary loves the lamb, you
  know,"The teacher did reply.
• And you each gentle animal
• In confidence may bind,
• And make them follow at your call
• If you are always kind.
• Sarah Josepha Hale

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How to Figure Out Anything, Even Your Friends
The Set Analysis

• If you complete a set analysis chart, the secret
  of whatever youre analyzing will be yours!
• Yes, its called a Set Analysis, and I will be
  asking you to do this often.
• The idea comes from a workshop given by Marie
  Ponsot and Rosemary Dean. They based their
  approach on a technique developed by Kenneth
  Burke. I have expanded upon these ideas.
• One of the best things about this is that you can
  construct meaningful meanings for yourself that
  you can check for accuracy. Works of value
  always have multiple meanings. Just like your
  friends!

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Part I Scene

• This is one of the easy ones. Decide where and
  when the action is occurring. In other words,
  provide a setting, even if the detail clues are
  sort of sketchy.
• What is the SCENE of Mary Had a Little Lamb?
• Write this down in your notebook. Be prepared to
  share your responses.

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Part 2 Action

• This is usually just one word long. It names the
  main action of the work in question. It doesnt
  have to be a word from the text.
• Always write this as an ing word.
• What is the ACTION of Mary Had a Little Lamb?
• Write this in you notebook and be prepared to
  share.

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Part 3 Agent

• Name who is doing the action.
• Do not use the word author. Identify the exact
  agent as best you can. Sometimes the best you
  can do is the speaker.
• Who is the AGENT in Mary Had a Little Lamb?
• Write this in you notebook and be prepared to
  share.

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Part 4 Agency

• This is going to be a rather long list (try for
  at least 5 items).
• Answer the question, How is the action being
  completed?
• Its crucial in this section to use the exact
  diction of the work in question, altering it only
  by adding ing when necessary and prefacing each
  entry with the word by. Sometimes you might
  have to add a few of your own words before by and
  the ing word. Its just important to make sure
  you have used a few words from the text.
  Sometimes you might have to add the word not.
  Just make sure to use some of the exact diction.
• What are the AGENCIES in Mary Had a Little
  Lamb?
• Write these out in your notebook and be prepared
  to share.

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Part 5 Purpose

• Answer the question, For what reason or end is
  the action done?
• You must use an exact quoted detail from the work
  in question, usually one phrase or one sentence.
• The purpose is the purpose of the agent, not the
  purpose of the author.
• Preface the phrase or sentence with the word
  to.
• What is the purpose of Mary Had a Little Lamb?
• Write this in your notebook and be prepared to
  share your response.

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The Point-of-View, or Meaning, Sentence

• Review the set analysis that youve constructed
  and then use the following format to construct a
  meaning sentence
• In name of work by author, the author
  develops the meaning that your point of view.

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So, What Is the Meaning of Mary Had a Little
Lamb?

• Maybe you have something that looks like this
• Your meaning sentence might look like this
• In the poem Mary Had a Little Lamb by
  Sarah Josepha Hale, the author develops the
  meaning that we can only intensely love those who
  make us feel safe.

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Heres One to Try

• In the Well
• Andrew Hudgins
• My father cinched the rope,a noose around
  my waist,and lowered me intothe darkness. I
  could taste
• my fear. It tasted firstof dark, then
  earth, then rot.I swung and struck my headand
  at that moment got
•  

• another then then blood,which spiked my
  mouth with iron.Hand over hand, my
  fatherdropped me from then to then
• then water. Then wet fur,which I hugged to
  my chest.I shouted. Daddy hauledthe wet rope. I
  gagged, and pressed
• my neighbor's missing dogagainst me. I
  held its deathand rose up to my father.Then
  light. Then hands. Then breath.

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Heres Another

• Design
• Robert Frost.
• I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,On
  a white heal-all, holding up a mothLike a white
  piece of rigid satin cloth--Assorted characters
  of death and blightMixed ready to begin the
  morning right,Like the ingredients of a witches'
  broth--A snow-drop spider, a flower like a
  froth,And dead wings carried like a paper
  kite.What had that flower to do with being
  white,The wayside blue and innocent
  heal-all?What brought the kindred spider to that
  height,Then steered the white moth thither in
  the night?What but design of darkness to
  appall?--If design govern in a thing so small.

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And Yet Another

• Fallen sick on a journey,In dreams I run
  wildlyOver a withered moor.
• A haiku by Basho

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Wow! Another One!

• Immortality
• Lisel Mueller
• In Sleeping Beauty's castlethe clock
  strikes one hundred yearsand the girl in the
  tower returns to theworld.So do the servants in
  the kitchen,who don't even rub their eyes.The
  cook's right hand, liftedan exact century
  ago,completes its downward arcto the kitchen
  boy's left earthe boy's tensed vocal
  cordsfinally let gothe trapped, enduring
  whimper,and the fly, arrested mid-plungeabove
  the strawberry pie,fulfills its abiding
  missionand dives into the sweet, red glaze.

• As a child I had a bookwith a picture of
  that scene.I was too young to noticehow fear
  persists, and howthe anger that causes fear
  persists,that its trajectory can't be changedor
  broken, only interrupted.My attention was on the
  flythat this slight bodywith its transparent
  wingsand lifespan of one human daystill craved
  its particular shareof sweetness, a century
  later.

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Heres Just One More! I Promise!

• The Death of Santa Claus
• Charles Webb
• He's had the chest pains for weeks,but
  doctors don't make housecalls to the North Pole,
• he's let his Blue Cross lapse,blood tests make
  him faint,hospital gown always flap
• open, waiting rooms upsethis stomach, and it's
  onlyindigestion anyway, he thinks,
• until, feeding the reindeer,he feels as if a
  monster fisthas grabbed his heart and won't
• stop squeezing. He can'tbreathe, and the
  beautiful whiteworld he loves goes black,
•  

• and he drops on his jelly bellyin the snow and
  Mrs. Claustears out of the toy factory
• wailing, and the elves wringtheir little hands,
  and Rudolph'snose blinks like a sad ambulance
• light, and in a tract housein Houston, Texas,
  I'm 8,telling my mom that stupid
• kids at school say Santa's a bigfake, and she
  sits with meon our purple-flowered couch,
• and takes my hand, tearsin her throat, the
  terriblenews rising in her eyes.

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So Now What?

• Basically, you just have to keep practicing and
  practicing. Try to determine the meaning of the
  following items by using a set analysis.

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Three Flags, Jasper Johns, 1958
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