Interpreting Theme and Writing a Literary Criticism

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Interpreting Theme and Writing a Literary
Criticism

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Theme Defined

• A central idea or truth that a work of
  literature expresses
• A comment that a work of literature makes on the
  human condition

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Theme Versus Subject

• Subject what a work is about. It can usually
  be expressed in one word. For example, Love
  is a subject of Romeo and Juliet.
• Theme What does the work say about the
  subject? It should be a complete sentence or
  statement. For example, In Romeo and Juliet, we
  learn that adolescent romance can be a stronger
  force than family ties.

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Theme must go beyond the book

• To be a true theme, the truth or comment must
  apply to people or to life in general, not just
  the characters in the book. For example, In
  Beauty and the Beast, Belle learns that true
  beauty comes from within, only applies to the
  story. Instead, express the theme like this
  In Beauty and the Beast, we learn through Belle
  and the beast that true beauty comes from
  within.

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Themes must be supported!

• Just because works can have multiple themes, it
  does not mean that the theme can be anything that
  you want.
• In order for a theme to be justified, there must
  be specific, concrete evidence from the text.
  For example, if your potential theme statement is
  that Poverty creates tough, self-reliant
  people, then the book should contain examples of
  poor characters who develop toughness and
  self-reliance.

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Finding the theme

• Asking questions
• What is the subject?
• What does the book say, or teach us, about the
  subject?
• How does the work communicate the theme? In
  other words, what specific details, characters,
  actions, incidents, etc, suggest the truth of the
  theme statement?

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Possible Theme Questions

• Questions about the nature of humanity
• Does the author think that humans are good or
  flawed?
• What good things do people do?
• How are people flawed?
• To what extent are people flawed?

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Questions about Society

• Does the society help people or hurt them?
• Are characters in conflict with society?
• Do characters want to escape the society?
• Is the society flawed?
• If so, how?

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Questions about humans and the world

• Do characters control their lives? Do they make
  free choices?
• Are characters driven by forces beyond their
  control?
• Does the world have some grand scheme, or is it
  random and arbitrary?

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Questions about Ethics

• What are the moral conflicts in the work?
• Are right and wrong clear cut in the story?
• Does right win over wrong, or vice versa?
• To what extent are characters to blame for their
  actions.

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Sample Theme Statements

• The theme of The Old Man and the Sea is that
  striving, struggling, and suffering are the only
  ways to achieve victory.
• In My Antonia, Willa Cather demonstrates that
  the land is what makes people happy and
  fulfilled.
• In Lord of the Flies, William Golding suggests
  that a democracy is better than a dictatorship.

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Writing a Literary Criticism

• Identifying the theme of a piece is a very
  important part of writing a literary criticism.
• Criticism does not mean that the critic is trying
  to find flaws in a piece.
• Criticism means that we are identifying what
  works well and what does not work so well.
• Generally, literary criticism examines the theme
  and shows what devices an author uses to develop
  the theme and explains how well those devices
  work.

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Writing a Literary Criticism

• Critics examine the works
• Intention
• Method
• Effectiveness
• Value
• Criticisms will often look at certain stock
  questions as a function of their organization.

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The Five Critical Questions

• What does the work say?
• What does the work mean?
• How does the work communicate its meaning?
• How well does the work communicate its meaning?
• Is the work worthwhile?

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The First Critical Question

• What does the work say?
• This is the simplest of the five critical
  questions
• For prose it means that the reviewer will outline
  the plot (use only a few sentences and avoid
  giving away important details).
• For poetry this is sometimes more difficult
  because poetry will often engage emotions so that
  we may miss some of what is said.
• Here is where we discuss the surface
  communication who, what, where, when, why, how.

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The Second Critical Question

• What does the work mean?
• Answering the first question really only gives us
  a partial understanding of a piece.
• Often an authors intended meaning is different
  from what the piece seems to be saying.
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
• Authors often use irony as is done in the above
  examples.

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The Second Critical Question

• What does the work mean?
• As we look to answer this question, we must look
  for nuances in style and meaning.
• Four types of meaning
• Paraphrasable content (especially in poetry)
• The Feeling (especially in poetry--its appeal to
  senses and emotion through style imagery,
  sensory impression, etc.)
• Tone
• Intention

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The Third Critical Question

• How does the work communicate?
• This question refers to the specific techniques
  that the author uses to get the meaning across.
• Answering this question in a literary criticism
  requires specific textual support to show how the
  author uses the techniques which are explained.
• There are many, many ways that an author can
  communicate his meaning or intention.
• The development of this part of a criticism
  (especially coupled with the fourth question) is
  often the largest part of any criticism.

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Some Typical Literary Devices

• Limited characters and simplified setting to show
  real world problems
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• Extending a situation until it becomes ridiculous
  (satire)
• Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
• Symbolism
• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
• Characters stand for various points of view
• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
• Setting as a comment on events
• Death of a Salesmen by Arthur Miller (the
  high-rise apartments surrounding Willys house as
  a comment on Willys life and values.

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Some Typical Literary Devices

• Parallel Action
• The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
• A character as authors spokesperson
• Stage Manager in Our Town by Thornton Wilder
• Continuing current trends into the future
• 1984 by George Orwell
• Understating the situation to heighten readers
  interpretation
• The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
• Irony
• Contents of the Dead Mans Pockets, The Great
  Gatsby, The Gift of the Magi

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Some Typical Literary Devices

• Causing the reader to identify with a character
  to relate to that character
• Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield
• Using news articles, letters, telegrams, diaries,
  and even his own comments
• In The Chronicles of Narnia there is a narrator
  who interjects his own ideas into the action.
• Changing style to show subtle changes in attitude
• In Cry, the Beloved Country the style is simple
  and rhythmic when the action is in the primitive
  country but rapid and more complex when it moves
  to the cities.

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Some Typical Literary Devices

• Showing two or more courses of action and their
  results
• Macbeth and Banquo hear the witches prophesies,
  and Macbeth acts while Banquo does not. Macduff
  separates himself from any of the evil.
• Using allegory
• Animal Farm, Gullivers Travels
• Repeating a significant event, symbol, scene
• The idea of the house and perfect love
  (Cinderella) in The House on Mango Street by
  Sandra Cisneros

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Some Typical Literary Devices

• Having characters unintentionally give themselves
  away
• Iago in Othello by William Shakespeare
• Guilt by Association
• More than half of the American colonists were
  opposed to war with England in 1776, until Ben
  Franklin published a letter which linked a
  British officer with a plan to pay Native
  Americans for childrens scalps.

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The Fourth Critical Question

• How well does the work communicate?
• We must recognize the elements and devices of a
  writers style and understand why he has used
  them before we can judge how successful his
  methods are and why it is or isnt effective.
• These judgments are subjectivethey depend upon
  our personal response to the work.
• Opinions and emotional reactions must be based
  upon specific devices and techniques in the piece
  itself.

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The Fourth Critical Question

• How well does the work communicate?
• There is often comparison of the techniques in
  one work to the techniques in another to show the
  effectiveness of those techniques.
• Any opinions or ideas that a critic presents in
  answering this question must be supported by
  textual evidence that is presented as he answers
  this question or a previous question.

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The Fifth Critical Question

• Is the work worthwhile?
• To answer this question, we determine if the
  piece has value.
• Does the piece have an interesting plot, bring
  pleasure, expand knowledge, provide new insight,
  inspire action, have a unique style, etc?
• This part of a criticism does not often require
  much space in the criticism, but it does require
  that the ideas are supported by the text.

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Lets look at some criticism.

• Original work The Grave by Katherine Anne
  Porter
• Criticism An Analysis of The Grave