English Essay Writing
Saturday, May 7th, 2011English Essay Writing: Analysing Fiction
Fiction Analysis is one of the most important assignments you will come across in your English class. English essay writing assignments range from poetry interpretation to fiction and non-fiction analysis, report writing, book reviews, among others. Interpreting literary texts could be a challenging experience if you are not aware of the features that constitute a work of literature. Let us brief you on the aspects to be taken into consideration when writing a fiction report or review.
Listed below are five essential components of fiction. You must analyse them individually and comprehensively in your English essay writing assignments.
Essential Aspects of a Text Analysis
Plot
The development of a story is commonly referred to as plot. While classic works of fiction have a streamlined plot with a definite beginning, middle and end, where the denouement is clearly justified to the reader, modern novels are constructed with varied challenges. When interpreting fiction, you must understand the plot, its development, the reasons for the twists in the story and its effects on the other aspects of a text.
Theme
Themes are the crux of any work. It is the main idea around which a story revolves. Themes are the building blocks of a novel as it adds substance and meaning to a story. Look for recurrent ideas in a work and interpret them in context to the plot. Themes of a work can also be traced by understanding the motifs, i.e, symbols, images, character development, used in a work.
Character Development
Development of characters is yet another essential element of interpretation. Many novels have character growth as one of its main themes. Genres like bildungsroman, Coming of age novels deal with the spiritual, moral and psychological growth of the protagonist and traces the development of characters amidst a crisis. When interpreting a literary work, it is thus important to take the development of characters into consideration and justify their development in the thematic context of the novel.
Narrative Structure
The manner in which a story is told depicts the underlying theme of a work. There are many narrative styles in which a story can be told- first person narration, stream of consciousness, meta narrative, among others. When analysing a text, bring forth your perspective on the author’s choice of narration, arguing whether or not the narrative structure aids in making the novel interesting.
External Factors
Text analysis could be entirely autotelic. However, to do complete justice to a work of literature, it is essential to analyse it through an external lens: historical, social, and cultural constructs. You may interpret a work by understanding it from a personal view point, or comparing and contrasting it with other similar works of literature.
When you write essay analysing a literary work, make sure you cover all the above-mentioned points. A brief overview of all the aspects of a text will help reader understand and appreciate the text better. However, if you are looking for assistance regarding writing a paper, make sure you get in touch with our essay experts.
