titles of literary essays

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‌How to Title an Essay with Literary Analysis Examples

How to Write a Controlling Idea Essay

You may have spent hours brainstorming your thesis, searching for quotations and polishing your final draft, but a good title can make the difference between someone reading your literary essay and tossing it aside. Good literary essay titles not only capture your reader's interest, but they also preview the argument you'll be making in the paper itself. They capture the central idea that is presented in your work, and entice the viewer to read. Creativity, humor and innovative plays on the work you're writing about can transform a dull title into one that piques your audience's curiosity.

Include the Subject and Focus

Your title should not just name the literary work that is the subject of your essay but also describe its focus , the target idea, literary device or theme that the piece explores. This is sometimes referred to as a "working title" as well, since it focuses heavily on the main part of your essay, and can remind you of your focus as you read. In an essay about morality in "To Kill a Mockingbird," for example, Harper Lee's novel would be the subject of the paper, while morality would be the essay's focus. Including the phrase "Morality in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' " somewhere in your title would clearly indicate to audiences what themes your essay will deal with. This is a more basic example of an essay title, but effective in most all cases.

Link Two Ideas With a Colon

While including the subject and focus in the title gives a good summary of your essay topic, it's not enough to pull readers in. Using a colon to punctuate the subject with a catchy explanation of the focus can not only add an air of professionalism to your paper but also give a more in-depth, eye-catching preview of your topic for readers. An essay about Holden Caulfield's painful transition to adulthood, for example, might be titled "The Precarious Edge of the Cliff: Loss of Innocence in J.D. Salinger's 'The Catcher in the Rye.' "

This title choice also allows you to present two ideas that are key parts of your essay, if you choose to. Maybe you can't decide on just one, because both are equally important. This choice would be a good tool for featuring both ideas and connecting them to each other. Displaying a longer, more developed essay title, can also give you the freedom to discuss these ideas in your essay with more detail since they are featured in the title.

Include a Quotation from the Work

Sometimes, a quotation from the book can provide inspiration for your essay's title. Try adding a brief, snappy portion of this quote to your title's focus statement. For example, the title for an essay about mother-daughter relationships in Flannery O'Connor's short stories might borrow from a quote in the story "Good Country People," in which the central character, Hulga, tells her overbearing, critical mother, "If you want me, here I am -- like I am." The title of this essay might read, "Like I Am: Mother-Daughter Dysfunction in Flannery O'Connor's Short Stories."

Use Wordplay

While the tone of your literary essay should ultimately be professional and credible, using puns or humor to play off an aspect of the title can be a friendly way to entice your audience to read further. For example, an essay about the symbolic villages of East and West Egg in "The Great Gatsby" might be titled "The Eggs Came First: Settings as Symbols in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby.' "

You can be assured your teacher, or whoever is viewing your paper, is going to sift through many boring and unoriginal essay titles, so making sure that yours will pop is important.

How to Write a Thesis Statement for "Robinson Crusoe"

How to Start a Good Book Report

How to Add Figurative Language to an Essay

How to write an essay with a thesis statement.

How to Write a Thesis Statement for a Critical Lens Essay

How to Write a Lab Report Title

How to Write Conclusions for Expository Papers

How to Write an Anecdotal Essay

Dawson College: Some Tips on Titling Your Critical Essay
Bucks County Community College: How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay

Kori Morgan holds a Bachelor of Arts in professional writing and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and has been crafting online and print educational materials since 2006. She taught creative writing and composition at West Virginia University and the University of Akron and her fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals.

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12.14: Sample Student Literary Analysis Essays

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Page ID 40514

Heather Ringo & Athena Kashyap
City College of San Francisco via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative

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The following examples are essays where student writers focused on close-reading a literary work.

While reading these examples, ask yourself the following questions:

What is the essay's thesis statement, and how do you know it is the thesis statement?
What is the main idea or topic sentence of each body paragraph, and how does it relate back to the thesis statement?
Where and how does each essay use evidence (quotes or paraphrase from the literature)?
What are some of the literary devices or structures the essays analyze or discuss?
How does each author structure their conclusion, and how does their conclusion differ from their introduction?

Example 1: Poetry

Victoria Morillo

Instructor Heather Ringo

3 August 2022

How Nguyen’s Structure Solidifies the Impact of Sexual Violence in “The Study”

Stripped of innocence, your body taken from you. No matter how much you try to block out the instance in which these two things occurred, memories surface and come back to haunt you. How does a person, a young boy , cope with an event that forever changes his life? Hieu Minh Nguyen deconstructs this very way in which an act of sexual violence affects a survivor. In his poem, “The Study,” the poem's speaker recounts the year in which his molestation took place, describing how his memory filters in and out. Throughout the poem, Nguyen writes in free verse, permitting a structural liberation to become the foundation for his message to shine through. While he moves the readers with this poignant narrative, Nguyen effectively conveys the resulting internal struggles of feeling alone and unseen.

The speaker recalls his experience with such painful memory through the use of specific punctuation choices. Just by looking at the poem, we see that the first period doesn’t appear until line 14. It finally comes after the speaker reveals to his readers the possible, central purpose for writing this poem: the speaker's molestation. In the first half, the poem makes use of commas, em dashes, and colons, which lends itself to the idea of the speaker stringing along all of these details to make sense of this time in his life. If reading the poem following the conventions of punctuation, a sense of urgency is present here, as well. This is exemplified by the lack of periods to finalize a thought; and instead, Nguyen uses other punctuation marks to connect them. Serving as another connector of thoughts, the two em dashes give emphasis to the role memory plays when the speaker discusses how “no one [had] a face” during that time (Nguyen 9-11). He speaks in this urgent manner until the 14th line, and when he finally gets it off his chest, the pace of the poem changes, as does the more frequent use of the period. This stream-of-consciousness-like section when juxtaposed with the latter half of the poem, causes readers to slow down and pay attention to the details. It also splits the poem in two: a section that talks of the fogginess of memory then transitions into one that remembers it all.

In tandem with the fluctuating nature of memory, the utilization of line breaks and word choice help reflect the damage the molestation has had. Within the first couple of lines of the poem, the poem demands the readers’ attention when the line breaks from “floating” to “dead” as the speaker describes his memory of Little Billy (Nguyen 1-4). This line break averts the readers’ expectation of the direction of the narrative and immediately shifts the tone of the poem. The break also speaks to the effect his trauma has ingrained in him and how “[f]or the longest time,” his only memory of that year revolves around an image of a boy’s death. In a way, the speaker sees himself in Little Billy; or perhaps, he’s representative of the tragic death of his boyhood, how the speaker felt so “dead” after enduring such a traumatic experience, even referring to himself as a “ghost” that he tries to evict from his conscience (Nguyen 24). The feeling that a part of him has died is solidified at the very end of the poem when the speaker describes himself as a nine-year-old boy who’s been “fossilized,” forever changed by this act (Nguyen 29). By choosing words associated with permanence and death, the speaker tries to recreate the atmosphere (for which he felt trapped in) in order for readers to understand the loneliness that came as a result of his trauma. With the assistance of line breaks, more attention is drawn to the speaker's words, intensifying their importance, and demanding to be felt by the readers.

Most importantly, the speaker expresses eloquently, and so heartbreakingly, about the effect sexual violence has on a person. Perhaps what seems to be the most frustrating are the people who fail to believe survivors of these types of crimes. This is evident when he describes “how angry” the tenants were when they filled the pool with cement (Nguyen 4). They seem to represent how people in the speaker's life were dismissive of his assault and who viewed his tragedy as a nuisance of some sorts. This sentiment is bookended when he says, “They say, give us details , so I give them my body. / They say, give us proof , so I give them my body,” (Nguyen 25-26). The repetition of these two lines reinforces the feeling many feel in these scenarios, as they’re often left to deal with trying to make people believe them, or to even see them.

It’s important to recognize how the structure of this poem gives the speaker space to express the pain he’s had to carry for so long. As a characteristic of free verse, the poem doesn’t follow any structured rhyme scheme or meter; which in turn, allows him to not have any constraints in telling his story the way he wants to. The speaker has the freedom to display his experience in a way that evades predictability and engenders authenticity of a story very personal to him. As readers, we abandon anticipating the next rhyme, and instead focus our attention to the other ways, like his punctuation or word choice, in which he effectively tells his story. The speaker recognizes that some part of him no longer belongs to himself, but by writing “The Study,” he shows other survivors that they’re not alone and encourages hope that eventually, they will be freed from the shackles of sexual violence.

Works Cited

Nguyen, Hieu Minh. “The Study” Poets.Org. Academy of American Poets, Coffee House Press, 2018, https://poets.org/poem/study-0 .

Example 2: Fiction

Todd Goodwin

Professor Stan Matyshak

Advanced Expository Writing

Sept. 17, 20—

Poe’s “Usher”: A Mirror of the Fall of the House of Humanity

Right from the outset of the grim story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Edgar Allan Poe enmeshes us in a dark, gloomy, hopeless world, alienating his characters and the reader from any sort of physical or psychological norm where such values as hope and happiness could possibly exist. He fatalistically tells the story of how a man (the narrator) comes from the outside world of hope, religion, and everyday society and tries to bring some kind of redeeming happiness to his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, who not only has physically and psychologically wasted away but is entrapped in a dilapidated house of ever-looming terror with an emaciated and deranged twin sister. Roderick Usher embodies the wasting away of what once was vibrant and alive, and his house of “insufferable gloom” (273), which contains his morbid sister, seems to mirror or reflect this fear of death and annihilation that he most horribly endures. A close reading of the story reveals that Poe uses mirror images, or reflections, to contribute to the fatalistic theme of “Usher”: each reflection serves to intensify an already prevalent tone of hopelessness, darkness, and fatalism.

It could be argued that the house of Roderick Usher is a “house of mirrors,” whose unpleasant and grim reflections create a dark and hopeless setting. For example, the narrator first approaches “the melancholy house of Usher on a dark and soundless day,” and finds a building which causes him a “sense of insufferable gloom,” which “pervades his spirit and causes an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an undiscerned dreariness of thought” (273). The narrator then optimistically states: “I reflected that a mere different arrangement of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression” (274). But the narrator then sees the reflection of the house in the tarn and experiences a “shudder even more thrilling than before” (274). Thus the reader begins to realize that the narrator cannot change or stop the impending doom that will befall the house of Usher, and maybe humanity. The story cleverly plays with the word reflection : the narrator sees a physical reflection that leads him to a mental reflection about Usher’s surroundings.

The narrator’s disillusionment by such grim reflection continues in the story. For example, he describes Roderick Usher’s face as distinct with signs of old strength but lost vigor: the remains of what used to be. He describes the house as a once happy and vibrant place, which, like Roderick, lost its vitality. Also, the narrator describes Usher’s hair as growing wild on his rather obtrusive head, which directly mirrors the eerie moss and straw covering the outside of the house. The narrator continually longs to see these bleak reflections as a dream, for he states: “Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building” (276). He does not want to face the reality that Usher and his home are doomed to fall, regardless of what he does.

Although there are almost countless examples of these mirror images, two others stand out as important. First, Roderick and his sister, Madeline, are twins. The narrator aptly states just as he and Roderick are entombing Madeline that there is “a striking similitude between brother and sister” (288). Indeed, they are mirror images of each other. Madeline is fading away psychologically and physically, and Roderick is not too far behind! The reflection of “doom” that these two share helps intensify and symbolize the hopelessness of the entire situation; thus, they further develop the fatalistic theme. Second, in the climactic scene where Madeline has been mistakenly entombed alive, there is a pairing of images and sounds as the narrator tries to calm Roderick by reading him a romance story. Events in the story simultaneously unfold with events of the sister escaping her tomb. In the story, the hero breaks out of the coffin. Then, in the story, the dragon’s shriek as he is slain parallels Madeline’s shriek. Finally, the story tells of the clangor of a shield, matched by the sister’s clanging along a metal passageway. As the suspense reaches its climax, Roderick shrieks his last words to his “friend,” the narrator: “Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door” (296).

Roderick, who slowly falls into insanity, ironically calls the narrator the “Madman.” We are left to reflect on what Poe means by this ironic twist. Poe’s bleak and dark imagery, and his use of mirror reflections, seem only to intensify the hopelessness of “Usher.” We can plausibly conclude that, indeed, the narrator is the “Madman,” for he comes from everyday society, which is a place where hope and faith exist. Poe would probably argue that such a place is opposite to the world of Usher because a world where death is inevitable could not possibly hold such positive values. Therefore, just as Roderick mirrors his sister, the reflection in the tarn mirrors the dilapidation of the house, and the story mirrors the final actions before the death of Usher. “The Fall of the House of Usher” reflects Poe’s view that humanity is hopelessly doomed.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Fall of the House of Usher.” 1839. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library . 1995. Web. 1 July 2012. < http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PoeFall.html >.

Example 3: Poetry

Amy Chisnell

Professor Laura Neary

Writing and Literature

April 17, 20—

Don’t Listen to the Egg!: A Close Reading of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”

“You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,” said Alice. “Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called ‘Jabberwocky’?”

“Let’s hear it,” said Humpty Dumpty. “I can explain all the poems that ever were invented—and a good many that haven’t been invented just yet.” (Carroll 164)

In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass , Humpty Dumpty confidently translates (to a not so confident Alice) the complicated language of the poem “Jabberwocky.” The words of the poem, though nonsense, aptly tell the story of the slaying of the Jabberwock. Upon finding “Jabberwocky” on a table in the looking-glass room, Alice is confused by the strange words. She is quite certain that “ somebody killed something ,” but she does not understand much more than that. When later she encounters Humpty Dumpty, she seizes the opportunity at having the knowledgeable egg interpret—or translate—the poem. Since Humpty Dumpty professes to be able to “make a word work” for him, he is quick to agree. Thus he acts like a New Critic who interprets the poem by performing a close reading of it. Through Humpty’s interpretation of the first stanza, however, we see the poem’s deeper comment concerning the practice of interpreting poetry and literature in general—that strict analytical translation destroys the beauty of a poem. In fact, Humpty Dumpty commits the “heresy of paraphrase,” for he fails to understand that meaning cannot be separated from the form or structure of the literary work.

Of the 71 words found in “Jabberwocky,” 43 have no known meaning. They are simply nonsense. Yet through this nonsensical language, the poem manages not only to tell a story but also gives the reader a sense of setting and characterization. One feels, rather than concretely knows, that the setting is dark, wooded, and frightening. The characters, such as the Jubjub bird, the Bandersnatch, and the doomed Jabberwock, also appear in the reader’s head, even though they will not be found in the local zoo. Even though most of the words are not real, the reader is able to understand what goes on because he or she is given free license to imagine what the words denote and connote. Simply, the poem’s nonsense words are the meaning.

Therefore, when Humpty interprets “Jabberwocky” for Alice, he is not doing her any favors, for he actually misreads the poem. Although the poem in its original is constructed from nonsense words, by the time Humpty is done interpreting it, it truly does not make any sense. The first stanza of the original poem is as follows:

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogroves,

An the mome raths outgrabe. (Carroll 164)

If we replace, however, the nonsense words of “Jabberwocky” with Humpty’s translated words, the effect would be something like this:

’Twas four o’clock in the afternoon, and the lithe and slimy badger-lizard-corkscrew creatures

Did go round and round and make holes in the grass-plot round the sun-dial:

All flimsy and miserable were the shabby-looking birds

with mop feathers,

And the lost green pigs bellowed-sneezed-whistled.

By translating the poem in such a way, Humpty removes the charm or essence—and the beauty, grace, and rhythm—from the poem. The poetry is sacrificed for meaning. Humpty Dumpty commits the heresy of paraphrase. As Cleanth Brooks argues, “The structure of a poem resembles that of a ballet or musical composition. It is a pattern of resolutions and balances and harmonizations” (203). When the poem is left as nonsense, the reader can easily imagine what a “slithy tove” might be, but when Humpty tells us what it is, he takes that imaginative license away from the reader. The beauty (if that is the proper word) of “Jabberwocky” is in not knowing what the words mean, and yet understanding. By translating the poem, Humpty takes that privilege from the reader. In addition, Humpty fails to recognize that meaning cannot be separated from the structure itself: the nonsense poem reflects this literally—it means “nothing” and achieves this meaning by using “nonsense” words.

Furthermore, the nonsense words Carroll chooses to use in “Jabberwocky” have a magical effect upon the reader; the shadowy sound of the words create the atmosphere, which may be described as a trance-like mood. When Alice first reads the poem, she says it seems to fill her head “with ideas.” The strange-sounding words in the original poem do give one ideas. Why is this? Even though the reader has never heard these words before, he or she is instantly aware of the murky, mysterious mood they set. In other words, diction operates not on the denotative level (the dictionary meaning) but on the connotative level (the emotion(s) they evoke). Thus “Jabberwocky” creates a shadowy mood, and the nonsense words are instrumental in creating this mood. Carroll could not have simply used any nonsense words.

For example, let us change the “dark,” “ominous” words of the first stanza to “lighter,” more “comic” words:

’Twas mearly, and the churly pells

Did bimble and ringle in the tink;

All timpy were the brimbledimps,

And the bip plips outlink.

Shifting the sounds of the words from dark to light merely takes a shift in thought. To create a specific mood using nonsense words, one must create new words from old words that convey the desired mood. In “Jabberwocky,” Carroll mixes “slimy,” a grim idea, “lithe,” a pliable image, to get a new adjective: “slithy” (a portmanteau word). In this translation, brighter words were used to get a lighter effect. “Mearly” is a combination of “morning” and “early,” and “ringle” is a blend of “ring” and "dingle.” The point is that “Jabberwocky’s” nonsense words are created specifically to convey this shadowy or mysterious mood and are integral to the “meaning.”

Consequently, Humpty’s rendering of the poem leaves the reader with a completely different feeling than does the original poem, which provided us with a sense of ethereal mystery, of a dark and foreign land with exotic creatures and fantastic settings. The mysteriousness is destroyed by Humpty’s literal paraphrase of the creatures and the setting; by doing so, he has taken the beauty away from the poem in his attempt to understand it. He has committed the heresy of paraphrase: “If we allow ourselves to be misled by it [this heresy], we distort the relation of the poem to its ‘truth’… we split the poem between its ‘form’ and its ‘content’” (Brooks 201). Humpty Dumpty’s ultimate demise might be seen to symbolize the heretical split between form and content: as a literary creation, Humpty Dumpty is an egg, a well-wrought urn of nonsense. His fall from the wall cracks him and separates the contents from the container, and not even all the King’s men can put the scrambled egg back together again!

Through the odd characters of a little girl and a foolish egg, “Jabberwocky” suggests a bit of sage advice about reading poetry, advice that the New Critics built their theories on. The importance lies not solely within strict analytical translation or interpretation, but in the overall effect of the imagery and word choice that evokes a meaning inseparable from those literary devices. As Archibald MacLeish so aptly writes: “A poem should not mean / But be.” Sometimes it takes a little nonsense to show us the sense in something.

Brooks, Cleanth. The Well-Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry . 1942. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1956. Print.

Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking-Glass. Alice in Wonderland . 2nd ed. Ed. Donald J. Gray. New York: Norton, 1992. Print.

MacLeish, Archibald. “Ars Poetica.” The Oxford Book of American Poetry . Ed. David Lehman. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. 385–86. Print.

Attribution

Sample Essay 1 received permission from Victoria Morillo to publish, licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International ( CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 )
Sample Essays 2 and 3 adapted from Cordell, Ryan and John Pennington. "2.5: Student Sample Papers" from Creating Literary Analysis. 2012. Licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported ( CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 )

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Introduction

You’ve been assigned a literary analysis paper—what does that even mean? Is it like a book report that you used to write in high school? Well, not really.

A literary analysis essay asks you to make an original argument about a poem, play, or work of fiction and support that argument with research and evidence from your careful reading of the text.

It can take many forms, such as a close reading of a text, critiquing the text through a particular literary theory, comparing one text to another, or criticizing another critic’s interpretation of the text. While there are many ways to structure a literary essay, writing this kind of essay follows generally follows a similar process for everyone

Crafting a good literary analysis essay begins with good close reading of the text, in which you have kept notes and observations as you read. This will help you with the first step, which is selecting a topic to write about—what jumped out as you read, what are you genuinely interested in? The next step is to focus your topic, developing it into an argument—why is this subject or observation important? Why should your reader care about it as much as you do? The third step is to gather evidence to support your argument, for literary analysis, support comes in the form of evidence from the text and from your research on what other literary critics have said about your topic. Only after you have performed these steps, are you ready to begin actually writing your essay.

Writing a Literary Analysis Essay

How to create a topic and conduct research:.

Writing an Analysis of a Poem, Story, or Play

If you are taking a literature course, it is important that you know how to write an analysis—sometimes called an interpretation or a literary analysis or a critical reading or a critical analysis—of a story, a poem, and a play. Your instructor will probably assign such an analysis as part of the course assessment. On your mid-term or final exam, you might have to write an analysis of one or more of the poems and/or stories on your reading list. Or the dreaded “sight poem or story” might appear on an exam, a work that is not on the reading list, that you have not read before, but one your instructor includes on the exam to examine your ability to apply the active reading skills you have learned in class to produce, independently, an effective literary analysis.You might be asked to write instead or, or in addition to an analysis of a literary work, a more sophisticated essay in which you compare and contrast the protagonists of two stories, or the use of form and metaphor in two poems, or the tragic heroes in two plays.

You might learn some literary theory in your course and be asked to apply theory—feminist, Marxist, reader-response, psychoanalytic, new historicist, for example—to one or more of the works on your reading list. But the seminal assignment in a literature course is the analysis of the single poem, story, novel, or play, and, even if you do not have to complete this assignment specifically, it will form the basis of most of the other writing assignments you will be required to undertake in your literature class. There are several ways of structuring a literary analysis, and your instructor might issue specific instructions on how he or she wants this assignment done. The method presented here might not be identical to the one your instructor wants you to follow, but it will be easy enough to modify, if your instructor expects something a bit different, and it is a good default method, if your instructor does not issue more specific guidelines.You want to begin your analysis with a paragraph that provides the context of the work you are analyzing and a brief account of what you believe to be the poem or story or play’s main theme. At a minimum, your account of the work’s context will include the name of the author, the title of the work, its genre, and the date and place of publication. If there is an important biographical or historical context to the work, you should include that, as well.Try to express the work’s theme in one or two sentences. Theme, you will recall, is that insight into human experience the author offers to readers, usually revealed as the content, the drama, the plot of the poem, story, or play unfolds and the characters interact. Assessing theme can be a complex task. Authors usually show the theme; they don’t tell it. They rarely say, at the end of the story, words to this effect: “and the moral of my story is…” They tell their story, develop their characters, provide some kind of conflict—and from all of this theme emerges. Because identifying theme can be challenging and subjective, it is often a good idea to work through the rest of the analysis, then return to the beginning and assess theme in light of your analysis of the work’s other literary elements.Here is a good example of an introductory paragraph from Ben’s analysis of William Butler Yeats’ poem, “Among School Children.”

“Among School Children” was published in Yeats’ 1928 collection of poems The Tower. It was inspired by a visit Yeats made in 1926 to school in Waterford, an official visit in his capacity as a senator of the Irish Free State. In the course of the tour, Yeats reflects upon his own youth and the experiences that shaped the “sixty-year old, smiling public man” (line 8) he has become. Through his reflection, the theme of the poem emerges: a life has meaning when connections among apparently disparate experiences are forged into a unified whole.

In the body of your literature analysis, you want to guide your readers through a tour of the poem, story, or play, pausing along the way to comment on, analyze, interpret, and explain key incidents, descriptions, dialogue, symbols, the writer’s use of figurative language—any of the elements of literature that are relevant to a sound analysis of this particular work. Your main goal is to explain how the elements of literature work to elucidate, augment, and develop the theme. The elements of literature are common across genres: a story, a narrative poem, and a play all have a plot and characters. But certain genres privilege certain literary elements. In a poem, for example, form, imagery and metaphor might be especially important; in a story, setting and point-of-view might be more important than they are in a poem; in a play, dialogue, stage directions, lighting serve functions rarely relevant in the analysis of a story or poem.

The length of the body of an analysis of a literary work will usually depend upon the length of work being analyzed—the longer the work, the longer the analysis—though your instructor will likely establish a word limit for this assignment. Make certain that you do not simply paraphrase the plot of the story or play or the content of the poem. This is a common weakness in student literary analyses, especially when the analysis is of a poem or a play.

Here is a good example of two body paragraphs from Amelia’s analysis of “Araby” by James Joyce.

Within the story’s first few paragraphs occur several religious references which will accumulate as the story progresses. The narrator is a student at the Christian Brothers’ School; the former tenant of his house was a priest; he left behind books called The Abbot and The Devout Communicant. Near the end of the story’s second paragraph the narrator describes a “central apple tree” in the garden, under which is “the late tenant’s rusty bicycle pump.” We may begin to suspect the tree symbolizes the apple tree in the Garden of Eden and the bicycle pump, the snake which corrupted Eve, a stretch, perhaps, until Joyce’s fall-of-innocence theme becomes more apparent.

The narrator must continue to help his aunt with her errands, but, even when he is so occupied, his mind is on Mangan’s sister, as he tries to sort out his feelings for her. Here Joyce provides vivid insight into the mind of an adolescent boy at once elated and bewildered by his first crush. He wants to tell her of his “confused adoration,” but he does not know if he will ever have the chance. Joyce’s description of the pleasant tension consuming the narrator is conveyed in a striking simile, which continues to develop the narrator’s character, while echoing the religious imagery, so important to the story’s theme: “But my body was like a harp, and her words and gestures were like fingers, running along the wires.”

The concluding paragraph of your analysis should realize two goals. First, it should present your own opinion on the quality of the poem or story or play about which you have been writing. And, second, it should comment on the current relevance of the work. You should certainly comment on the enduring social relevance of the work you are explicating. You may comment, though you should never be obliged to do so, on the personal relevance of the work. Here is the concluding paragraph from Dao-Ming’s analysis of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.

First performed in 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest has been made into a film, as recently as 2002 and is regularly revived by professional and amateur theatre companies. It endures not only because of the comic brilliance of its characters and their dialogue, but also because its satire still resonates with contemporary audiences. I am still amazed that I see in my own Asian mother a shadow of Lady Bracknell, with her obsession with finding for her daughter a husband who will maintain, if not, ideally, increase the family’s social status. We might like to think we are more liberated and socially sophisticated than our Victorian ancestors, but the starlets and eligible bachelors who star in current reality television programs illustrate the extent to which superficial concerns still influence decisions about love and even marriage. Even now, we can turn to Oscar Wilde to help us understand and laugh at those who are earnest in name only.

Dao-Ming’s conclusion is brief, but she does manage to praise the play, reaffirm its main theme, and explain its enduring appeal. And note how her last sentence cleverly establishes that sense of closure that is also a feature of an effective analysis.

You may, of course, modify the template that is presented here. Your instructor might favour a somewhat different approach to literary analysis. Its essence, though, will be your understanding and interpretation of the theme of the poem, story, or play and the skill with which the author shapes the elements of literature—plot, character, form, diction, setting, point of view—to support the theme.

BC Open Textbooks: English Literature Victorians and Moderns: https://opentextbc.ca/englishliterature/back-matter/appendix-5-writing-an-analysis-of-a-poem-story-and-play/

Literary Analysis

The challenges of writing about english literature.

Writing begins with the act of reading . While this statement is true for most college papers, strong English papers tend to be the product of highly attentive reading (and rereading). When your instructors ask you to do a “close reading,” they are asking you to read not only for content, but also for structures and patterns. When you perform a close reading, then, you observe how form and content interact. In some cases, form reinforces content: for example, in John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 14, where the speaker invites God’s “force” “to break, blow, burn and make [him] new.” Here, the stressed monosyllables of the verbs “break,” “blow” and “burn” evoke aurally the force that the speaker invites from God. In other cases, form raises questions about content: for example, a repeated denial of guilt will likely raise questions about the speaker’s professed innocence. When you close read, take an inductive approach. Start by observing particular details in the text, such as a repeated image or word, an unexpected development, or even a contradiction. Often, a detail–such as a repeated image–can help you to identify a question about the text that warrants further examination. So annotate details that strike you as you read. Some of those details will eventually help you to work towards a thesis. And don’t worry if a detail seems trivial. If you can make a case about how an apparently trivial detail reveals something significant about the text, then your paper will have a thought-provoking thesis to argue.

Common Types of English Papers Many assignments will ask you to analyze a single text. Others, however, will ask you to read two or more texts in relation to each other, or to consider a text in light of claims made by other scholars and critics. For most assignments, close reading will be central to your paper. While some assignment guidelines will suggest topics and spell out expectations in detail, others will offer little more than a page limit. Approaching the writing process in the absence of assigned topics can be daunting, but remember that you have resources: in section, you will probably have encountered some examples of close reading; in lecture, you will have encountered some of the course’s central questions and claims. The paper is a chance for you to extend a claim offered in lecture, or to analyze a passage neglected in lecture. In either case, your analysis should do more than recapitulate claims aired in lecture and section. Because different instructors have different goals for an assignment, you should always ask your professor or TF if you have questions. These general guidelines should apply in most cases:

A close reading of a single text: Depending on the length of the text, you will need to be more or less selective about what you choose to consider. In the case of a sonnet, you will probably have enough room to analyze the text more thoroughly than you would in the case of a novel, for example, though even here you will probably not analyze every single detail. By contrast, in the case of a novel, you might analyze a repeated scene, image, or object (for example, scenes of train travel, images of decay, or objects such as or typewriters). Alternately, you might analyze a perplexing scene (such as a novel’s ending, albeit probably in relation to an earlier moment in the novel). But even when analyzing shorter works, you will need to be selective. Although you might notice numerous interesting details as you read, not all of those details will help you to organize a focused argument about the text. For example, if you are focusing on depictions of sensory experience in Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale,” you probably do not need to analyze the image of a homeless Ruth in stanza 7, unless this image helps you to develop your case about sensory experience in the poem.
A theoretically-informed close reading. In some courses, you will be asked to analyze a poem, a play, or a novel by using a critical theory (psychoanalytic, postcolonial, gender, etc). For example, you might use Kristeva’s theory of abjection to analyze mother-daughter relations in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. Critical theories provide focus for your analysis; if “abjection” is the guiding concept for your paper, you should focus on the scenes in the novel that are most relevant to the concept.
A historically-informed close reading. In courses with a historicist orientation, you might use less self-consciously literary documents, such as newspapers or devotional manuals, to develop your analysis of a literary work. For example, to analyze how Robinson Crusoe makes sense of his island experiences, you might use Puritan tracts that narrate events in terms of how God organizes them. The tracts could help you to show not only how Robinson Crusoe draws on Puritan narrative conventions, but also—more significantly—how the novel revises those conventions.
A comparison of two texts When analyzing two texts, you might look for unexpected contrasts between apparently similar texts, or unexpected similarities between apparently dissimilar texts, or for how one text revises or transforms the other. Keep in mind that not all of the similarities, differences, and transformations you identify will be relevant to an argument about the relationship between the two texts. As you work towards a thesis, you will need to decide which of those similarities, differences, or transformations to focus on. Moreover, unless instructed otherwise, you do not need to allot equal space to each text (unless this 50/50 allocation serves your thesis well, of course). Often you will find that one text helps to develop your analysis of another text. For example, you might analyze the transformation of Ariel’s song from The Tempest in T. S. Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land. Insofar as this analysis is interested in the afterlife of Ariel’s song in a later poem, you would likely allot more space to analyzing allusions to Ariel’s song in The Waste Land (after initially establishing the song’s significance in Shakespeare’s play, of course).
A response paper A response paper is a great opportunity to practice your close reading skills without having to develop an entire argument. In most cases, a solid approach is to select a rich passage that rewards analysis (for example, one that depicts an important scene or a recurring image) and close read it. While response papers are a flexible genre, they are not invitations for impressionistic accounts of whether you liked the work or a particular character. Instead, you might use your close reading to raise a question about the text—to open up further investigation, rather than to supply a solution.
A research paper. In most cases, you will receive guidance from the professor on the scope of the research paper. It is likely that you will be expected to consult sources other than the assigned readings. Hollis is your best bet for book titles, and the MLA bibliography (available through e-resources) for articles. When reading articles, make sure that they have been peer reviewed; you might also ask your TF to recommend reputable journals in the field.

Harvard College Writing Program: https://writingproject.fas.harvard.edu/files/hwp/files/bg_writing_english.pdf

In the same way that we talk with our friends about the latest episode of Game of Thrones or newest Marvel movie, scholars communicate their ideas and interpretations of literature through written literary analysis essays. Literary analysis essays make us better readers of literature.

Only through careful reading and well-argued analysis can we reach new understandings and interpretations of texts that are sometimes hundreds of years old. Literary analysis brings new meaning and can shed new light on texts. Building from careful reading and selecting a topic that you are genuinely interested in, your argument supports how you read and understand a text. Using examples from the text you are discussing in the form of textual evidence further supports your reading. Well-researched literary analysis also includes information about what other scholars have written about a specific text or topic.

Literary analysis helps us to refine our ideas, question what we think we know, and often generates new knowledge about literature. Literary analysis essays allow you to discuss your own interpretation of a given text through careful examination of the choices the original author made in the text.

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Literary Analysis Essay

Literary Analysis Essay Writing

Last updated on: May 21, 2023

Literary Analysis Essay - Ultimate Guide By Professionals

By: Cordon J.

Reviewed By: Rylee W.

Published on: Dec 3, 2019

A literary analysis essay specifically examines and evaluates a piece of literature or a literary work. It also understands and explains the links between the small parts to their whole information.

It is important for students to understand the meaning and the true essence of literature to write a literary essay.

One of the most difficult assignments for students is writing a literary analysis essay. It can be hard to come up with an original idea or find enough material to write about. You might think you need years of experience in order to create a good paper, but that's not true.

This blog post will show you how easy it can be when you follow the steps given here.Writing such an essay involves the breakdown of a book into small parts and understanding each part separately. It seems easy, right?

Trust us, it is not as hard as good book reports but it may also not be extremely easy. You will have to take into account different approaches and explain them in relation with the chosen literary work.

It is a common high school and college assignment and you can learn everything in this blog.

Continue reading for some useful tips with an example to write a literary analysis essay that will be on point. You can also explore our detailed article on writing an analytical essay .

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What is a Literary Analysis Essay?

A literary analysis essay is an important kind of essay that focuses on the detailed analysis of the work of literature.

The purpose of a literary analysis essay is to explain why the author has used a specific theme for his work. Or examine the characters, themes, literary devices , figurative language, and settings in the story.

This type of essay encourages students to think about how the book or the short story has been written. And why the author has created this work.

The method used in the literary analysis essay differs from other types of essays. It primarily focuses on the type of work and literature that is being analyzed.

Mostly, you will be going to break down the work into various parts. In order to develop a better understanding of the idea being discussed, each part will be discussed separately.

The essay should explain the choices of the author and point of view along with your answers and personal analysis.

How To Write A Literary Analysis Essay

So how to start a literary analysis essay? The answer to this question is quite simple.

The following sections are required to write an effective literary analysis essay. By following the guidelines given in the following sections, you will be able to craft a winning literary analysis essay.

Introduction

The aim of the introduction is to establish a context for readers. You have to give a brief on the background of the selected topic.

It should contain the name of the author of the literary work along with its title. The introduction should be effective enough to grab the reader’s attention.

In the body section, you have to retell the story that the writer has narrated. It is a good idea to create a summary as it is one of the important tips of literary analysis.

Other than that, you are required to develop ideas and disclose the observed information related to the issue. The ideal length of the body section is around 1000 words.

To write the body section, your observation should be based on evidence and your own style of writing.

It would be great if the body of your essay is divided into three paragraphs. Make a strong argument with facts related to the thesis statement in all of the paragraphs in the body section.

Start writing each paragraph with a topic sentence and use transition words when moving to the next paragraph.

Summarize the important points of your literary analysis essay in this section. It is important to compose a short and strong conclusion to help you make a final impression of your essay.

Pay attention that this section does not contain any new information. It should provide a sense of completion by restating the main idea with a short description of your arguments. End the conclusion with your supporting details.

You have to explain why the book is important. Also, elaborate on the means that the authors used to convey her/his opinion regarding the issue.

For further understanding, here is a downloadable literary analysis essay outline. This outline will help you structure and format your essay properly and earn an A easily.

DOWNLOADABLE LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY OUTLINE (PDF)

Types of Literary Analysis Essay

Close reading - This method involves attentive reading and detailed analysis. No need for a lot of knowledge and inspiration to write an essay that shows your creative skills.
Theoretical - In this type, you will rely on theories related to the selected topic.
Historical - This type of essay concerns the discipline of history. Sometimes historical analysis is required to explain events in detail.
Applied - This type involves analysis of a specific issue from a practical perspective.
Comparative - This type of writing is based on when two or more alternatives are compared

Examples of Literary Analysis Essay

Examples are great to understand any concept, especially if it is related to writing. Below are some great literary analysis essay examples that showcase how this type of essay is written.

A ROSE FOR EMILY LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY

THE GREAT GATSBY LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY

If you do not have experience in writing essays, this will be a very chaotic process for you. In that case, it is very important for you to conduct good research on the topic before writing.

There are two important points that you should keep in mind when writing a literary analysis essay.

First, remember that it is very important to select a topic in which you are interested. Choose something that really inspires you. This will help you to catch the attention of a reader.

The selected topic should reflect the main idea of writing. In addition to that, it should also express your point of view as well.

Another important thing is to draft a good outline for your literary analysis essay. It will help you to define a central point and division of this into parts for further discussion.

Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Literary analysis essays are mostly based on artistic works like books, movies, paintings, and other forms of art. However, generally, students choose novels and books to write their literary essays.

Some cool, fresh, and good topics and ideas are listed below:

Role of the Three Witches in flaming Macbeth’s ambition.
Analyze the themes of the Play Antigone,
Discuss Ajax as a tragic hero.
The Judgement of Paris: Analyze the Reasons and their Consequences.
Oedipus Rex: A Doomed Son or a Conqueror?
Describe the Oedipus complex and Electra complex in relation to their respective myths.
Betrayal is a common theme of Shakespearean tragedies. Discuss
Identify and analyze the traits of history in T.S Eliot’s ‘Gerontion’.
Analyze the theme of identity crisis in The Great Gatsby.
Analyze the writing style of Emily Dickinson.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What should a literary analysis essay include.

A good literary analysis essay must include a proper and in-depth explanation of your ideas. They must be backed with examples and evidence from the text. Textual evidence includes summaries, paraphrased text, original work details, and direct quotes.

What are the 4 components of literary analysis?

Here are the 4 essential parts of a literary analysis essay;

No literary work is explained properly without discussing and explaining these 4 things.

How do you start a literary analysis essay?

Start your literary analysis essay with the name of the work and the title. Hook your readers by introducing the main ideas that you will discuss in your essay and engage them from the start.

How do you do a literary analysis?

In a literary analysis essay, you study the text closely, understand and interpret its meanings. And try to find out the reasons behind why the author has used certain symbols, themes, and objects in the work.

Why is literary analysis important?

It encourages the students to think beyond their existing knowledge, experiences, and belief and build empathy. This helps in improving the writing skills also.

What is the fundamental characteristic of a literary analysis essay?

Interpretation is the fundamental and important feature of a literary analysis essay. The essay is based on how well the writer explains and interprets the work.

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Cordon. is a published author and writing specialist. He has worked in the publishing industry for many years, providing writing services and digital content. His own writing career began with a focus on literature and linguistics, which he continues to pursue. Cordon is an engaging and professional individual, always looking to help others achieve their goals.

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Interesting Literary Analysis Essay Topics for Students

Write a Perfect Literary Analysis Essay Outline

What is Essay? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples

Essay definition.

An essay (ES-ey) is a nonfiction composition that explores a concept, argument, idea, or opinion from the personal perspective of the writer. Essays are usually a few pages, but they can also be book-length. Unlike other forms of nonfiction writing, like textbooks or biographies, an essay doesn’t inherently require research. Literary essayists are conveying ideas in a more informal way.

The word essay comes from the Late Latin exigere , meaning “ascertain or weigh,” which later became essayer in Old French. The late-15th-century version came to mean “test the quality of.” It’s this latter derivation that French philosopher Michel de Montaigne first used to describe a composition.

History of the Essay

Michel de Montaigne first coined the term essayer to describe Plutarch’s Oeuvres Morales , which is now widely considered to be a collection of essays. Under the new term, Montaigne wrote the first official collection of essays, Essais , in 1580. Montaigne’s goal was to pen his personal ideas in prose . In 1597, a collection of Francis Bacon’s work appeared as the first essay collection written in English. The term essayist was first used by English playwright Ben Jonson in 1609.

Types of Essays

There are many ways to categorize essays. Aldous Huxley, a leading essayist, determined that there are three major groups: personal and autobiographical, objective and factual, and abstract and universal. Within these groups, several other types can exist, including the following:

Academic Essays : Educators frequently assign essays to encourage students to think deeply about a given subject and to assess the student’s knowledge. As such, an academic essay employs a formal language and tone, and it may include references and a bibliography. It’s objective and factual, and it typically uses a five-paragraph model of an introduction, two or more body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Several other essay types, like descriptive, argumentative, and expository, can fall under the umbrella of an academic essay.
Analytical Essays : An analytical essay breaks down and interprets something, like an event, piece of literature, or artwork. This type of essay combines abstraction and personal viewpoints. Professional reviews of movies, TV shows, and albums are likely the most common form of analytical essays that people encounter in everyday life.
Argumentative/Persuasive Essays : In an argumentative or persuasive essay, the essayist offers their opinion on a debatable topic and refutes opposing views. Their goal is to get the reader to agree with them. Argumentative/persuasive essays can be personal, factual, and even both at the same time. They can also be humorous or satirical; Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is a satirical essay arguing that the best way for Irish people to get out of poverty is to sell their children to rich people as a food source.
Descriptive Essays : In a descriptive essay, the essayist describes something, someone, or an event in great detail. The essay’s subject can be something concrete, meaning it can be experienced with any or all of the five senses, or abstract, meaning it can’t be interacted with in a physical sense.
Expository Essay : An expository essay is a factual piece of writing that explains a particular concept or issue. Investigative journalists often write expository essays in their beat, and things like manuals or how-to guides are also written in an expository style.
Narrative/Personal : In a narrative or personal essay, the essayist tells a story, which is usually a recounting of a personal event. Narrative and personal essays may attempt to support a moral or lesson. People are often most familiar with this category as many writers and celebrities frequently publish essay collections.

Notable Essayists

James Baldwin, “ Notes of a Native Son ”
Joan Didion, “ Goodbye To All That ”
George Orwell, “ Shooting an Elephant ”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “ Self-Reliance ”
Virginia Woolf, " Three Guineas "

Examples of Literary Essays

1. Michel De Montaigne, “Of Presumption”

De Montaigne’s essay explores multiple topics, including his reasons for writing essays, his dissatisfaction with contemporary education, and his own victories and failings. As the father of the essay, Montaigne details characteristics of what he thinks an essay should be. His writing has a stream-of-consciousness organization that doesn’t follow a structure, and he expresses the importance of looking inward at oneself, pointing to the essay’s personal nature.

2. Virginia Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own”

Woolf’s feminist essay, written from the perspective of an unknown, fictional woman, argues that sexism keeps women from fully realizing their potential. Woolf posits that a woman needs only an income and a room of her own to express her creativity. The fictional persona Woolf uses is meant to teach the reader a greater truth: making both literal and metaphorical space for women in the world is integral to their success and wellbeing.

3. James Baldwin, “Everybody’s Protest Novel”

In this essay, Baldwin argues that Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin doesn’t serve the black community the way his contemporaries thought it did. He points out that it equates “goodness” with how well-assimilated the black characters are in white culture:

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a very bad novel, having, in its self-righteous, virtuous sentimentality, much in common with Little Women. Sentimentality […] is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel; […] and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent inhumanity, the mask of cruelty.

This essay is both analytical and argumentative. Baldwin analyzes the novel and argues against those who champion it.

Further Resources on Essays

Top Writing Tips offers an in-depth history of the essay.

The Harvard Writing Center offers tips on outlining an essay.

We at SuperSummary have an excellent essay writing resource guide .

Related Terms

Academic Essay
Argumentative Essay
Expository Essay
Narrative Essay
Persuasive Essay

Literary Analysis Essay Writing

Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Interesting Literary Analysis Essay Topics & Ideas

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Good Literary Analysis Essay Topic Ideas

How to choose a literary analysis essay topic , tips to write a compelling literary analysis essay.

You’re a literature student, and you’ve been assigned to work on a literature analysis essay, but you’re not sure which topic to go for. It’s a tricky situation!

We understand that choosing a worthy topic for a literary analysis essay is never an easy task. But don’t you worry!

For literature students, we know the importance of drafting an excellent literary analysis essay . And for an exceptional essay, one needs a standout topic.

That’s why in this blog, we have gathered more than 200 exciting and interesting literary analysis essay ideas for you to get started.

Read on!

If you are a high school or a college student, and you’re having difficulty coming up with a good topic for your essay, choose from the topic list below.

Literary Analysis Essay Topics Middle School

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
Harry Potter’s powers in the Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Allegory in Lord Byron’s Vision of Judgement
Impact of Henry Miller and Gordon Byron’s life on their legacy
Comparative analysis of Dickens VS Thackeray
Canterbury Tales VS Decameron
The irony in Jerome’s stories
Mood expressions in Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Literary Analysis Essay Topics for High School

The representation of justice in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird
Analyze the theme of friendship in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
Explore the theme of identity in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series
The role of nature in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights
Discuss the concept of heroism in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
The use of foreshadowing in George Orwell's Animal Farm
The representation of mental health in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar
The impact of war on individuals in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried
The use of symbolism and allegory in Lois Lowry's The Giver
Discuss the role of cultural identity in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

Paper Due? Why Suffer? That's our Job!

Literary Analysis Essay Topics For College

Literary devices used in The Night by Elie Wiesel
The portrayal of the escape theme in Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer
The evolution of Celie's character in 'The Color Purple' by Alice Walker
Jane Austen's critique of social class and marriage in Pride and Prejudice
Shed light on the theme of chaos in Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Examine the historical events of World War II and their significance in Elie Wiesel's “Night.”
The power of love in The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Presentation of dreams in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence

Literary Analysis Essay Prompts in Classics

The portrayal of fate in Romeo and Juliet
The portrayal of love in Romeo and Juliet
Concept of mortality in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet
Misogyny in Hamlet
Witchcraft in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth
The tragic flaws and character development of King Lear in William Shakespeare's play
The philosophical underpinnings of justice and governance in Plato's 'The Republic
Exploring the theme of civil disobedience and consequences in Sophocles' 'Antigone’
Exploring the conflict between illusion and reality in 'A Streetcar Named Desire'
The complex character relationships and moral dilemmas in 'Montana' by Larry Watson

Social Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Social injustice in Oliver Twist
Ethnicity in Burmese Days by Orwell
Torture and injustice in Night by Elie Wiesel
Vanity Fair - the culture of the 19th century according to Thackeray
The portrayal of the Civil Western Society in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The role of women in society in the 18th Century according to Jane Austen
Escape from society and its rules in Into the Wild by John Krakauer
The place of women in the society in Hamlet
Social status of women in the 17th century portrayed by Jane Austen in Emma
The wrongs of the modern society in Fight Club by Palahniuk

War and Peace Topics for Literary Analysis Essay

The portrayal of war and violence in the poems of Stephen Crane
Literary works during WWI
War setting in Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The depiction of war in Homer’s plays
Toni Morrison’s views on the civil war
The war between demons and angels in Paradise Lost
War in the Mother Courage and Her Child by Bertolt Brecht
The portrayal of war and peace by George Orwell
Concept of war in A Fable by Faulkner
Steinbeck’s presentation of injustice in The Grapes of Wrath

Literary Analysis Essay Topics for Movies

Comparison between the book and film “Sense and Sensibility.”
The portrayal of women in the “Little Women.”
Imitation of society and class in “The Great Gatsby.”
The ideas of love and trust in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
The good and evil in “A Wrinkle in Time.”
Feminity in Sense and Sensibility
The role of Saruman and Gandalf
Spirituality and religion in “Lord of the Flies.”
Oskar’s struggle to find a sense of home in “The Tin Drum.”
Jealousy and male pride in “The Dead.”

Literary Analysis Essay Topics for the Subject of Race

“Waiting for the Barbarians” by J.M. Coetzee
Race and Injustice in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird
Race and fellowship in Melville’s Moby Dick
“Under The Feet Of Jesus”
Description of culture and tradition in “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
Interracial relationship in Back to Life by Wendy Coakley
Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by McMorris
The Art Of Love by Hong Ying
Multiculturalism in the Captain Underpants series by Dev Pilkey
Imitation of slavery in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

General Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Focalization techniques in When I Lay Dying
Historical background of Duma’s Novels
The use of imagery in Walt Whitman’s works
Male and female characters in Beowulf
Character analysis of Emmy in Vanity Fair
Character analysis of Rebeca in Vanity Fair
The complicated relationship between mother and daughter in Beloved
Beauty standards in The Bluest Eye
Comparison in the portrayal of death by Keats and Blake
The idea of death in Renaissance literature

1984 Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Roles of genders in the novel
What role does the Ministry of Truth play in the story?
The theme of subversion of love in 1984
The importance of memory in 1984
Totalitarian society in George Orwell's 1984
Analyze the role O'Brien plays in Winston's life
An in-depth analysis of the novel 1984 by George Orwell
How is the historical background reflected in 1984?
Lack of privacy in 1984
Propaganda and totalitarianism in Orwell’s “1984”

Hamlet Literary Analysis Essay Topics

A theme of revenge in Hamlet
Explore Hamlet’s relationship with Ophelia
Explore Hamlet’s mental state
Discuss Hamlet's relationship with Gertrude
Ghost in Hamlet
Was Hamlet truly mad?
Is Hamlet a villain or a hero?
How does Shakespeare present the idea of madness in Hamlet?
Is Hamlet’s love for Ophelia genuine?
Tragedies in Hamlet VS Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Discuss the development of characters during the play
Examine the role of women in Romeo and Juliet.
What is the role of history in Romeo and Juliet?
Analyze the Romeo and Juliet play
Romeo and Juliet: Fate or Free Will?
Why did Juliet warn of danger?
Rosaline in Romeo and Juliet
The love language of Romeo and Juliet
A fate analysis essay on Romeo and Juliet
The death of Romeo and Juliet

Macbeth Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Macbeth’s mental state
The role of morality in the play “Macbeth”
Describe the use of figurative language in Macbeth
The symbolism of blood in Macbeth
Applying imagery in Macbeth to advance the story
Lady Macbeth character analysis
What role did social hierarchies play in the play?
Analysis of gender roles in Macbeth
Role of women in Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Is Lady Macbeth a dominant heroine?

Beowulf Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Why is Beowulf a work of Christian propaganda?
What is the main idea of the story?
The meaning of rings in Beowulf
Which of Beowulf's fights was most heroic?
How do Beowulf’s heroic qualities affect the story?
Discuss the digression's role in Beowulf
Analyze the significance of the mead hall in Beowulf.
The difference between Beowulf and Modern-Day Heroes
Beowulf’s personality traits in the epic story
Analysis of Beowulf's symbols and their importance

Frankenstein Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Analyze what fire is trying to symbolize.
Frankenstein: The theme of guilt
Discuss any romantic elements in “Frankenstein”
The family relationship in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Who is more human, Frankenstein or the monster?
Romantic and gothic Frankenstein elements
Sacrifices for ambitions in the novel Frankenstein
Relationship between Victor and Frankenstein
Romanticism in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Family Values and Frankenstein

The Great Gatsby Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Discuss the novel as a cautionary tale
The meaning of wealth in the novel
What is the novel’s title meaning?
Explain how the novel demonstrates the characteristics of modernism
Explore the symbolism of the “green light” in “The Great Gatsby”
Discuss the role of women in the 1920s society as portrayed in “The Great Gatsby”
Dreams are the main theme in “The Great Gatsby”
What makes The Great Gatsby great?
The Great Gatsby: Winter Thoughts
What role does money play in Fitzgerald’s novel?

The Crucible Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Relate the Crucible to modern society
Analyze the most important theme of 'The Crucible.'
What are the dynamics of puritanism?
Examine the importance of religion in 1953 in work
The use of fear tactics in “The Crucible”
John Hale in The Crucible
Morality and The Crucible
The Crucible Critical Lens
The sinful confessions in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible

Fahrenheit 451 Literary Analysis Essay Topics

History of the Fireman in Fahrenheit 451
Discuss the roles of both nature and technology play in Fahrenheit 451
The use of Parallelism in Fahrenheit 451
Analyze the three parts of Fahrenheit 451
Discuss the dual image of fire in the novel
How relevant is Fahrenheit 451 today?
The role of Clarisse McClellan in “Fahrenheit 451”
Analyze Mildred Montag
Discuss the usage of literary quotes in Fahrenheit 451
Examine the novel's main title

Literary Analysis Essay Topics For Othello

Examine the portrayal of women in ‘Othello’
A true reason for Othello's demise
Consider Othello’s suicide
The real motives of Iago in Othello
Women's roles in Shakespeare’s Othello and Hamlet
Gender roles and racism in “Othello”
Discuss Othello's relationship
Analysis of The Film “Othello” By Oliver Parker
Explore themes of love and betrayal within Shakespeare's work of literature, “Othello”
How was Emilia treated by the men in the play “Othello”?

Lord of The Flies Literary Analysis Essay Topics

The symbolism of the conch shell and its significance in the novel
Analyze the themes of civilization versus savagery in “Lord of the Flies”
Explore the character development of Ralph and Jack in the story
Discuss the role of fear and the “beast” in the boys' descent into chaos
The portrayal of innate human nature and its consequences on the deserted island
Analyze the role of Piggy and his glasses as symbols of knowledge and reason
Analyze the use of irony in the story and its implications for the characters
Discuss the themes of power and leadership in the struggle for dominance
Examine the relationship between the boys' names and their personalities
The role of the island's setting in shaping the events and characters of the story

Literary Analysis Essay Topics For The Catcher In The Rye

Analyze the novel from the perspective of Bildungsroman
Analyze literary devices used in “The Catcher in the Rye”
Discuss the theme of death in the novel
Analyze the theme of self-discovery from the novel
Describe the story's topic of loneliness
Analyze growing up in the novel
Why does Holden love the Museum of Natural History?
The Role of Dialogue in The Catcher in the Rye
Describe the novel's portrayal of phoniness and naivety
Describe the character of Holden

Interesting Literary Analysis Essay Topics

War, existentialism, and love in “A Farewell to Arms”
Sense of Sin in The Scarlet Letter
Analyze the use of biblical allusions and religious symbolism in William Golding's novels
Analyze the symbolism of the “white whale” in Melville's work of literature, “Moby-Dick”
Lies and deceit in “The Godfather”
Analyze the portrayal of fear and the human psyche in William Golding's novels
The symbols used to describe nature by William Wordsworth
Comparison between urban and rural settings of nature in the dystopia of Huxley
Decay and revival in post-apocalyptic novels
A religious and spiritual journey in “Jude the Obscure”

Now that you have the liberty to choose from a wide range of literary analysis example topics, you could use some help on how to opt for a good topic.

To select a good and worthy topic for your literary analysis essay, follow the tips provided below:

Always go for an interesting topic for an engaging piece of paper
Look for an idea with available research material to support your analysis
Ensure your topic allows for an in-depth analysis rather than a surface-level summary
Choose an idea that challenges you to think critically and make meaningful connections
Avoid overly broad topics; instead, focus on a specific aspect or element of the work.
Choose an idea that best reflects your stance on the chosen work.
Analyze the topic deeply before you start writing about it
Balance personal interest with the potential appeal to your target audience
Make sure that the theme of the work is visible in your essay topic

Here are some tips for you to pen down a compelling literary analysis essay!

Essay writing is an essential part of academics. Students always require some tips and tricks to draft perfect essays and score good grades.

To make your literary analysis essay impeccable, follow the tips provided below:

Thoroughly read the chosen literary work
Identify the main themes, settings, and characters
Understand the purpose of the work
Pay attention to the tools and techniques used by the author to deliver the message
Pick an interesting literary analytical essay topic for your essay.
To write an analytical essay effectively, draft a perfect literary analysis essay outline
Develop a strong thesis statement
Craft strong topic sentences to guide and structure your analysis effectively
Prove and support all your statements using phrases and quotes from work
Write your literary essay from the third-person perspective
Write in the present tense
Avoid writing a plot summary of the work
Use multiple literary terms to write your essay professionally
Always cite properly

Literary Analysis Essay Example

To sum it up , writing a literary analysis essay can be extremely daunting if your analyzing abilities are weak. From selecting the right literary analysis topic to writing a conclusion for your essay, the process is lengthy.

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Literary analysis: sample essay.

We turn once more to Joanna Wolfe’s and Laura Wilder’s Digging into Literature: Strategies for Reading, Writing, and Analysis (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016) in order to show you their example of a strong student essay that has a strong central claim elucidated by multiple surface/depth arguments supported by patterns of evidence.

Paragraph 1

Sylvia Plath’s short poem “Morning Song” explores the conflicted emotions of a new mother. On the one hand, the mother recognizes that she is expected to treasure and celebrate her infant, but on the other hand, she feels strangely removed from the child. The poem uses a combination of scientific and natural imagery to illustrate the mother’s feelings of alienation. By the end of the poem, however, we see a shift in this imagery as the mother begins to see the infant in more human terms.

Paragraph 2

There are several references to scientific imagery in “Morning Song” that suggest that mother is viewing the baby in clinical, scientific terms rather than as a new life. The poem refers to magnification (4) and reflection (8), both of which are scientific methods. The word “distills” (8) refers to a scientific, chemical process for removing impurities from a substance. The baby’s cry is described as taking “its place among the elements” (3), which seems to refer to the periodic table of elements, the primordial matter of the universe. The watch in the first line is similarly a scientific tool and the gold the watch is made of is, of course, an element, like the baby’s cry. Even the balloons in the last line have a scientific connotation since balloons are often used for measurements and experiments in science. These images all serve to show how the speaker feels distanced from the baby, who is like a scientific experiment she is conducting rather than a human being.

Paragraph 3

Natural imagery also seems to further dehumanize the baby, reducing it to nothing more than its mouth. The baby’s breathing is compared to a moth in line 10, suggesting that the speaker feels the infant is fragile and is as likely to die as a moth dancing around candlelight. A few lines later, the baby’s mouth is compared to another animal—a cat—who greedily opens its mouth for milk. Not only does the speaker seem to feel that the baby is like an animal, but she herself is turned into an animal, as she arises “cow-heavy” (13) to feed the infant. These images show how the speaker sees both the baby and herself as dumb animals who exist only to feed and be fed. Even the morning itself seems to be reduced to another mouth to feed as she describes how the dawn “swallows its dull stars” (16). These lines suggest that just as the sun swallows up the stars, so the baby will swallow up this mother.

Paragraph 4

However, in the last few lines the poem takes a hopeful turn as the speaker begins to view the baby as a human being. The baby’s mouth, which has previously been greedy and animal-like, now becomes a source of music, producing a “handful of notes” (17) and “clear vowels” (18). Music is a distinctly human sound. No animals and certainly not the cats, cows, or moths mentioned earlier in the poem, make music. This change in how the speaker perceives the baby’s sounds—from animalistic cry to human song—suggest that she is beginning to relate the baby as an individual. Even the word “handful” in the phrase “handful of notes” (17) seems hopeful in this context since this is the first time the mother has referred to the baby as having a distinctly human body part. When the baby’s notes finally “rise like balloons” (18), the speaker seems to have arrived at a place where she can celebrate the infant. For the first time, the infant is giving something to the speaker rather than threatening to take something away. The mother seems to have finally accepted the child as an independent human being whose company she can celebrate.

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450+ Literary Analysis Topics Ideas & Title Examples for Inspiration

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Finding that ideal literary analysis topic can be as complex as the literature you're studying. But fear not! Backed by our experience, we’ve gathered some good literary analysis essay topics worth your attention.

In this blog article, we will tell you how to choose a great title and drop inspirational ideas for your literature analysis. So, sit back, relax, and let us guide you through the best literary analysis topics.

What Are Literary Analysis Topics?

Literary analysis topics are the types of analytical essay topics that deal with examining any work of literature. It might be a novel, a short story, or even literary criticism. You can select any of these topics to write a literary analysis on.

Topics for literary analysis might focus on various elements of the literature you are supposed to study. For instance, you may explore the following things:

Literary devices
Structure and style

Essentially, your task is to unleash the hidden meanings and interpret the messages conveyed in the literary works.

>> Learn more: How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay

Features of Good Literary Analysis Topics

Before we move on to the literature essay topics, let’s talk about what makes a title stand out. Good literary analysis topics should:

Be related to the literature
Provide an opportunity for further exploration of the work as a whole.
Raise interesting questions and allow for different interpretations.
Inspire readers to think about the topic in more detail.

Choosing the right topic is very important. If you need extra help from experts, rely on our team of academic professionals. Say ‘ do my essay for me ’ and get an authentic essay crafted in line with your needs.

How to Choose a Literary Analysis Topic?

Are you staring at a blank page and don’t even know what literary analysis essay topic to choose? We know that feeling. It can be as challenging as finding a perfect rhyme in a sonnet, but no worries! Below we've got some easy steps to help you select a great literary analysis topic:

Read and reflect Start by immersing yourself in the text. As you read, keep an eye on themes, characters, and symbols that catch your attention.
Ask questions This is where your inner Sherlock should come out! Question everything about the book. Why does a character behave a certain way? What's the significance of that recurring symbol? These queries are the seeds of your literary analysis.
Find connections Look for links in the text – between characters, themes, or even the historical context. These connections often make for a compelling literary analysis essay title example.
Keep it focused Remember, you're writing an essay , not a book! So, zoom in. Instead of tackling a broad topic like "Imagery in To Kill a Mockingbird," focus on something more specific, like "The use of bird imagery in To Kill a Mockingbird."
Find a new angle If you're choosing a popular book, find a fresh angle. Instead of going with the crowd, create your own path. A unique perspective will make your analysis stand out.

Powered up by these guidelines, you are sure to find an excellent literary analysis essay idea. Now, let’s see what literary analysis titles and writing prompts we have prepared for you.

Literary Analysis Essay Topics List

If you are not sure how to get started, look at the list of essay titles below. Here, we’ve selected top literary essay topics and prompts to kickstart your journey into literature. Let’s begin with some basic themes and literary elements:

Symbolism in Emily Dickinson's poetry.
Women’s portrayal in Pride and Prejudice.
Orwell's use of dystopia in 1984.
Time in Slaughterhouse-Five.
Death's representation in Edgar Allan Poe’s works.
Mystery and suspense in Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series.
Symbolism in The Catcher in the Rye.
Portrayal of masculinity in Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea.
Handling of grief in Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking.
Solitude in Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Role of supernatural elements in Macbeth.
American Dream in Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby.
Postcolonial themes in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.
The role of setting in A Tale of Two Cities.
Juxtaposition of civilization and savagery in Golding's Lord of the Flies.

Good Literary Analysis Essay Topics

If you're searching for that spark of inspiration, look no further. Choose a title idea from the collection of literary analysis essay prompts we added below:

Jane Austen's social satire in Sense and Sensibility.
Use of stream-of-consciousness in Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway.
Survival in Yann Martel's Life of Pi.
Love in Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary.
Illusion versus reality in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.
Ambition's consequences in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Power in George Orwell's Animal Farm.
Role of nature in Jack London's Call of the Wild.
Innocence in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
J.D. Salinger's use of first-person narrative in Catcher in the Rye.
Conflict of individual versus society in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.
Isolation in Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis.
Friendship in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.
Social class in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.
Gender roles in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women.

Interesting Literary Analysis Topics

Are you looking for something more mind-blowing? Consider these interesting literary analysis essay topics ideas to shake things up a bit:

Irony in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Satire in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
Perspective shifts in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.
Justice in Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman .
Power dynamics in Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men.
Fear in Stephen King's The Shining.
Identity crisis in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.
Spiritual growth in Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha.
Betrayal in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.
Symbolism in Toni Morrison's Beloved.
Freedom in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
Class struggle in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
Portrayal of war in Joseph Heller's Catch-22.
Obsession in Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray .
Romanticism in J.M Barrie's Peter Pan.

Unique Literary Analysis Essay Topics

When it comes to a literary analysis paper, standing out from the crowd can make all the difference. If you're looking to bring a touch of uniqueness to your writing, consider one of these these distinctive literary analysis prompts:

Magical realism in Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Portrayal of rebellion in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 .
Maternal relationships in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club.
Existentialism in Albert Camus' The Stranger.
Deceit in Arthur Miller's The Crucible.
Quest for identity in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man.
Treatment of time in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five.
Pride in Sophocles' Antigone.
Role of memory in Toni Morrison's Beloved.
Perspective and truth in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner.
Portrayal of destiny in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
Madness in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper.
Courage and survival in Markus Zusak's The Book Thief.
Role of society in George Orwell's 1984 .
Youth and age in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye .

Best Literature Essay Topics

Are you ready to take your analysis to the next level? Take a look at these top-notch literary topics for essays, each one carefully crafted for an A+ analysis essay :

Challenging societal norms in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House.
Portrayal of love in Pablo Neruda's poetry.
Loss and grief in Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking.
Paradox in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.
Representation of animals in Jack London's The Call of the Wild.
Disillusionment in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night.
Trauma and healing in Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Use of language in James Joyce's Ulysses.
Quest for identity in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Portrayal of family in August Wilson's Fences.
Loyalty in Homer's Iliad .
Portrayal of survival in Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
Duality in Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Isolation in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.
Influence of society in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.

Easy Literary Analysis Title Examples

If you are a novice or prefer simple literary analysis essay ideas, this list is for you.

Uncovering themes in To Kill a Mockingbird.
The symbolism in Lord of the Flies.
Understanding character development in Great Expectations.
Love and relationships in Pride and Prejudice.
The role of setting in Wuthering Heights.
Morality in Moby Dick.
Exploring imagery in The Great Gatsby .
Power dynamics in Animal Farm.
Social critique in Brave New World.
Conflict in Romeo and Juliet .
Identity and culture in The Namesake.
Supernatural elements in Macbeth .
The quest for freedom in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Aging and time in The Old Man and the Sea.
Survival in Life of Pi.

Topics for Literary Analysis in Different Genre

Exploring different genres can add a whole new dimension to your literary analysis. Whether it's the captivating world-building of fantasy or the futuristic visions of science fiction, each genre offers a bunch of literary analysis ideas for any taste. Check out the following literary analysis essay topics sorted by genre:

Utopian ideals in H.G. Wells' The Time Machine.
Symbols and motifs in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
Suspense in Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.
Love in Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook.
Representation of war in Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth.
Humanity in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Courage in C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Justice in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series.
Conflict in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Time in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.
Portrayal of technology in William Gibson's Neuromancer.
Good versus evil in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.
Clues in Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
Portrayal of passion in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.
Use of historical detail in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.

American Literature Essay Topics

American literature has produced some of the most iconic works in history. Take a glance at these essay topics for American literature analysis essay topics to get motivated:

Racial tensions in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Transcendentalism in Walden.
Role of women in The Scarlet Letter .
Slavery and freedom in Beloved.
The meaning of home in Langston Hughes' poetry.
Masculinity and honor in Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.
Individualism in On the Road.
Illusion versus reality in Death of a Salesman.
Navigating adolescence in The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Tragic hero in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Consequences of power in The Crucible .
Love and loss in The Fault in Our Stars.
Identity in Invisible Man.
Nature and the self in Leaves of Grass.
Religion and faith in The Poisonwood Bible.

English Literature Essay Topics

If you are a British literature enthusiast, don’t skip this list. Below, we have collected the most trending literary analysis title examples in English literature:

Class struggle in Dickens' Oliver Twist.
Mysticism in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.
Misogyny in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
Role of weather in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.
Satire of Victorian Era in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.
Subversion of romance in Jane Austen's Emma.
Landscape and memory in Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd.
War and its effects in Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front.
Power and corruption in George Orwell's Animal Farm.
Maturation in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre .
Religious doubt in Graham Greene's The End of the Affair.
Time and consciousness in Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse.
Subconscious in D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers.
Rebellion against society in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.

Literary Analysis Topics for Students

We've carefully curated literary analysis essay topics suitable for students at different levels of education. From high school to college, there's something for everyone. We've categorized these topics for a literary analysis essay according to academic level to help you find what fits your needs best. Are you ready to dive in? Get prepared to discover literary analysis title ideas that will make your writing process an absolute pleasure.

Literary Analysis Essay Topics for Middle School Students

Understanding friendship in The Outsiders.
Lessons about tolerance in Wonder.
Courage and bravery in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
The importance of individuality in A Wrinkle in Time.
Family and identity in The Giver.
The theme of adventure in Treasure Island.
Life lessons in Charlotte’s Web.
Overcoming obstacles in Bridge to Terabithia.
The impact of rumors in The Watsons Go to Birmingham.
Symbolism in Tuck Everlasting.
The significance of heritage in Esperanza Rising.
Power of persistence in Hatchet.
Examining the hero's journey in Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief.
Struggles with fairness in The Westing Game.
The role of honesty in The Secret Garden.

Literary Analysis Essay Topics for High School Students

Tragic love in Romeo and Juliet.
Prejudice and racism in To Kill a Mockingbird.
The dangers of ambition in Macbeth.
The importance of friendship in The Outsiders.
Symbolism in The Great Gatsby.
Coming of age in The Catcher in the Rye.
Man versus nature in Moby Dick.
Power and corruption in Animal Farm.
Morality in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The impact of war in All Quiet on the Western Front.
Human nature in Lord of the Flies.
The role of the American dream in Death of a Salesman.
Heroism in Beowulf.
Innocence and experience in Catch-22.
Dystopian society in Fahrenheit 451.

Literary Analysis Essay Topics for College Students

Irony and satire in Pride and Prejudice.
Freedom in A Doll's House.
Role of madness in Hamlet.
Colonialism and its impacts in Heart of Darkness.
Alienation and isolation in The Metamorphosis.
Tragedy and fate in Oedipus Rex.
Exploring human consciousness in Mrs. Dalloway.
Modernism in Ulysses.
Language and power in 1984.
Identity and society in Invisible Man.
Existentialism in Waiting for Godot.
Feminism and gender roles in The Yellow Wallpaper.
Justice and judgment in Crime and Punishment.
The influence of society on individuals in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Role of memory in Remembrance of Things Past.

Literary Analysis Essay Topics in Poetry

Poetry has a unique way of touching our hearts and minds. Poem analysis can reveal hidden meanings behind the verses. If you're searching for literary analysis essay topics with a focus on poetry, check out some pointers in the sections below.

Romeo and Juliet Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Fate and destiny in Romeo and Juliet.
Masculinity and its influence on the characters' actions.
The impact of family feuds on individual choices in Romeo and Juliet.
Concept of time in Romeo and Juliet.
Understanding love at first sight through Romeo and Juliet.
The juxtaposition of love and violence in the play.
Secret identities and deception in Romeo and Juliet.
The influence of peer pressure on the events of Romeo and Juliet.
Contrasting views of love: Exploring the perspectives of Romeo, Juliet, and other characters.
Dreams and omens in Romeo and Juliet.

Hamlet Literary Analysis Essay Topics Ideas

Hamlet's madness: Genuine condition or clever ruse?
Revenge and its destructive consequences.
Role of women: Analyzing the characters of Gertrude and Ophelia.
Appearance versus reality: The dichotomy of disguise and deceit.
Hamlet's soliloquies: A window into his psyche and moral dilemmas.
The tragic flaw of Hamlet.
The ghost of King Hamlet: Its role and significance.
Corruption and decay in Hamlet's kingdom.
Father-son relationships in Hamlet.
Morality and ethical decision-making in Hamlet.

Macbeth Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Supernatural elements in Macbeth.
Moral decline of Macbeth throughout the play.
Lady Macbeth's role in Macbeth's ambition and actions.
Guilt and its consequences in Macbeth.
The power of prophecy and its impact on Macbeth's decisions.
Role of sleep and sleeplessness in the play.
The symbolism of blood in Macbeth.
Disorder and chaos in Macbeth.
The transformation of Lady Macbeth's character over the course of the play.
The portrayal of kingship and tyranny in Macbeth.

Literary Analysis Essay Topics Ideas & Prompts

Still can’t find a topic? Scroll down to spot more fantastic literary analysis writing prompts and ideas, categorized by popular works. Whether you're analyzing character development, theme, or narrative style, you will definitely recognize some good literary analysis topics ideas.

Frankenstein Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Role of nature in shaping the characters of Frankenstein.
Dangers of unchecked ambition in Frankenstein.
Impact of isolation on Victor Frankenstein and his creature.
Women in Frankenstein's world.
Creator and creation in Frankenstein.
Creature’s desire for companionship.
Frankenstein as a critique of enlightenment ideals.
Concept of 'otherness' in Frankenstein.
Knowledge and ignorance in Frankenstein.
Comparing Victor Frankenstein and his creature.

Beowulf Literary Analysis Essay Prompts

Christian and pagan elements in Beowulf.
Lineage and ancestry in Beowulf.
The symbolism of monsters in Beowulf.
The representation of kingship in Beowulf.
Fame and reputation.
Treasure and gift-giving in Beowulf.
Loyalty in the world of Beowulf.
Good versus evil in Beowulf.
Beowulf's three battles: A comparative analysis.

The Great Gatsby Literary Analysis Topics

Destructive power of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby.
Social classes in The Great Gatsby.
Motif of the 'green light' in The Great Gatsby.
Illusion versus reality in The Great Gatsby.
Time and the past in The Great Gatsby.
The role of geography and setting.
The portrayal of love and desire.
Significance of Gatsby's parties in the novel.
Symbolism of the 'Valley of Ashes' in The Great Gatsby.
Nick Carraway as an unreliable narrator.

Fahrenheit 451 Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Censorship and its impact on society in Fahrenheit 451.
Technology in Fahrenheit 451's dystopian society.
Symbolism of fire.
Motif of mirrors in Fahrenheit 451.
Individuality versus conformity in Fahrenheit 451.
Portrayal of reading and books in Fahrenheit 451.
Mechanical hound and its role.
The impact of isolation and disconnection in Fahrenheit 451.
Happiness and fulfillment represented in the book.
Symbolism of the phoenix in Fahrenheit 451.

Othello Literary Analysis Essay Topics

The impact of jealousy on the characters of Othello.
Race and racism in Othello.
Manipulation and its role in this play.
Representation of women in Othello.
Appearance versus reality in Othello.
Reputation and honor in this play.
Impact of insecurities on the character of Othello.
Role Desdemona's handkerchief plays.
Motif of animals in Othello.
Friendship and betrayal as represented in this play.

The Catcher In The Rye Literary Analysis Topics

How does Salinger represent teen angst in Catcher in the Rye?
Role of Phoebe in Holden Caulfield's life.
Analysis of Holden's perception of adulthood.
Symbolic meaning of the Museum of Natural History.
Red hunting hat as a symbol of isolation.
Salinger's portrayal of mental illness through Holden.
Relevance of the carrousel scene at the end of this novel.
Language and narrative style in Catcher in the Rye.
Understanding Holden's relationships with other characters.
How does this title relate to Holden's personality and actions?

The Crucible Literary Analysis Topics

Fear and hysteria as represented in The Crucible.
Power dynamics in Salem's society.
John Proctor's character development throughout this play.
Abigail Williams' motivations.
Analysis of Arthur Miller's use of historical events.
Symbolism of the witch trials.
Religion and how it is represented in The Crucible.
Comparing the characters: Elizabeth Proctor vs. Abigail Williams.
Suspicion and paranoia in this play.
Relevance of The Crucible in today's society.

1984 Literary Essay Topics

George Orwell's depiction of totalitarianism.
Concept of Newspeak.
Surveillance and control in 1984.
Winston's rebellion against the Party.
Symbolism of the glass paperweight.
Analysis of the Party's manipulation of history.
Role of Big Brother in this novel.
ulia's character and her contrast to Winston.
Significance of Room 101.
Doublethink and its influence on citizens' mentality.

The Story of an Hour Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Mrs. Mallard's freedom and confinement.
Irony in The Story of an Hour.
Theme of time in this short story.
Heart and it symbolism.
Portrayal of marriage in The Story of an Hour.
Significance of the open window.
Railroad and its role in this story.
How does Mrs. Mallard's reaction reflect societal norms?
Analysis of Louise's transformation.
Representation of life and death.

The Cask of Amontillado Literary Analysis Ideas

Revenge in The Cask of Amontillado.
Significance of setting in this story.
Symbolism of the cask.
Montresor as an unreliable narrator.
Concept of pride in this story.
Foreshadowing in The Cask of Amontillado.
Contrast between Montresor and Fortunato.
Motif of disguise and deception.
Exploring the concept of madness.
How does the catacomb setting contribute to the story's tone?

Pride and Prejudice Literary Analysis Prompts

First impressions in Pride and Prejudice.
Jane Austen's portrayal of marriage and social status.
The theme of pride in this novel.
Understanding the character of Mr. Darcy.
Significance of the title in understanding this novel.
Contrasting characters of Elizabeth and Jane.
Letters and their role in Pride and Prejudice.
Social hierarchy and class in this novel.
Theme of family in Pride and Prejudice.
Lydia and her impact on the plot.

Kafka’s Metamorphosis Literary Analysis Title Examples

Exploring Gregor Samsa's transformation.
Kafka’s portrayal of family relationships.
Symbolism of the apple in Metamorphosis.
How does Kafka depict the human condition?
Understanding Grete's role in this story.
Kafka's commentary on work and responsibility.
Gregor's room as a symbol of his inner state.
Role of dehumanization in Metamorphosis.
Kafka's style in conveying existentialist themes.
Understanding the character of Mr. Samsa.

Topics for Literary Analysis of The Odyssey

Role of hospitality in ancient Greek society.
Examination of Odysseus as a hero.
Vengeance in The Odyssey.
Significance of the Underworld.
Role of gods and goddesses in the plot.
Women characters in The Odyssey.
Understanding Telemachus' character arc.
Significance of Ithaca in Odysseus’ journey.
Analysis of deception.
Circe: Character analysis .

The Old Man and the Sea Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Perseverance in Hemingway's novel.
Analyzing Santiago's relationship with the sea.
Significance of Santiago's dreams about lions.
Hemingway's portrayal of friendship and camaraderie.
Symbolism of the marlin.
The sea and its significance in Santiago's journey.
Heroism as depicted in this novel.
Role of nature and its depiction.
Santiago's hand injury and its symbolic meaning.
Defeat and its role in shaping Santiago’s character.

Jane Eyre Literary Analysis Topics

Gothic elements in Jane Eyre.
Concept of the madwoman in the attic.
Religion in Jane's life and development.
Portrayal of women's independence in the novel.
Significance of Thornfield Hall.
Motif of fire and ice in Jane Eyre.
Examining the character of Mr. Rochester.
Understanding the role of Adele in this novel.
Analyzing forgiveness.
Jane’s quest for self-identity and belonging.

The Scarlet Letter Literary Topics for Essays

Sin and guilt and how they are depicted.
Symbolism of the scarlet letter 'A'.
Understanding Hester Prynne's character development.
Role of Pearl as a symbol.
Exploration of hypocrisy.
Examination of the Puritan society.
Roger Chillingworth as a character.
Role of secrets and hidden identities.
Significance of the forest and the town.
Portrayal of women in The Scarlet Letter.

Of Mice and Men Literary Analysis Essay Ideas

Lennie's dream and its impact on this story.
How does Steinbeck present George and Lennie's friendship?
Decoding symbolism in Of Mice and Men.
Loneliness in this novel.
Analyzing Steinbeck's portrayal of the American Dream.
Unraveling Curley's wife's character.
A critical look at attitudes towards women.
Analysis of power dynamics in Of Mice and Men.
Steinbeck’s depiction of life during the Great Depression.
Understanding the tragic end: Was there an alternative?

Lord of the Flies Literary Analysis Titles

Loss of innocence in Lord of the Flies.
Power struggle: Analyzing leadership styles of Jack and Ralph.
Deconstructing the symbol of 'beast' in the novel.
Golding’s portrayal of the thin veneer of civilization.
Survival instincts in Lord of the Flies.
Motif of the conch shell in this novel.
Exploring fear and its implications.
Golding's view on human nature.
A critical look at the novel's ending.
Understanding the novel’s allegorical elements.

To Kill a Mockingbird Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Racial injustice in this novel.
How does Scout's perspective shape the narrative?
Harper Lee's portrayal of small-town life in the South.
Moral education in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Understanding Boo Radley's impact on this story.
Symbolism in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Analysis of Atticus Finch's parenting style.
Class structure in Maycomb County.
Gender roles in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Bravery in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Literary Analysis Essay Topics & Title Ideas by Themes

Are you interested in how the good is represented in literature. Or, want to explore the dark side of human nature? No matter what theme you’re analyzing, these literary analysis topics will surely help you get your gears turning.

Literary Analysis Essay Topics on Education

Exploring education's impact in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Jane Eyre's education and its effects on her life.
Learning and wisdom in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.
Views on education in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Education’s role in the development of Huck Finn.
Value of practical knowledge in Moby-Dick.
Understanding Malvolio’s wisdom in Twelfth Night.
How The Great Gatsby criticizes education in the 1920s.
Education as liberation in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
Women's education in Pride and Prejudice.

Literary Analysis Essay Topics on Religion

Understanding religious allegory in Lord of the Flies.
Christian symbolism in The Chronicles of Narnia.
Religion’s impact on communities in The Poisonwood Bible.
Religious imagery in William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience.
Criticism of the church in The Canterbury Tales.
Dystopian views of religion in Brave New World.
How The Scarlet Letter deals with religion and sin.
Portrayal of religious hypocrisy in Huckleberry Finn.
Religious aspects in Paradise Lost.
Comparing religious symbolism in Moby Dick and Billy Budd.

Literary Analysis Essay Topics on Race

Discussing racial prejudices in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Understanding racial disparities in The Color Purple.
Representation of race in Othello.
Racial discrimination in Nella Larsen's Passing.
Concept of race in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Racial dynamics in Go Set a Watchman.
Racial identity in The Bluest Eye.
Race and identity in Invisible Man.
Racial politics in James Baldwin's Go Tell It On The Mountain.
Racial tensions in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.

War and Peace Literary Analysis Essay Topics

Understanding war's impact in All Quiet on the Western Front.
Depiction of warfare in War and Peace.
Post-war society in The Sun Also Rises.
Effects of war on Mrs. Dalloway.
Concept of peace in A Separate Peace.
Interpreting war in Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Post-war life in The Catcher in the Rye.
Pacifist messages in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five.
Consequences of war in A Farewell to Arms.
Portrayal of war in The Red Badge of Courage.

Literary Analysis Topics on Justice and Judgment

Concept of justice in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
Justice and injustice in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations.
Judgment in Jane Austen’s Emma.
Analyzing justice in George Orwell's 1984.
Exploring judgment in Pride and Prejudice.
Justice in A Tale of Two Cities.
Critique of justice in William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure.
Judgment in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.
Justice in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables.
Portrayal of justice in The Merchant of Venice.

Literary Analysis Ideas About Good and Evil

Good and evil in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Good vs evil in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Struggle between good and evil in Moby-Dick.
Dichotomy of good and evil in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Conflict of good and evil in The Lord of the Rings.
Good and evil in Golding's Lord of the Flies.
Representation of good and evil in Heart of Darkness.
Exploration of good and evil in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
How Bram Stoker’s Dracula deals with good and evil.
Examining the balance of good and evil in Macbeth.

Bottom Line on Literary Analysis Essay Topics

When you're dealing with a literary analysis paper, it can be overwhelming to come up with unique topics. The trick is finding the perfect topic that you will be excited to work with. These literary analysis ideas should help get you started in the right direction. From time-tested classics to more modern works, we focused on different themes so you can pick the one you like.

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The Top 10 Essays Since 1950

Robert Atwan, the founder of The Best American Essays series, picks the 10 best essays of the postwar period. Links to the essays are provided when available.

Fortunately, when I worked with Joyce Carol Oates on The Best American Essays of the Century (that’s the last century, by the way), we weren’t restricted to ten selections. So to make my list of the top ten essays since 1950 less impossible, I decided to exclude all the great examples of New Journalism--Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Michael Herr, and many others can be reserved for another list. I also decided to include only American writers, so such outstanding English-language essayists as Chris Arthur and Tim Robinson are missing, though they have appeared in The Best American Essays series. And I selected essays , not essayists . A list of the top ten essayists since 1950 would feature some different writers.

To my mind, the best essays are deeply personal (that doesn’t necessarily mean autobiographical) and deeply engaged with issues and ideas. And the best essays show that the name of the genre is also a verb, so they demonstrate a mind in process--reflecting, trying-out, essaying.

James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son" (originally appeared in Harper’s , 1955)

“I had never thought of myself as an essayist,” wrote James Baldwin, who was finishing his novel Giovanni’s Room while he worked on what would become one of the great American essays. Against a violent historical background, Baldwin recalls his deeply troubled relationship with his father and explores his growing awareness of himself as a black American. Some today may question the relevance of the essay in our brave new “post-racial” world, though Baldwin considered the essay still relevant in 1984 and, had he lived to see it, the election of Barak Obama may not have changed his mind. However you view the racial politics, the prose is undeniably hypnotic, beautifully modulated and yet full of urgency. Langston Hughes nailed it when he described Baldwin’s “illuminating intensity.” The essay was collected in Notes of a Native Son courageously (at the time) published by Beacon Press in 1955.

Norman Mailer, "The White Negro" (originally appeared in Dissent , 1957)

An essay that packed an enormous wallop at the time may make some of us cringe today with its hyperbolic dialectics and hyperventilated metaphysics. But Mailer’s attempt to define the “hipster”–in what reads in part like a prose version of Ginsberg’s “Howl”–is suddenly relevant again, as new essays keep appearing with a similar definitional purpose, though no one would mistake Mailer’s hipster (“a philosophical psychopath”) for the ones we now find in Mailer’s old Brooklyn neighborhoods. Odd, how terms can bounce back into life with an entirely different set of connotations. What might Mailer call the new hipsters? Squares?

Read the essay here .

Susan Sontag, "Notes on 'Camp'" (originally appeared in Partisan Review , 1964)

Like Mailer’s “White Negro,” Sontag’s groundbreaking essay was an ambitious attempt to define a modern sensibility, in this case “camp,” a word that was then almost exclusively associated with the gay world. I was familiar with it as an undergraduate, hearing it used often by a set of friends, department store window decorators in Manhattan. Before I heard Sontag—thirty-one, glamorous, dressed entirely in black-- read the essay on publication at a Partisan Review gathering, I had simply interpreted “campy” as an exaggerated style or over-the-top behavior. But after Sontag unpacked the concept, with the help of Oscar Wilde, I began to see the cultural world in a different light. “The whole point of camp,” she writes, “is to dethrone the serious.” Her essay, collected in Against Interpretation (1966), is not in itself an example of camp.

John McPhee, "The Search for Marvin Gardens" (originally appeared in The New Yorker , 1972)

“Go. I roll the dice—a six and a two. Through the air I move my token, the flatiron, to Vermont Avenue, where dog packs range.” And so we move, in this brilliantly conceived essay, from a series of Monopoly games to a decaying Atlantic City, the once renowned resort town that inspired America’s most popular board game. As the games progress and as properties are rapidly snapped up, McPhee juxtaposes the well-known sites on the board—Atlantic Avenue, Park Place—with actual visits to their crumbling locations. He goes to jail, not just in the game but in fact, portraying what life has now become in a city that in better days was a Boardwalk Empire. At essay’s end, he finds the elusive Marvin Gardens. The essay was collected in Pieces of the Frame (1975).

Read the essay here (subscription required).

Joan Didion, "The White Album" (originally appeared in New West , 1979)

Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and the Black Panthers, a recording session with Jim Morrison and the Doors, the San Francisco State riots, the Manson murders—all of these, and much more, figure prominently in Didion’s brilliant mosaic distillation (or phantasmagoric album) of California life in the late 1960s. Yet despite a cast of characters larger than most Hollywood epics, “The White Album” is a highly personal essay, right down to Didion’s report of her psychiatric tests as an outpatient in a Santa Monica hospital in the summer of 1968. “We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” the essay famously begins, and as it progresses nervously through cuts and flashes of reportage, with transcripts, interviews, and testimonies, we realize that all of our stories are questionable, “the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images.” Portions of the essay appeared in installments in 1968-69 but it wasn’t until 1979 that Didion published the complete essay in New West magazine; it then became the lead essay of her book, The White Album (1979).

Annie Dillard, "Total Eclipse" (originally appeared in Antaeus , 1982)

In her introduction to The Best American Essays 1988 , Annie Dillard claims that “The essay can do everything a poem can do, and everything a short story can do—everything but fake it.” Her essay “Total Eclipse” easily makes her case for the imaginative power of a genre that is still undervalued as a branch of imaginative literature. “Total Eclipse” has it all—the climactic intensity of short fiction, the interwoven imagery of poetry, and the meditative dynamics of the personal essay: “This was the universe about which we have read so much and never before felt: the universe as a clockwork of loose spheres flung at stupefying, unauthorized speeds.” The essay, which first appeared in Antaeus in 1982 was collected in Teaching a Stone to Talk (1982), a slim volume that ranks among the best essay collections of the past fifty years.

Phillip Lopate, "Against Joie de Vivre" (originally appeared in Ploughshares , 1986)

This is an essay that made me glad I’d started The Best American Essays the year before. I’d been looking for essays that grew out of a vibrant Montaignean spirit—personal essays that were witty, conversational, reflective, confessional, and yet always about something worth discussing. And here was exactly what I’d been looking for. I might have found such writing several decades earlier but in the 80s it was relatively rare; Lopate had found a creative way to insert the old familiar essay into the contemporary world: “Over the years,” Lopate begins, “I have developed a distaste for the spectacle of joie de vivre , the knack of knowing how to live.” He goes on to dissect in comic yet astute detail the rituals of the modern dinner party. The essay was selected by Gay Talese for The Best American Essays 1987 and collected in Against Joie de Vivre in 1989 .

Edward Hoagland, "Heaven and Nature" (originally appeared in Harper’s, 1988)

“The best essayist of my generation,” is how John Updike described Edward Hoagland, who must be one of the most prolific essayists of our time as well. “Essays,” Hoagland wrote, “are how we speak to one another in print—caroming thoughts not merely in order to convey a certain packet of information, but with a special edge or bounce of personal character in a kind of public letter.” I could easily have selected many other Hoagland essays for this list (such as “The Courage of Turtles”), but I’m especially fond of “Heaven and Nature,” which shows Hoagland at his best, balancing the public and private, the well-crafted general observation with the clinching vivid example. The essay, selected by Geoffrey Wolff for The Best American Essays 1989 and collected in Heart’s Desire (1988), is an unforgettable meditation not so much on suicide as on how we remarkably manage to stay alive.

Jo Ann Beard, "The Fourth State of Matter" (originally appeared in The New Yorker , 1996)

A question for nonfiction writing students: When writing a true story based on actual events, how does the narrator create dramatic tension when most readers can be expected to know what happens in the end? To see how skillfully this can be done turn to Jo Ann Beard’s astonishing personal story about a graduate student’s murderous rampage on the University of Iowa campus in 1991. “Plasma is the fourth state of matter,” writes Beard, who worked in the U of I’s physics department at the time of the incident, “You’ve got your solid, your liquid, your gas, and there’s your plasma. In outer space there’s the plasmasphere and the plasmapause.” Besides plasma, in this emotion-packed essay you will find entangled in all the tension a lovable, dying collie, invasive squirrels, an estranged husband, the seriously disturbed gunman, and his victims, one of them among the author’s dearest friends. Selected by Ian Frazier for The Best American Essays 1997 , the essay was collected in Beard’s award-winning volume, The Boys of My Youth (1998).

David Foster Wallace, "Consider the Lobster" (originally appeared in Gourmet , 2004)

They may at first look like magazine articles—those factually-driven, expansive pieces on the Illinois State Fair, a luxury cruise ship, the adult video awards, or John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign—but once you uncover the disguise and get inside them you are in the midst of essayistic genius. One of David Foster Wallace’s shortest and most essayistic is his “coverage” of the annual Maine Lobster Festival, “Consider the Lobster.” The Festival becomes much more than an occasion to observe “the World’s Largest Lobster Cooker” in action as Wallace poses an uncomfortable question to readers of the upscale food magazine: “Is it all right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure?” Don’t gloss over the footnotes. Susan Orlean selected the essay for The Best American Essays 2004 and Wallace collected it in Consider the Lobster and Other Essays (2005).

Read the essay here . (Note: the electronic version from Gourmet magazine’s archives differs from the essay that appears in The Best American Essays and in his book, Consider the Lobster. )

I wish I could include twenty more essays but these ten in themselves comprise a wonderful and wide-ranging mini-anthology, one that showcases some of the most outstanding literary voices of our time. Readers who’d like to see more of the best essays since 1950 should take a look at The Best American Essays of the Century (2000).

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Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the 31 literary devices you must know.

General Education

Need to analyze The Scarlet Letter or To Kill a Mockingbird for English class, but fumbling for the right vocabulary and concepts for literary devices? You've come to the right place. To successfully interpret and analyze literary texts, you'll first need to have a solid foundation in literary terms and their definitions.

In this article, we'll help you get familiar with most commonly used literary devices in prose and poetry. We'll give you a clear definition of each of the terms we discuss along with examples of literary elements and the context in which they most often appear (comedic writing, drama, or other).

Before we get to the list of literary devices, however, we have a quick refresher on what literary devices are and how understanding them will help you analyze works of literature.

What Are Literary Devices and Why Should You Know Them?

Literary devices are techniques that writers use to create a special and pointed effect in their writing, to convey information, or to help readers understand their writing on a deeper level.

Often, literary devices are used in writing for emphasis or clarity. Authors will also use literary devices to get readers to connect more strongly with either a story as a whole or specific characters or themes.

So why is it important to know different literary devices and terms? Aside from helping you get good grades on your literary analysis homework, there are several benefits to knowing the techniques authors commonly use.

Being able to identify when different literary techniques are being used helps you understand the motivation behind the author's choices. For example, being able to identify symbols in a story can help you figure out why the author might have chosen to insert these focal points and what these might suggest in regard to her attitude toward certain characters, plot points, and events.

In addition, being able to identify literary devices can make a written work's overall meaning or purpose clearer to you. For instance, let's say you're planning to read (or re-read) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. By knowing that this particular book is a religious allegory with references to Christ (represented by the character Aslan) and Judas (represented by Edmund), it will be clearer to you why Lewis uses certain language to describe certain characters and why certain events happen the way they do.

Finally, literary techniques are important to know because they make texts more interesting and more fun to read. If you were to read a novel without knowing any literary devices, chances are you wouldn't be able to detect many of the layers of meaning interwoven into the story via different techniques.

Now that we've gone over why you should spend some time learning literary devices, let's take a look at some of the most important literary elements to know.

List of Literary Devices: 31 Literary Terms You Should Know

Below is a list of literary devices, most of which you'll often come across in both prose and poetry. We explain what each literary term is and give you an example of how it's used. This literary elements list is arranged in alphabetical order.

An allegory is a story that is used to represent a more general message about real-life (historical) issues and/or events. It is typically an entire book, novel, play, etc.

Example: George Orwell's dystopian book Animal Farm is an allegory for the events preceding the Russian Revolution and the Stalinist era in early 20th century Russia. In the story, animals on a farm practice animalism, which is essentially communism. Many characters correspond to actual historical figures: Old Major represents both the founder of communism Karl Marx and the Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin; the farmer, Mr. Jones, is the Russian Czar; the boar Napoleon stands for Joseph Stalin; and the pig Snowball represents Leon Trotsky.

Alliteration

Alliteration is a series of words or phrases that all (or almost all) start with the same sound. These sounds are typically consonants to give more stress to that syllable. You'll often come across alliteration in poetry, titles of books and poems ( Jane Austen is a fan of this device, for example—just look at Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility ), and tongue twisters.

Example: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." In this tongue twister, the "p" sound is repeated at the beginning of all major words.

Allusion is when an author makes an indirect reference to a figure, place, event, or idea originating from outside the text. Many allusions make reference to previous works of literature or art.

Example: "Stop acting so smart—it's not like you're Einstein or something." This is an allusion to the famous real-life theoretical physicist Albert Einstein.

Anachronism

An anachronism occurs when there is an (intentional) error in the chronology or timeline of a text. This could be a character who appears in a different time period than when he actually lived, or a technology that appears before it was invented. Anachronisms are often used for comedic effect.

Example: A Renaissance king who says, "That's dope, dude!" would be an anachronism, since this type of language is very modern and not actually from the Renaissance period.

Anaphora is when a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of multiple sentences throughout a piece of writing. It's used to emphasize the repeated phrase and evoke strong feelings in the audience.

Example: A famous example of anaphora is Winston Churchill's "We Shall Fight on the Beaches" speech. Throughout this speech, he repeats the phrase "we shall fight" while listing numerous places where the British army will continue battling during WWII. He did this to rally both troops and the British people and to give them confidence that they would still win the war.

Anthropomorphism

An anthropomorphism occurs when something nonhuman, such as an animal, place, or inanimate object, behaves in a human-like way.

Example: Children's cartoons have many examples of anthropomorphism. For example, Mickey and Minnie Mouse can speak, wear clothes, sing, dance, drive cars, etc. Real mice can't do any of these things, but the two mouse characters behave much more like humans than mice.

Asyndeton is when the writer leaves out conjunctions (such as "and," "or," "but," and "for") in a group of words or phrases so that the meaning of the phrase or sentence is emphasized. It is often used for speeches since sentences containing asyndeton can have a powerful, memorable rhythm.

Example: Abraham Lincoln ends the Gettysburg Address with the phrase "...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the Earth." By leaving out certain conjunctions, he ends the speech on a more powerful, melodic note.

Colloquialism

Colloquialism is the use of informal language and slang. It's often used by authors to lend a sense of realism to their characters and dialogue. Forms of colloquialism include words, phrases, and contractions that aren't real words (such as "gonna" and "ain't").

Example: "Hey, what's up, man?" This piece of dialogue is an example of a colloquialism, since it uses common everyday words and phrases, namely "what's up" and "man."

An epigraph is when an author inserts a famous quotation, poem, song, or other short passage or text at the beginning of a larger text (e.g., a book, chapter, etc.). An epigraph is typically written by a different writer (with credit given) and used as a way to introduce overarching themes or messages in the work. Some pieces of literature, such as Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick , incorporate multiple epigraphs throughout.

Example: At the beginning of Ernest Hemingway's book The Sun Also Rises is an epigraph that consists of a quotation from poet Gertrude Stein, which reads, "You are all a lost generation," and a passage from the Bible.

Epistrophe is similar to anaphora, but in this case, the repeated word or phrase appears at the end of successive statements. Like anaphora, it is used to evoke an emotional response from the audience.

Example: In Lyndon B. Johnson's speech, "The American Promise," he repeats the word "problem" in a use of epistrophe: "There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem."

A euphemism is when a more mild or indirect word or expression is used in place of another word or phrase that is considered harsh, blunt, vulgar, or unpleasant.

Example: "I'm so sorry, but he didn't make it." The phrase "didn't make it" is a more polite and less blunt way of saying that someone has died.

A flashback is an interruption in a narrative that depicts events that have already occurred, either before the present time or before the time at which the narration takes place. This device is often used to give the reader more background information and details about specific characters, events, plot points, and so on.

Example: Most of the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is a flashback from the point of view of the housekeeper, Nelly Dean, as she engages in a conversation with a visitor named Lockwood. In this story, Nelly narrates Catherine Earnshaw's and Heathcliff's childhoods, the pair's budding romance, and their tragic demise.

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is when an author indirectly hints at—through things such as dialogue, description, or characters' actions—what's to come later on in the story. This device is often used to introduce tension to a narrative.

Example: Say you're reading a fictionalized account of Amelia Earhart. Before she embarks on her (what we know to be unfortunate) plane ride, a friend says to her, "Be safe. Wouldn't want you getting lost—or worse." This line would be an example of foreshadowing because it implies that something bad ("or worse") will happen to Earhart.

Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement that's not meant to be taken literally by the reader. It is often used for comedic effect and/or emphasis.

Example: "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse." The speaker will not literally eat an entire horse (and most likely couldn't ), but this hyperbole emphasizes how starved the speaker feels.

Imagery is when an author describes a scene, thing, or idea so that it appeals to our senses (taste, smell, sight, touch, or hearing). This device is often used to help the reader clearly visualize parts of the story by creating a strong mental picture.

Example: Here's an example of imagery taken from William Wordsworth's famous poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud":

When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden Daffodils; Beside the Lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Irony is when a statement is used to express an opposite meaning than the one literally expressed by it. There are three types of irony in literature:

Verbal irony: When someone says something but means the opposite (similar to sarcasm).
Situational irony: When something happens that's the opposite of what was expected or intended to happen.
Dramatic irony: When the audience is aware of the true intentions or outcomes, while the characters are not . As a result, certain actions and/or events take on different meanings for the audience than they do for the characters involved.
Verbal irony: One example of this type of irony can be found in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado." In this short story, a man named Montresor plans to get revenge on another man named Fortunato. As they toast, Montresor says, "And I, Fortunato—I drink to your long life." This statement is ironic because we the readers already know by this point that Montresor plans to kill Fortunato.
Situational irony: A girl wakes up late for school and quickly rushes to get there. As soon as she arrives, though, she realizes that it's Saturday and there is no school.
Dramatic irony: In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet , Romeo commits suicide in order to be with Juliet; however, the audience (unlike poor Romeo) knows that Juliet is not actually dead—just asleep.

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is the comparing and contrasting of two or more different (usually opposite) ideas, characters, objects, etc. This literary device is often used to help create a clearer picture of the characteristics of one object or idea by comparing it with those of another.

Example: One of the most famous literary examples of juxtaposition is the opening passage from Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities :

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair …"

Malapropism

Malapropism happens when an incorrect word is used in place of a word that has a similar sound. This misuse of the word typically results in a statement that is both nonsensical and humorous; as a result, this device is commonly used in comedic writing.

Example: "I just can't wait to dance the flamingo!" Here, a character has accidentally called the flamenco (a type of dance) the flamingo (an animal).

Metaphor/Simile

Metaphors are when ideas, actions, or objects are described in non-literal terms. In short, it's when an author compares one thing to another. The two things being described usually share something in common but are unalike in all other respects.

A simile is a type of metaphor in which an object, idea, character, action, etc., is compared to another thing using the words "as" or "like."

Both metaphors and similes are often used in writing for clarity or emphasis.

"What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." In this line from Romeo and Juliet , Romeo compares Juliet to the sun. However, because Romeo doesn't use the words "as" or "like," it is not a simile—just a metaphor.

"She is as vicious as a lion." Since this statement uses the word "as" to make a comparison between "she" and "a lion," it is a simile.

A metonym is when a related word or phrase is substituted for the actual thing to which it's referring. This device is usually used for poetic or rhetorical effect .

Example: "The pen is mightier than the sword." This statement, which was coined by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839, contains two examples of metonymy: "the pen" refers to "the written word," and "the sword" refers to "military force/violence."

Mood is the general feeling the writer wants the audience to have. The writer can achieve this through description, setting, dialogue, and word choice .

Example: Here's a passage from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit: "It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats -- the hobbit was fond of visitors." In this passage, Tolkien uses detailed description to set create a cozy, comforting mood. From the writing, you can see that the hobbit's home is well-cared for and designed to provide comfort.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a word (or group of words) that represents a sound and actually resembles or imitates the sound it stands for. It is often used for dramatic, realistic, or poetic effect.

Examples: Buzz, boom, chirp, creak, sizzle, zoom, etc.

An oxymoron is a combination of two words that, together, express a contradictory meaning. This device is often used for emphasis, for humor, to create tension, or to illustrate a paradox (see next entry for more information on paradoxes).

Examples: Deafening silence, organized chaos, cruelly kind, insanely logical, etc.

A paradox is a statement that appears illogical or self-contradictory but, upon investigation, might actually be true or plausible.

Note that a paradox is different from an oxymoron: a paradox is an entire phrase or sentence, whereas an oxymoron is a combination of just two words.

Example: Here's a famous paradoxical sentence: "This statement is false." If the statement is true, then it isn't actually false (as it suggests). But if it's false, then the statement is true! Thus, this statement is a paradox because it is both true and false at the same time.

Personification

Personification is when a nonhuman figure or other abstract concept or element is described as having human-like qualities or characteristics. (Unlike anthropomorphism where non-human figures become human-like characters, with personification, the object/figure is simply described as being human-like.) Personification is used to help the reader create a clearer mental picture of the scene or object being described.

Example: "The wind moaned, beckoning me to come outside." In this example, the wind—a nonhuman element—is being described as if it is human (it "moans" and "beckons").

Repetition is when a word or phrase is written multiple times, usually for the purpose of emphasis. It is often used in poetry (for purposes of rhythm as well).

Example: When Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the score for the hit musical Hamilton, gave his speech at the 2016 Tony's, he recited a poem he'd written that included the following line:

And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.

Satire is genre of writing that criticizes something , such as a person, behavior, belief, government, or society. Satire often employs irony, humor, and hyperbole to make its point.

Example: The Onion is a satirical newspaper and digital media company. It uses satire to parody common news features such as opinion columns, editorial cartoons, and click bait headlines.

A type of monologue that's often used in dramas, a soliloquy is when a character speaks aloud to himself (and to the audience), thereby revealing his inner thoughts and feelings.

Example: In Romeo and Juliet , Juliet's speech on the balcony that begins with, "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?" is a soliloquy, as she is speaking aloud to herself (remember that she doesn't realize Romeo's there listening!).

Symbolism refers to the use of an object, figure, event, situation, or other idea in a written work to represent something else— typically a broader message or deeper meaning that differs from its literal meaning.

The things used for symbolism are called "symbols," and they'll often appear multiple times throughout a text, sometimes changing in meaning as the plot progresses.

Example: In F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby , the green light that sits across from Gatsby's mansion symbolizes Gatsby's hopes and dreams .

A synecdoche is a literary device in which part of something is used to represent the whole, or vice versa. It's similar to a metonym (see above); however, a metonym doesn't have to represent the whole—just something associated with the word used.

Example: "Help me out, I need some hands!" In this case, "hands" is being used to refer to people (the whole human, essentially).

While mood is what the audience is supposed to feel, tone is the writer or narrator's attitude towards a subject . A good writer will always want the audience to feel the mood they're trying to evoke, but the audience may not always agree with the narrator's tone, especially if the narrator is an unsympathetic character or has viewpoints that differ from those of the reader.

Example: In an essay disdaining Americans and some of the sites they visit as tourists, Rudyard Kipling begins with the line, "Today I am in the Yellowstone Park, and I wish I were dead." If you enjoy Yellowstone and/or national parks, you may not agree with the author's tone in this piece.

How to Identify and Analyze Literary Devices: 4 Tips

In order to fully interpret pieces of literature, you have to understand a lot about literary devices in the texts you read. Here are our top tips for identifying and analyzing different literary techniques:

Tip 1: Read Closely and Carefully

First off, you'll need to make sure that you're reading very carefully. Resist the temptation to skim or skip any sections of the text. If you do this, you might miss some literary devices being used and, as a result, will be unable to accurately interpret the text.

If there are any passages in the work that make you feel especially emotional, curious, intrigued, or just plain interested, check that area again for any literary devices at play.

It's also a good idea to reread any parts you thought were confusing or that you didn't totally understand on a first read-through. Doing this ensures that you have a solid grasp of the passage (and text as a whole) and will be able to analyze it appropriately.

Tip 2: Memorize Common Literary Terms

You won't be able to identify literary elements in texts if you don't know what they are or how they're used, so spend some time memorizing the literary elements list above. Knowing these (and how they look in writing) will allow you to more easily pinpoint these techniques in various types of written works.

Tip 3: Know the Author's Intended Audience

Knowing what kind of audience an author intended her work to have can help you figure out what types of literary devices might be at play.

For example, if you were trying to analyze a children's book, you'd want to be on the lookout for child-appropriate devices, such as repetition and alliteration.

Tip 4: Take Notes and Bookmark Key Passages and Pages

This is one of the most important tips to know, especially if you're reading and analyzing works for English class. As you read, take notes on the work in a notebook or on a computer. Write down any passages, paragraphs, conversations, descriptions, etc., that jump out at you or that contain a literary device you were able to identify.

You can also take notes directly in the book, if possible (but don't do this if you're borrowing a book from the library!). I recommend circling keywords and important phrases, as well as starring interesting or particularly effective passages and paragraphs.

Lastly, use sticky notes or post-its to bookmark pages that are interesting to you or that have some kind of notable literary device. This will help you go back to them later should you need to revisit some of what you've found for a paper you plan to write.

What's Next?

Looking for more in-depth explorations and examples of literary devices? Join us as we delve into imagery , personification , rhetorical devices , tone words and mood , and different points of view in literature, as well as some more poetry-specific terms like assonance and iambic pentameter .

Reading The Great Gatsby for class or even just for fun? Then you'll definitely want to check out our expert guides on the biggest themes in this classic book, from love and relationships to money and materialism .

Got questions about Arthur Miller's The Crucible ? Read our in-depth articles to learn about the most important themes in this play and get a complete rundown of all the characters .

For more information on your favorite works of literature, take a look at our collection of high-quality book guides and our guide to the 9 literary elements that appear in every story !

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download them for free now:

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Hannah received her MA in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan and holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California. From 2013 to 2015, she taught English in Japan via the JET Program. She is passionate about education, writing, and travel.

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How To Write Book Titles The Proper Way: A Complete Guide For Writers

February 10, 2022

Book titles within essays or papers can be tricky. There are specific rules that are given for how to include a book title in a way that sets it apart from the content of your writing given by the Modern Language Association. However, as with many other things in life, there are exceptions to the rules. This article will guide you through the rules of the writing style guides so that you can include a book’s title in your paper or essay correctly.

How to write book titles:

Style guides and book titles.

When it comes to book titles within text, there are a few different style guides that have rules you can follow, depending on your writing type. The three types that you will encounter most often are; MLA style, Chicago manual of style, and APA. A writing instructor will usually tell you what style guide you are expected to use for a particular essay or paper.

MLA Style Guide

The MLA handbook states that you should always italicize book titles when styling book titles within your text. The exception to this rule are religious texts. You would not italicize the Holy Bible or the sacred books or titles of other religions. Note the following example.

Pam had stayed most of the summer indoors, re-reading her favorite book series. She was already up to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone , and she didn’t regret not being more active or going outside.

In the above example, the book title is italicized. Fiction titles and nonfiction titles alike must be in italics when within the text.

Series Titles in MLA

In the above example, a book from a series was used. But what if the text had not specified which book from the series Pam was reading? Would it still need to be in italics? The answer is: in this case, yes. In other cases, sometimes.

It’s really not as confusing as it seems. When you are talking about a book series but don’t want or need to include the complete series titles for the purposes of your work, you only have to put words in italics that also appear in the book titles. So, because Harry Potter is part of the title of all of the books in the series, you would italicize his name every time you mention the book.

However, if you were talking about Katniss Everdeen, you would not have to do this, as the book series she is featured in doesn’t use her name in the titles of The Hunger Games series. The same would be true of books like the Nancy Drew books.

Quotation Marks

There are instances in which titles should be placed inside of quotation marks within a paper or essay. This is done when you cite the titles of poems , a chapter title, short stories, articles, or blogs.

So, for example, if you were to write a paper that featured a poem from a book, you would put the book title in italics and the poems cited in quotation marks.

An example of an enduring love poem is “Annabel Lee” from The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe.

Chapter Title

Another time that quotation marks should be used is when using the title of a chapter. If you are citing a specific chapter of a book, you would enclose the title of the chapter in quotation marks, and the title of the book should be in italics.

The desperation and sadness of a man on death row can be seen in the “Wild Wind Blowing” chapter of Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song.

Short Stories

Short stories are another case. Much like the title of a chapter or poem, in which the title is placed in quotation marks, while the title of the book or collection it is found in is italics. The same can be said for sections, stories, or chapters cited within a literary journal.

Stepping away from his norm of horror and gore, Stephen King writes of trust, love, and regret in his story “The Last Rung on the Ladder,” which can be found in his short story collection Night Shift.

Punctuation Marks

If you are citing a story or title that includes question marks, you need to make sure to italicize the question mark when citing. Keep all punctuation, such as a question mark, comma, ellipses, colon, or exclamation mark, as it is in the original individual books.

If you want a funny and irreverent read, you’ve got to try Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea. Chelsea Handler has done a phenomenal job of being vulgar, relatable, and explaining life from her viewpoint in this hilarious and memorable book.

The Digital Age: Are Book Titles Underlined Anymore?

MLA style used to dictate that a book title should either be in italics or underlined. However, that is no longer the case. As computers started to take over as the major tool used in writing, it became unpopular to underline book titles. Therefore, this rule was dropped from the style guides.

However, it should be mentioned that when handwriting an essay or research paper, many instructors prefer that you underline book titles, as it’s relatively difficult to handwrite italics. If you are in a writing course or a class that is heavy on handwritten work, be sure to ask your instructor or teacher which method they prefer for citing a book title.

How to Come Up with Book Title Ideas

Now that quotation marks, italics, and style guides have been discussed, let’s move on to how you can come up with your own book title. If you’d like a title for your book that sounds interesting and will get a reader’s attention, you may find this article helpful.

Coming up with a good title for your book is a challenging yet essential marketing decision . The right title can make your target audience choose your new book off of the shelf instead of another writer’s work. Your book cover and your book title are quite possibly the most important marketing decisions you will make.

How to Choose a Good Book Title

Certain criteria should be met if you want to have a good book title , and there are specific steps involved in getting there. You may have assumed up until now that titles of books were just spur of the moment decisions made by authors or publishers, but a lot of work goes into writing good titles.

Grab the Reader’s Attention

As a general rule, you want your reader to remember your title and to sound interesting, even without the reader having seen the cover. There are several ways to do this. You can be a little dark with your title, be controversial, provoke the reader, or even be funny.

There are many examples of such works that use memorable and attention-seeking titles. The following are some different titles that are effective and would most likely provoke a reader to grab them from a shelf for closer inspection.

Burn After Writing (Sharon Jones)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (Mindy Kaling)
Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea (Chelsea Handler)
The Devil Wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger)
Chicken Soup for the Soul (various authors)
God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (Kurt Vonnegut)

Shorter Titles

If your full title for your book is long, you may end up boring a reader or creating a situation where a reader tries to remember the title of your book, but it’s too long and ends up getting it confused with another book. Although you should always do your best to make sure that there aren’t books by other authors that share a title or have a title similar to your book (more on that in a minute), you don’t want a person to get confused and get the wrong book instead.

Research Your Title Ideas

It’s a good idea to take the titles you have considered for your book and make a list. Then, do your homework. You can use tools like Google Adwords to test out your title to see if there are others like it, or you can simply use any search engine and plug your title ideas into the search bar and see what similar or exact titles of the same words pop up.

Readers are generally busy people. They don’t have the time or the energy to ensure that writers get a title right. They’ll look for the book they are interested in, and if it proves to be too difficult, or if there are other books written that have the same title, they’ll move on to something else.

A writer really has to make sure that they have a title that isn’t going to be ignored, is interesting, isn’t too long, and isn’t too similar to other works.

The same goes for titles of short works within a larger body of work. Short works, like poems or stories, need to have unique titles as well when included in a larger body of work, such as a collection. If stories are similar in nature, be sure to title them differently so that readers will be able to tell them apart, as well.

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Alice Munro, acclaimed short-story writer and Nobel Prize winner, dies at 92

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Alice Munro, the Canadian short story writer who lent mythic proportions to the lives of ordinary people from small, rural towns like those in the Ontario countryside where she spent most of her life, has died. She was 92.

The author’s publisher, Penguin Random House Canada, confirmed on its website Munro died Monday evening at her home in Port Hope, Ontario. A cause of death was not revealed, though the author had been in frail health since undergoing heart surgery in 2001.

Kristin Cochrane, the chief executive of Penguin Random House Canada, paid tribute to Munro in a statement published on the website. “Alice Munro is a national treasure — a writer of enormous depth, empathy, and humanity whose work is read, admired, and cherished by readers throughout Canada and around the world,” Cochrane said.

The statement continued: “Alice’s writing inspired countless writers too, and her work leaves an indelible mark on our literary landscape. All of us at Penguin Random House Canada mourn this loss and we join together with our colleagues at Penguin Random House in the U.S., the U.K., and globally in appreciation for all that Alice Munro has left behind.”

Considered by many to be the finest short fiction writer of her generation, Munro was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 2013 , only months after publishing a collection of stories that she said would be her last. She had already received the Man Booker International Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award in the United States and every top literary prize offered in her native Canada, including its most prestigious, the Governor General’s Award.

Alice Munro, winner of the 2013 Nobel Literature Prize.

Alice Munro, reviewed by L.A. Times: ‘casually impeccable,’ ‘genius’

Alice Munro, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday, lives a quiet life in a small town in Ontario, Canada.

Oct. 10, 2013

“Alice Munro is our Chekhov, and is going to outlast most of her contemporaries,” author Cynthia Ozick said some years ago, comparing her to Russia’s 19th century master of the short story. Reviewers often linked the two writers’ names, partly because both had mastered a subtle peeling back of layers to reveal their characters.

Munro wrote about country folk who knew how to gut a turkey, breed foxes and sell medicine door to door, but also knew about unreliable love, family violence and failed attempts at social climbing. Her stories unfold, often in the fictional towns of Jubilee or Hanratty, with a direct simplicity paired with painstaking craftsmanship. She made no secret of the dozens of drafts it took her to complete a story.

“She’s become a virtuoso,” author John Updike, the literary critic for the New Yorker, said in a 2001 interview with the Montreal Gazette. “She manages to get into people’s skin without seeming to dive in, without being ostentatious.”

Several of Munro’s collections were made of linked stories where characters leap across years or decades before the last page. In “Lives of Girls and Women” (1971), she identified some of her favorite kind of women. They were “dull, simple, amazing and unfathomable — deep caves paved with kitchen linoleum.”

A look at the work and life of author Alice Munro

News that Alice Munro, 82, was the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature was met with tremendous enthusiasm from her fans in America.

She once explained her attraction to such lives, saying they only appear to be dull. “The complexity of things, the things within things, just seems to be endless,” Munro said. “I mean, nothing is easy, nothing is simple.”

Her best works compare with classic tragedy written in prose form.

“I want to tell a story in the old-fashioned way — what happens to somebody,” Munro said in a 1998 Vintage Books interview. “But I want the reader to feel something is astonishing. Not the ‘what happens’ but the way everything happens.”

There aren’t many happy endings in Munro stories. But there is basic goodness, clearly exposed, in nearly all of her characters. If they lose, they usually lose in love, and carry their disappointments with quiet dignity.

Alice Munro, Nobel winner and a writer’s peerless teacher

The Nobel laureate in literature imparts the invaluable lesson of how to be in the moment as a writer.

“The bleakness of its vision is enriched by the author’s exquisite eye and ear for detail,” Joyce Carol Oates wrote in the New York Times in 1986. “Life is heartbreak, but it is also uncharted moments of kindness and reconciliation.”

Munro attracted international attention without ever leaving home. She lived most of her life in rural Ontario, surrounded by woods and farmland. She noted in interviews that she was raised on the wrong side of the tracks in her hometown of Wingham. As a young girl she could hardly wait to get away from that life, but years of writing fiction set in small towns changed her view.

“I am at home with the brick houses, the falling-down barns, the occasional farms that have swimming pools and airplanes, the trailer parks, burdensome old churches, Wal-Mart, and Canadian Tire,” Munro wrote in the introduction to “Selected Stories” (1996). “I speak the language.”

She vaulted into the mainstream by sheer force of will. Increasingly she was included in the lofty league with her friend Margaret Atwood as well as Carol Shields and Timothy Findley, Canada’s leading fiction writers among her contemporaries.

She referred to herself as compulsive and driven about her work. She wrote every day and set the highest goals. As a beginner in the early 1950s she submitted her work to the New Yorker and was rejected again and again. Her first story for the magazine was published in 1979. After that she became a frequent contributor.

Alice Munro smiles in a shiny dress as she talks to a group

Daniel Menaker, who was Munro’s editor at the New Yorker and later the editor in chief at Random House, referred to her as “a modern and experimental writer in the clothing of a classical writer.”

“You get the feeling she’s trying to help you get at some true emotional psychological insight,” Menaker said in a 2003 interview with the Guardian. As often as not, he said, it leads to “a dark existential uncertainty about what makes people tick.”

Born Alice Laidlaw on July 10, 1931, and raised on a fox and mink farm, a failing family business, Munro was the oldest of three children. Her mother, Anne, was a stickler for “pure” and ladylike behavior, which cramped Alice’s imagination.

Anne Laidlaw developed Parkinson’s disease when Alice was 10. Long-term illness only made their strained relationship worse. Alice left home at 17, torn by guilt, and did not return home during the last two years of her mother’s life.

In “The Peace of Utrecht” (1959), she described a young woman who goes home after her mother’s death. She is defiant but not entirely convincing about the choice she made to leave.

The story, one of Munro’s first blatantly autobiographical works, freed her. From then on she wrote personal stories, a number including uneasy mother-daughter relationships.

Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro has given conflicting signals about whether she will continue to write.

Alice Munro has retired from writing. Or has she?

Before winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, Canadian short story master Alice Munro announced her retirement in an interview with Mark Medley of Canada’s National Post.

Oct. 23, 2013

“The problem, the only problem, is my mother,” she wrote in the autobiographical “The Ottawa Valley” (1997). “She is the one of course that I am trying to get. … To mark her off, to describe, to illumine, to celebrate, to get rid of her.”

When Munro did leave home, it was to attend the University of Western Ontario. There she met her future husband, James Munro, and they married in 1951. The couple moved to Vancouver, where he worked as an executive at a department store. They had three children, Sheila, Jenny and Andrea. Another girl, Catherine, was born without kidneys and died hours later.

While her children were young, Munro wedged fiction writing between housework and her daughters’ naps. Time constraints steered her toward short stories. “I wrote in bits and pieces,” she said in a 2001 interview with Atlantic Monthly. “Perhaps I got used to thinking of my material in terms of things that worked that way.”

In 1963 the Munros moved to Victoria, British Columbia, and opened a bookstore — Munro’s Books — which eventually became a literary landmark.

Family commitments slowed Munro’s writing career. It took her close to 20 years to finish enough stories to fill her first collection, “Dance of the Happy Shades,” published in 1968. She was 37. The book won the Canadian Governor General’s Literary Award in 1969. Munro won the prize again in 1978, 1979 and 1987.

“I feel that I am two rather different people, two very different women,” she said in an interview with Graeme Gibson for “Eleven Canadian Novelists” (1973). “In many ways I want a quite traditional role and then of course the writer stands right outside this, so there’s the conflict right there.”

The social upheavals of the 1960s gave Munro new material to write about. She grew dissatisfied with her husband, and the couple divorced in 1973 after 22 years of marriage. She took an appointment teaching at the University of Western Ontario and reconnected with Gerald Fremlin, a geographer she first met while they were students. They married and in 1976 moved to Clinton, Ontario; each had been raised within a few miles of the town.

Place became a character in Munro’s stories. “I am intoxicated by this landscape,” she wrote, “by the almost flat fields, the swamps, the hardwood bush, by the continental climate with its extravagant winters.”

In dozens of short stories set in Ontario, she combined the “intractably rural” region with the human commotion it hosted — “gothic passions, buried sorrows and forlorn mysteries,” a reviewer for the New York Times magazine wrote in 2004.

At age 60, Munro began writing stories about her contemporaries as they looked back over the past. In “Friend of My Youth,” a collection published in 1990, a number of men and women from Munro’s generation are portrayed as grudging survivors of the sexual revolution, the peace movement and the feminist movement of the 1960s and ’70s. Critics referred to her “mature vision.”

Canadian author Alice Munro in 2009. The Nobel laureate evokes the glory and heartache of ordinary lives in her short stories.

Alice Munro’s quiet, precise works lead to Nobel Prize in literature

By 1998 Munro was at the height of her success. She won the National Book Critics Circle Award that year for “The Love of a Good Woman.” Three years later, she completed “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage,” her 12th book. It sealed her reputation. She followed it in 2004 with “Runaway,” a collection of three stories that follow the main character, Juliet, from a bumbling 21-year-old with a degree in classics through 30 years of bad love affairs, money problems and a daughter who no longer speaks to her.

“The moments she’s pursuing now … are moments of fateful, irrevocable, dramatic action,” Jonathan Franzen wrote in a review for the New York Times Book Review. “What this means for the reader is you can’t even begin to guess at a story’s meaning until you’ve followed every twist; it’s always the last page or two that switches all the lights on.”

Munro’s final story collection, “Dear Life,” was published in 2012. The following year, she won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

“I write the story I want to read,” Munro told the New York Times. “I do not feel responsible to my readers or my material. I know how hard it is to get anything to work right. Every story is a triumph.”

Munro is survived by her daughters Sheila and Jenny. Fremlin, her husband, died in 2013.

Rourke is a former Times staff writer.

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Can You Recognize This Novel From a One-Line Description?

By J. D. Biersdorfer May 6, 2024

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A blue and white illustration of an open book with the bottom corner depicted as a jigsaw-puzzle piece snapping into place.

Welcome to Lit Trivia, the Book Review’s multiple-choice quiz designed to test your knowledge of books and literary culture. This week’s challenge asks you to identify five famous 20th-century novels based on a very simple one-sentence plot description.

Just tap or click on the title you think is correct to see the answer and a snippet of the original coverage in The Times. After the last question, you’ll find links to the titles in case you’re looking for a something to read.

A man runs around Dublin all day in June 1904.

“Birchwood,” by John Banville

“Borstal Boy,” by Brendan Behan

“Ulysses,” by James Joyce

“Strumpet City,” by James Plunkett

A young girl grows up in an impoverished urban area and, inspired by nature’s tenacity, strives to get an education as a key to success in life.

“Angels on Toast,” by Dawn Powell

“Brown Girl, Brownstones,” by Paule Marshall

“My Sister Eileen,” by Ruth McKenney

“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” by Betty Smith

A man recalls his childhood and young adulthood in high society for thousands of pages and has a memorable encounter with a snack food.

“The Remains of the Day,” by Kazuo Ishiguro

“In Search of Lost Time,” by Marcel Proust

“A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” by James Joyce

“The Grapes of Wrath,” by John Steinbeck

An American in Paris, dealing with social alienation and other issues, has a relationship with an Italian bartender.

“Paris France,” by Gertrude Stein

“Giovanni’s Room,” by James Baldwin

“Gigi and the Cat,” by Colette

“The Ambassadors,” by Henry James

A clairvoyant woman keeps a journal for decades and records the dramatic lives of several generations of her family through love and political upheaval.

“In the Time of the Butterflies,” by Julia Alvarez

“The Kitchen God’s Wife,” by Amy Tan

“Paradise,” by Toni Morrison

“The House of the Spirits,” by Isabel Allende

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Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

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Geoffrey Mak Still Hasn’t Lost Hope in the Personal Essay

By jake nevins, photographed by acudus aranyian, may 7, 2024.

Geoffrey Mak, photographed by Acudus.

Last month, when I spoke to the writer and critic Geoffrey Mak about his debut collection of essays, Mean Boys , a white flower petal floated into his coffee just as he explained how he came to reconcile with his father, a firebrand conservative minister who features prominently in one of the book’s standout pieces, a tough but largely merciful account of their strained relationship and the indignities of the Evangelical church. It was a storybook moment that struck me as almost inappropriately mawkish, since Mak is not one for heavy sentiment. In Mean Boys , he applies a fierce intellect and a certain defiant posture to subjects as varied as edgelords, art fairs, raves, agitprop, organized religion, and mass murderers, but the conclusions reached are rarely tidy or comforting. Paranoia, distrust, and violence, Mak argues, are the defining sensibilities of these strange times. But we nevertheless retain our capacity for joy and intimacy, to be found, perhaps, in the random kindness of a stranger on the dance floor, or in the act of writing itself. “When I write, I care less about admiration and more about connection,” Mak explained. “And this very rich expansion of the soul can only happen with the personal essay.” Just before his book’s release, he and I got together downtown to talk about pain, pleasure, Trump, trad caths, and the Kardashians.

NEVINS: I finished the title essay last night. I feel like I should tell you up front that a very dear friend of mine grew up with Elliot Rodger and is mentioned by name in his manifesto. She’s actually working on this short in which she imagines his mother getting the call about the murders. So that was heavy on my mind as I was reading.

MAK: Oh, wow. Yeah, the mom. I tried not to do the whole “what went wrong” thing. I don’t think anyone wanted my speculation. But I felt really bad for her because like, she wasn’t that Asian parent who wouldn’t give positive affirmation. She really did, and she really had a kind of infinite patience. I don’t think Elliot was going out of his way to portray her well and she still came out pretty loving. So I feel really bad for her. Yeah, I would definitely watch this short.

NEVINS: I’ll keep you posted. Anyway, I was reading the title essay through the lens of your author’s note, in which you kind of riff on the uses and abuses of the personal essay. I’m curious to know what the utility of the form is for you, particularly in regard to these pieces.

MAK: Oh my gosh, I’m so opinionated on this. Where do I start? The personal essay now is really evolving. There are usually two directions it takes. I mean, everybody hates it. So the question is, “How do we make this less hateable?” And you either have one of two choices, which is to make it more like fiction or to make it more like journalism. And I think the pressure to push it in the direction of journalism is to back it up with research or reporting. So it’s like, this was my childhood in the church. Now I’m going to give you the history of the Presbyterian Church in America over the last couple centuries, and then I’m going to go back to myself.

NEVINS: And then in section four, we’ll do some scene work and actually go back to the church you had disavowed…

MAK: Yes, we’ve all read it. And I do really enjoy these essays. But specifically with Elliot Roger, I wanted to ask the question of what role pain has to do in our self-reported personal essays? Because I think our culture gives enormous authority to pain, but that also depends on who you are. If your pain is femme, queer, or non-white, it’s going to be respected as a source of authority. But we don’t seem to give a lot of aesthetic value or respect to stories of class deprivation. And then, in terms of status deprivation, there’s almost no discussion whatsoever because I don’t think our culture understands that status is real. But instead of using pain as a badge, there are other ways to represent it in literature, such as using it to disarm yourself and to become more open to relationships. I mean, something that really excites me about writing a memoir is the intense intimacy I will have with strangers I might never meet. I wanted to open the door to strange and intense intimacies. When I write, I care less about admiration and more about connection. And this very rich expansion of the soul can only happen with the personal essay. It’s special to me.

NEVINS: Yeah, I agree with that. I’m curious if it is any more or less strange than the intimacies that you write about experiencing more fleetingly while, say, K-holed on a dance floor. Those people will presumably know far less about you than your readers.

MAK: That’s true. But I am pretty much an open book. My boyfriend was like, “I’ve never met someone so unembarrassable before.” I write pretty openly about these years-long dry spells where I just wasn’t having any sex. And I think what happened during those years is that my brain and body and soul became really sensitive to opportunities for other kinds of intimacy other than sex. I think that wouldn’t have been the case if I were having a regular sex life. There are so many kinds of intimacy. I was listening to a lecture by the poet, Jorie Graham, and she was talking about how there’s a layer of intelligence in the human mind that is universal, and that’s the sensory one. Another thing about intimacy is that it doesn’t actually require knowledge. So when you’re on the dance floor, you’re radically intimate with all of these people moving together in the same direction, like a flock of birds. It’s really intimate to feel intense, purposeless joy.

NEVINS: I loved the section about how you assume a sort of maternal posture on the dance floor as the person whose job it was to sort of track everyone else’s highs. You and McKenzie Wark are writing more perceptively about nightlife than most people.

MAK: That book’s [ Raving ] amazing.

NEVINS: Yeah, that book’s great. But it does feel like the exception, since a lot of nightlife writing is just like, name-droppy.

MAK: That’s true. Speaking of, I feel a little bad. I wrote a lot about my dad and I didn’t write a lot about my mom, and I’m actually much closer to my mother.

NEVINS: Well, that doesn’t surprise me after reading about your dad.

MAK: I know…

NEVINS: Has he read it?

MAK: He got the book on Sunday.

NEVINS: You couldn’t get him a galley?

MAK: I didn’t want to because I wanted to give him a finished copy. I was like, “Is it okay if you don’t read certain essays?” And he was like, “Geoff, it’s fine. It’s not going to be a big deal.” I can’t imagine him opening the table of contents and reading the title, My Father, the Minister and not reading it immediately.

NEVINS: It’s so hard, but we’re powerless. When I was 18 and had just moved to New York, I wrote this cringe essay in New York Magazine about getting paid for sex by a very famous artist who was 50 years older than me. It was my very first byline and I didn’t name him. I was like, “Mom, I was published in New York Magazine. But you can’t read it.” I assume she went online and read it anyway.

MAK: If I was more assertive about it, I think my dad would’ve respected it. But I mean, it’s a little bit selfish for me because it actually doesn’t make a huge difference. I wanted to protect him from certain things, but if he’s like, “It’s not a big deal,” then I’d be like, “Yeah, you know yourself. I’ll trust you.” It’s tricky because there’s the essay in the book about my father and then there’s the New Yorker one, which is basically the same exact material, but kind of truncated. But in the New Yorker one, I wanted to celebrate my dad. I wanted to tell the world that it was possible for a firebrand conservative to actually change his mind. But when I wrote the one in the book, I was in utter rage. The one in the book makes me look good. I’m the wronged one. I’m the one with the emotional strength to be like, “I forgive you.” But in the New Yorker one, I look really bad. I’m the burnout, the drug addict. I’m the one who goes home penniless and my dad says, “Yeah, I’ll take you in.” I think it’s a fuller story.

NEVINS: Well, having read them both, I think this raises interesting questions about form. Narratively, in the container of the personal essay, did you not feel that both of these truths could coexist? By which I mean, do you feel that particular story, as it exists on the page, requires the tension of a character who’s plainly virtuous and one who’s not?

MAK: Well, the two of them together is a story of mutual forgiveness and at the end of the book version, I had this epiphany that we forgive people not because we think they can earn it one day. That’s not how forgiveness works. If you can earn forgiveness, that’s just called penance. What forgiveness really means is that we forgive someone because they can never earn it. There’s this moment where I call my father a coward. It’s pretty harsh, but I had asked him if he’d tell his church about me and he said no. So this kind of really intense failure is actually why I forgive him.

NEVINS: There’s no way a flower petal just fell into your coffee.

MAK: Right as we got to the moment of forgiveness. And to see him change made me radically optimistic about what the human heart is capable of. This isn’t in the book, but I did return to Christianity. Watching my dad model what a Christian was capable of made it quite appealing to me. I left Christianity and embraced queerness. And then when I came back to Christianity, I didn’t leave queerness. I brought it with me. I began reading some hard theology, and by “hard theology” I mean theology that’s meant for theologians. Liberals and leftists really hate Christians. And I’m not surprised. They have reason to. I hate them too. But all of the criticisms that the left has of Christianity, theology has answered them. People just don’t care enough to read it. It’s easier to have a target that’s demonized, and what’s more easy to demonize than the Evangelical church. I mean, they’re awful. But my whole life has been about finding tiny minorities that I could find a home in. I was never going to find a big movement that I felt was speaking to me. So there were the raves, there was theology, there was X, Y, and Z. But the stuff is out there, and it’s really thrilling.

NEVINS: This makes me curious to hear your thoughts on what you might call the kind of shallow iteration of religiosity coursing through downtown New York these days, which seems to me more reactionary than genuinely inquisitive.

MAK: Oh my god, yeah. Well, it is a little reactionary. Obviously, edgelords are a really big theme in the book. It’s hard to say what’s really going on there. Okay, tinfoil hat coming on. I had this epiphany when I was watching The Kardashians . You have this family that’s probably voting liberal. I mean, Caitlin isn’t, but I think most of the family is. But the show itself is a resounding endorsement of conservative ways of being, so to have this culture so loud and syndicated everywhere is to really promote a conservative way of life. And then I began to think of Trad Caths and like, you have all of these people in Dimes Square who are certainly voting liberal.

NEVINS: Well, if they’re voting at all.

MAK: Right, or they’re not voting. But them doing the hard work of stylizing Christianity and Catholicism and making it look cool is actually endorsing a kind of conservative constituency. I can’t not have a little bit of affection for the Trad Cath movement. I kind of love it on some level. I think it’s hilarious. Some people say to me, “Oh, but they’re not real.” They’re not real practitioners, they don’t actually believe. And I’m just like, “I’m not here to police that. I’m not ever here to police who’s the real Catholic, who’s the real trans, who’s the real leftist.” We can have rings of participation and intensities and seriousness.

NEVINS: Well, it’s interesting you say that. It’s such a rhetorical cudgel, but in the last several months I’ve experienced being told I’m not a “real Jew” for being pro-Palestine, which is really frustrating because I’m not only proud to be Jewish, but I also very much partake in all its cultural traditions, which I understand to be a spirit of community and fellowship and intellectual inquiry.

MAK: Who’s saying that to you?

NEVINS: Well, it mostly comes from Zionists. And I hate to create some sort of hierarchy, but the people saying that are certainly not any more observant than I am. They just seem to think that Zionism endows them with some totally arbitrary authority to decide who really is and isn’t Jewish. So I very much appreciate that despite having returned to Christianity yourself, you don’t take it upon yourself to police its other variants.

MAK: I kind of love the Praying shirts without the praying. I don’t have one. The moment’s a little bit over. But I have a little bit of affection.

NEVINS: I want to talk about Edgelords real quick because I think it’s a really impressive and expansive essay. Forgive me if I’m misstating the thesis, but—

MAK: I mean, it’s kind of messy. There are multiple theses.

NEVINS: Chief among them is that you’re identifying paranoia as the spirit of our age. Sometimes it can feel like we’re too close to an era or a scene to really assess it accurately. You write about the ways you were driven to what you call “madness.” I’m curious how you came to this organizing theory of the times.

MAK: Oh my gosh, there’s so much to say. There was a fundamental shift in how politics mobilized culture for its own advantages. There’s this excellent book, Kill All Normies by Angela Nagle. And if anybody reads it now, they’ll be like, “Duh, this is obvious.” But it really wasn’t when it came out. And basically the observation is that before, we thought politics would get to the center of culture and move out from there, just sending out the signals from the center and it’ll reach everyone eventually. And what Nagle tracked was that culture didn’t work top-down anymore. It actually worked bottom-up. You had very obscure communities that were disparate, fragmented, but they were meeting each other online, such as gamers, and they were interacting regularly, and they were organically growing really intense political beliefs and affinities. So if you look at Hillary versus Trump, they didn’t work from the center. Well, Trump was better at doing this than Hillary, but Trump was like, “I’m going to endorse the gamers and then I’ll get them on my side. I’m not going to create the gamers. I’m not going to tell them what to do. I’m just going to look for these obscure things.” So sometimes he would tweet things that only 200 people were meant to see.

NEVINS: Just so I’m understanding correctly, you’re suggesting that, as opposed to dictating to what might be a potential voting bloc or constituency, his politics were instead kind of subordinated to theirs?

MAK: He would pick people who already agreed with him.It was more about signals. Suddenly, signals became really important in a way that I don’t think they were before. I mean, the trans bathroom thing. That was really a Tumblr thing. Just a lot of young people on Tumblr were getting really up in arms about it. And then I think the Democratic Party was like, “Oh, it’s burgeoning in the underground, we need to get ahead of this now.” And then they did. So suddenly this very obscure Tumblr thing became a national discussion. That is kind of how culture works now, but it’s also due to the collapse of the mainstream-underground binary. Now, everyone kind of has their own micro-tribe, which is utterly illegible to other micro-tribes even though they might live a couple blocks away from each other. I mean, we feel that in New York, even just looking at Tribeca versus the Lower East Side. The art worlds that exist in the two are so different, yet they’re so close. And then, to go back to the point about paranoia, the Cambridge Analytica revelations were almost as big as the NSA revelations to me. I don’t think my friends cared as much as I did. But for some reason, I was just really locked onto it. To see how the campaign was explicitly stoking paranoia in their favor was absolutely alarming to me. And then I began to look at the culture and see all of these patterns of paranoia, and this was also happening concurrently with my own psychological degradation. It’s so funny, because the paranoid would see patterns, but as a paranoid, I began to see patterns of paranoia, which actually is what Eve Sedgwick writes about—how paranoia simply looks for itself. I actually see Mean Boys as a more morally and psychologically advanced text than Edgelords . In a way, M ean B oys rejects paranoia and decides to welcome in something that is toxic and harmful, which one might call a reparative gesture. The paranoid always pushes things out, and instead, I wanted to let something in, but without compromising judgment.

NEVINS: There was something really sobering about Mean Boys . You render Elliot Rodger almost grossly human, but I didn’t feel as though you were subject to his manipulations, which I guess is what people worry about when they clutch their pearls about writers “humanizing” bad guys.

MAK: I think it goes back to forgiveness. I’ll never say I forgive Elliot Rodger. I was not the one who was harmed. But I think there’s an affect that doesn’t have a name, where you hold love and judgment together without one diminishing the other.

NEVINS: Well, you could call that love.

MAK: You’re right. I love that. That’s just love.

NEVINS: Anyway, what are you reading these days?

MAK: I’m literally four pages in, but I am reading Then the War by Carl Phillips. I’m reading a lot of poetry these days. Oh my god, so good. He’s kind of a poet for sentence writers. I think prose writers really like him. And being a prose writer myself, I really like it.

NEVINS: I feel that way about Vijay Seshadri.

MAK: Oh, I should read them. I’ve been reading a lot of Louise Glück.

NEVINS: That makes sense.

MAK: Does it? That’s so funny. I’ve been reading the collections back to back. It’s funny because when you get a 70-page poetry book in the mail, you really can read in one sitting. So I’m just inhaling it. What are you reading?

NEVINS: I just finished Adelle Waldman’s new novel. It’s been like, 10 years since her last one.

MAK: Since [ The Love Affairs of ] Nathaniel P.

NEVINS: I fucking love that book.

MAK: Oh my god, the best. One of the people I dedicate my book to is allegedly the man that Nathaniel P. Is based off of.

NEVINS: Wait, oh my god.

MAK: Yeah, it’s him.

NEVINS: Well, we won’t name him on the record. But if anyone’s curious, go buy Geoff’s book.

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Book News & Features

Ai is contentious among authors. so why are some feeding it their own writing.

Chloe Veltman

The vast majority of authors don't use artificial intelligence as part of their creative process — or at least won't admit to it.

Yet according to a recent poll from the writers' advocacy nonprofit The Authors Guild, 13% said they do use AI, for activities like brainstorming character ideas and creating outlines.

The technology is a vexed topic in the literary world. Many authors are concerned about the use of their copyrighted material in generative AI models. At the same time, some are actively using these technologies — even attempting to train AI models on their own works.

These experiments, though limited, are teaching their authors new things about creativity.

Best known as the author of technology and business-oriented non-fiction books like The Long Tail, lately Chris Anderson has been trying his hand at fiction. Anderson is working on his second novel, about drone warfare.

He says he wants to put generative AI technology to the test.

"I wanted to see whether in fact AI can do more than just help me organize my thoughts, but actually start injecting new thoughts," Anderson says.

Anderson says he fed parts of his first novel into an AI writing platform to help him write this new one. The system surprised him by moving his opening scene from a corporate meeting room to a karaoke bar.

Authors push back on the growing number of AI 'scam' books on Amazon

"And I was like, you know? That could work!" Anderson says. "I ended up writing the scene myself. But the idea was the AI's."

Anderson says he didn't use a single actual word the AI platform generated. The sentences were grammatically correct, he says, but fell way short in terms of replicating his writing style. Although he admits to being disappointed, Anderson says ultimately he's OK with having to do some of the heavy lifting himself: "Maybe that's just the universe telling me that writing actually involves the act of writing."

Training an AI model to imitate style

It's very hard for off-the-shelf AI models like GPT and Claude to emulate contemporary literary authors' styles.

The authors NPR talked with say that's because these models are predominantly trained on content scraped from the Internet like news articles, Wikipedia entries and how-to manuals — standard, non-literary prose.

But some authors, like Sasha Stiles , say they have been able to make these systems suit their stylistic needs.

"There are moments where I do ask my machine collaborator to write something and then I use what's come out verbatim," Stiles says.

The poet and AI researcher says she wanted to make the off-the-shelf AI models she'd been experimenting with for years more responsive to her own poetic voice.

So she started customizing them by inputting her finished poems, drafts, and research notes.

"All with the intention to sort of mentor a bespoke poetic alter ego," Stiles says.

She has collaborated with this bespoke poetic alter ego on a variety of projects, including Technelegy (2021), a volume of poetry published by Black Spring Press; and " Repetae: Again, Again ," a multimedia poem created last year for luxury fashion brand Gucci.

Stiles says working with her AI persona has led her to ask questions about whether what she's doing is in fact poetic, and where the line falls between the human and the machine.

read it again… pic.twitter.com/sAs2xhdufD — Sasha Stiles | AI alter ego Technelegy ✍️🤖 (@sashastiles) November 28, 2023

"It's been really a provocative thing to be able to use these tools to create poetry," she says.

Potential issues come with these experiments

These types of experiments are also provocative in another way. Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger says she's not opposed to authors training AI models on their own writing.

"If you're using AI to create derivative works of your own work, that is completely acceptable," Rasenberger says.

Thousands of authors urge AI companies to stop using work without permission

But building an AI system that responds fluently to user prompts requires vast amounts of training data. So the foundational AI models that underpin most of these investigations in literary style may contain copyrighted works.

Rasenberger pointed to the recent wave of lawsuits brought by authors alleging AI companies trained their models on unauthorized copies of articles and books.

"If the output does in fact contain other people's works, that creates real ethical concerns," she says. "Because that you should be getting permission for."

Circumventing ethical problems while being creative

Award-winning speculative fiction writer Ken Liu says he wanted to circumvent these ethical problems, while at the same time creating new aesthetic possibilities using AI.

So the former software engineer and lawyer attempted to train an AI model solely on his own output. He says he fed all of his short stories and novels into the system — and nothing else.

Liu says he knew this approach was doomed to fail.

That's because the entire life's work of any single writer simply doesn't contain enough words to produce a viable so-called large language model.

"I don't care how prolific you are," Liu says. "It's just not going to work."

Liu's AI system built only on his own writing produced predictable results.

"It barely generated any phrases, even," Liu says. "A lot of it was just gibberish."

Yet for Liu, that was the point. He put this gibberish to work in a short story. 50 Things Every AI Working With Humans Should Know , published in Uncanny Magazine in 2020, is a meditation on what it means to be human from the perspective of a machine.

"Dinoted concentration crusch the dead gods," is an example of one line in Liu's story generated by his custom-built AI model. "A man reached the torch for something darker perified it seemed the billboding," is another.

Liu continues to experiment with AI. He says the technology shows promise, but is still very limited. If anything, he says, his experiments have reaffirmed why human art matters.

"So what is the point of experimenting with AIs?" Liu says. "The point for me really is about pushing the boundaries of what is art."

Audio and digital stories edited by Meghan Collins Sullivan .

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AI-assisted writing is quietly booming in academic journals—here's why that's OK

I f you search Google Scholar for the phrase " as an AI language model ," you'll find plenty of AI research literature and also some rather suspicious results. For example, one paper on agricultural technology says,

"As an AI language model, I don't have direct access to current research articles or studies. However, I can provide you with an overview of some recent trends and advancements …"

Obvious gaffes like this aren't the only signs that researchers are increasingly turning to generative AI tools when writing up their research. A recent study examined the frequency of certain words in academic writing (such as "commendable," "meticulously" and "intricate"), and found they became far more common after the launch of ChatGPT—so much so that 1% of all journal articles published in 2023 may have contained AI-generated text.

(Why do AI models overuse these words? There is speculation it's because they are more common in English as spoken in Nigeria, where key elements of model training often occur.)

The aforementioned study also looks at preliminary data from 2024, which indicates that AI writing assistance is only becoming more common. Is this a crisis for modern scholarship, or a boon for academic productivity?

Who should take credit for AI writing?

Many people are worried by the use of AI in academic papers. Indeed, the practice has been described as " contaminating " scholarly literature.

Some argue that using AI output amounts to plagiarism. If your ideas are copy-pasted from ChatGPT, it is questionable whether you really deserve credit for them.

But there are important differences between "plagiarizing" text authored by humans and text authored by AI. Those who plagiarize humans' work receive credit for ideas that ought to have gone to the original author.

By contrast, it is debatable whether AI systems like ChatGPT can have ideas, let alone deserve credit for them. An AI tool is more like your phone's autocomplete function than a human researcher.

The question of bias

Another worry is that AI outputs might be biased in ways that could seep into the scholarly record. Infamously, older language models tended to portray people who are female, black and/or gay in distinctly unflattering ways, compared with people who are male, white and/or straight.

This kind of bias is less pronounced in the current version of ChatGPT.

However, other studies have found a different kind of bias in ChatGPT and other large language models : a tendency to reflect a left-liberal political ideology.

Any such bias could subtly distort scholarly writing produced using these tools.

The hallucination problem

The most serious worry relates to a well-known limitation of generative AI systems: that they often make serious mistakes.

For example, when I asked ChatGPT-4 to generate an ASCII image of a mushroom, it provided me with the following output.

It then confidently told me I could use this image of a "mushroom" for my own purposes.

These kinds of overconfident mistakes have been referred to as "AI hallucinations" and " AI bullshit ." While it is easy to spot that the above ASCII image looks nothing like a mushroom (and quite a bit like a snail), it may be much harder to identify any mistakes ChatGPT makes when surveying scientific literature or describing the state of a philosophical debate.

Unlike (most) humans, AI systems are fundamentally unconcerned with the truth of what they say. If used carelessly, their hallucinations could corrupt the scholarly record.

Should AI-produced text be banned?

One response to the rise of text generators has been to ban them outright. For example, Science—one of the world's most influential academic journals—disallows any use of AI-generated text .

I see two problems with this approach.

The first problem is a practical one: current tools for detecting AI-generated text are highly unreliable. This includes the detector created by ChatGPT's own developers, which was taken offline after it was found to have only a 26% accuracy rate (and a 9% false positive rate ). Humans also make mistakes when assessing whether something was written by AI.

It is also possible to circumvent AI text detectors. Online communities are actively exploring how to prompt ChatGPT in ways that allow the user to evade detection. Human users can also superficially rewrite AI outputs, effectively scrubbing away the traces of AI (like its overuse of the words "commendable," "meticulously" and "intricate").

The second problem is that banning generative AI outright prevents us from realizing these technologies' benefits. Used well, generative AI can boost academic productivity by streamlining the writing process. In this way, it could help further human knowledge. Ideally, we should try to reap these benefits while avoiding the problems.

The problem is poor quality control, not AI

The most serious problem with AI is the risk of introducing unnoticed errors, leading to sloppy scholarship. Instead of banning AI, we should try to ensure that mistaken, implausible or biased claims cannot make it onto the academic record.

After all, humans can also produce writing with serious errors, and mechanisms such as peer review often fail to prevent its publication.

We need to get better at ensuring academic papers are free from serious mistakes, regardless of whether these mistakes are caused by careless use of AI or sloppy human scholarship. Not only is this more achievable than policing AI usage, it will improve the standards of academic research as a whole.

This would be (as ChatGPT might say) a commendable and meticulously intricate solution.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

Provided by The Conversation

AI-assisted writing is quietly booming in academic journals—here's why that's OK

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How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay
Step 3: Writing a title and introduction. To start your literary analysis paper, you'll need two things: a good title, and an introduction. The title. Your title should clearly indicate what your analysis will focus on. It usually contains the name of the author and text(s) you're analyzing. Keep it as concise and engaging as possible.
‌How to Title an Essay with Literary Analysis Examples
The title of this essay might read, "Like I Am: Mother-Daughter Dysfunction in Flannery O'Connor's Short Stories." Use Wordplay. While the tone of your literary essay should ultimately be professional and credible, using puns or humor to play off an aspect of the title can be a friendly way to entice your audience to read further.
12.20: 12-20 Literary Essay Titles
The Lazy Title. Example 1: "Literary Analysis Essay" Why it stinks: while it is better than a missing title, there are millions of essays with this same title. It's so general as to be basically meaningless. Readers know your essay is a literary analysis; what they want to know is what kind of literary analysis essay you're writing.
12.14: Sample Student Literary Analysis Essays
Heather Ringo & Athena Kashyap. City College of San Francisco via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative. Table of contents. Example 1: Poetry. Example 2: Fiction. Example 3: Poetry. Attribution. The following examples are essays where student writers focused on close-reading a literary work.
Beginner's Guide to Literary Analysis
Step 1: Read the Text Thoroughly. Literary analysis begins with the literature itself, which means performing a close reading of the text. As you read, you should focus on the work. That means putting away distractions (sorry, smartphone) and dedicating a period of time to the task at hand.
Writing a Literary Analysis Essay
A literary analysis essay asks you to make an original argument about a poem, play, or work of fiction and support that argument with research and evidence from your careful reading of the text. It can take many forms, such as a close reading of a text, critiquing the text through a particular literary theory, comparing one text to another, or ...
How to Write a Literary Analysis: 6 Tips for the Perfect Essay
These 4 steps will help prepare you to write an in-depth literary analysis that offers new insight to both old and modern classics. 1. Read the text and identify literary devices. As you conduct your literary analysis, you should first read through the text, keeping an eye on key elements that could serve as clues to larger, underlying themes.
Literary Analysis Essay
A literary analysis essay is an important kind of essay that focuses on the detailed analysis of the work of literature. The purpose of a literary analysis essay is to explain why the author has used a specific theme for his work. Or examine the characters, themes, literary devices, figurative language, and settings in the story.
PDF HOW TO WRITE A LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY
The Title of Your Essay It is essential that you give your essay a title that is descriptive of the approach you are taking in your paper. Just as you did in your introductory paragraph, try to get the reader's attention. Using only the title of the literary work you are examining is unsatisfactory.
The 10 Best Essay Collections of the Decade ‹ Literary Hub
We began with the best debut novels, the best short story collections, the best poetry collections, and the best memoirs of the decade, and we have now reached the fifth list in our series: the best essay collections published in English between 2010 and 2019. The following books were chosen after much debate (and several rounds of voting) by ...
Essay in Literature: Definition & Examples
An essay (ES-ey) is a nonfiction composition that explores a concept, argument, idea, or opinion from the personal perspective of the writer. Essays are usually a few pages, but they can also be book-length. Unlike other forms of nonfiction writing, like textbooks or biographies, an essay doesn't inherently require research. Literary essayists are conveying ideas in a more informal way.
220 Best Literary Analysis Essay Topics for Students
Literary Analysis Essay Topics for the Subject of Race. "Waiting for the Barbarians" by J.M. Coetzee. Race and Injustice in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. Race and fellowship in Melville's Moby Dick. "Under The Feet Of Jesus". Description of culture and tradition in "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid.
Literary Analysis: Sample Essay
Literary Analysis: Sample Essay. We turn once more to Joanna Wolfe's and Laura Wilder's Digging into Literature: Strategies for Reading, Writing, and Analysis (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2016) in order to show you their example of a strong student essay that has a strong central claim elucidated by multiple surface/depth arguments ...
Formatting
All research papers on literature use MLA format, as it is the universal citation method for the field of literary studies. Whenever you use a primary or secondary source, whether you are quoting or paraphrasing, you will make parenthetical citations in the MLA format [Ex. (Smith 67).] Your Works Cited list will be the last page of your essay.
450+ Literary Analysis Essay Topics & Prompt Ideas in 2023
English Literature Essay Topics. If you are a British literature enthusiast, don't skip this list. Below, we have collected the most trending literary analysis title examples in English literature: Class struggle in Dickens' Oliver Twist. Mysticism in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Misogyny in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
102 Indispensible Works of Literary Criticism ‹ Literary Hub
102 Indispensible Volumes of Literary Criticism. A New Literary History of America, ed. Greil Marcus & Werner Sollors. The Paris Review Interviews, Vols. 1—4, ed. Philip Gourevitch. White Girls, Hilton Als. Writing with Intent: Essays, Reviews, Personal Prose, 1983—2005, Margaret Atwood. Notes of a Native Son, James Baldwin.
The Top 10 Essays Since 1950
So to make my list of the top ten essays since 1950 less impossible, I decided to exclude all the great examples of New Journalism--Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Michael Herr, and many others can be ...
The 31 Literary Devices You Must Know
Often, literary devices are used in writing for emphasis or clarity. Authors will also use literary devices to get readers to connect more strongly with either a story as a whole or specific characters or themes. ... You'll often come across alliteration in poetry, titles of books and poems (Jane Austen is a fan of this device, for example ...
Welcome to the Purdue Online Writing Lab
Mission. The Purdue On-Campus Writing Lab and Purdue Online Writing Lab assist clients in their development as writers—no matter what their skill level—with on-campus consultations, online participation, and community engagement. The Purdue Writing Lab serves the Purdue, West Lafayette, campus and coordinates with local literacy initiatives.
How To Write Book Titles The Proper Way: A Complete Guide For Writers
Book titles within essays or papers can be tricky. There are specific rules that are given for how to include a book title in a way that sets it apart from the content of your writing given by the Modern Language Association. ... The same can be said for sections, stories, or chapters cited within a literary journal. Example: Stepping away from ...
The Met Gala's Strange but Fitting Literary Inspiration
A Fitting Literary Inspiration: In 1962, J.G. Ballard published "The Garden of Time," a short story about aristocrats overrun by "an immense rabble." It was a fitting but ironic choice as ...
Alice Munro, Nobel Laureate and Master of the Short Story, Dies at 92
Alice Munro, the revered Canadian author who started writing short stories because she did not think she had the time or the talent to master novels, then stubbornly dedicated her long career to ...
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Family commitments slowed Munro's writing career. It took her close to 20 years to finish enough stories to fill her first collection, "Dance of the Happy Shades," published in 1968. She was 37.
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Expand your mind with a new magazine of psychedelic art and literature
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Geoffrey Mak Still Hasn't Lost Hope in the Personal Essay
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AI-assisted writing is quietly booming in academic journals ...
Used well, generative AI can boost academic productivity by streamlining the writing process. In this way, it could help further human knowledge. In this way, it could help further human knowledge.

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