Literary Analysis
Standards
3.3Analyze interactions between main and subordinate characters in a literary text.
3.6 Analyze / trace development of time and sequence including the use of literary devices. 3.9Explain how voice, persona and choice of narrator affect characterization, tone and plot.

How to analyze a text
1. Read or reread the text with specific

questions in mind.
2. Marshal basic ideas, events and names.
Depending on the complexity of book, this requires additional review of the text.
3. Think through your personal reaction to the book: identification, enjoyment, significance, application. 4. Identify and consider most important ideas

Analyze continued…
5. Return to the text to locate specific

evidence and passages related to the major ideas. 6. Use your knowledge following the principles of analyzing a passage.

Literary Devices
Persona-the persona is not the author, but the

author’s creation--the voice “through which the author speaks.” It could be a character in the work, or a fabricated onlooker, relaying the sequence of events in a narrative.
Tone-is the attitude a writer takes towards a subject or character: serious, humorous, sarcastic, ironic, satirical, tongue-in-cheek, solemn, objective.

Devices continued…
Imagery-is language that evokes one or all of the

five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching. Allegory-is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The