Tips on literary work analysis

Answers to the questions below will help you to give and form your own opinion on the language of the story/extract/fragment.

1. Is the language of the work expressive/ powerful/ charged with emotion/ stylistically coloured?

Does the author make a vast use of tropes and figures of speech?

2. Is simplicity/ accessibility/ brevity/ concision/ etc. a characteristic feature of the author’s style?

3. Is the story written in a high-flown/ plain/ colloquial/ formal/ pompous/ bombastic/ lofty/ florid/ an informal/ elevated/ ornate/ ornamental/ austere/ etc. language?

What mood and atmosphere does it create?

4. Do all the personages speak good English? Is their accent or dialect suggestive? What can you say about the personages’ educational background and social class?

5. Which stylistic groups prevail in the story: bookish, colloquial, or neutral? What effect does it produce?

6. Are all the parts of the story written in the same style or are there any fragments, which are stylistically contrasted to the rest of the story because of the language and style?

7. Are there passages written in a kind of rhythmical prose? How is this rhythmic effect achieved? Does the rhythm create the effect of dynamism (monotony)?

8. What kind of atmosphere is rendered? (That of fuss/ fatigue/ haste/ annoyance/ panic/ terror/ etc.)

Practice with extracts From The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

1. Read the extract below and divide it into logical parts.

2. What mood is imposed by the first sentence of the extract? What stylistic device is used to produce this effect?

3. Is the impression sustained by the next sentence? Why not? What details create the atmosphere of serenity? What have you learned about the character of the extract from this sentence? Come out with as much information as possible.

4. Why is the first impression of trouble resumed in the sentence “By eleven o’clock…”? What stylistic devices set this mood back? Where is the character now? (What happened to her?) Is she in real danger? What stylistic devices make you think so?

The world had teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted. At ten o’clock on a morning in early June she was sitting in the back seat of her mother’s Dodge Caravan, wearing her blue Red Sox batting practice jersey (the one with 36 GORDON on the back) and playing with Mona, her doll. By eleven o’clock she was trying not to be terrified, trying not to let herself think, This is serious, this is very serious. Trying not to think that sometimes when people got lost in the woods they get seriously hurt. Sometimes they died

From The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

1. Read the extract below and ascertain how many characters are involved in it. What are they? What have you learned about them? Describe the situation. What details make you think so?

2. What mood is set by the first sentence of the extract? What stylistic devices help to produce this effect?

3. Who is the main character of the extract? Is the atmosphere of the extract rendered impartially or through the character’s eyes? What stylistic devices determine this? What is her attitude to the situation she is involved in? Use the necessary stylistic devices for illustration and support of your opinion.

4. What is your impression about the main character?

She was tired of listening to them argue, tired of sounding bright and cheerful, close to screaming at her mother, Let him go, then! If he wants to go back to Malden and live with Dad so much, why don’t you just let him? I’d drive him myself if I had a license, just to get some peace and quiet around here! And what then? What would her mother say then? What kind of look would come over her face? And Pete. He was older, almost fourteen, and not stupid, so why didn’t he know better? Why couldn’t he just give it a rest?