Literary Analysis

Overview
It is now time to write the literary analysis of the novel that you have read. Hopefully you have kept notes
while reading to make it easier to complete this assignment.

Please note that this is not a book review. Your own opinion of the story is not relevant to the assignment
itself and you should not retell the whole story - only describe the parts that are relevant to your analysis.

Do not forget to add information about the publisher, year of publication and number of pages. If you have
read an online book, add a link/URL.

Instructions
The analysis should consist of three parts: Main Character, Main Theme and Language. In each part you need to
use quotes from the novel to base your analysis on.

Important: Quotes do not count towards the specified number of words in each part. Each quote needs a
page reference or chapter reference.

Part 1: Main character (ca 300 words + quotes)

For the first part of the text, you should analyze the main character. Some novels have more than one main
character; in that case you should pick one. Keep in mind that there is a difference between an analysis and a
description. You should not simply describe the character, but discuss why you think the character acts the
way they do.

You should use two quotes which you think show important aspects of the character. This can be about the
character's progression throughout the novel, certain traits (karaktärsdrag) that the character has, etc. Some
questions you can ask yourself when reading:

- What is the main character like? How does the main character's personality impact the story?
- What is the main character's motivation?
- Does the main character change during the novel? If so, how and why?
- What role does the main character have in the story?

Part 2: Main Theme (ca 300 words + quotes)

The theme of a novel can be seen as the message the author wants to convey. Quite often the theme is not
explicitly stated, so you have to read between the lines to figure out what the author wants to say. Keep in
mind that the theme is not the same as the plot of the novel - for example, Harry Potter is about a teenage
wizard, but that does not mean that "wizards" is a theme of the novel; one of the larger themes in Harry Potter
would be "courage", because the novel discusses different kinds of courage, why it is important etc.

You should base your analysis on two quotes which support your interpretation of the novel. A novel usually
has more than one theme, so for this analysis you should focus on what you consider to be the main theme.
Some questions you can ask yourself when reading:

- What message do you think the author wanted to convey?

- Does the novel tell us something about the world or life in general? Is there a general lesson to be learned
from the novel?
Quotes
If the quote is shorter than two lines use “…”, for example “When Anna saw the huge bear she was
terrified”(page 32) If the quote is longer, make the text smaller and make an indentation:

When Anna saw the bear she was terrified. When she realised that it was moving towards her she didn’t know what to do. Should she
run? No, she knew she wasn’t faster than a bear so that wouldn’t be of any use. Could she perhaps hit the bear on the nose and
thereby surprise it? No, now she knew what to do, lie down in the moss and curl herself up as a ball and hope the bear would not
harm her. (page 32)

Try to use short quotes that say a lot about what you want to analyze.