Hi. I need help writing a literature analysis essay based on a book called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
The due date for this assignment is April 5 10:10 AM. Five page essay of 500-750 words at least.
I need some one to read book and write a literature analysis essay based on the book. The link to the book is below:
download.bioon.com.cn/upload/201112/22091713_7617
Also Below are the instructions called Literary Analysis to write this essay:
You can use the following to write and include in your essay Literary Elements and fallacies
Literary Analysis: Using Elements of Literature
Students are asked to write literary analysis essays because this type of assignment encourages you to think about how and why a poem, short story, novel, or play was written. To successfully analyze literature, you’ll need to remember that authors make specific choices for particular reasons. Your essay should point out the author’s choices and attempt to explain their significance.
Another way to look at a literary analysis is to consider a piece of literature from your own perspective. Rather than thinking about the author’s intentions, you can develop an argument based on any single term (or combination of terms) listed below. You’ll just need to use the original text to defend and explain your argument to the reader.
Allegory – narrative form in which the characters are representative of some larger humanistic trait (i.e. greed, vanity, or bravery) and attempt to convey some larger lesson or meaning to life. Although allegory was originally and traditionally character based, modern allegories tend to parallel story and theme.
William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily- the decline of the Old South
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde- man’s struggle to contain his inner primal instincts
District 9- South African Apartheid
X Men- the evils of prejudice
Harry Potter- the dangers of seeking “racial purity”
Character – representation of a person, place, or thing performing traditionally human activities or functions in a work of fiction
Protagonist – The character the story revolves around.
Antagonist – A character or force that opposes the protagonist.
Minor character – Often provides support and illuminates the protagonist.
Static character – A character that remains the same.
Dynamic character – A character that changes in some important way.
Characterization – The choices an author makes to reveal a character’s personality, such as appearance, actions, dialogue, and motivations.
Look for: Connections, links, and clues between and about characters. Ask yourself what the function and significance of each character is. Make this determination based upon the character’s history, what the reader is told (and not told), and what other characters say about themselves and others.
Connotation – implied meaning of word. BEWARE! Connotations can change over time.
confidence/ arrogance
mouse/ rat
cautious/ scared
curious/ nosey
frugal/ cheap
Denotation – dictionary definition of a word
Diction – word choice that both conveys and emphasizes the meaning or theme of a poem through distinctions in sound, look, rhythm, syllable, letters, and definition
Figurative language – the use of words to express meaning beyond the literal meaning of the words themselves
Metaphor – contrasting to seemingly unalike things to enhance the meaning of a situation or theme without using like or as
You are the sunshine of my life.
Simile – contrasting to seemingly unalike things to enhance the meaning of a situation or theme using like or as
What happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun
Hyperbole – exaggeration
I have a million things to do today.
Personification – giving non-human objects human characteristics
America has thrown her hat into the ring, and will be joining forces with the British.
Foot – grouping of stressed and unstressed syllables used in line or poem
Iamb – unstressed syllable followed by stressed
Made famous by the Shakespearian sonnet, closest to the natural rhythm of human speech
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
Spondee – stressed stressed
Used to add emphasis and break up monotonous rhythm
Blood boil, mind-meld, well- loved
Trochee – stressed unstressed
Often used in children’s rhymes and to help with memorization, gives poem a hurried feeling
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
Anapest – unstressed unstressed stressed
Often used in longer poems or “rhymed stories”
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
Dactyls – stressed unstressed unstressed
Often used in classical Greek or Latin text, later revived by the Romantics, then again by the Beatles, often thought to create a heartbeat or pulse in a poem
Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
The iamb stumbles through my books; trochees rush and tumble; while anapest runs like a hurrying brook; dactyls are stately and classical.
Imagery – the author’s attempt to create a mental picture (or reference point) in the mind of the reader. Remember, though the most immediate forms of imagery are visual, strong and effective imagery can be used to invoke an emotional, sensational (taste, touch, smell etc) or even physical response.
Meter – measure or structuring of rhythm in a poem
Plot – the arrangement of ideas and/or incidents that make up a story
Foreshadowing – When the writer clues the reader in to something that will eventually occur in the story; it may be explicit (obvious) or implied (disguised).
Suspense – The tension that the author uses to create a feeling of discomfort about the unknown
Conflict – Struggle between opposing forces.
Exposition – Background information regarding the setting, characters, plot.
Rising Action – The process the story follows as it builds to its main conflict
Crisis – A significant turning point in the story that determines how it must end
Resolution/Denouement – The way the story turns out.
Point of View – pertains to who tells the story and how it is told. The point of view of a story can sometimes indirectly establish the author’s intentions.
Narrator – The person telling the story who may or may not be a character in the story.
First-person – Narrator participates in action but sometimes has limited knowledge/vision.
Second person – Narrator addresses the reader directly as though she is part of the story. (i.e. “You walk into your bedroom. You see clutter everywhere and…”)
Third Person (Objective) – Narrator is unnamed/unidentified (a detached observer). Does not assume character’s perspective and is not a character in the story. The narrator reports on events and lets the reader supply the meaning.
Omniscient – All-knowing narrator (multiple perspectives). The narrator knows what each character is thinking and feeling, not just what they are doing throughout the story. This type of narrator usually jumps around within the text, following one character for a few pages or chapters, and then switching to another character for a few pages, chapters, etc. Omniscient narrators also sometimes step out of a particular character’s mind to evaluate him or her in some meaningful way.
Rhythm – often thought of as a poem’s timing. Rhythm is the juxtaposition of stressed and unstressed beats in a poem, and is often used to give the reader a lens through which to move through the work. (See meter and foot)
Setting – the place or location of the action. The setting provides the historical and cultural context for characters. It often can symbolize the emotional state of characters. Example – In Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, the crumbling old mansion reflects the decaying state of both the family and the narrator’s mind. We also see this type of emphasis on setting in Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice.
Speaker – the person delivering the poem. Remember, a poem does not have to have a speaker, and the speaker and the poet are not necessarily one in the same.
Structure (fiction) – The way that the writer arranges the plot of a story.
Look for: Repeated elements in action, gesture, dialogue, description, as well as shifts in direction, focus, time, place, etc.
Structure (poetry) – The pattern of organization of a poem. For example, a Shakespearean sonnet is a 14-line poem written in iambic pentameter. Because the sonnet is strictly constrained, it is considered a closed or fixed form. An open or free form poem has looser form, or perhaps one of the author’s invention, but it is important to remember that these poems are not necessarily formless.
Symbolism – when an object is meant to be representative of something or an idea greater than the object itself.
Cross – representative of Christ or Christianity
Bald Eagle – America or Patriotism
Owl – wisdom or knowledge
Yellow – implies cowardice or rot
Tone – the implied attitude towards the subject of the poem. Is it hopeful, pessimistic, dreary, worried? A poet conveys tone by combining all of the elements listed above to create a precise impression on the reader.
What this handout is about
This handout discusses common logical fallacies that you may encounter in your own writing or the writing of others. The handout provides definitions, examples, and tips on avoiding these fallacies.
Arguments
Most academic writing tasks require you to make an argument—that is, to present reasons for a particular claim or interpretation you are putting forward. You may have been told that you need to make your arguments more logical or stronger. And you may have worried that you simply aren’t a logical person or wondered what it means for an argument to be strong. Learning to make the best arguments you can is an ongoing process, but it isn’t impossible: “Being logical” is something anyone can do, with practice.
Each argument you make is composed of premises (this is a term for statements that express your reasons or evidence) that are arranged in the right way to support your conclusion (the main claim or interpretation you are offering). You can make your arguments stronger by
using good premises (ones you have good reason to believe are both true and relevant to the issue at hand),
making sure your premises provide good support for your conclusion (and not some other conclusion, or no conclusion at all),
checking that you have addressed the most important or relevant aspects of the issue (that is, that your premises and conclusion focus on what is really important to the issue), and
not making claims that are so strong or sweeping that you can’t really support them.
You also need to be sure that you present all of your ideas in an orderly fashion that readers can follow. See our handouts on argument and organization for some tips that will improve your arguments.
This handout describes some ways in which arguments often fail to do the things listed above; these failings are called fallacies. If you’re having trouble developing your argument, check to see if a fallacy is part of the problem.
It is particularly easy to slip up and commit a fallacy when you have strong feelings about your topic—if a conclusion seems obvious to you, you’re more likely to just assume that it is true and to be careless with your evidence. To help you see how people commonly make this mistake, this handout uses a number of controversial political examples—arguments about subjects like abortion, gun control, the death penalty, gay marriage, euthanasia, and pornography. The purpose of this handout, though, is not to argue for any particular position on any of these issues; rather, it is to illustrate weak reasoning, which can happen in pretty much any kind of argument. Please be aware that the claims in these examples are just made-up illustrations—they haven’t been researched, and you shouldn’t use them as evidence in your own writing.
What are fallacies?
Fallacies are defects that weaken arguments. By learning to look for them in your own and others’ writing, you can strengthen your ability to evaluate the arguments you make, read, and hear. It is important to realize two things about fallacies: first, fallacious arguments are very, very common and can be quite persuasive, at least to the casual reader or listener. You can find dozens of examples of fallacious reasoning in newspapers, advertisements, and other sources. Second, it is sometimes hard to evaluate whether an argument is fallacious. An argument might be very weak, somewhat weak, somewhat strong, or very strong. An argument that has several stages or parts might have some strong sections and some weak ones. The goal of this handout, then, is not to teach you how to label arguments as fallacious or fallacy-free, but to help you look critically at your own arguments and move them away from the “weak” and toward the “strong” end of the continuum.
So what do fallacies look like?
For each fallacy listed, there is a definition or explanation, an example, and a tip on how to avoid committing the fallacy in your own arguments.
Hasty generalization
Definition: Making assumptions about a whole group or range of cases based on a sample that is inadequate (usually because it is atypical or too small). Stereotypes about people (“librarians are shy and smart,” “wealthy people are snobs,” etc.) are a common example of the principle underlying hasty generalization.
Example: “My roommate said her philosophy class was hard, and the one I’m in is hard, too. All philosophy classes must be hard!” Two people’s experiences are, in this case, not enough on which to base a conclusion.
Tip: Ask yourself what kind of “sample” you’re using: Are you relying on the opinions or experiences of just a few people, or your own experience in just a few situations? If so, consider whether you need more evidence, or perhaps a less sweeping conclusion. (Notice that in the example, the more modest conclusion “Some philosophy classes are hard for some students” would not be a hasty generalization.)
Missing the point
Definition: The premises of an argument do support a particular conclusion—but not the conclusion that the arguer actually draws.
Example: “The seriousness of a punishment should match the seriousness of the crime. Right now, the punishment for drunk driving may simply be a fine. But drunk driving is a very serious crime that can kill innocent people. So the death penalty should be the punishment for drunk driving.” The argument actually supports several conclusions—”The punishment for drunk driving should be very serious,” in particular—but it doesn’t support the claim that the death penalty, specifically, is warranted.
Tip: Separate your premises from your conclusion. Looking at the premises, ask yourself what conclusion an objective person would reach after reading them. Looking at your conclusion, ask yourself what kind of evidence would be required to support such a conclusion, and then see if you’ve actually given that evidence. Missing the point often occurs when a sweeping or extreme conclusion is being drawn, so be especially careful if you know you’re claiming something big.
Post hoc (also called false cause)
This fallacy gets its name from the Latin phrase “post hoc, ergo propter hoc,” which translates as “after this, therefore because of this.”
Definition: Assuming that because B comes after A, A caused B. Of course, sometimes one event really does cause another one that comes later—for example, if I register for a class, and my name later appears on the roll, it’s true that the first event caused the one that came later. But sometimes two events that seem related in time aren’t really related as cause and event. That is, correlation isn’t the same thing as causation.
Examples: “President Jones raised taxes, and then the rate of violent crime went up. Jones is responsible for the rise in crime.” The increase in taxes might or might not be one factor in the rising crime rates, but the argument hasn’t shown us that one caused the other.
Tip: To avoid the post hoc fallacy, the arguer would need to give us some explanation of the process by which the tax increase is supposed to have produced higher crime rates. And that’s what you should do to avoid committing this fallacy: If you say that A causes B, you should have something more to say about how A caused B than just that A came first and B came later.
Slippery slope
Definition: The arguer claims that a sort of chain reaction, usually ending in some dire consequence, will take place, but there’s really not enough evidence for that assumption. The arguer asserts that if we take even one step onto the “slippery slope,” we will end up sliding all the way to the bottom; he or she assumes we can’t stop partway down the hill.
Example: “Animal experimentation reduces our respect for life. If we don’t respect life, we are likely to be more and more tolerant of violent acts like war and murder. Soon our society will become a battlefield in which everyone constantly fears for their lives. It will be the end of civilization. To prevent this terrible consequence, we should make animal experimentation illegal right now.” Since animal experimentation has been legal for some time and civilization has not yet ended, it seems particularly clear that this chain of events won’t necessarily take place. Even if we believe that experimenting on animals reduces respect for life, and loss of respect for life makes us more tolerant of violence, that may be the spot on the hillside at which things stop—we may not slide all the way down to the end of civilization. And so we have not yet been given sufficient reason to accept the arguer’s conclusion that we must make animal experimentation illegal right now.
Like post hoc, slippery slope can be a tricky fallacy to identify, since sometimes a chain of events really can be predicted to follow from a certain action. Here’s an example that doesn’t seem fallacious: “If I fail English 101, I won’t be able to graduate. If I don’t graduate, I probably won’t be able to get a good job, and I may very well end up doing temp work or flipping burgers for the next year.”
Tip: Check your argument for chains of consequences, where you say “if A, then B, and if B, then C,” and so forth. Make sure these chains are reasonable.
Weak analogy
Definition: Many arguments rely on an analogy between two or more objects, ideas, or situations. If the two things that are being compared aren’t really alike in the relevant respects, the analogy is a weak one, and the argument that relies on it commits the fallacy of weak analogy.
Example: “Guns are like hammers—they’re both tools with metal parts that could be used to kill someone. And yet it would be ridiculous to restrict the purchase of hammers—so restrictions on purchasing guns are equally ridiculous.” While guns and hammers do share certain features, these features (having metal parts, being tools, and being potentially useful for violence) are not the ones at stake in deciding whether to restrict guns. Rather, we restrict guns because they can easily be used to kill large numbers of people at a distance. This is a feature hammers do not share—it would be hard to kill a crowd with a hammer. Thus, the analogy is weak, and so is the argument based on it.
If you think about it, you can make an analogy of some kind between almost any two things in the world: “My paper is like a mud puddle because they both get bigger when it rains (I work more when I’m stuck inside) and they’re both kind of murky.” So the mere fact that you can draw an analogy between two things doesn’t prove much, by itself.
Arguments by analogy are often used in discussing abortion—arguers frequently compare fetuses with adult human beings, and then argue that treatment that would violate the rights of an adult human being also violates the rights of fetuses. Whether these arguments are good or not depends on the strength of the analogy: do adult humans and fetuses share the properties that give adult humans rights? If the property that matters is having a human genetic code or the potential for a life full of human experiences, adult humans and fetuses do share that property, so the argument and the analogy are strong; if the property is being self-aware, rational, or able to survive on one’s own, adult humans and fetuses don’t share it, and the analogy is weak.
Tip: Identify what properties are important to the claim you’re making, and see whether the two things you’re comparing both share those properties.
Appeal to authority
Definition: Often we add strength to our arguments by referring to respected sources or authorities and explaining their positions on the issues we’re discussing. If, however, we try to get readers to agree with us simply by impressing them with a famous name or by appealing to a supposed authority who really isn’t much of an expert, we commit the fallacy of appeal to authority.
Example: “We should abolish the death penalty. Many respected people, such as actor Guy Handsome, have publicly stated their opposition to it.” While Guy Handsome may be an authority on matters having to do with acting, there’s no particular reason why anyone should be moved by his political opinions—he is probably no more of an authority on the death penalty than the person writing the paper.
Tip: There are two easy ways to avoid committing appeal to authority: First, make sure that the authorities you cite are experts on the subject you’re discussing. Second, rather than just saying “Dr. Authority believes X, so we should believe it, too,” try to explain the reasoning or evidence that the authority used to arrive at his or her opinion. That way, your readers have more to go on than a person’s reputation. It also helps to choose authorities who are perceived as fairly neutral or reasonable, rather than people who will be perceived as biased.
Ad populum
Definition: The Latin name of this fallacy means “to the people.” There are several versions of the ad populum fallacy, but what they all have in common is that in them, the arguer takes advantage of the desire most people have to be liked and to fit in with others and uses that desire to try to get the audience to accept his or her argument. One of the most common versions is the bandwagon fallacy, in which the arguer tries to convince the audience to do or believe something because everyone else (supposedly) does.
Example: “Gay marriages are just immoral. 70% of Americans think so!” While the opinion of most Americans might be relevant in determining what laws we should have, it certainly doesn’t determine what is moral or immoral: there was a time where a substantial number of Americans were in favor of segregation, but their opinion was not evidence that segregation was moral. The arguer is trying to get us to agree with the conclusion by appealing to our desire to fit in with other Americans.
Tip: Make sure that you aren’t recommending that your readers believe your conclusion because everyone else believes it, all the cool people believe it, people will like you better if you believe it, and so forth. Keep in mind that the popular opinion is not always the right one.
Ad hominem and tu quoque
Definitions: Like the appeal to authority and ad populum fallacies, the ad hominem (“against the person”) and tu quoque (“you, too!”) fallacies focus our attention on people rather than on arguments or evidence. In both of these arguments, the conclusion is usually “You shouldn’t believe So-and-So’s argument.” The reason for not believing So-and-So is that So-and-So is either a bad person (ad hominem) or a hypocrite (tu quoque). In an ad hominem argument, the arguer attacks his or her opponent instead of the opponent’s argument.
Examples: “Andrea Dworkin has written several books arguing that pornography harms women. But Dworkin is just ugly and bitter, so why should we listen to her?” Dworkin’s appearance and character, which the arguer has characterized so ungenerously, have nothing to do with the strength of her argument, so using them as evidence is fallacious.
In a tu quoque argument, the arguer points out that the opponent has actually done the thing he or she is arguing against, and so the opponent’s argument shouldn’t be listened to. Here’s an example: imagine that your parents have explained to you why you shouldn’t smoke, and they’ve given a lot of good reasons—the damage to your health, the cost, and so forth. You reply, “I won’t accept your argument, because you used to smoke when you were my age. You did it, too!” The fact that your parents have done the thing they are condemning has no bearing on the premises they put forward in their argument (smoking harms your health and is very expensive), so your response is fallacious.
Tip: Be sure to stay focused on your opponents’ reasoning, rather than on their personal character. (The exception to this is, of course, if you are making an argument about someone’s character—if your conclusion is “President Jones is an untrustworthy person,” premises about her untrustworthy acts are relevant, not fallacious.)
Appeal to pity
Definition: The appeal to pity takes place when an arguer tries to get people to accept a conclusion by making them feel sorry for someone.
Examples: “I know the exam is graded based on performance, but you should give me an A. My cat has been sick, my car broke down, and I’ve had a cold, so it was really hard for me to study!” The conclusion here is “You should give me an A.” But the criteria for getting an A have to do with learning and applying the material from the course; the principle the arguer wants us to accept (people who have a hard week deserve A’s) is clearly unacceptable. The information the arguer has given might feel relevant and might even get the audience to consider the conclusion—but the information isn’t logically relevant, and so the argument is fallacious. Here’s another example: “It’s wrong to tax corporations—think of all the money they give to charity, and of the costs they already pay to run their businesses!”
Tip: Make sure that you aren’t simply trying to get your audience to agree with you by making them feel sorry for someone.
Appeal to ignorance
Definition: In the appeal to ignorance, the arguer basically says, “Look, there’s no conclusive evidence on the issue at hand. Therefore, you should accept my conclusion on this issue.”
Example: “People have been trying for centuries to prove that God exists. But no one has yet been able to prove it. Therefore, God does not exist.” Here’s an opposing argument that commits the same fallacy: “People have been trying for years to prove that God does not exist. But no one has yet been able to prove it. Therefore, God exists.” In each case, the arguer tries to use the lack of evidence as support for a positive claim about the truth of a conclusion. There is one situation in which doing this is not fallacious: if qualified researchers have used well-thought-out methods to search for something for a long time, they haven’t found it, and it’s the kind of thing people ought to be able to find, then the fact that they haven’t found it constitutes some evidence that it doesn’t exist.
Tip: Look closely at arguments where you point out a lack of evidence and then draw a conclusion from that lack of evidence.
Straw man
Definition: One way of making our own arguments stronger is to anticipate and respond in advance to the arguments that an opponent might make. In the straw man fallacy, the arguer sets up a weak version of the opponent’s position and tries to score points by knocking it down. But just as being able to knock down a straw man (like a scarecrow) isn’t very impressive, defeating a watered-down version of your opponent’s argument isn’t very impressive either.
Example: “Feminists want to ban all pornography and punish everyone who looks at it! But such harsh measures are surely inappropriate, so the feminists are wrong: porn and its fans should be left in peace.” The feminist argument is made weak by being overstated. In fact, most feminists do not propose an outright “ban” on porn or any punishment for those who merely view it or approve of it; often, they propose some restrictions on particular things like child porn, or propose to allow people who are hurt by porn to sue publishers and producers—not viewers—for damages. So the arguer hasn’t really scored any points; he or she has just committed a fallacy.
Tip: Be charitable to your opponents. State their arguments as strongly, accurately, and sympathetically as possible. If you can knock down even the best version of an opponent’s argument, then you’ve really accomplished something.
Red herring
Definition: Partway through an argument, the arguer goes off on a tangent, raising a side issue that distracts the audience from what’s really at stake. Often, the arguer never returns to the original issue.
Example: “Grading this exam on a curve would be the most fair thing to do. After all, classes go more smoothly when the students and the professor are getting along well.” Let’s try our premise-conclusion outlining to see what’s wrong with this argument:
Premise: Classes go more smoothly when the students and the professor are getting along well.
Conclusion: Grading this exam on a curve would be the most fair thing to do.
When we lay it out this way, it’s pretty obvious that the arguer went off on a tangent—the fact that something helps people get along doesn’t necessarily make it more fair; fairness and justice sometimes require us to do things that cause conflict. But the audience may feel like the issue of teachers and students agreeing is important and be distracted from the fact that the arguer has not given any evidence as to why a curve would be fair.
Tip: Try laying your premises and conclusion out in an outline-like form. How many issues do you see being raised in your argument? Can you explain how each premise supports the conclusion?
False dichotomy
Definition: In false dichotomy, the arguer sets up the situation so it looks like there are only two choices. The arguer then eliminates one of the choices, so it seems that we are left with only one option: the one the arguer wanted us to pick in the first place. But often there are really many different options, not just two—and if we thought about them all, we might not be so quick to pick the one the arguer recommends.
Example: “Caldwell Hall is in bad shape. Either we tear it down and put up a new building, or we continue to risk students’ safety. Obviously we shouldn’t risk anyone’s safety, so we must tear the building down.” The argument neglects to mention the possibility that we might repair the building or find some way to protect students from the risks in question—for example, if only a few rooms are in bad shape, perhaps we shouldn’t hold classes in those rooms.
Tip: Examine your own arguments: if you’re saying that we have to choose between just two options, is that really so? Or are there other alternatives you haven’t mentioned? If there are other alternatives, don’t just ignore them—explain why they, too, should be ruled out. Although there’s no formal name for it, assuming that there are only three options, four options, etc. when really there are more is similar to false dichotomy and should also be avoided.
Begging the question
Definition: A complicated fallacy; it comes in several forms and can be harder to detect than many of the other fallacies we’ve discussed. Basically, an argument that begs the question asks the reader to simply accept the conclusion without providing real evidence; the argument either relies on a premise that says the same thing as the conclusion (which you might hear referred to as “being circular” or “circular reasoning”), or simply ignores an important (but questionable) assumption that the argument rests on. Sometimes people use the phrase “beg the question” as a sort of general criticism of arguments, to mean that an arguer hasn’t given very good reasons for a conclusion, but that’s not the meaning we’re going to discuss here.
Examples: “Active euthanasia is morally acceptable. It is a decent, ethical thing to help another human being escape suffering through death.” Let’s lay this out in premise-conclusion form:
Premise: It is a decent, ethical thing to help another human being escape suffering through death.
Conclusion: Active euthanasia is morally acceptable.
If we “translate” the premise, we’ll see that the arguer has really just said the same thing twice: “decent, ethical” means pretty much the same thing as “morally acceptable,” and “help another human being escape suffering through death” means something pretty similar to “active euthanasia.” So the premise basically says, “active euthanasia is morally acceptable,” just like the conclusion does. The arguer hasn’t yet given us any real reasons why euthanasia is acceptable; instead, she has left us asking “well, really, why do you think active euthanasia is acceptable?” Her argument “begs” (that is, evades) the real question.
Here’s a second example of begging the question, in which a dubious premise which is needed to make the argument valid is completely ignored: “Murder is morally wrong. So active euthanasia is morally wrong.” The premise that gets left out is “active euthanasia is murder.” And that is a debatable premise—again, the argument “begs” or evades the question of whether active euthanasia is murder by simply not stating the premise. The arguer is hoping we’ll just focus on the uncontroversial premise, “Murder is morally wrong,” and not notice what is being assumed.
Tip: One way to try to avoid begging the question is to write out your premises and conclusion in a short, outline-like form. See if you notice any gaps, any steps that are required to move from one premise to the next or from the premises to the conclusion. Write down the statements that would fill those gaps. If the statements are controversial and you’ve just glossed over them, you might be begging the question. Next, check to see whether any of your premises basically says the same thing as the conclusion (but in different words). If so, you’re probably begging the question. The moral of the story: you can’t just assume or use as uncontroversial evidence the very thing you’re trying to prove.
Equivocation
Definition: Equivocation is sliding between two or more different meanings of a single word or phrase that is important to the argument.
Example: “Giving money to charity is the right thing to do. So charities have a right to our money.” The equivocation here is on the word “right”: “right” can mean both something that is correct or good (as in “I got the right answers on the test”) and something to which someone has a claim (as in “everyone has a right to life”). Sometimes an arguer will deliberately, sneakily equivocate, often on words like “freedom,” “justice,” “rights,” and so forth; other times, the equivocation is a mistake or misunderstanding. Either way, it’s important that you use the main terms of your argument consistently.
Tip: Identify the most important words and phrases in your argument and ask yourself whether they could have more than one meaning. If they could, be sure you aren’t slipping and sliding between those meanings.
So how do I find fallacies in my own writing?
Here are some general tips for finding fallacies in your own arguments:
Pretend you disagree with the conclusion you’re defending. What parts of the argument would now seem fishy to you? What parts would seem easiest to attack? Give special attention to strengthening those parts.
List your main points; under each one, list the evidence you have for it. Seeing your claims and evidence laid out this way may make you realize that you have no good evidence for a particular claim, or it may help you look more critically at the evidence you’re using.
Learn which types of fallacies you’re especially prone to, and be careful to check for them in your work. Some writers make lots of appeals to authority; others are more likely to rely on weak analogies or set up straw men. Read over some of your old papers to see if there’s a particular kind of fallacy you need to watch out for.
Be aware that broad claims need more proof than narrow ones. Claims that use sweeping words like “all,” “no,” “none,” “every,” “always,” “never,” “no one,” and “everyone” are sometimes appropriate—but they require a lot more proof than less-sweeping claims that use words like “some,” “many,” “few,” “sometimes,” “usually,” and so forth.
Double check your characterizations of others, especially your opponents, to be sure they are accurate and fair.
Reprintedwith permission from Bucks County Community College
HOW TO WRITE A LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY
The purpose of a literary analysis essay is to carefully examine and sometimes evaluate a work of
literature or an aspect of a work of literature. As with any analysis, this requires you to break the
subject down into its component parts. Examining the different elements of a piece of literature is
not an end in itself but rather a process to help you better appreciate and understand the work of
literature as a whole. For instance, an analysis of a poem might deal with the different types of
images in a poem or with the relationship between the form and content of the work. If you were to
analyze (discuss and explain) a play, you might analyze the relationship between a subplot and the
main plot, or you might analyze the character flaw of the tragic hero by tracing how it is revealed
through the acts of the play. Analyzing a short story might include identifying a particular theme
(like the difficulty of making the transition from adolescence to adulthood) and showing how the
writer suggests that theme through the point of view from which the story is told; or you might also
explain how the main character’s attitude toward women is revealed through his dialogue and/or
actions.
REMEMBER: Writing is the sharpened, focused expression of thought and study. As you develop
your writing skills, you will also improve your perceptions and increase your critical abilities.
Writing ultimately boils down to the development of an idea. Your objective in writing a literary
analysis essay is to convince the person reading your essay that you have supported the idea you
are developing. Unlike ordinary conversation and classroom discussion, writing must stick
with great determination to the specific point of development. This kind of writing demands
tight organization and control. Therefore, your essay must have a central idea (thesis), it must
have several paragraphs that grow systematically out of the central idea, and everything in it
must be directly related to the central idea and must contribute to the reader’s
understanding of that central idea. These three principles are listed again below:
1. Your essay must cover the topic you are writing about.
2. Your essay must have a central idea (stated in your thesis) that
governs its development.
3. Your essay must be organized so that every part contributes
something to the reader’s understanding of the central idea.
THE ELEMENTS OF A GOOD ESSAY
The Thesis Statement
The thesis statement tells your reader what to expect: it is a restricted, precisely worded
declarative sentence that states the purpose of your essay — the point you are trying to make.
Without a carefully conceived thesis, an essay has no chance of success. The following are
thesis statements which would work for a 500-750 word literary analysis essay:
Gwendolyn Brooks’s 1960 poem “The Ballad of Rudolph Reed” demonstrates how
the poet uses the conventional poetic form of the ballad to treat the unconventional
poetic subject of racial intolerance.
The fate of the main characters in Antigone illustrates the danger of excessive pride.
The imagery in Dylan Thomas’s poem “Fern Hill” reveals the ambiguity of our
relationship with nature.
Reprinted with permission from Bucks County Community College
PLEASE NOTE: THE BEST PLACE TO PUT YOUR THESIS STATEMENT IS AT THE END OF
YOUR INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH.
The Introduction
The introduction to your literary analysis essay should try to arouse interest in your reader. To
bring immediate focus to your subject, you may want to use a quotation, a provocative question, a
personal anecdote, a startling statement, or a combination of these. You may also want to include
background information relevant to your thesis and necessary for the reader to understand the
position you are taking.
In addition, you need to include the title of the work of literature and name of the author.
The following are satisfactory introductory paragraphs which include appropriate thesis statements:
A. What would you expect to be the personality of a man who has his wife sent away to
a convent (or perhaps has had her murdered) because she took too much pleasure in the
sunset and in a compliment paid to her by another man? It is just such a man — a
Renaissance duke — that Robert Browning portrays in his poem “My Last Duchess.”
Through what he says about himself, through his actions, and through his interpretation of
earlier incidents, the Duke reveals the arrogance, jealousy, and materialism that are his
most conspicuous traits.
B. The first paragraph of Alberto Alvaro Rios’s short story “The Secret Lion” presents a
twelve-year-old boy’s view of growing up — everything changes. As the narrator tells us,
when the magician pulls a tablecloth out from under a pile of dishes, children are amazed at
the “stay-the-same part,” while adults focus only on the tablecloth itself (42). Adults have
the benefit of experience and know the trick will work as long as the technique is correct.
When we “grow up” we gain this experience and knowledge, but we lose our innocence and
sense of wonder. In other words, the price we pay for growing up is a permanent sense of
loss. This tradeoff is central to “The Secret Lion.” The key symbols in the story reinforce its
main theme: change is inevitable and always accompanied by a sense of loss.
C. The setting of John Updike’s story “A & P” is crucial to our understanding of Sammy’s
decision to quit his job. Even though Sammy knows that his quitting will make life more
difficult for him, he instinctively insists upon rejecting what the A & P represents in the story.
When he rings up a “No Sale” and “saunter[s]” out of the store, Sammy leaves behind not
only a job but the rigid state of mind associated with the A & P. Although Sammy is the
central character in the story and we learn much about him, Updike seems to invest as
much effort in describing the setting as he does Sammy. The title, after all, is not “Youthful
Rebellion” or “Sammy Quits” but “A & P.” In fact, the setting is the antagonist of the story
and plays a role that is as important as Sammy’s.
The Body of the Essay and the Importance of Topic Sentences
The term regularly used for the development of the central idea of a literary analysis essay is the
body. In this section you present the paragraphs (at least 3 paragraphs for a 500-750 word
essay) that support your thesis statement. Good literary analysis essays contain an explanation of
your ideas and evidence from the text (short story, poem, play) that supports those ideas. Textual
evidence consists of summary, paraphrase, specific details, and direct quotations.
Reprinted with permission from Bucks County Community College
3
Each of the paragraphs of your essay should contain a topic sentence (usually the first sentence
of the paragraph) which states one of the topics associated with your thesis, combined with some
assertion about how the topic will support the central idea. The purpose of the topic sentence is
twofold:
1. To tie the details of the paragraph to your thesis statement.
2. To tie the details of the paragraph together.
The substance of each of your developmental paragraphs (the body of your essay) will be the
explanations, summaries, paraphrases, specific details, and direct quotations you need to support
and develop the more general statement you have made in your topic sentence. The following is
the first developmental paragraph after one of the introductory paragraphs (C) above:
TOPIC SENTENCE
EXPLANATIONS AND
TEXTUAL EVIDENCE
Sammy’s descriptions of the A & P present a
setting that is ugly, monotonous, and rigidly
regulated. We can identify with the uniformity
Sammy describes because we have all been in
chain stores. The fluorescent light is as blandly
cool as the “checkerboard green-and-cream
rubber tile floor” (486). The “usual traffic in the
store moves in one direction (except for the
swim suited girls, who move against it), and
everything is neatly organized and categorized
in tidy aisles. The dehumanizing routine of this
environment is suggested by Sammy’s offhand
references to the typical shoppers as “sheep,”
“house slaves,” and “pigs.” These regular
customers seem to walk through the store in a
stupor; as Sammy tells us, not even dynamite
could move them out of their routine (485).
This paragraph is a strong one because it is developed through the use of quotations, summary,
details, and explanation to support the topic sentence. Notice how it relates back to the thesis
statement.
The Conclusion
Your literary analysis essay should have a concluding paragraph that gives your essay a sense of
completeness and lets your readers know that they have come to the end of your paper. Your
concluding paragraph might restate the thesis in different words, summarize the main points you
have made, or make a relevant comment about the literary work you are analyzing, but from a
different perspective. Do not introduce a new topic in your conclusion. Below is the
concluding paragraph from the essay already quoted above (A) about Browning’s poem “My Last
Duchess”:
If the Duke has any redeeming qualities, they fail to appear in the poem. Browning’s
emphasis on the Duke’s traits of arrogance, jealousy, and materialism make it apparent that
anyone who might have known the Duke personally would have based his opinion of him on
these three personality “flaws.” Ultimately, our opinion of the Duke is not a favorable one,
and it is clear that Browning meant us to feel this way.
Reprinted with permission from Bucks County Community College
4
The Title of Your Essay
It is essential that you give your essay a title which 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 titles that follow are
appropriate for the papers (A, B, C) discussed above:
Robert Browning’s Duke: So What’s to Like?
The A & P as a State of Mind
“The Secret Lion”: It’s Hard to Grow Up
Audience
Consider the reader for whom you are writing your essay. Imagine you are writing for other
students in your class who have about as much education as you do. They have read the
assigned work just as you have, but perhaps they have not thought about it in exactly the same
way as you. In other words, it is not necessary to “retell” the work of literature in any way.
Rather it is your role to be the explainer or interpreter of the work — to tell what certain elements of
the work mean in relation to your central idea (thesis). When you make references to the text of
the short story, poem, or play, you are doing so in order to remind your audience of something they
already know. The principle emphasis of your essay is to draw conclusions and develop
arguments.
USING TEXTUAL EVIDENCE
The skillful use of textual evidence — summary, paraphrase, specific detail, and direct
quotations — can illustrate and support the ideas you are developing in your essay. However,
textual evidence should be used judiciously and only when it directly relates to your topic. The
correct and effective use of textual evidence is vital to the successful literary analysis essay.
Summary
If a key event or series of events in the literary work support a point you are trying to make, you
may want to include a brief summary, making sure that you show the relevance of the event or
events by explicitly connecting your summary to your point. Below is an effective summary (with
its relevance clearly pointed out) from the essay already quoted above on “The Secret Lion” (B):
The boys find the grinding ball, but later attempt to bury it (SUMMARY). Burying it is
their futile attempt to make time stand still and to preserve perfection
(RELEVANCE).
Paraphrase
You can make use of paraphrase when you need the details of the original, but not necessarily the
words of the original: paraphrase to put someone else’s words into your own words. Below is an
Reprinted with permission from Bucks County Community College
5
example (also from the paper on “The Secret Lion”) of how to “translate” original material into part
of your own paper:
Original: “I was twelve and in junior high school and something happened that we didn’t
have a name for, but it was nonetheless like a lion, and roaring, roaring that
way the biggest things do.”
Paraphrase: Early in the story, the narrator tells us that when he turned twelve and started
junior high school, life changed in a significant way that he and his friends
couldn’t quite find a name for.
Specific Detail
Various types of details from the text lend concrete support to the development of the central idea
of your literary analysis essay. These details add credibility to the point you are developing.
Below is a list of some of the details which could have been used in the developmental paragraph
from the paper on John Updike’s short story “A & P” (see the paragraph again for which details
were used and how they were used).
“usual traffic”
“fluorescent lights”
“checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile floor”
“electric eye”
shoppers like “sheep,” “houseslaves,” and “pigs”
neatly stacked food
dynamite
Using Direct Quotations
Quotations can illuminate and support the ideas you are trying to develop. A judicious use of
quoted material will make your points clearer and more convincing. As with all the textual
evidence you use, make sure you explain how the evidence is relevant — let the reader know
what you make of the quotations you cite. Below are guidelines and examples that should help
you use quotations effectively:
1. Brief quotations (four lines or fewer of prose and three lines or fewer of poetry) should be
carefully introduced and integrated into the text of your paper. Put quotation marks around
all briefly quoted material.
Prose example:
As the “manager” of the A & P, Lengel is both the guardian and enforcer of “policy.” When
he gives the girls “that sad Sunday-school-superintendent stare,” we know we are in the
presence of the A & P’s version of a dreary bureaucrat who “doesn’t miss much” (487).
Make sure you give page numbers when necessary. Notice that in this example the
page numbers are in parenthesis after the quotation marks but before the period.
Poetry example:
From the beginning, the Duke in Browning’s poem gives the reader a sense of how
possessive he really is: “That’s my last Duchess on the wall, / Looking as if she were alive”
Reprinted with permission from Bucks County Community College
6
(1-2). We can’t help notice how, even though the Duke is talking about her portrait, his main
concern is that she belongs to him. Notice that line # 1 is separated from line # 2 by a
slash. Make sure you give the line numbers when necessary.
2. Lengthy quotations should be separated from the text of your paper. More than four lines
of prose should be double spaced and indented ten spaces from the left margin, with the
right margin the same as the rest of your paper. More than three lines of poetry should be
double spaced and centered on the page. Note: do not use quotation marks to set off
these longer passages because the indentation itself indicates that the material is
quoted.
Prose example:
The first paragraph of “The Secret Lion” introduces the narrator as someone who has just
entered adolescence and isn’t quite sure what to make of it:
I was twelve and in junior high school and something happened that we didn’t have a
name for, but it was there nonetheless like a lion, and roaring, roaring that way the
biggest things do. Everything changed. Just that. Like the rug, the one that gets
pulled — or better, like the tablecloth those magicians pull where the stuff on the table
stays the same but the gasp! from the audience makes the staying-the-same part not
matter. Like that. (41-42) Make sure you give page numbers when necessary.
Notice in this example that the page numbers are in parenthesis after the
period of the last sentence.
Poetry example:
The Duke seems to object to the fact that his “last Duchess” is not discriminating enough
about bestowing her affection. In the following lines from the middle of the poem, the Duke
lists examples of this “fault”:
Sir, ’twas all one! My favor at her breast,
The drooping of the daylight in the west,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace — all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech. (25-30)
Make sure you give line numbers when necessary.
3. If any words are added to a quotation in order to explain who or what the quotation refers to,
you must use brackets to distinguish your addition from the original source.
Example:
The literary critic John Strauss asserts that “he [Young Goodman Brown] is portrayed as
self-righteous and disillusioned.” Brackets are used here because there is no way of
knowing who “he” is unless you add that information.
Reprinted with permission from Bucks County Community College
7
Brackets are also used to change the grammatical structure of a quotation so that it fits into
your sentence.
Example:
Strauss also argues that Hawthorne “present[s] Young Goodman Brown in an ambivalent
light.” Brackets are used here to add the “s” to the verb “present” because otherwise
the sentence would not be grammatically correct.
4. You must use ellipsis if you omit any words from the original source you are quoting.
Ellipsis can be used at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the quotation,
depending on where the missing words were originally. Ellipsis is formed by either three
or four periods with a space between each period.
Original: “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
Example (omission from beginning):
This behavior “. . . makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Ellipsis formed by three
dots after the quotation marks.
Example (omission from middle):
This maxim claims that “Early to bed . . . makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Ellipsis
formed by three dots used in place of the words “and early to rise.”
Example (omission from end):
He said, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy . . . .” Ellipsis is formed by
four dots before the quotation marks — the fourth dot is really a period which ends
the sentence.
5. Use a single line of spaced periods to indicate the omission of an entire line of poetry.
Example:
The Duke seems to object to the fact that his “last Duchess” is not discriminating enough
about bestowing her affection:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The drooping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, while the white mule
She rode around the terrace — like and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech. (26-30)
Punctuating Direct Quotations
You will be able to punctuate quoted materials accurately if you observe the following conventions
Reprinted with permission from Bucks County Community College
8
used in writing about literature:
1. When the quoted material is part of your own sentence, place periods and commas inside
the quotation marks.
Example:
The narrator of “The Secret Lion” says that the change was “like a lion.” The period is
inside the quotation marks.
2. When the quoted material is part of your own sentence, but you need to include a
parenthetical reference to page or line numbers, place the periods and commas after the
reference.
Example:
The narrator of “The Secret Lion” says that the change was “like a lion” (41). The
period is outside the quotation marks, after the parenthetical reference.
3. When the quoted material is part of your own sentence, punctuation marks other than
periods and commas, such as question marks, are placed outside the quotation marks,
unless they are part of the quoted material.
Example (not part of original):
Why does the narrator of “The Secret Lion” say that the change was “like a lion”? The
question mark is placed after the quotation marks because it does not appear in the
original — it ends a question being asked about the story.
Example (part of original):
The Duke shows his indignation that the Duchess could like everyone and everything when
he says, “Sir, ’twas all one!” The exclamation point is placed inside the quotation
marks because it appears in the original.
4. When the original material you are quoting already has quotations marks (for instance,
dialog from a short story), you must use single quotation marks within the double quotation
marks.
Example:
Lengel tries to stop Sammy from quitting by saying, ” ‘Sammy, you don’t want to do this to
your Mom and Dad’. ”
THREE CONVENTIONS TO REMEMBER WHEN WRITING A LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY
1. You must give a clear, full reference to the work and author you are writing about
somewhere in your introductory paragraph (see the example introductory paragraphs A,
Reprinted with permission from Bucks County Community College
9
B, and C above).
2. Use the correct format for referring to the work you are discussing. The titles of short
stories, poems, and essays should be placed in quotation marks; the titles of novels, plays,
films, and TV shows should be either underlined or italicized:
“My Last Duchess” (poem) Antigone (play)
“The Secret Lion” (short story) Forest Gump (movie)
Pride and Prejudice (novel) Roseanne (TV show)
3. Use the present tense when you are discussing and writing about literature — literary works
are considered to exist in the present (see all the example paragraphs throughout).
CHECKLIST
1. Is the topic you have chosen to write about manageable for the length of the paper you are
writing?
Is it too narrow or too broad?
2. Is your title engaging? Does it suggest the approach you are taking in your paper?
3. Does your first paragraph introduce your topic, name the writer and the work, and end with
your thesis statement? Will it get the reader’s attention?
4. Is your thesis clear? Does it state the central idea of your paper?
5. Is your paper organized in a way that your reader will be able to follow?
6. Are your developmental paragraphs unified (everything in the paragraph relates to the topic
of the paragraph) and coherent (everything in the paragraph is arranged in a logical order)?
7. Have you used transitional words where necessary within each paragraph? Are there
transitions linking all the paragraphs of your essay?
8. Does your concluding paragraph provide a sense of closure?
9. Have you used technical terms correctly?
10. Have you used brief summary, paraphrase, specific details, and direct quotations? Have
you explained why you are using them and how they support your central idea?
11. If you have used information from sources outside the actual work of literature (for example,
books of criticism), have you documented this information properly? To provide
documentation for literary papers, you need to use MLA documentation style, which can
found in most English handbooks and in books on how to write research papers.
12. Have you proofread your final draft?
