Warm-Up for Analyzing a Character

Try to describe an object. That's fairly easy: a stout coffee cup with a robin-egg blue interior and a matte-black exterior that advertises the "Crossroads of Civilization" exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Objects are often straightforward. What you see is what you get.

Try to describe a person. That can be incredibly difficult. In fact, some authors have written whole novels describing a person such as Jane Eyre or Oliver Twist and still felt like they only scratched the surface. And yet, sometimes, you must read a great work of literature and write an effective character analysis in just a few pages.

What Is a Character Analysis?

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A character analysis is a response to literature that looks closely at one or more characters and connects them to the major themes of the story or novel. A successful analysis considers different aspects of a character, provides textual evidence about the person, and explains what these details mean in the larger picture of the work.

In this unit, you will write a character analysis that focuses on one or more key characters in a work of fiction. You need to select a work that you know well. Then you must think deeply about it and unearth evidence to support your position.

Thinking About People

Characters are, of course, just fictional people. You can warm up your character-analysis muscles by analyzing people you know and like. (Be kind!) You can describe the person physically and psychologically, and you can think about what motivates the person. For example, this table records details about a student's best friend since third grade:

Revising to Use Literary Present Tense

Sometimes you might struggle with the tense of verbs in a literary analysis. Do you say, "Richard Adams lived in Whitchurch, England" or "Richard Adams lives in Whitchurch, England," (when he is deceased)? Do you say "Richard Adams combined anthropomorphic fiction with naturalism" or "Richard Adams combines anthropomorphic fiction with naturalism"? And if you are in present tense for your main text, how do you handle quotations in past tense?

When you write a literature review, you should use literary present tense. This style of writing treats the piece of literature as something new and fresh whenever it is read rather than being something stuck in the past. Follow these rules to write effectively in the literary present tense:

When speaking about the work and the events in it, use the present tense.

When referring to historical events in the author's life or in the world at the time, use the past tense.

Keep the tense of quotations even if they do not match the surrounding text.

Writing the Beginning Paragraph

Start your essay with a lead that gets readers' attention and orients them to the piece of literature you will analyze. After your lead sentence, you will develop a paragraph that ends with your thesis statement.

1. Name the work and author and summarize its importance.

Watership Down by Richard Adams is a story about rabbits, but it's also about refugees and vision quests and the making of great leaders.

2. Quote a review of the literature.

“Once snared, you'll be gripped uncompromisingly by a master teller of tales. And chances are you'll not recall nobler heroes than the rabbits seeking happiness on Watership Down.”
—The Atlanta Constitution

3. Provide an engaging fact.

Humans domesticated dogs tens of thousands of years ago, when we were still hunters and gatherers.

4. Ask an interesting question.

Have you ever seen a sleeping dog snuff and snort, legs scrabbling sideways on the floor, twitching in some dream of the hunt?

Writing the Middle Paragraphs

Prewriting to Select a Work

You may already know what story or novel you want to write about. If not, answering a set of questions can give you some options:

Reading a Literary Analysis

Before you begin your own literary analysis, you should read a paper created by another student. As you read, note how the writer describes the key events in the life of an important character and connects the events to larger themes. He also paraphrases and quotes from the novel. Click on the side notes to study these and other features.

Reading a Student Model

This reading analyzes the character arc of Hazel from Watership Down, showing how his decisions, actions, and sacrifices slowly transform him into a leader. The overall structure includes a beginning paragraph, multiple body paragraphs, and an ending paragraph. The writer uses source citations as well as historical context and discussions of theme to show the significance of Hazel's transformation in the novel.

Warm-Up for Analyzing Literature

You arrive at the lunch table only to discover that your friends are chattering excitedly about something that happened in class. You, of course, want "the full story": Who was involved? What happened? Where and when? Why did it happen? How?

Every story, whether told around the lunch table or written in a work of literature, contains those basic elements:

Reading a Personal Essay

You've probably written many personal narratives over the course of your schooling, but this may be your first personal essay. Instead of focusing on one brief event in your life, you will focus on a series of events over a longer period. As a result, you'll need to be selective about what events you report, and you'll need to tie them together so that they create a clear narrative arc. You can get a sense of how to do so by reading another student's personal essay.

Reading a Student Model

Read the following personal essay, in which Carson reflects on a winter of discontent and the surprising creative outlet that he discovered. Note how he zooms in to specific events with description and dialogue before zooming out with transition sentences to show the progress of time. Click on the side notes to see the different features of this personal essay.