Literary Analysis: Introduction Examples

The following examples are effective literary analysis introductions. I have underlined the thesis in each, and commented on the strategy the author is using below each entry:

During the 1960s and 70s women pushed for gender role reevaluation and publicly rebelled against the established social norm of a woman's "place." Although Alice Munro may not have been burning her bra on the courthouse steps, threads of a feminist influence can be found in "Boys and Girls." Munro's main character, a girl probably modeled after Munro's own childhood experiences on an Ontario farm, faces her awakening body and the challenge of developing her social identity in a man's world. "The girl," an unnamed character, acts as a universal symbol for the initiation of a girl into womanhood. Through first-person narrative, Munro shoes the girl's views of her budding femininity and social identity by describing the girl's conceptions of her parents' work, her parallel to the wild mare Flora, and the "mysterious alterations" (Munro 474) in her personal nightly stories.

·      This introduction begins with the general issue of feminism in the 1960’s and 70’s, and then specifically applies that information to the author, Munro, and the theme the author will be focusing on in the essay, the main character’s formation of “femininity and social identity.”

·      This is a good example of following the general to specific method without- this author picks a general historical social fact that applies specifically to her essay focus.

In "Sonnet 46" of his works about the blond young man, William Shakespeare presents a unique view on the classic debate about physical lust versus emotional love. The poet struggles to decide if his feelings are based upon superficial desire and infatuation, represented by the "eye" (1), or true love independent of the physical world, symbolized by the "heart" (1). With a deft movement from violent imagery in the first two lines to the civilized language of law, Shakespeare dismisses the commonly accepted view of a battle between the eye and the heart. The diction of warfare denotes two very separate alien sides clashing in destructive confrontation. Shakespeare advances quickly away from such wording, setting his debate in the civilized context of a courtroom. While the parties engaged in a lawsuit are competing, they are not seeking the destruction of their opposition. A common bond exists between the two sides of a legal case, the bond of society. They are parts of the same whole, or they would not be bound by the laws of that whole. The same holds for the eye and the heart, as well as their metaphysical counterparts, lust and spiritual bonding. Physical desire and emotional attraction are just aspects of the overlying concept of love. This is Shakespeare's final point: both physicality and emotional attachment combine to form the powerful force humans know as love.

·      The author successfully brings in specific words from the poem (“eye” and “heart”) in order to identify the specific imagery and its representative theme, noted in the italicized sentence.

·      This introduction provides a good example of a thematic summary. Although the author of this essay summarizes parts of the poem, it is always in a way that sets up the theme of love bonds, the subject of the essay.

The late nineteenth century in the United States saw the peak of the buzz and commotion that is presently known as the Industrial Revolution. Caught deep within the gears of this mechanized movement, both socially and financially, was one Samuel Langhorne Clemens, best known as Mark Twain. Twain's ideas on industrialization were based on practical experience, due in part to heavy investment in, and loss from, a newly developed type-setting machine as well as an acute interest in the universal ramifications of such modernization (Kaplan 12). It is amid such an economically turbulent and technologically elevated era that Twain conceived, wrote, and published the critically complex A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court. Twain's vision of sixth century England as seen through the eyes of "Yankee" Hank Morgan is the setting for biting social commentary on what was occurring throughout the States, especially in his home region of the Northeast. A Connecticut Yankee attacks specifically three institutions that Twain had dealt with and experienced first hand: capitalism, slavery, and organized religion. Twain intertwines the fantastic foreground of a fictional tale with much of his own personal belief masked by the brilliant and brutal society artificially crafted by the protagonist and political mouthpiece, Hank Morgan.

·      This introduction successfully uses biographical and historical information to set up the subject of this essay, the themes promoted by “protagonist and political mouthpiece, Hank Morgan.” The author of this essay is able to bring in historical and biographical info (italicized) to frame their argument, but he/she also makes it clear that the essay will be a character analysis of the protagonist.