Did you know that literature analyses are as valuable as the literature itself? Well, they are. Understanding literature is an essential skill for every student who wants to develop analytical thinking or provide criticism.
In fact, essays on literature do not require artistic descriptions or detailed synthesis of the story. Instead, they need you to engage in deep comparative evaluation and create an argumentative narrative.
If you want to learn more and write an essay about literature or a literature review, our writers have prepared several tips and recommendations that will ensure you prepare an excellent paper. We also provide free high-quality short essay samples for you to use as a template or inspiration when stuck with an assignment for your school, college, or university class.
Topics for Literature Essays
Every literature essay starts with a book, story, poem, letter, or novel that you are given to read and analyze. However, each piece of literature can be examined from various sides, and you must choose the context in which you will discuss the book and create a specific issue. You can follow these instructions to make a debatable question: these are questions you should answer about your book.
- What literature movement is it? There are various literature tendencies in different cultures, therefore, each book’s theme, mood, and message depend on its belonging to a particular movement. The most common ones for American and European literature are realism, romanticism, and modernism. Chinese, Japanese, Philippine, and other Asian literature pieces are built on symbolism.
- What is the theme? While creating his novel, every writer decides on the main topic of the narrative: it usually is an important social issue, like holocaust, feminism, schizophrenia, or African American discrimination. Sometimes, there can be more than one particular subject: for example, one story can tell about evil and beauty through different characters.
- Who are the characters? The main heroes allow you to interpret events and topics. It is essential to distinguish the purpose of each character, their beliefs, actions, morality, and fate. Everything from speech and appearance to death or betrayal is a literary device that tells you about this person.
- What is the moral of the story? This point requires you to be very reflective, think thoroughly about the lesson each story teaches the audience and which expository figures it uses to convey it. It may be pretty obvious in children’s or young adult books, but other pieces of gothic or puritan literature allow many different interpretations.
Building a Literature Essay
After giving answers to all of these questions, you can create a complex thesis for your assignment. For example, “How satirical (movement) optimism (theme) in ‘Candide’ is portrayed through religious figures (characters)?”
Of course, while writing your paper, keep in mind academic style rules. Maintain proper paragraph division, provide a clear introduction, main body, and conclusion. You should also comply with all the requirements, arrange your paper according to APA or MLA format (depending on your institution), and add an outline if your work is relatively extended. Remember to avoid plagiarism, include only academic sources and cite them properly.
And that’s all! With these tips and prompts, you are guaranteed to write an excellent academic essay about literature or prepare for any test: whether it is an English exam, GCSE, AP Literature, or IB world.
However, if you still do not feel confident, you can check multiple literature essay examples available in Docx and PDF on our website.