Analyzing a Text

1. Examining the setting and author

a. The setting can help readers analyze a text
i. Examining not only the physical setting of a text but the social setting as
well can help students understand the significance of characters actions
b. Knowing the author of a text helps readers understand their point of view on
several social, cultural, and political opinions, which are often prevalent in an
author’s writing
c. Questions to ask yourself about the setting:
i. When does the story take place?
1. If the author wrote the piece in the future/past, why would they do
that?
a. They may choose to do this because events they want to
occur in the story are not feasible for the current time
2. Why would they write the piece in the setting of the time they’re
living in?
a. The author may be commenting on something that is
relevant in their present time
ii. What are the social themes of that time?
1. Often times, authors comment on the social themes of the time
they write about (whether overtly or through figurative language)
2. It’s important to note the social theme of the storys time period
iii. Where does the story take place? Is geographical location significant?
1. If a story takes place in Asia, how does that change our viewpoint
on it?
d. Questions to ask yourself about the author:
i. When did the author live?
ii. When did they write this piece?
iii. What are the social themes of that time? Does this influence the author?
How?
iv. Where did the author live? How does this impact their worldview?
v. What is the author’s political/cultural/social/religious/racial background?
How does this appear in the work/does this appear at all?
vi. Does the author have any other works?
1. If they wrote an essay praising Donald Trump, you’d probably
think of them differently and it may help you understand their
viewpoint
2. Examining the characters
 a. Often in literature, characters represent ideas or a group of people (whether it’s a
social, religious, cultural, or political idea/group) and understanding what a
character could represent helps students better understand their actions
b. Knowing what a character stands for can make their interactions with other
characters more significant
c. Questions to ask yourself about characters:
i. Does this character drive the plot? How?
1. Is this character static or dynamic?
a. What makes a dynamic character?
i. They change in some way
b. What makes a static character?
i. They don’t change
ii. Who is the protagonist? Antagonist?
1. How does this person being the protagonist influence the possible
meaning of the text?
iii. Who are the supporting characters?
1. How do they influence the protagonist?
2. What effect do they have on the protagonist?
3. Is this character “good” or “evil”? Why?
iv. Is this character justified in their actions/beliefs? Why or why not?
1. If the character is unjustified but sympathetic, what is the author
trying to get across?
3. Examining the plot
a. Knowing the significance of the characters, setting, and author’s view, the ending
of a story can be interpreted as a message about human nature
b. Questions to ask yourself about the plot:
i. Is the ending happy? Sad? Inconclusive? How does this make the reader
feel and why is that important?
ii. What is the significance of the climax? Do characters actions here tell us
something about human nature?
iii. What do the events in the story tell us about the setting or author’s
viewpoints?
4. Analyzing all of these elements helps us answer the BIG question: what is the author
trying to say?
a. What could the author be commenting on?
i. Ethical issues
ii. Social issues
iii. Racial injustices
iv. The struggle of…
1. A group of people (African Americans, the mentally ill, Jews, etc.)
 2. A type of person (teens, millennials, etc.)
v. Religious issues
vi. Politics
vii. The human condition
viii. Class differences