Posted: September 13th, 2017

How to Analyze a Story.

How to Analyze a Story

When analyzing a story, there isn’t a lot to be done, since a story is not like a novel where we have numerous themes, characters, ideas or plot, it is a bit easy to work with because we only have to expand on a specific subject at a time. A story has few themes and fewer characters and the idea is only one, so to analyze this type of narrative, this is what we need to do.

Since you cannot analyze something you have not read yet, this will be our first step, make sure you have gone through the story several times until you know what it is all about, going through it once is never enough, you need to understand every part of it and this can’t take much of your time because most stories are usually short.

The second step is where you share your ideas with others, you can select few friend of yours in class who have also read the story and try to discuss every part of it and everyone has to come up with their own ideas, this will make you see where you are on it, if you really understood it or if you are just on the wrong truck. If you find this hard you can always consult your teacher to explain the story so that you can get it well.

As I had mentioned earlier, a story is not bombarded with lots of themes and plot like a novel, this is now the stage where you select a theme and pick a plot of the story to follow. Work with only the theme you have chosen, this will make your work easier and faster.

Another stage is the research stage, this is where you go back to your story and read again as you note where the theme appears and also how to support it with illustrations from the story. This stage is not yet over because you have to connect it with real life examples; this makes your analysis to be stronger because you can defend your theme even in a real life situation.

Lastly you have to put your ideas down on a piece of paper, write down the outline of everything you have come up with, including the introduction, your body and conclusion together. Go over your work again to familiarize with it and there you go, ready for presentation. It’s not really that hard if you put your mind on it.