Literary Analyses

Throughout my time in high school many literary analysis assignments have been given to me. Those assignments fall into two categories.  The first category is for literary analyses done on assigned books to read and the second category is for literary analyses done on books I got to choose.

I generally disliked the assignments in the first category. The books that the teachers choose tended to be American literature classics, which usually do not appeal to me. Although they lack appeal, they do not lack in the number of academic writings about them. For these assignments, I usually read the book hastily so I could be done with it. Because of this, I would rely heavily on the critiques I read to develop deeper opinions about the book. None of the books were particularly challenging for me academically but they were challenging for me in the sense that it took more effort to make myself given assignments the effort required. Some examples of books I had to read and write on are The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Scarlet Letter.

The assignments in the second category, on the other hand, I usually enjoyed. For these assignments, the teacher would either let the class choose from a long list of books or allow the class to choose any book they want, within limits, and with their approval. For these assignments, the downside was that there were usually limited amounts of academic writing about them. To combat that, because of my interest in the books, I formed more opinions and thoughts on the book by myself and used sources more sparingly. These books could be challenging if I wanted them to be.

Overall I have mixed feelings about writing literary analyses.