Analyzing Literature: Getting More Out of a Book

     So I started a literary analysis class this week. I was not sure how exactly it would go but it seemed to go pretty well for a class.
    This semester we are studying Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Tale of Two Cities. I am so glad I started with the easy book because it will help me to "feel the waters" so to speak and get into the groove of things. It will also help me to understand how my students study better before jumping into something more complex.
    With literary analysis you take a book and really pay attention to what the author is saying. What do they believe? Do I believe that? What kinds of attributes would I expect the author to have? Are they displayed in any of the characters? What kinds of characters do we see (introverts, extroverts, proud, silly, vain, kind, accepting)? Who do you think you would like to meet? Who do you think you would definitely avoid meeting? What characters become more interesting as you ask questions? Why? What kind of person can you draw from these characters?

     As you can see I ask a lot of questions of the text and particularly about the characters because Pride and Prejudice is all about the characters. Other books are too but as we go on I think that we will find that books like Tale of Two Cities have a lot of setting and background scenes that we would ask other, more tailored questions about the setting. For Pride and Prejudice this is not a huge focus in the book so naturally we will ask more questions about the characters themselves. We could also draw out more about who the author is because the focus is not as broad or deep as it will be in the other books.
     I had some information about Jane Austen that I had the kids read and I had them read to chapter 6 this week. Here are some of the questions that I asked them in particular for discussion (along with some of the general ones above):
   
What did Jane Austen originally name Pride and Prejudice? (First Impressions)
What kind of writing was she known for? What did people say about her writing? (She wrote about the ordinary in an interesting way)
What would we categorize it as today? (Romance, classical, historical fiction)

    Jane Austen is very good at portraying (especially in this book) how destructive, and silly, human Pride can be. What examples do you see in the first few chapters of this?
      Do you typically rely on first impressions? Why or why not?
      Do you think that first impressions of others usually are good judgments? Why or why not?
      Which characters do you think you could be friends with? Why?
      Which characters (if any) would you prefer to avoid? Why?

     It fascinates me how fictional books hold so much information that we often don't get in just reading through them. We get to meet someone and engage in the world that they either live in or have created. In these stories we can see how this person thought about others and catch a glimpse of what they are/were like as an individual.
     As I'm writing I just had a thought. What if we read the Bible in a similar fashion? I end up asking the same question every time I read the Bible when I have devotions (what does this passage tell me about God? Or some variation of that.) but what if I asked questions that asked first about the human author and then about God (or vice versa). Just an interesting thought.
      Anyway, rabbit trail :)
      Fictional stories can hold so many ideas in them and explore how different people think which is one of the reasons why I enjoy analyzing them.