Writing about literature: how and how not

            Writing about literature is an act of discovery, a discovery of what makes up the qualities of the text that attract us to it, and in the process of writing we also make a discovery of something about ourselves. What that something is is not always obvious or easily stated. But seriously investigating the creative written expression of the language we call literature reveals as much about ourselves as it does about the writing under investigation. To make a thorough investigation of literature you need to be “open” to the writer (giving the writer the courtesy of not pre-judging the literature), you must be knowledgeable about the literature (knowing some of the basic elements of the literature [“Analysis” means breaking into parts; if you don’t know the parts you can’t know the whole.], and you must be honest with yourself (looking first for your reaction before you search out what others have written about the literature).

            For the purposes of this course, only your investigation is acceptable. No secondary sources (what others have written) can be used except those that do not speak directly to the investigation. [In other words, you can use a quote from the Bible or from popular sources but not a quote from a text that someone else has written about what you are writing about.]

The “how not” is easy to explain: you do not write  a book report or a summary or the literature. You write an analysis.

What constitutes an analysis is the “how,” and that is not easy to explain. We start with a close reading of the text. What does “close reading” mean? It means that before we leap into any interpretation we first try to reveal what it is that we are interpreting, looking for the patterns that are not obvious upon a superficial reading. Reading for entertainment and enjoyment is a primary attraction to a text, but it is not analysis and investigation. To reveal what the text might mean to us and other readers takes some effort, and it is an effort that makes the text even more entertaining and enjoyable. This type of revelation is not so different from revealing what people mean to us. We do not love our family less the more we know about them; it is by knowing more that we are attracted more to them. And so it is with literature.

Since writing about literature is not the kind of writing that most people encounter on a daily basis, as, say, newspaper journalism might be encountered daily, it is necessary to make a study of this type of writing to understand how it is different and special. The characteristic that makes it so special is the use of “writing about writing,” the use of quotes from textual materials to illustrate statements that are made about the literature. In this course, all of those quotes are from the primary source material (the novel, short story, poem, play) not from what anyone else has written about the literature (those are called secondary sources).

This specialized type of writing, this “writing about writing,” is done with the following patterns. Look at Sheila Lovett’s literary paper about Meridel Le Sueur’s novel The Girl. This essay is an example of a person looking for patterns that the novel makes. It is interpretive. It’s not necessary definitive or even correct. But after reading the essay, reading the novel becomes a more interesting experience since this writer has given us something to look at that we might not have otherwise seen. She has revealed a pattern that makes reading the novel a richer experience. And that is what good criticism does. Okay. Here is her essay. I have made comments in square brackets [  ] to point out qualities that you should try to incorporate into your essay. Notice that I have highlighted the different techniques that she uses to incorporate the quotes from the novel into her story about the novel. Pay close attention to these techniques; it is required that you, too, master their use.

What Comes around Goes Around

[Every essay must have a title. A good title, like this one, acts like a “mini” introduction: it is interesting and it is informative.]

  When I think of Meridel Le Sueur’s book, The Girl  I think of circles.[Notice that this first sentence not only states the thesis but also makes it clear what the writer is writing about: a book by Meridel Le Sueur called The Girl. It would have been even more clear if she had said “novel” instead of “book.”] I think The Girl is more than just one woman’s testimony of the Great Depression. It is the account of one woman’s journey of self-discovery in the world. I believe that everything in life comes full circle. I think that we are constantly being pushed in linear motion by time, but our soul journey is circular, resembling an orbit. [The writer puts her thesis in a larger perspective. This is not necessary, but it places her ideas in a larger context and makes for more interesting reading.] The Girl’s personal quest is no exception. The Great Depression could be symbolic of any major circumstance in our lives. Those times were frightening and unpredictable. In that way the book disturbed me, and at times I thought I could not finish it. I think that every woman or man could identify with The Girl.

  “Saturday was the big day at the German Village, where I was lucky to get a job in those bad times…”shows that the Girl is saying hello to a new experience in her life as she takes a job in the city (1).[Notice: this is a complete sentence. It has a subject (the quote), a verb (“shows”) and an object phrase (“that the Girl is saying etc.”). All of your quoted references must be made a part of complete sentences. You cannot have a quote just “hanging” all by itself not hooked on, grammatically, to your words. Remember: the reason for using the quotes is to add to what YOU write. The emphasis is always on you. Notice also the punctuation. She uses ellipses (…) to indicate that she is not quoting all of the sentence but that there is more there that she could use to make her point if she wanted to. She uses quotation marks around the text she is quoting. She puts the period at the end of the sentence, after the parentheses.] She has not said goodbye to her past at this point.

  In the first chapter the Girl meets the other women on similar concentric journeys- Belle, Clara, and Amelia. The mention of Booya, the elegant stew, also first appears in this chapter. Belle’s statement, “You stir the Booya she says to me, and watch your Ps and Q’s” is significant to me because the stew requires careful attention (1).   Also, the stirring symbolizes the way life goes around and around and all the women are in the same boat (or pot, in this case) at the mercy of their circumstances.

  The death of the Girl’s father brings a sense of tremendous relief for the Girl and her family. When the Girl reaches home, she and the family discuss Mr. Shaffer’s nasty demeanor.  They talk and laugh about how he would have traded Henry for a tire.  This becomes a celebration of his death because “everybody was laughing we were happy” (33). [This use of a quoted example is different from the other two above. In this one the quote is the object of the sentence. Notice, again, the punctuation. After the quotes goes the page reference in parentheses. After the parentheses goes the period.] The trip back home concludes with the Girl “scrubbing the entryway the kitchen and the floor clean around him” (33). [And this quoted reference is also different from the others. This one is a phrase modifying the “the Girl,” the object of the preposition “with.” Even though this sentence is a bit more complex than the others, it is still grammatically correct.]  I can picture the girl on her hands and knees using a brush in a circular fashion as if she were cleaning up the old mess (in this case her childhood) and starting fresh and new.  When the girl is finally able to say to her mother, “Goodbye Mama, goodbye” [this] shows how she releases the past and looks forward (38). [I added the word “this” above in square brackets because without it, the sentence was not grammatically correct. It had no subject.]

  Butch is the Girl’s lover and like most during that time period, had already started out with the odds against them. After Butch discovers that the Girl is pregnant his reacts with anger. This time the circular motion is within the Girl’s mind as she wrestles internally with the decision to abort the child. At one point she cries, “cut it out” but then says, “It’s not a fault being hungry and its not a fault that men hate the hungers in women now that they cant be filling them, its not a fault aching for a child, food, love” (70). [This quoted examples is like dialogue. The writer uses the word “cries” to attach it to her sentence, then continues with another dialogue-like quote.]

Butch and his buddies plan to rob a bank, and the Girl is to drive the getaway car. When the robbery turns bad and Butch is shot, the Girl drives away with Butch as fast as she can. Five times the book mentions that the Girl “kept driving” (87). [This quote is only two words, but it helps establish the authority of the writer. You only need to quote just enough to make your point. Quoting too much puts the emphasis on the original text not your own writing.] I picture the car going as fast as it can turning up dirt and moving toward a better place. She is searching for a comfortable to place for the wounded Butch to rest. At the same time, she is searching for solace and peace in her mind.

After Butch’s death, the Girl returns to the German Village. She knew things would be different, but the road had led her back to where she had first begun. “Everything will be changed now” is so very true because with the death of the men in their lives, the women begin to form a tighter bond of friendship (97). [This quote is the subject of the sentence, another way to do it.] The circle of friendship begins to strengthen. The girl comes to knowledge of herself and the world and finally what she feels and knows becomes validated as in this quote: “Now I know the city and the way it is and the way those in it can be together” (102). [Here she uses a colon ( : ) to connect the quote to her sentence.]

After moving into a tenement house the Girl describes it this way:

You could hear footsteps all day and all night, it was like a husk, every footstep resounded like a drum. Someone walks downstairs and you can hear them walking all around you even after they stopped doing it. (103) [This is a long quote, over three lines. You don’t use quotation marks. You indent the quoted passage. The indentation makes it easier for the reader to see what is quoted and what is your language. The indentation substitutes for the quotation marks. Notice one more, minor, thing about the punctuation. For a long quote, the period goes BEFORE the parentheses not after. Don’t ask me why. It makes no sense to me. But a lot of American punctuation makes little sense.]

This quoted passage illustrates that that some things never leave us; some things are etched in our minds forever, like a continuum of thoughts that never stop. As the book comes to a close and spring is approaching, things begin to look brighter for the characters. “A new heart is beating” has several different meanings to me. I think the new heart is possible referring the Girl's baby, to the deeper bond of friendship, the women taking a stand for their rights and the Girl coming to the knowledge of the awful and wondrous world.

 I like the picture the author paints when she writes,“I got her little mirror from her purse, where she always looked at herself, I held it up to her mouth which was an awful O shape as if her last breath hurt” (128).  I think this foreshadows the coming of the Girl's baby. As Clara’s last breath is labored, the Girl's labor to bring forth a new woman into the world is beginning.

The word “O” is used five times in the last chapter. [Notice that this quote is only a single letter.] There is one O for each character-Clara, Belle, Amelia, The Girl, and her baby. When Butch’s mother says, “You keep the cord and then when the child is lost and wandering they come back to their grandmothers to find their road, the cord will tell them the road,” [Notice that this quote is a part of the phrase that starts with “When.”] she implies that we always come back to our beginning (131).

Sheila Lovett

English 102 Online

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