QUOTING LITERATURE: SUMMARIZING VS. EMPHASIZING

Summarizing Quotes vs. Emphasizing Quotes Summarizing quotes provide basic details about the plot. These quotes leave little to no room for analysis and interpretation. The details are important, but can be paraphrased in your own words. Emphasizing quotes focus on characters and themes. These quotes show character thoughts, actions, or emotions. These quotes allow you, as writers, to infer meaning and demonstrate your understanding.

Many of you use quotes to SUMMARIZE… In the short story “Faint Heart”, the Court controls the power. The Court puts on an event called the Trials, in which every unmarried man is put into a maze and forced to fight for the hand of Queen Rosamond, a queen in name only since she is a puppet for the state. The goal of the Trials is to eliminate as many males as possible because they are considered potential threats to society. The tradition of the Trials is explained here, “The Trials must take place every generation that is, every twenty five years, or when the old queen dies and the princess inherits” (Brennan 234). The Court uses the queen as propaganda to make the Trials sound more appealing to at least some of the men. The Trials are a way to eliminate men without anyone in society thinking human life is being ended for control purposes only.

Select quotes that EMPHASIZE… In “Faint Heart”, the Court maintains control over individual thought by focusing on controlling the young men of society. The Court sets up the Trial system, where all young men are required to fight to the death for the hand of the beautiful Queen Rosamond. In setting up this system, the Court is able to eliminate all the young, unmarried men, which are blamed for all the problems of society. However, while the men wait to go into the Trials, the Court must control their thinking, and they do so by creating the Order, where young men train in preparation for the Trials. Part of this training involves propaganda that convinces the men that the Queen is the most important thing in their world. The main character who buys into this thinking is Tor, a member of the Order. He routinely stares at statues of the Queen and listens to instructors, such as Master Roland, who emphasize her importance. After one such discussion with his instructor, Tor sounds convinced as he reflects, “He’d known there must be a reason for the Trials, a good reason… He’d known there had to be something, somebody, who was worth everything” (Brennan 237). Tor’s thought demonstrates that the men of the Order are completely manipulated into thinking Rosamond is the only goal worth attaining. Through this training, the Court has maintained control over the young men’s thinking and therefore maintained control in their society.

Is your textual support summarizing or emphasizing? Step #1: Highlight your text support in each literary analysis paragraph. Pass your paper to the person to your right. Step #2: Read ONLY the text support in the first paragraph. Analyze what that quote means and write down that meaning on a post-it provided. Attach it to the paragraph and pass the paper to the next person. Repeat this step until all text support has been analyzed. Step #3: Return the paper to the writer. Check the explanation for each quote to see if it matches with what you are trying to prove in your analysis of your text support AND your topic sentence.