1. A Literary Analysis Method
SiFT
A Literary Analysis Method

2. Essential Question: How is the theme of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self Reliance similar to that of Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain?

3. What is the SIFT Method?
Symbol: examine the text and title for symbolism
Images: identify images and sensory details
Figures of Speech: analyze figurative language and other devices
Tone and Theme: discuss how all devices reveal tone and theme

4. Symbols: Signs of Something More
Our everyday lives are heaped with symbols:
These commonly accepted symbols are called public symbols

5. What are Symbols in Literature?
Writers create new, personal symbols in their work.
In literature, a symbol is an object, a setting, an event, an animal, or even a person that functions in the story the way you’d expect it to, but also stands for something more than itself, usually for something abstract.

6. Sifting for symbols Guidelines to follow… Symbols are often visual.
When some event or object or setting is used as a symbol in the story, you will usually find that the writer has given it a great deal of emphasis. Often it reappears throughout the story.
A symbol in literature is a form of figurative language. Like a metaphor, a symbol is something that is identified with something else that is very different from it, but that shares some quality.
A symbol usually has something to do with a story’s theme.

7. How do I (SIFT) Images? Identify images and sensory details.
Imagery helps to promote mood and tone.
What do I see, hear, taste, smell or feel?
What effect is the author trying to convey with these images?
Writers use language to create sensory impressions and to create specific responses to characters, events, object, or situations in their works.
The writer “shows” rather than “tells”

8. What is Tone & Mood?
Tone: The attitude that an AUTHOR takes toward the subject of the text.
Tone is conveyed through the author’s use of language (words, images, actions, etc.)
angry-challenging-sarcastic-outraged- humorous
Mood: The emotions that the READER feels while reading; the atmosphere of the story.
Mood is conveyed through character emotions, setting and other elements.
romantic-gloomy-optimistic-sad-hopeful

9. How do I (SIFT) Figures of Speech?
Analyze figurative language and other devices.
Writers form images by using figures of speech such as simile, metaphors, hyperbole, and personification.
Other devices can include: irony, allusion

10. Simile
A direct comparison of two things, usually using the words like or as.
“He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.” Tennyson
“Hell is a city much like London/
A populous and smokey city.” Shelley
My heart is like an apple tree whose boughs
are bent with thickest fruit.” Christina Raced

11. Metaphor
An IMPLIED comparison in which one thing is spoken in terms of something else. Metaphors are extremely valuable in making an abstract idea clearer by associating the idea with something concrete that relates to one or more of the senses.
“And merry larks are ploughman’s clocks.” Shakespeare
“Entangled in the cobweb of the schools.” Cowper
“Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes.” Thomas

12. Hyperbole
The use of exaggeration or overstatement to make a point. It may be used for emphasis, for humor, or for poetic intensity.
It is used freely in sports broadcasting and news articles
“…slaughtered their opponents on the basket ball court.”
“Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard around the world.”
Emerson

13. Personification
A comparison that treats objects or things as if they were capable of the actions and feelings of people.
“…Sea that bears her bosom to the moon” Wordsworth
“The dirty nurse, Experience.” Tennyson
“Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.” Auden

14. Irony
An expression in which the author’s meaning is quite different (often the opposite) from what is literally said. Irony, as a matter of tone, occurs most frequently in prose as a technique for comedy, tragedy, suspense or horror.
Three types of irony:
Verbal
Situational
Dramatic

15. How do I (SIFT) Theme and Tone?
Theme: central, underlying, and controlling idea of a literary work.
Abstract concept represented by a character, by actions, or by images in the literary work.
A generalization about human conduct.
Ordinarily expressed in a full sentence.

16. Theme= What it is NOT Cannot be expressed in a single word.
Not the purpose of the work (entertainment or instruction)
It is not the topic of the work, though the two are likely related.
Man versus nature is not a theme, it is a conflict.
It is not a cliché or advice.

17. How Do I Figure Out the Theme?
You must first understand the plot, the characterization and conflict, the imagery, and the author’s tone.
Identify the subject in one word…
Then, explain in one or two sentences what the author says about the subject.
NOTE: Many stories/novels have more than one theme and there is seldom just one “right” answer!

18. Literature: To Kill A Mockingbird
For Example…
Literature: To Kill A Mockingbird
Subject: Racism
Possible Theme: Justice is often withheld from economically deprived racial minorities.

19. Tone and Theme
Tone is the author’s attitude toward the subject (the beginnings of theme)
Tone is revealed through the words he or she chooses. (Diction)
In literature, the reader does not have the benefit of voice inflection- even a dog understands the tone of his master’s voice!
So, the reader must understand the author’s word choice, details, imagery and language in order to understand the tone.

20. More on tone… To misinterpret tone is to misinterpret meaning (THEME)
If you miss irony or sarcasm, for example, you may misread the meaning of an entire passage!

21. Today’s Assignment:
SIFT the essay Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson on Page 245 in your text book.
Symbol: examine the text and title for symbolism
Images: identify images and sensory details
Figures of Speech: analyze figurative language and other devices
Tone and Theme: discuss how all devices reveal tone and theme
Use the same strategy to analyze The Art of Racing in the Rain
25 pts

22. Theme: What is the theme of Self-Reliance? How do you know?
Symbolism: an object, character, setting, color, etc. that exists as itself, but also represents an abstract concept/idea.
What symbols do you find in Self-Reliance? List both the symbol and what it stands for.
Imagery: what images (visual, auditory, gustatory, tactile or olfactory) do you find in Self-Reliance? How do they effect mood and tone?
Figurative Language: What examples of figurative language (metaphor, simile, hyperbole, etc.) do you find in Self-Reliance? How do they affect tone and/or mood?
Tone: What is the tone of Self-Reliance? Give at least one piece of evidence for your claim.
Theme: What is the theme of Self-Reliance? How do you know?

23. Iron string = strength found in trusting yourself
Symbolism: an object, character, setting, color, etc. that exists as itself, but also represents an abstract concept/idea.
What symbols do you find in Self-Reliance? List both the symbol and what it stands for.
Heart = Soul of Man
Iron string = strength found in trusting yourself
Imagery: what images (visual, auditory, gustatory, tactile or olfactory) do you find in Self-Reliance? How do they effect mood and tone?
Figurative Language: What examples of figurative language (metaphor, simile, hyperbole, etc.) do you find in Self-Reliance? How do they affect tone and/or mood?
Tone: What is the tone of Self-Reliance? Give at least one piece of evidence for your claim.
Theme: What is the theme of Self-Reliance? How do you know?

24. Iron string = strength found in trusting yourself
Symbolism: an object, character, setting, color, etc. that exists as itself, but also represents an abstract concept/idea.
What symbols do you find in Self-Reliance? List both the symbol and what it stands for.
Heart = Soul of Man
Iron string = strength found in trusting yourself
Imagery: what images (visual, auditory, gustatory, tactile or olfactory) do you find in Self-Reliance? How do they effect mood and tone?
 ”heart vibrates to that iron string” = auditory image
Suggests victory/glory
Figurative Language: What examples of figurative language (metaphor, simile, hyperbole, etc.) do you find in Self-Reliance? How do they affect tone and/or mood?
Tone: What is the tone of Self-Reliance? Give at least one piece of evidence for your claim.
Theme: What is the theme of Self-Reliance? How do you know?

25. Iron string = strength found in trusting yourself
Symbolism: an object, character, setting, color, etc. that exists as itself, but also represents an abstract concept/idea.
What symbols do you find in Self-Reliance? List both the symbol and what it stands for.
Heart = Soul of Man
Iron string = strength found in trusting yourself
Imagery: what images (visual, auditory, gustatory, tactile or olfactory) do you find in Self-Reliance? How do they effect mood and tone?
 ”heart vibrates to that iron string” = auditory image
Suggests victory/glory
Figurative Language: What examples of figurative language (metaphor, simile, hyperbole, etc.) do you find in Self-Reliance? How do they affect tone and/or mood?
Chaos and the dark: metaphor, symbolic of ignorance & evil
Voices = synecdoche = our inner selves
Joint stock company = metaphor = society
Aversion = personification
Tone: What is the tone of Self-Reliance? Give at least one piece of evidence for your claim.
Theme: What is the theme of Self-Reliance? How do you know?

26. Iron string = strength found in trusting yourself
Symbolism: an object, character, setting, color, etc. that exists as itself, but also represents an abstract concept/idea.
What symbols do you find in Self-Reliance? List both the symbol and what it stands for.
Heart = Soul of Man
Iron string = strength found in trusting yourself
Imagery: what images (visual, auditory, gustatory, tactile or olfactory) do you find in Self-Reliance? How do they effect mood and tone?
 ”heart vibrates to that iron string” = auditory image
Suggests victory/glory
Figurative Language: What examples of figurative language (metaphor, simile, hyperbole, etc.) do you find in Self-Reliance? How do they affect tone and/or mood?
Chaos and the dark: metaphor, symbolic of ignorance & evil
Voices = synecdoche = our inner selves
Joint stock company = metaphor = society
Aversion = personification
Tone: What is the tone of Self-Reliance? Give at least one piece of evidence for your claim.
”hobgoblins” diction (word choice) shows Emerson’s contempt for the conformist
Theme: What is the theme of Self-Reliance? How do you know?

27. Iron string = strength found in trusting yourself
Symbolism: an object, character, setting, color, etc. that exists as itself, but also represents an abstract concept/idea.
What symbols do you find in Self-Reliance? List both the symbol and what it stands for.
Heart = Soul of Man
Iron string = strength found in trusting yourself
Imagery: what images (visual, auditory, gustatory, tactile or olfactory) do you find in Self-Reliance? How do they effect mood and tone?
 ”heart vibrates to that iron string” = auditory image
Suggests victory/glory
Figurative Language: What examples of figurative language (metaphor, simile, hyperbole, etc.) do you find in Self-Reliance? How do they affect tone and/or mood?
Chaos and the dark: metaphor, symbolic of ignorance & evil
Voices = synecdoche = our inner selves
Joint stock company = metaphor = society
Aversion = personification
Tone: What is the tone of Self-Reliance? Give at least one piece of evidence for your claim.
”hobgoblins” diction (word choice) shows Emerson’s contempt for the conformist
Theme: What is the theme of Self-Reliance? How do you know?
The individual must rely on him/herself in order to achieve their full potential.

28. Next Class:
Write an analytical response to the essential question: How do the themes in Emerson’s essay relate to the themes in The Art of Racing in the Rain?
25 points

29. If you have time…
Catch up on any journal entries you missed
Catch up on your chapter notes