How to Write a Body Paragraph for Literary Analysis Essays (Full Paragraph Included)

Summary

This video tutorial explains how to write a body paragraph for a literary analysis essay using an example from Khaled Hosseini's *The Kite Runner*. It covers the structure of a body paragraph, starting with a topic sentence, followed by evidence from the text, analysis, and a conclusion. The narrator discusses crafting effective analysis by examining images, events, language, character motivations, themes, and context. They also provide key insights into analyzing a character's growth and drawing deeper meaning from literary elements. Viewers are encouraged to engage and ask questions about their own essays.

Takeaways

• 📝 The body paragraph of a literary analysis essay should include a topic sentence, evidence, analysis, and a conclusion or transition.
• 📚 The topic sentence presents the main claim of the paragraph, which supports the thesis statement.
• 📖 Evidence should be taken directly from the text (quote, event, symbol, etc.) and smoothly integrated into your writing.
• 🔍 Analysis involves examining the evidence and explaining its larger meaning, while also connecting it back to the topic sentence.
• 🔄 The structure of evidence and analysis can be repeated, but overloading the paragraph can make it too crowded.
• 🔗 The conclusion or transition should reference the main idea of the paragraph and possibly preview the next paragraph.
• 📘 In the provided example from 'The Kite Runner,' Amir’s ignorance leads to his journey toward compassion and redemption.
• ❄️ Seasonal imagery, like winter and spring, is used to symbolize Amir's transition from ignorance to responsibility.
• 🧠 Effective analysis can come from considering elements like images, events, language, character motivation, theme, and context.
• 🎥 The video encourages viewers to ask critical questions about the text and offers tips for analyzing literary works in-depth.

Q & A

What is the structure of a body paragraph in a literary analysis essay?

A body paragraph in a literary analysis essay typically starts with a topic sentence, followed by evidence from the text (such as a quote, event, or symbol), and then analysis of that evidence. This pattern of evidence and analysis is repeated, and the paragraph ends with a conclusion or transition to the next paragraph.

What is the purpose of the topic sentence in a body paragraph?

The topic sentence introduces the main claim of the paragraph and supports the thesis statement. It sets the direction for the evidence and analysis that follows.

What kinds of evidence can be used in a literary analysis essay?

Evidence can include a quote, event, image, symbol, motif, or character's action from the text being analyzed. It must be something that can be further examined and analyzed in the essay.

How should evidence be integrated into the body paragraph?

Evidence should be smoothly integrated into the writer's own sentence, avoiding phrases like 'the character said' or 'the author writes.' The writer should provide a parenthetical citation if quoting directly from the text.

What should the analysis in a body paragraph focus on?

The analysis should examine the meaning of the evidence and connect it to the larger themes or character developments in the text. It should also tie back to the topic sentence and the overall thesis of the essay.

What is the purpose of the conclusion or transition in a body paragraph?

The conclusion or transition should summarize the main idea of the paragraph and may preview what the next paragraph will discuss. It can also serve as a bridge to the next part of the essay.

What is the thesis statement of the example essay on 'The Kite Runner'?

The thesis of the example essay is: 'Amir is resolved to make amends for his ignorance, and 'The Kite Runner' suggests that individuals develop compassion when they learn about their true origins.'

How does the body paragraph example analyze Amir's ignorance in 'The Kite Runner'?

The paragraph discusses Amir's ignorance and journey towards compassion by examining how learning the truth about his father's past helps him understand both his father and himself. The analysis uses images, such as the winter symbolizing desolation and the transition to spring symbolizing Amir’s transformation.

How does the example body paragraph use the metaphor of seasons in 'The Kite Runner'?

The paragraph connects Amir's ignorance to winter, symbolizing desolation and darkness, and his transformation to spring, symbolizing new beginnings and redemption after he takes responsibility for his actions.

What are five elements to consider when developing analysis in a literary essay?

The five elements to consider are: images, events, and objects; language or writing style; character motivation and development; theme or universal concept; and context such as time, setting, or historical background.

Outlines

00:00

📚 How to Structure a Literary Analysis Body Paragraph

This paragraph introduces the process of writing a body paragraph for a literary analysis essay. It outlines the steps: starting with a topic sentence, providing evidence from the text, offering analysis, and concluding with a transition. The speaker advises using a clear claim in the topic sentence, directly connecting evidence to analysis, and maintaining a balance in the depth of analysis without overcrowding the paragraph.

05:01

📝 Example Analysis of Amir's Journey in *The Kite Runner*

The speaker begins an example body paragraph focusing on Amir's ignorance and growth in *The Kite Runner*. The topic sentence reflects Amir's journey of understanding through confronting his father's past. The evidence is a quote from Rahim Khan, which illustrates Amir’s realization of the lies surrounding him. The analysis connects the theme of winter with ignorance, highlighting Amir's transformation as he seeks to redeem both himself and his father.

10:02

❄️ Amir’s Transformation and Analysis of Imagery

In this part of the example, the speaker continues to analyze Amir’s journey, focusing on imagery. They describe how Amir’s encounter with Sohrab mirrors the relationship between Baba and Hassan, emphasizing the cyclical nature of redemption. The analysis of spring imagery represents Amir’s personal growth and transition from ignorance (winter) to new beginnings (spring). This analysis highlights the deeper implications of Amir becoming a surrogate father and finding redemption through his actions.

🖼️ Analyzing Literary Elements for Deeper Understanding

The speaker shifts focus to explain how to develop nuanced analysis in a literary essay by examining five elements: images, events, objects, language, characters, and themes. They suggest asking critical questions about the author's purpose, word choice, and writing style to uncover hidden meanings. The speaker emphasizes that these interconnected elements help convey the text’s themes and deeper messages, encouraging readers to think about the author's broader intentions.

🧐 Exploring Context and Theme in Literary Analysis

The final paragraph discusses the importance of context, time, and setting in a literary analysis. The speaker encourages readers to consider how historical periods, flashbacks, and narrative structure impact the story's meaning. By examining these aspects, readers can enhance their analysis, especially in relation to the themes and other literary elements mentioned earlier. The video concludes with an invitation to comment on personal experiences with literary analysis and subscribe for more content.

Keywords

💡Topic Sentence

A topic sentence introduces the main idea or claim of a body paragraph, summarizing what the paragraph will discuss. In the video, the speaker emphasizes that the topic sentence should align with the thesis statement and act as a guide for the evidence and analysis that follow, such as in the example: 'Amir becomes a more understanding son and surrogate father when he faces the truth about his father's past.'

💡Evidence

Evidence refers to direct quotes, events, or elements from the text being analyzed to support the argument made in the body paragraph. The speaker advises using evidence from the book, poem, or story to back up claims, like in the example of quoting from *The Kite Runner*: 'Telling Amir that Hassan is Baba’s biological son too, Rahim Khan makes Amir see how his entire life... had been a cycle of lies, betrayals, and secrets.'

💡Analysis

Analysis is the interpretation of the evidence provided, where the writer connects it to the larger meaning or theme of the text. The speaker shows how to dive deeper into the evidence, such as analyzing the metaphor of 'winter' in *The Kite Runner* to represent desolation and Amir’s emotional state, and how Amir’s realization of his father’s hypocrisy leads to his growth.

💡Thesis Statement

The thesis statement is the overarching argument or claim that the essay seeks to prove. In the video, the thesis of the essay on *The Kite Runner* is, 'Amir is resolved to make amends for his ignorance and callousness, and *The Kite Runner* suggests that individuals develop compassion when they learn about their true origins.' All body paragraphs in the essay must support this thesis.

💡Transition

A transition smoothly connects ideas between paragraphs or sentences, guiding the reader through the argument. In the video, the speaker advises using transitions to either conclude the current paragraph or preview the next one, as shown in the transition from Amir’s realization of his father’s hypocrisy to his attempts to redeem himself and his father by caring for Sohrab.

💡Imagery

Imagery refers to the use of vivid language to represent objects, actions, or ideas, often appealing to the senses. The speaker highlights how imagery is used in *The Kite Runner*, such as the comparison of winter to Amir’s ignorance and spring to his personal growth. The use of these images helps connect Amir’s internal transformation to the seasons.

💡Character

A character refers to the individual in a story, and their development is crucial for literary analysis. In the video, Amir’s character development is analyzed through his journey of self-awareness and redemption. The speaker uses Amir’s transformation—from ignorance to understanding and compassion—as an example of how character analysis is integral to understanding the narrative's themes.

💡Theme

A theme is a central idea or message in a work of literature. The video discusses the theme of redemption in *The Kite Runner*, especially how Amir’s actions reflect his desire to atone for past mistakes. The speaker emphasizes that themes are explored through the analysis of characters, imagery, and events, such as Amir’s efforts to raise Sohrab and reconcile with his past.

💡Context

Context refers to the circumstances or background that surround a literary work, including the setting, historical period, and cultural factors. In *The Kite Runner*, the speaker notes the importance of understanding Afghanistan’s socio-political context, particularly the ethnic dynamics between Amir and Hassan, and how this shapes their relationship and the story’s themes.

💡Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing involves restating the meaning of a piece of text in your own words while retaining the original message. The speaker advises that not all evidence needs to be direct quotes, as paraphrasing sections of the text can also be effective in supporting the essay's argument. This technique helps to avoid overloading a paragraph with too many quotes, maintaining a balance between evidence and analysis.

Highlights

Introduction to writing a body paragraph for a literary analysis essay.

Structure of a body paragraph includes a topic sentence, evidence, analysis, and a conclusion or transition.

The topic sentence should include the main claim of the paragraph, supporting the thesis statement.

Evidence can include quotes, events, symbols, motifs, or character actions from the text being analyzed.

Analysis examines the evidence and explains its larger meaning, connecting it back to the topic sentence.

The sample thesis statement: Amir is resolved to make amends for his ignorance in The Kite Runner, suggesting individuals develop compassion when they learn about their true origins.

Brief plot overview of The Kite Runner, including key events such as Amir's betrayal of Hassan and his journey to raise Hassan's son.

Example of a topic sentence: Amir becomes a more understanding son and surrogate father when he faces the truth about his father's past.

The importance of integrating quotes smoothly into sentences without using phrases like 'the character said' or 'the author writes.'

Analysis of the quote: Amir's remembrance of winter evokes frost and desolation, symbolizing his oblivion, while his journey toward redemption is an attempt to redeem both his father and himself.

Use of metaphorical seasons in the analysis to symbolize Amir's transition from ignorance (winter) to growth and redemption (spring).

The conclusion or transition of a body paragraph should reference the main idea and possibly preview the next paragraph.

Tips for coming up with nuanced analysis: consider images, events, objects, language, character motivations, themes, and the context of time and setting.

Questions to guide analysis include why the author includes specific images, events, or objects, and how they convey larger themes or ideas.

Encouragement to think critically about the author's choices and to analyze how they use literary elements to build deeper meanings.

Transcripts

what's up everyone today i'm showing you

how to write a body paragraph for a

literary analysis essay

using an actual paragraph that i wrote

for a real essay in class

if you want to learn how to write an

introductory or

concluding paragraph for this same type

of essay

please check out the links to the videos

on those topics

in the description box below let's get

started

the structure of your body paragraphs

will look something like this

you'll start off with your topic

sentence then you'll provide

evidence taken directly from the book

poem short story or text that you're

analyzing

then you'll offer your own analysis on

that piece of

evidence and you'll repeat that pattern

of evidence and analysis however many

times you want to

i usually only do it once or twice

because if i do it

anymore my paragraphs tend to be

overcrowded but it's really up to you

and after that you'll provide your

conclusion

or your transition into the next body

paragraph

or the concluding paragraph your topic

sentence will include the main

claim of your whole paragraph and this

should support the thesis statement

your evidence can be a quote event

image symbol motif or character's action

or any other type of information from

that text

that you can analyze in some way and

your actual analysis is the commentary

that examines the evidence and explains

its larger meaning

in your analysis you should also connect

the evidence back to the topic sentence

and again you'll repeat the same

structure of evidence and analysis

and finally your conclusion or

transition will have a reference to the

main idea of the paragraph

and possibly a preview of what the next

paragraph will be about

before we jump into our body paragraph

let's take a look at the thesis

statement for this literary analysis

essay on khaled hosseini's book the kite

runner

don't worry you don't need to have read

this book to understand the example

i'll walk you through all the

information that you need to know

here's the thesis amir is resolved to

make amends for his ignorance and

callousness in the kite runner suggests

that individuals

develop compassion when they learn about

their true

origins so you might be a little

confused

about this thesis statement but don't

worry i've included some key plot points

to know

from this book i am providing a warning

though that this

brief plot overview does contain

spoilers

and this overview is not at all

comprehensive

so i highly highly suggest that you read

the book since it's amazing

first off our story takes place

initially in afghanistan

where amir the main character and

narrator betrays hassan his childhood

friend

amir and his father baba move to america

and when baba dies amir learns that baba

was also

hassan's biological father as an adult

amir learns that hassan has died in

afghanistan and has left behind a son

sorob who is in danger so amir finds

sorab

and raises him in america

again that was a super super brief

overview

and it also skips over many many

important facets of

this novel for example amir is an

upper-class wealthy

individual in afghanistan and he belongs

to an ethnic group that is the majority

whereas hassan is part of an ethnic

minority group that is persecuted

and that definitely has major

implications throughout the whole story

let's write our body paragraph this

paragraph focuses

on amir's ignorance and his subsequent

journey towards compassion

this is our topic sentence amir becomes

a more understanding son and surrogate

father when he faces the truth about his

father's past

notice how i haven't used the word

ignorance in this topic sentence

but i'm implying that this paragraph

will be about the erasure of

amir's ignorance because i'm stating

that he's had a revelation

that he's facing the truth about his

father's past

and his own past so now let's include

some evidence

what we'll write is telling amir that

hassan is baba's

biological son too rahim khan

makes amir see how his entire life long

before the winter of 1975

had been a cycle of lies betrayals and

secrets and i've included a

parenthetical citation at the end

there before the period

so notice how i've integrated the quote

seamlessly

into my own sentence i try to avoid

using the phrase

the character said or the author writes

or anything like that and

now i'm providing some analysis

of that quote which is taken directly

from the book

amir's remembrance of winter evokes

images of frost

desolation and darkness emphasizing his

own oblivion

although amir cannot reconcile his

perception of baba's greatness with

baba's hypocrisy

amir soon realizes that he is more

similar to his father than he initially

believed thus amir's journey to find

saurabh

is an attempt to redeem both his father

and himself

when amir meets orab the latter's

resemblance to hassan

is so uncanny that amir sacrifices for

saurabh

depict what could have occurred had baba

accepted hassan

openly so in the first part of this

analysis

i am directly referring to the quo

and the image of winter that's explained

there

and i'm connecting the idea of winter to

larger ideas of desolation and darkness

and oblivion but then i used that

comparison of ignorance to winter

in order to lead into a larger idea

which is that amir's revelation makes

him realize that his father

is a hypocrite because he was supposed

to be a great man but it turned out that

he

had you know lied for his pretty much

his entire life

but that actually leads to amir's own

healing because he realizes that

he can redeem himself and his father if

he

too owns up to his own lies and

eventually goes on

a journey to help someone other than

himself

and for once not be so self-centered

so again i'm going to include some more

evidence which ties back

to the topic sentence and this overall

argument

and here it is flying a kite for sorab

at the novel's conclusion

amir sees the first flake melting in a

metaphorical spring after saurabh smiles

so again i'm including a quote it's very

small but it's still a quote

from the kite runner itself you don't

always have to include a quote

as evidence you can definitely include

paraphrased material

and you definitely should include that

in your body paragraph

if you can and now we're having some

analysis again

the image of spurring signals a

transformation in

amir's life since spring represents new

beginnings

the transition from a metaphorical

winter to spring

indicates that amir finally has matured

and has taken responsibility for his

actions as a child

again we are analyzing this idea of

seasons which represent larger ideas

so we started off with winter which

represents

oblivion and isolation or desolation

and now we're transitioning into spring

which represents

amir's new life or

his new beginnings since he's now a

surrogate

father to hassan's child and he's also

someone

who is redeemed and

who is actively trying to become a

better father

to saurabh so finally we'll have

our conclusion or our transition

into the next paragraph and this will be

on his journey toward accountability

amir discovers that greatness does not

mean perfection

since those who are truly great try to

atone for their misdeeds

and this last portion is actually really

important when i'm talking about atoning

for

misdeeds because the next body paragraph

will refer directly to amir's

misdeeds or his betrayal of hassan which

i mentioned in the topic sentence

and that second paragraph will focus on

amir's callousness

as well or his indifference to the

feelings of others his cruelty

the big question you're probably asking

yourself is

how do i come up with effective nuanced

analysis

for my essay there are five different

elements that you can consider

to do this and each of these elements

are

interconnected the first is images

events

and objects when we're looking at these

three things

we want to ask ourselves why does the

author

include these images events or objects

in the story

does the author want to make the reader

consider what they would do in a similar

situation

immerse the reader in the story

represent a theme or another idea

reveal a truth misconception or paradox

or make

a statement about human rights politics

science literature or any other field

by asking these questions we can place

ourselves in the author's

shoes and start thinking about their

reasoning for including these items

next is language or the writing style of

the text

why does the author choose specific

words to describe a scene

what are the tone in the mood and why

does the author include

figurative language for example these

questions

will help us dissect direct quotes

taken from the text and

allow us to see how the author

uses the written word as a medium

to convey larger ideas

or larger character traits

for example and that leads nicely into

the next element which is character

what's the character's apparent and

hidden motivation for taking

a particular action and what does a

scene reveal about the character's

personality or background

next we have theme which is a universal

abstract concept that the author is

trying to convey

and theme is connected to all of the

other elements

listed in this diagram because all of

those other elements

are usually ways that the author can

convey

a specific theme or a specific idea

about the human condition in general

and lastly we have context time and

setting what is the historical time

period in place

do flashbacks or foreshadowing occur is

the story told in chronological order

all of these questions definitely affect

our analysis

particularly the context portion

for the example that we were talking

about

thanks for watching let me know what

book you're analyzing

for your literary analysis essay in the

comments down below

and feel free to ask any questions you

have about writing body paragraphs

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i'll see you next time