Argument Paragraph – Literary Analysis

After you have brainstormed to generate ideas, you need to explain them clearly. The structure for your analysis is:
Assertion (you can call this a reason, or a point)
Evidence (a quotation from the work you are analyzing)
Explanation (how is your evidence relevant)

Read through the following extract. How does the writer create an atmosphere of cold and loneliness?

Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway.

The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white
covering of frost, and they seemed to lean towards each other,
black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned
over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without
QuickTim eª and a movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that
decom pressor of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter
are needed to see this picture. more terrible than any sadness - a laughter that was mirthless as
the smile of the sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking
of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and
incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of
life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-
hearted Northland Wild. 'White Fang' - Jack London

Assertion
The extract describes a cold, empty landscape.

Evidence:
1. The text states that the trees have been "stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost".
2. The land is described as "desolate" and it contains "a laughter more terrible than any sadness".

Explanation:
1. This suggests that the place is completely isolated.
2. Being full of terrible laughter suggests it is a very cruel area, which would be hard to explore.

Using Short Quotations

When you use quotations from the extract in your answer, remember to format them properly:
• Use quotation marks.
• Quote accurately.
• Try to use very short quotations (five or fewer words as a guideline)
• Strive for fluidity when you embed your short quotation (comma or colon work here)
• Make a specific selection for a reason and discuss it explicitly.

Certain words and phrases are especially helpful when you're explaining an idea in detail. They can be particularly
helpful if you are commenting on implicit meaning:

this suggests possibly this shows

which gives the impression perhaps obviously
that this indicates that

Connectives are words that will help you move your argument forward:
however but then
therefore and at first
in contrast furthermore later
because also as well as
 Setting and Mood

The long, draughty, subterranean passage was chilly and dusty, and my candle flared and made the shadows
cower and quiver. The echoes rang up and down the spiral staircase, and a shadow came sweeping up after
me, and one fled before me into the darkness overhead. I came along the landing and stopped there for a
moment, listening to a rustling sound that I fancied I heard; then, satisfied of the absolute silence, I pushed
open the baize-covered door and stood in the corridor. 'The Red Room' - HG Wells

In the short story, The Red Room, H. G. Wells creates an atmosphere of fear and tension. The author
uses descriptive details of his location and figurative language to help the reader experience the fear
of his narrator. The narrator is walking along a passage he describes as being "draughty" and
mentions that it is underground. Even without the chill and dust, this place seems creepy and ghostly.
The fact that the character only has a candle to light his way makes the story seem old-fashioned, and
also creates dramatic tension because we know that the draught could blow it out! The way the
echoes "rang up and down" and the fact that the man stops because he thinks he hears a sound, adds
to the ghostly effects. The shadows also help to create a sinister atmosphere as they flicker around
and make it even harder for the man to see what's ahead. The writer uses figurative language such as
personification to describe them. He says that they "cower and quiver", come "sweeping up" and that
they "fled". All of this makes them sound alive, or perhaps like ghosts. The words used are all linked
with fear, so that even the shadows seem to be afraid of what's in the corridor. This is very eerie and
helps to create a very tense atmosphere.

Setting is considered one of the fundamental components of fiction. The setting of a story provides the
physical details of the location where the story occurs. It also includes the time period during which the
story takes place. You can think of setting as the stage upon which the action takes place. Setting also
includes the context beyond the immediate surroundings of the story, so you may need to consider the social
environment in which the story occurs. In some stories, the setting plays a key role in the plot.

The setting of a story often has a connection to the story's meaning. Setting can provide important information
about the main character, whether he or she is connected to the setting, at home in it, or an outsider. The
setting can be used to create mood. The description of a place can help illustrate an overall feeling of
loneliness and isolation. The intense activity of a city setting might be linked to excitement. Mood is like
emotion, but less specific, less intense, and less likely to be triggered by a particular stimulus or event.

The mood (or atmosphere) of the story is linked to the setting in that it gives the reader clues about the
emotions or feelings attached to the setting. For example, the place could be a snow-covered cliff beside an
icy river, but the mood could be ominous or exciting. The writer can develop mood through word choice
(connotation), sensory and figurative language, scenic description, sentence structure and punctuation.

Mood can be any one of a variety of feelings, and it can change throughout a longer piece of writing:

* mysterious * bleak * ominous * soothing * calm

* eerie * dreamy * reckless * brooding * somber
* electrifying * gloomy * humorous * cheerful * whimsical
* happy * light * sad * intense * volatile

To be very clear - mood and atmosphere are very closely related, and often used interchangeably. Think
of atmosphere as the air around a setting. You can discuss atmosphere when you think about the setting,
especially if you think of the context – both historical and social. This “air” will contribute to the overall
feeling of the passage, which we’ll agree to call MOOD.
Some Thoughts on the Nature of Mood in Writing
Phil Shapiro Copyright 1995

When a writer sits down to compose a piece of writing, he or she invariably creates an accompanying
mood. The mood may be reflective, whimsical, or satirical. The mood may be angry, whistful, or
sorrowful. The mood may convey a sense of determination, or a sense of resignation - - - a sense of hope,
or a sense of despair - - - a sense of purpose, or a sense of confusion.

But every piece of writing, from the greatest works of literature down to the scribbled note on the kitchen
table carries with it some sort of mood.

If you stop to think about it, it's impossible to write without including a mood in your writing. Just as you
cannot speak without speaking in some, so you cannot write without creating a certain mood. Even writing
this is purposefully flat has a mood - - - the mood of being "purposefully flat."

And it's this very mood that holds a piece of writing together. It links a string of thoughts into a coherent
whole. It tells you where the author is coming from. The mood is the humanity of the author in print.

The real irony, of course, is that mood gives the writing structure and purpose. And yet, the mood is as
fleeting as the early morning fog. You can see it all around you, but you can never touch it.

Any time you try to pinpoint the mood in any one sentence, you find yourself pointing in the direction of
thin air. For the mood itself never exists in any given sentence. The mood is the aura created by many
sentences.

It exists nowhere on the page. It exists everywhere around the page.

Perhaps the best way to understand the concept of mood is to consider what it means to you, as the reader.
The mood is the essence of the writing you take with you. Five years down the road you will undoutedly
have forgotten most of the details of the books you read last week. But the mood - - - the mood lives on in
memory.

Such is the enigma of the written word. We can hold the words of a book in our own two hands. But the
swirling tangle of thoughts and feelings conveyed by those words can only be sensed by the mind.