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One of THE most helpful things I have ever learned in an English class, courtesy of Mr.Powell and Mrs.Herold of Joel.E.Ferris High School in Spokane, WA, is this suberb way to analyze literature effectively and thoroughly. It's called Q-IDEA, and to this day still remains to be most most effective weapon to analyze any kind of literature thrown at me.
Q-IDEA is a way to use quotes in works of literature as very good justification for an opinion in any sort of essay, report, etc. that has to do with literature. This is what the letters in the acronym QIDEA signify:
Q- simply stands for the QUOTE chosen from the work of writing to use as justification.
I-stands for IDENTIFYING the literary device being used, like imagery, symbolism, allegory etc.
D-stands for DEFINING the literary device in the context of the work of writing.
E-stands for EXPLAINING the reader's reaction.
A-stands for AUTHOR'S INTENT, meaning, what is the big picture that the quote is trying to convey; what is the the author's intent for using that literary device within the quotation.
I know this may seem confusing at first but believe me this is very very effective when done properly. Here is an example I will use to clear things up. This is taken from "The Great Gatsby," by F.Scott. Fitzgerald:"This is a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight," (from Chapter 2). In this quote, Fitzerald is using METAPHOR and IMAGERY. In the example to follow, I will explain just the metaphor using QIDEA .
Q-"This is a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight," (from Chapter 2; remember you need to ALWAYS cite where you got the quote from).
I-The literary device used in this quote is a metaphor.
D-The metaphor in this quote is used to explain the human corruption and the fakeness of the area, the ash represents the dreams built on lies and ghastly sight of it all. The ash is also representative of something already dead, as in the lives of the people that reside within. The ash also "stirs up an impenetrable cloud," that clouds the outsiders views of it, making it appear real and like a dream even though there is nothing truly "real," about the place.
E-The reader immediately gets the reaction that although there may be gardens and houses and cars, it's really not made up of beautiful things, in fact it gives a sense of things already dead. It makes the reader almost shrug at the thought of the place as being dirty and un-alive, like a ghost town almost, yet with people living and houses and activities going on.
A-The Author's intent in this is to make the reader see that it may be a place with life in it but there is not real life there and the people that live their obsess over things that are un-real and seem to be holding onto dead dreams of materialism and shallowness. This is not a place of dreams where everything you wish could come true, it is the author's way of showing the truth through the cloud of lies.
This is my analysis of the quote and I hope it clears things up for you. Using QIDEA in an essay, you do not need to necessarily write QIDEA out formally in your essay, but use the inputs together in one fluent paragraph and you have a very thoroughly explained quote and all the justification you need to back up your opinion. This has helped me to read more in depth and certainly worked wonders for me everytime I've written an essay on literature; I hope this has been helpful to you as well.
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