Overview

Prose in both fiction and nonfiction forms can be rich with layered meaning. Analyzing prose involves exploring character, setting, point of view, and rhetorical structure. Whether examining a novel excerpt, a memoir, or an argumentative essay, readers must consider how the author’s choices shape meaning and effect.

Key Concepts and Techniques

• Narrator and Point of View: Distinguish first-person, third-person limited, and omniscient perspectives. Ask how the narrator shapes the reader's access to information and character interiority.
• Characterization: Observe how characters are developed through dialogue, action, and inner thought. Flat vs. round, static vs. dynamic.
• Setting and Context: Time and place shape tone and theme. Consider social, cultural, and historical settings.
• Theme: Identify recurring ideas or conflicts—identity, morality, freedom, power, etc.—and how they evolve through the narrative.
• Rhetorical Structure in Nonfiction: Analyze how the author builds argument, presents evidence, and appeals to logic, ethics, or emotion.
• Language and Style: Pay attention to diction, syntax, and figurative language that contributes to voice and meaning.

Quick Tip

Always consider authorial intent and effect. Ask not only what the prose says, but how it’s constructed and why the author made those choices. Good prose analysis blends detail observation with interpretive insight.