My English 11 AP Lit students often struggle at first with literary analysis. My favorite way to introduce cited literary critical essays is the character analysis. Here’s why this essay assignment is an excellent way to ease your students into deep dives into literature!
- You’ll Be Teaching Close Reading Skills
Character analysis essays require students to pay close attention to the text. They must scrutinize a character’s words, actions, and thoughts, encouraging them to read actively and critically. This close reading is the foundation of all good literary analysis! Character analysis is also typically familiar to your 9-12 students, as they’ve studied it in depth in middle school.
- You’ll Help Students Connect Character to Theme
One of the most challenging aspects of literary analysis for students is understanding how different elements of a story work together. Character analysis essays provide a natural bridge between character development and thematic understanding. By examining how a character’s choices and growth contribute to the overall message of the work, students learn to see literature as a cohesive whole. This is a HUGE step in your kids’ development as thoughtful, analytical readers, and it’ll pay dividends throughout the school year!
- They’ll Practice Evidence-Based Argumentation
When writing their character analyses, students learn that they must support their claims with textual evidence. Going through this process with your help and guidance teaches them how to construct strong, evidence-based arguments. (My assignment sheet is pretty heavily scaffolded because they do need help pre-writing and building their arguments at the start of the year!)
- It Will Help Develop Their Critical Thinking Skills
Analyzing a character’s motivations, conflicts, and growth requires students to think critically and make inferences. They are probably already familiar with this process, but they might not have turned this kind of thinking into a proper essay before. I like using the character analysis for this first major literary critical essay because they must go beyond surface-level observations to understand the deeper implications of a character’s role in the story, but I’m not asking them to do something they haven’t already practiced!
- You’ll Cover Thesis Development with a Simple Formula
A good character analysis essay requires a strong thesis that links the character to a larger theme or idea. This means I can help students practice crafting focused, arguable thesis statements with this essay. It often seems that our older high schoolers already know how to craft a thesis because they will TELL us that they know what a thesis is, and they aren’t very likely to ask for help with their thesis statements. However, I find that they often DO still need help crafting a thesis. Often, their thesis statements are vague, overly simplistic, and lack depth. This assignment is a good opportunity for me to explain what a good thesis will look like in upper-level courses, workshop thesis statements with kids (I conference with each kid individually about their thesis, just to be sure), and make sure they don’t go any further in their ELA education without fully understanding how to craft a strong thesis!
- It Encourages Empathy
By deeply examining a character’s perspective and experiences, students develop empathy and learn to understand different viewpoints. This can lead to rich discussions about human nature and society, ESPECIALLY if you tie the character analysis to a larger thematic understanding (or “meaning of the work as a whole”) as my assignment does right off the bat! This also allows students to see the relevance of literature to their own lives & the contemporary world as they connect the character’s experiences to the story’s major themes.
7. The Assignment Is Versatile and Adaptable
Character analysis essays can be used with virtually any work of literature, from classic novels to contemporary short stories to epic poetry. The skills students learn will also be applicable moving forward as they will be asked to analyze character again and again throughout the school year!
8. You’ll Be Building Student Confidence in Literary Analysis
Because character is often one of the most accessible elements of a story for students, starting with character analysis can build their confidence in tackling more complex aspects of literary analysis. The skills they develop through these early character analysis essays – close reading, thematic analysis, evidence-based argumentation – are foundational for more advanced literary study later on!
In conclusion, character analysis essays are less and less common in 21st century classrooms, but sometimes old-school assessments are still worth our time. I find that the classic character analysis essay is a powerful teaching tool that helps my students build skills and confidence in literary analysis, critical thinking, and writing. By guiding students through the process of analyzing a character’s role in a story, I’m equipping them with the tools they need to become insightful readers and skilled writers.
Whether you’re introducing literary analysis to your students for the first time or looking to reinforce these skills, consider the humble character analysis essay. It’s a versatile, engaging, and effective way to teach the art of literary analysis, and it WON’T intimidate your students!!
If you don’t want to create your own, you can grab my character analysis essay assignment here.
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