Rocha 1

Daniela Rocha

Guzman

AP Lang- Guzman

21 Oct. 2019

Literary Analysis Essay Reflection

The literary analysis essay was assigned in our AP English language class for students to

analyze how authors write and how it affects the story’s message. Students had the choice to

analyze two pieces; “The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and “Sonny’s Blues” by James

Baldwin. I chose to focus on how Tim O’Brien’s selection to detail on emotion and

characterization of Jimmy Cross helps support his message on how the stereotype of soldiers

being emotionless damages the actual men behind the uniform. My personal and academic goal

for this essay was to improve on being more thorough in my ideas and analyzation. I always look

forward to writing an essay but I was hesitant about this one because I struggle with analyzing.

The first major decision towards this paper was deciding which narrative I would write

about, which was “The Things They Carried”. This piece was just more interesting to me so it’d

be easier to write about. Next was choosing which literary devices I would focus on to support

the author’s message, I chose a selection to detail and characterization. The assignment was

separated into steps. First was looking through the piece and finding quotes that supported our

devices along with an explanation. The second would be writing the introduction paragraph. The

Third was inputting our body paragraphs. After this, each student would work on how many

drafts they needed before submitting their final essay.

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This assignment allowed me to not take criticism personally. I often thought the person

revising my paper may see me as stupid or unintelligent if they had to add corrections to my

paper. Because of this, I hesitate to let others read my work Like previous assignments, it was

mandatory to peer edit. But it wasn’t until now that I understand having peers read my work only

benefits me. Through this peer editing, I’d like to believe my skill in writing analysis has

improved. It helped me see the writing through other people’s eyes. Instead of telling me to

improve, peers actually told me how to improve my writing. A weakness I noticed is my struggle

with procrastination. I’ve always put things off for the last minute but I really wanted to try on

this paper. So I set my schedule to dedicate more time for my homework. Often I would do go

throughout my day and squeeze in work at the last minute. Having this space dedicated to just

homework made me feel a lot more calm.

The essay allowed me to investigate the world by gaining insight into how soldiers felt in

the Vietnam War. It also improved my global knowledge by having characters of different

beliefs and sharing how the war affected each one of them. It also communicated O’Brien’s ideas

on how war negatively affects soldiers. He mentions various situations in which the soldiers are

scared to be in a war but do not know to to express themselves. Being in battleground suppresses

their feelings, therefore tearing down the men.