What sort of features should I look out for when analysing a text?

When analysing a text, there are some good features to look out for in order to make sure that you are spotting any implicit meanings. Features such as similes and metaphors are great to look out for, as these often convey implicit meaning and descriptions to readers. Other features to look out for are things such as pathetic fallacy, which is when the weather matches the mood of the text. Setting as a whole is a great thing to look out for, as it can often be symbolic of the characters or the mood. For example, if a scene was set at sunrise, this may be symbolic of new beginnings. Another quick thing to look out for is any repetition which, if a word or phrase is repeated enough times, becomes a motif. This motif may be trying to tell you something about characters in the text - pay attention to it!

KG

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