ENGL 2110: Withington: Step 2: Find a Topic

Re-read the original text and note characters, symbolism, metaphors, themes, motifs, etc. that are important to or help explain one or more of the background questions.

Connect the ideas.

In analyzing literature, there is no wrong or right answer, rather there are only good answers that you can support through the original text, historical context, and biographical information.

Example: Edward Taylor’s “Huswifery”

The theme of making and cleaning clothing connects with a female audience. However, the biographical information indicates that Taylor kept his poems private, so that does not support the idea that the audience was female. Perhaps the clothing theme connects with the colonists’ daily life, which would include making and mending their own clothing. Taylor did mention the colonies were a “howling wilderness,” which would mean that life is primitive.

Taylor is a puritan minister, which connects with the Christian metaphors. The poem is a prayer to God, which also connects to another element of the colonists’ daily life: prayer and religion. Like Taylor, many colonists came to the colonies as exiles for religious reasons.

So, my topic could be the theme of colonial daily life that appears in Edward Taylor’s “Huswifery.” Sources that would support this topic would include (1) historical accounts of daily life of the Massachusetts colonists, (2) information about Edward Taylor’s daily life, and (3) literary criticism that either agrees or disagrees with this topic.