1. Writing Commentary

2. What Is Commentary? Your thoughts about a quotation
Your explanation of how the quotation you choose proves your point
Your job in successful literary analysis

3. How to Get Started with Commentary
Keep in mind what you are trying to prove.
Focus on a key word or words
Consider ideas or feelings associated with key words
Analyze comparisons if there are any
Look at what “stands out” to you

4. Background Information
Example #1
Background Information
In Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan, the main character Koly feels hopeless. Her parents have unknowingly arranged a marriage to a terminally ill young man whose mother wanted the marriage to take place in order to get Koly’s dowry.

5. Quotation / Evidence
"I felt as if I were tangled like a small fly in the web of a cunning spider" (29).

6. What word or words would help prove that Koly feels hopeless?

7. Key Words?
"I felt as if I were tangled like a small fly in the web of a cunning spider" (29).

8. Key Words?
"I felt as if I were tangled like a small fly in the web of a cunning spider" (29).

9. Key Word Hopelessness
The use of the word tangled suggests … (definition and connotative feelings)
When Koly thinks of herself as small, it implies that…(connotative feelings)
Tangled evokes images of a mess, knots, and lack of a beginning or an end. For Koly that is her life, one which is out of her control which leads to her feeling of desperation.
Small carries the feeling of weak and helpless. She is not just the victim in the comparison; she is a small victim. That weakness causes her to feel as if her life is out of her control, which leads to her feeling of desperation.

10. Possible Commentary
Tangled evokes images of a mess, knots, and lack of a beginning or an end. For Koly that is her life, one which is out of her control which in turn leads to her feeling of desperation.
Small carries the feeling of weak and helpless. She is not just the victim in the comparison; she is a small victim. That weakness causes her to feel as if her life is out of her control, which consequently leads to her feeling of desperation.

11. Now Look at the Simile
"I felt as if I were tangled like a small fly in the web of a cunning spider" (29).

12. Think About the Comparison
What is compared?
Think of what happens to the fly in a web.
How is this the same as Koly?
Why would that make her feel hopeless?

13. Think about the Comparison
Fly is never getting away
Fly will be consumed
Fly’s life juices will be sucked out by the spider
Fly struggles with no success
Fly was lured into the web
Koly has nowhere to go
Koly’s future has been ruined
Koly’s life is being taken from her by her mother-in-law
Koly struggles with no success
Koly’s family was tricked into the marriage
Koly’s story takes place in India where widows are considered bad luck. Widows do not remarry for that reason and they no longer have a dowry. Because of the shame she would bring to her family as well as the burden of another person to support, Koly won’t / can’t go home. If you would like to know more about this, Google city of widows India. This is where many widows have been dumped by their dead husband’s family.

14. Write Your Commentary Ask students to think of the following:
What things screech? (witches?) How does that sound make people feel? What else do you think of about this word?

15. Background Information
Example #2
Background Information
In the opening sentence of Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson, the author introduces the main character’s feelings about her mother.

16. Quotation / Evidence
How does Mattie (the main character) feel about her mother?
“I woke to the sound of a mosquito whining in my left ear and my mother screeching in the right” (1).

17. Look for a Key Word(s) and Think of What You Could Write
“I woke to the sound of a mosquito whining in my left ear and my mother screeching in the right” (1).
Help students by guiding them to look at the action of the mother. (screeching)

18. What Stands Out?
Mattie hears two things: a whining mosquito and a screeching mother.
What do these have in common?
That idea could add to your commentary.

19. Sample Chunk
In the beginning of the novel Fever 1793, the main character Matilda thinks her mother is irritating. When Mattie wakes up, she hears “the sound of a mosquito whining in [her] left ear and [her] mother screeching in the right” (1). The word screeching makes the reader think of a high-pitched, loud, annoying sound, a sound that reflects Mattie’s attitude about her mother. In addition to that, Mattie associates her mother’s voice with that of a whining mosquito, another source of constant irritation. Mattie’s irritation with her mother reflects her own immaturity.
Colors change for each piece of the chunk. 1. Red-Assertion 2. Green-Background (Part of the background is in the assertion statement. The underlined section is the actual assertion.) 3. Blue-quotation/ evidence 4. Brown- Citation/Documentation 5. Light red- Commentary 6 Light blue- closing

20. Write a Chunk from Touching Spirit Bear
Assertion (the idea you plan to prove)
Background for the quotation (what the reader needs to know in order to understand the quote)
Evidence (quotation)
Citation (page number)
Commentary
Closing
Try
something