Your introduction is the first paragraph of your essay. In this paragraph, you want to grab your reader's attention and set the tone for the essay. Then you want to tell your reader what you are writing about--your subject. Finally, you want to finish the introduction with your thesis statement, which is the point you are trying to "prove" in your essay.
A = Attention-Getter
N = Necessary Information
T = Thesis
A = Attention-Getter: The first sentence or two should be an attention-getter. There are many ways to write an attention-getter:
N = Necessary Information: Necessary information for a literary analysis includes:
T = Thesis: The last sentence of your introduction should be your thesis. The thesis is what you are trying to "prove" in your essay. It is the guiding statement for the rest of the paragraphs and should focus on some specific aspect of the story such as a trait of one of the characters, the theme, the setting, or a literary element like irony, foreshadowing, or repetition.
Example introduction using A.N.T.
Example from a student's paper on a story called "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe
Murder! Is this a right way to get back at someone? (attention-getter) Montresor believes it is in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado." (necessary information--author's name & title of the story) In the story, Montresor tells the reader that he was insulted by Fortunato. It is because of this insult that Montresor has vowed revenge. He lures Fortunato into his family's catacombs and then Montresor chains Fortunato to a wall of granite and buries him alive. (necessary information--summary) Montressor is able to murder Foftunado because of his intense desire to seek revenge. (thesis)