Purpose: The importance of the term conclusion for a literary analysis is that a conclusion provides closure to a series of texts or a combination of thoughts. The effect and impact that a conclusion leaves on the reader or audience are fundamental in how your point or argument comes across. Without a conclusion, the point of an argument might not be carried out effectively or strongly enough. Writing a conclusion would be very attractive in a situation such as an informational video that could conclude and recap everything it just taught. Some sort of inspirational speech would benefit from a conclusion to leave the readers with some inspiring words. Another situation that might benefit from a conclusion is a persuasive essay which could use a conclusion to inform the readers of the most vital points made in the essay. The writer may use a conclusion to accomplish his goal of communicating the main point of his writing and informing/persuading the reader.
Steps for Analysis:
When reading a conclusion I get the last impression of the text I am viewing. It is important for someone analyzing the conclusion to consider these questions:
Consider the importance of different parts of the conclusion
Does this text require a conclusion in order to be successful?
Does the author need to bring another argument or persuasive point to the conclusion? Or just recap the points?
What major points might the author of a conclusion need to highlight?
How would not including a conclusion positively or negatively affect various types of literature?
After reading the conclusion, a reader should analyze how to what extent the author utilized the ability of a conclusion in his favor.
When I read the conclusion, what did/should I take away? What kind of impact does the conclusion have on me?
What type of conclusion did the author use when he/she created it? Informational, historical, or is it just a way of just recapping the main points?
Finally, a reader should analyze and decipher the quality of the conclusion. This might include considering questions such as:
What was the author's goal when creating this type of conclusion (if they even had a concussion.)
If a different type of conclusion was used such as a peroratio, was it used correctly? In what situation would a different kind of conclusion need to be used correctly?
Example From Death And Transfiguration:
Death and Transfiguration is a tone poem composed by Richard Strauss in 1888. Sixty years later, in 1948, the year before he dies at the age of eighty-five, he quoted the “transfiguration” theme in “At Sunset,” one of his “Four Last Songs.” Strauss’s long career illustrated as well as anything the longevity of romanticism in music. He was also a living as well as a sonic link with an earlier generation, for he attended the first performance of Parsifal at Bayreuth in 1882 at the age of eighteen. He-- and all the other composers writing in a romantic idiom deep into the twentieth of not the twenty-first century confirm E. T. A. Hoffmann’s dictum that “music is the most romantic of all the arts, one might almost say the only one that is genuinely romantic.” (Tim Blanning)
Blanning, T. C. W. The Romantic Revolution: A History. Modern Library edition. ed., New York City, Modern Library, 2011.
Analysis of Passage: The conclusion of Death And Transfiguration tells background information about Richard Stauss and discussed what context this story was written out of. It specifically talks about his life and highlights the history behind the book. This specific conclusion further talks about the ideas raised when reading the book and how readers might infer the book. The conclusion is left on a slight hook to excite the reader. “The romantic revolution is not over yet” (Blanning). This kind of conclusion leaves a hopeful and intriguing outlook on the readers. When writing this conclusion, the author most likely wanted to discuss the background information of the story. The author discusses the backstory of Richard Strauss, so this conclusion is created to inform the reader of information that wouldn't be told in the actual chapters of the book. It also recaps the importance of the different chapters in the book. Finally, the conclusion shows pieces of art of significance to the text and relates the art to the book.
Kaitlyn K