Purpose
The title is arguably the most important device in a literary work. It sets the theme or topic for the piece. An author would use a title to grasp the potential audience’s attention. The title creates a lingering effect on the reader, making the reader curious of what is to come. The title can also set the mood, emotion, or focus of a literary work. A title does not always have to come at the beginning of any piece of work. Separate chapters or sub entries commonly contain a title. The purpose of titling a chapter or sub entry is to establish a purpose, goal, or focus of them.
Steps For Analysis
Read the title of the work.
Determine whether it grasps your attention?
Does it have a certain focus or direction it is taking?
While reading, viewing, or listening to the work, locate points of interest which influence the title.
Make connections between the title and the text.
Did the title foreshadow anything?
Is the title directly mentioned in the text?
Did the title introduce the topic or focus of anything in the text?
Determine how the title set up (or did not set up) key elements of the text.
Example From I Have a Dream, by Martin Luther King
"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today."
"Read Martin Luther King Jr.'S 'I Have A Dream' Speech In Its Entirety". NPR.Org, 2022, https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety. Accessed 7 Sept 2022.
Analysis of Passage
The title of Martin Luther King’s famous speech, I Have a Dream, is quite fitting. It sets up his speech with incredible efficiency and fantastic foreshadowing. This title grasps the audience’s attention due to the fact that the focus is clear and concise. The focus of having a dream establishes that the speaker will share a set of goals for the audience. The mentioning of the words, I Have a Dream many times throughout the speech creates anaphora. This entices the audience even more, because King creates new goals for each time he mentions the title words. When certain words of phrases are repeated, an audience will pick up on why these words are being repeated and why they are important.
MLK’s title set up arguably the most influential speech of the 20th century by stating his wishes of racial equality in the United States. Dr. King was successful with his title, due to the fact that partly thanks to him, the civil rights act was passed the following year.
Coby Bitman