Clearly, we can gain a more rewarding appreciation of a work only by suspending our judgment until we have examined it from at least several points of view. Any critical approach to a literary work will derive a reliable judgment only after a full examination from that particular perspective. Only then should we render a verdict on the work. While it is possible, of course, to take an investigation of a piece of imaginative literature through the full cycle of steps from any perspective like the critical approaches introduced above, most undergraduate assignments will stop short of a fully developed criticism. You may be asked only to analyze some aspect or to interpret a work.
Analysis Explain how the author uses color images to . . .
Identify key characters in . . . Describe the central conflict in . . . Interpretation Identify two themes in . . . Explain why the author has chosen to . . . Discuss the possible meanings of the clothing in . . .