Critical Analyses the Art of Finding a Perspective

Critical Analyses the Art of Finding a Perspective

Lutz / Bell

Critical Analyses – The Art of Finding a Perspective

Jack and the Beanstalk

Formalist Reading (New Critical)

  • Addresses how the content of the piece works
  • Assumes that content and form were originally under the control of the writer, so how well did the author do his job?
  • Focuses on the elements of fiction

Character focus: protagonist (Jack); antagonist (giant)

Symbolism focus: Do the symbols develop insights into the character’s development? (e.g., the beanstalk (opportunity); the golden egg (the key to success))

Structural plot focus: Is the climax appropriate? Is the rising action controlled? Does the

falling action (denouement) go on too long?

Feminist Reading

  • Assumes that literature takes a masculine / patriarchal view in which women are negated and / or minimized
  • Seeks to raise the reader’s consciousness about the importance and unique role of women in literature.
  • Attempts to highlight misguided and prejudiced views of women and to stimulate a more balanced view of the natural role and value of women.

Jack’s mother has no identity of her own; she doesn’t even have a name but is defined

through him – she is “Jack’s mother”

She is locked out of the business world. Even a child is trusted more, as long as that

child is a male.

She has a limited imagination; she throws away the magic beans. She is locked out of the

adventure and leads a passive life.

She has to be kept by her son. At one point, she was dependent on her husband, and now

she is widowed and dependent on her son.

This theme of the disempowerment of women is even reinforced by the cow, which

symbolizes the role of women in the male-ordered world. They are pawns to be traded when the need arises without any consideration to what they might need or want from life. Furthermore, the magic harp presents this same notion. A captive toy, her only role is to cater to the pleasures of her male captor.

MarxistReading (Economic Determinist)

  • Defines life as an ongoing struggle between the capitalist and working classes.
  • Individuals are seen as in the grips of those that control them; that control usually can be boiled down to an economic root.
  • Persons of the lower class struggle to rise above their lot. The great struggle of the “haves” and the “have nots” ensues as the haves try to maintain the status quo.

The giant lives in the sky “above” Jack.

Jack is impoverished and powerless; he is dependent on chance and fate.

Jack will show some initiative by invading the realm of the ruling class Giant.

Although he takes a series of small items, none of these items will really change his life

permanently.

He needs to capture the means of production – i.e., the goose that lays the golden egg.

He needs, albeit through violence, to cut down the ruling class and create a new social

order.

However, Jack has now become the ruling class, with all of the attendant problems. The

cycle of oppression is endless, and it continues now with the names of the players having changed. In fact, in the very beginning of the tale, Jack shows signs of being a capitalist; note his willingness to use the cow as a means to an end. This is simply the first sign of Jack’s inevitable ruthlessness.

Moral / Intellectual

  • Determines whether the work conveys a lesson or message and how this can help readers better their lives. (The moral of the story is…)
  • Strives to improve our understanding of the world and humanity. (The world of the story is a model for us to understand the human condition, the dynamics of politics, etc.)
  • No set, prescribed morality is used to judge; it is left to the reader to determine the basis for judgment.

Topical / Historical

  • Stresses the relationship of literature to its historical period. If we are all “prisoners of our own times,” so are authors, and this influence will be visible in their works.
  • Readers seek the intellectual and social worlds of the authors.

Structuralist

  • Attempts to find relationships among elements that appear to be separate and discrete.
  • Seeks patterns such as whether a protagonist is active or submissive, whether he passes or fails a test, etc.
  • Allows a reader to compare to and cross over cultural and historic periods.
  • Similar to New Criticism, yet it is more archetypal in its approach.

Psychological / Psychoanalytic

  • Based on Freudian theory, which assumes that all behavior can be understood and analyzed if one identifies the hidden and unconscious motives and drives.
  • Treats literature and characters like patients in therapy.

Archetypal / Symbolic / Mythic

  • Derived from psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s work, it is based on the premise that all life is built upon patterns, called archetypes.
  • These archetypes are similar throughout cultures and times.

Deconstructionist

  • Developed by French critic Jacques Derrida
  • Stresses contradiction.
  • Assumes that there is no central theme or truth in a given situation because circumstances dictate the “truth” of the situation. These are arbitrary and change over time.
  • Because of the transient nature of culture and circumstance, even language is relative to circumstance. Therefore, even interpreting the speech of another is full of “infinite substitutions” of meaning. (Very existential, no?)

Reader-Response

  • Rooted in phenomenology, which deals with “understanding of how things appear.”
  • Reality is defined by the individual’s perception of externals.
  • Readers serve as necessary third-parties in the author-text-reader relationship. A work is not fully created unless / until that third party engages it with his/her own knowledge and experience.
  • The more that a reader brings to the story (disciplined studies, lifelong interests, etc.), the more thorough and competent the reading response will be.