Purpose Behind Literary Choices

Explain why a fiction writer might make a particular choice of point of view, structure, or detail.

Author's purpose applies to literature as well as argument. Fiction writers make choices of point of view, structure, imagery, and detail, and each choice produces effects. Analyzing purpose means asking 'why this choice rather than another? ' Consider an original story about a family losing their farm, told entirely through the eyes of the youngest child, who does not understand the bank letters but notices that her father has stopped whistling. Why choose this narrator? A child's limited understanding creates dramatic irony: readers grasp the crisis before she does.

Her focus on small details, like the missing whistle, makes the loss intimate rather than statistical. And her innocence heightens the reader's sorrow. If the same story were told by the bank officer, it might become a critique of institutions; if told by the father, a study in pride and shame. When writing about literary purpose, avoid claiming certainty about the author's private intentions. Instead, describe the effect the choice produces and argue that the effect serves the work's meaning.

• 1Fiction writers' choices produce specific effects.
• 2Ask 'why this choice rather than another?'
• 3Write about effects, not the author's private intentions.