Analyzing a Piece

What comes to my mind first when analyzing a piece is scanning the piece over. Whether this be an art or a literature piece, it is important to observe exactly what the piece is describing before going into more detail. This process consists of observing titles, main headings, or anything that catches the eye. With art, this would focus mostly on the center of the piece because most artists place what they want the observer to notice most in the center. After scanning the piece, its time to start reading or looking at the piece more in depth. This consists of paying attention to the details within the piece that most stand out to the person. Usually the message of the piece is in plain sight for a person as the author wants the person to get the message. Hopefully after a few minutes, one comes to understand what exactly the piece is trying to concentrate on. For example the statue of the dying warrior, the message would be that the race of the simoans is dying out.

After this brief observation, it is time to go into the more details of the piece and how these details tie into the beliefs and ideas of that particular culture. The person must observe little details and briefly think if there is a reason behind that detail being there. This could consist of slowly reading each line in a story and seeing if this ties into anything that the culture believes. There is a reason why these authors made these pieces, and they usually represent beliefs that were shared by the people during these time periods. When looking into these details, its important to ask yourself questions and see if these details bring any answer to them. This is an important part as these questions tie into the meaning of the piece. After one has answered some of these questions, it is then important to tie the piece into the ideas on which they may be writing. These ideas tie in with what the culture believes, and these beliefs have much representation by symbolism in the pieces. The person must connect these ideas with what their own beliefs and the beliefs of other cultures. Once this is complete, the person has an idea of the human nature of that particular culture by that piece, and the analysis is complete.