Psychological lens This perspective’s purpose is to examine the internal motivations of literary characters. As a form of criticism, this perspective deals with works of literature as expressions of the personality, state of mind, feelings, and desires of the author or of a character within the literary work. As readers, we investigate the psychology of a character or an author to figure out the meaning of a text (although sometimes an examination of the author’s psychology is considered biographical criticism, depending upon your point of view).

ONLY ONE PARAGRAPH FOR PSYCHOANALYTICAL LENS: (375)
**ONLY CHAPTERS 8-12***
Psychological lens: This perspective’s purpose is to examine the internal motivations of literary characters. As a form of criticism, this perspective deals with works of literature as expressions of the personality, state of mind, feelings, and desires of the author or of a character within the literary work. As readers, we investigate the psychology of a character or an author to figure out the meaning of a text (although sometimes an examination of the author’s psychology is considered biographical criticism, depending upon your point of view).
Guiding Question: How can we apply psychology and psychoanalytic criticism to gain insights into the behavior and motivations of authors and characters?
Central Concerns: expression, personality, state of mind, designs of author
ONLY ONE PARAGRAPH FOR CLASS/SOCIETAL LENS: (375 WORDS)
**ONLY CHAPTERS 13-20***
Class/Social Power lens: Some critics believe that human history and institutions, even our ways of thinking, are determined by the ways in which our societies are organized. Two primary factors shape our schemes of organization: economic power and social class membership. First, the class to which we belong determines our degree of economic, political, and social advantage, and thus social classes invariably find themselves in conflict with each other. Second, our membership in a social class has a profound impact on our beliefs, values, perceptions, and our ways of thinking and feeling. For these reasons, the social-power perspective helps us understand how people from different social classes understand the same circumstances in very different ways. When we see members of different social classes thrown together in the same story, we are likely to think in terms of power and advantage as we attempt to explain what happens and why.
Guiding Question: How does this text comment on or represent class conflict?
Central Concerns: power, economics, class, differences, fairness, society