Some Interpretive Questions

�The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot
help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of
reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy
curiosity.� �Albert Einstein

What psychological states does the text appear to explore?

What philosophical questions does the text seem to grapple with?

What socio-political issues does the text seem to address? For what apparent
reasons?

How does the text reflect or resist the thinking/biases of its historical moment
(i.e., Franklin�s thinking is very much a product of Enlightenment humanism and
Emerson and Thoreau�s philosophies a product of American Romanticism)?

What appears to be the dominant mood or tone of the text? Does the mood/tone
shift at any moment? Where? Why?

What seem to be some of the dominant themes of the text? Can you identify any
�nooks and crannies� of theme (more focused thematic elements that are more
unlikely and higher on the ladder of specificity)?

Does the text reach any definitive conclusions, or does it remain open-ended (or
ambiguous) with respect to the questions it raises and attempts to respond to
(Consider the narrator�s often divided and ambiguous treatment of Hester in The
Scarlet Letter)? Why?

What formal features (i.e., language: a good example in the writing of Franklin, the
rhetorical strategy at the core of his creation and presentation of �American
identity�) produce thematic effects in the text? What are those effects and how
are they produced in the writing?

In what ways might the text exhibit a dual perspective or double meaning? Does
perspective shift as the text unfolds? How might the text move in two directions
at the same time? Why?

The literal can�t help but be figurative (i.e., consider the recurring motif of water
in Franklin�s Autobiography and its accruing associations with freedom and
independence). How is this borne out in the text under analysis?

Does the text offer a hard critical look at some aspect of human experience? A
critique perhaps?
How does the text seem to resist (or perpetuate) common assumptions and belief
systems (for example, about gender, politics, religion, etc.)? What beliefs seem to
be expressed or valorized in the text?

What does the text seem to �say�? What�s it ostensibly �about�? What�s
the apparent subject matter of the text?

How do language and other devices (i.e., symbolism, irony, etc.) generate specific
meanings in the text? How is content a product of, or related to, form and style?

What formal characteristics appear to call a great deal of attention to themselves?

Why? How do they have thematic significance? What features seem suppressed?
Why?

What seem to be some of the literary precursors to the text? Is the text somehow
in �dialogue� with its precursors (this may become ostensibly apparent in a text
like The Great Gatsby where we see clear influence of Franklin�s ideas in Jay
Gatsby)

What is the genre of the text? How does the text seem to obey or resist generic
conventions? How? Why?