Literary Criticism

Literary criticism is an important and useful tool used by writers. Literary criticism is the practice of evaluating and analyzing literature. These criticisms can either be done by the author themselves, by critics that are writing a book review for a newspaper or book, or students that are studying literature in class can even do them. These critiques of the literature can give the author feedback about their book. They critique the message that is conveyed in the story, as well as the literary elements that the author uses such as the theme, characterization, setting, protagonist, antagonist and point of view. These criticisms give the author and the reader greater insight into the piece of literature and what is going on in the story. Many authors criticize their work many times before they finally feel satisfied that it is ready for publishing. These authors take great pride in there writing, they pick apart each section they have written and analyze it until it is perfect. Many prolific writers such as Thoreau and J.D. Salinger used literary criticisms to make sure that what they had wrote was what they considered perfect and ready to be published.