What is literary theory and why is it important? Choose one text from this week and explain how your interpretation of the text is impacted by the literary theory by which you choose to use. Cite pieces of textual evidence to support your response. 200 words.
2019-2020 English I Honors 
Literary theory is the study of the nature of literature, body of ideas in literature, and the methods for analyzing literature. Literary theory is important because it allows you to have your perspective on what you are reading. My interpretation of “To Kill A Mockingbird” was that the book was going to be about Boo Radley and possibility kind of boring because there were few issues to solve until the literary theory ethnicity was included. The differences of race made people pick sides, and/or be disrespectful to those of a different race. For example, in the book it said: “ I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man…” This showed that because a man was of a different ethnicity or race, he was disrespected and was not equal to another man. In the book it also said: “The colored balcony ran along three walls of the courtroom like a second-story veranda…” This shows that because of the people’s different ethnicity or race, they were not allowed to sit with anyone of another ethnicity or race. This impacted the story because it created problems and made the story more interesting.
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Literary theory is the interpretation of literature through different perspectives and how they perceive the story through a list of different factors. Literary theory is important because it gives you a certain perspective or multiple perspectives to look at while reading the story to go beyond the text to understand the plot. The text I chose to use is Desiree’s Baby. In the text it states “Moreover he no longer loved her, because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his home and his name”. This demonstrates a big shift in Armand’s feelings towards Desiree all of a sudden. In The text we later find out that this was because he said she was black. But in the very end we find out that Desiree isn’t the one that is black, its Armand. In this story, Armand’s id takes over and he has to choose whether he wants to lose his reputation as a wealthy landowner or find a way out. In the end he blames it on his wife and banishes her and she ends up killing herself, all because is reputation and wealth was so important to him.
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Literary Theory is the body of ideas and methods we use in the practical reading of literature. Literary theory is important because it allows the reader to dive in deeper into a text because it allows them to look at the certain text from different perspectives, portraying a deeper meaning than it seems to have. In the passage, “Desiree’s Baby”, it says, “ ‘ My mother, they tell me I am not white. Armand has told me I am not white. For God’s sake tell them it is not true. You must know it is not true. I shall die. I must die. I cannot be so unhappy and live.’” This quote displays the literary theory of ethnicity. Desiree grew up thinking she was white because that’s how she was raised. She could not accept the fact that she was not white when she grew older and it showed. Desiree did not want to have the label on her that said she was a slave, said later in the passage. She wanted to be treated normally and not have that label attached with her. This theory allows us to dive deeper into ethnicity and tell us how Desiree didn’t accept the fact that she was an enslaved human being. All of this ultimately led to her death as described in the first paragraph.
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Literary Theory is the ideas and methods we use when reading literature. Literary theory is important because it helps the reader understand and personally connect with the text. I chose the passage, “Desiree’s Baby”, it states, “ ‘… Armand has told me I am not white. For God’s sake tell them it is not true. You must know it is not true. I shall die. I must die. I cannot be so unhappy and live.’” This quote shows the literary theory of ethnicity. She thought she was not completely white, and in the end, Armand was the one who was not completely white. All of this led to her death as described earlier on in the text.
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Mason Guffey- Literary theory is all of the ideas and methods that we use when reading a story. Literary theory is important because it allows the reader to gain more comprehension when reading a text. This allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the passage. The passage that I chose was “Desiree’s Baby” and the quote I chose was, “‘My mother, they tell me I am not white. Armand has told me that I am not white. For God’s sake tell them it is not true. I shall die. I can not be so unhappy and live.’” this quote is a good example of literary theory, and of the literary theories the one chosen would be ethnicity. As a child Desiree always thought that she was not of color because that was how she was raised but in reality she was and she was a slave. As Desiree grew older she became more aware of her ethnicity and race. She eventually couldn’t stand the fact that she was of color and she eventually died as implied in the first paragraph.
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Literary theory is the study of the nature of literature and the methods for analyzing literature. It is important because it allows you to have a deeper understanding of the characters, plot, and themes of a text. In “Desiree’s Baby”, it states, “‘My mother, they tell me I am not white. For God’s sake tell them it is not true. You must know it is not true. I shall die. I must die. I cannot be so unhappy, and live.’” This piece of evidence conveys the literary theory ethnicity. It describes how not being white was frowned upon, because when Desiree was told she wasn’t white, she was so upset that she claimed she didn’t want to live anymore. The fact that she could be compared to slaves greatly affected her, stated later in the text, and apparently so much that she ‘couldn’t be so unhappy, and live.’ This impacted my interpretation of the text, because in the beginning of the text, the tone is positive and slightly uneventful. However, once ethnicity was included, it gave me an idea of how people thought in the 1800’s, and how much racism could’ve impacted people’s lives. Desiree grew up believing she was white, and then decided she could not live anymore once she found out that was not true.
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Literary theory is the body of ideas and methods we use in the practical reading of literature. Literary theory is important because it allows the reader to understand and to dive in deeper and it also allows you to view and have different perspectives on a certain text. The text I chose was “Desiree’s Baby.” The quote I chose was “My mother, they tell me I am not white. Armand has told me I am not white. For God’s sake tell them it is not true. You must know it is not true. I shall die. I must die. I cannot be so unhappy and live.” This quote shows the literary theory of ethnicity because Desiree grew up believing she was white and she didn’t accept the fact that she was enslaved then all of that stuff led to her death of her killing herself. – Felicity Gibson
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Literary theory is important because it allows the reader to view different perspectives in certain texts. Literary theory also allows you to dive deep and to fully understand the text and its characters, plot, and theme(s). The text I chose was “Desiree’s Baby.” The text states, “My mother, they tell me I am not white. Armand has told me I am not white. For God’s sake tell them it is not true. You must know it is not true. I shall die. I must die. I cannot be so unhappy and live.” This quote shows the literary theory of ethnicity because Desiree grew up believing she was white, and then decided she shouldn’t live anymore once she found out that it wasn’t true.
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