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High School Analytical Essay Topics: 

     “Story analysis is one of the easiest essays to write.  With films you can analyze the semiotics and mis-en-scène.  That is, how the scenes fit together and the elements that make up each image. 

     “For example, in classic film noir, shadow was often used across the face of the villains.  The Russian director Sergei Eisenstein used an image of rotten food full of worms, then cut to the next shot of workers on a ship.  What was he trying to say?  Choose a film and analyze it similarly.”

      From:  eHOw   2011

...this (CliffsNotes) college-style advice, above, is of course, the absolute worst (read: easiest) way to teach ‘story analysis’.  And it is also why so many of the stories we consume suck so badly that I often taste reflux vomit bubbling in the back of my throat just thinking about it. 

     In my video essay I use “rotten food” and “sailors” in several oppositional senses.  So then what exactly am I trying to say here?   Maybe one analysis could be: Rotten seafarers eat worm-worker ships like food.  Or maybe: Food workers eat seafaring worms like rotten ships.