Discourse Analysis Sample - Novel

Discourse Analysis Novel

Title                  : To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

Author             : Jenny Han

Genre               : Young Adult Romance

Date Released : April 15, 2014

Main Leads     : Lara Jean & Peter Kavinsky

Other Leads    :
1. Margot Song Covey (Lara Jean's older sister)
2. Josh Sanderson (Margot's boyfriend, One of boys Lara Jean ever loved)
3. Katherine Song Covey / Kitty (Lara Jean's younger sister)
4. Chris (Lara Jean's bestfriend)
5. Genevieve (Lara Jean's ex-bestfriend / Peter Kavinsky's ex-girlfriend)
6. Dr. Song (Lara Jean’s Father)
7. John Ambrose McClaren (One of boys Lara Jean ever loved)
8. Emily Nussbaum (Genevieve's bestfriend)
9. Lucas Krapf (One of boys Lara Jean ever loved)
10. Mrs. Kavinsky (Peter's Mother)
11. Owen Kavinsky (Peter's younger brother)
12. Ms. Rostchild (Lara Jean's neighboor)
13. Kenny (One of boys Lara Jean ever loved)

Analysis of the main character (Lara Jean Song Covey) :
Lara Jean is an invisible, aka : Relatable teenager.
So typical teen Lara Jean writes love letters which she never sends to her crushes, in order to get over them.
"If love is like a possession, maybe my letter are like my exorcisms."
One day, all her love letters are accidentally sent to the five boys Lara Jean ever loved. Then, the invisible girl is forced out of her shell, when popular cool boy in her school asks her to be his fake girlfriend in order to make his ex jealous. An interesting thing here is that, the popular boy is one of the boys Lara Jean loved and he gets her love letter as well.
Things are even more complicated, since she has a major crush on Margot's boyfriend, Josh. Josh was Lara Jean's first love.

Lara Jean, whose mother passed away when she was a kid, used to have strong relationship with her two sisters and her father. Her father, who loves his three daughters, never think to marry another woman.

When a maxim of conversation is flouted, it gets the listener to infer something that is meant but not said. It is called as a conversational implicature.

There are 4 maxims :

A.    Maxim of Quality

è Be truthful.

B.     Maxim of Quantity

è Do not say any more or less than necessary.

C.    Maxim of Relevance/Relation

è Make your contribution relevant.

D.    Maxim  of Manner

è Be orderly.

F Examples :

1.      Chapter 3 (Page 14)

Lara Jean                     : “You won’t have another one of these until Thanksgiving.”

Margot                         : “Christmas”

Maxim Violated         : Quantity

Implicature                 : Margot says less than necessary. She actually means to correct

Lara that she will not come home till Christmas, not      

Thanksgiving.

2.      Chapter 4 (Page 18)

Lara Jean                     : “She’s still really sad about it.”

Chris                           : “Margot? Sad? Margot doesn’t have a normal human

  emotions like the rest of us.”

            Maxim violated           : Quality

            Implicature                 : Chris should not be sarcastic since all human must

  have her/his own emotions, so does Margot.

3.      Chapter 8 (Page  39)

Lara Jean                     : “Margot’s not going to find out, so don’t you say a word!”

Josh                              : “When would I even talk to her? We’re broken up,

   remember?”

            Maxim violated         : Quantity

            Implicature                 : Josh replies more than required. Lara does not expect to hear

  that Josh and Margot are broken up already. Therefore, he

  could have just said yes or no and mean it.

4.      Chapter 20 (Page 87)

Josh                             : “Who’s the guy?”

Lara Jean                    : “What guy?”

Josh                             : “The guy you’re dating.”

Lara Jean                    : “Peter Kavinsky. Peter Kavinsky! I’ve gotta go! Talk later,

  Josh!”

            Maxim violated         : Relation

            Implicature                 : Lara Jean’s trying to get out of the conversation. She tries to

  escape from the topic now that her answer is a lie.

5.      Chapter 24 (Page 108)

Lara Jean                     : “Why did you tell Josh we were together?”

Peter                            : “I don’t get what you’re so upset about. I did you a favor.

                                      I could have just as easily blown up your spot.”

Lara  Jean                    : “So why didn’t you?”

Peter                            : “You’ve sure got a funny way of saying thank you. You’re

                                      Welcome, by the way.”

Lara Jean                     : “Thank you. I appreciate you letting me kiss you, but-“

Peter                            : “You’re welcome.”

Lara Jean                     : “That was . . . really generous of you. To let me do that. But

                                      I’ve already explained Josh that it’s not going to work out

                                      with us Genevieve has you whipped, so it’s all good. You can

                                      pretending now.”

Peter                            : “I’m not whipped.”

Lara Jean                     : “But aren’t you, though? I mean, you guys have been

                                      together since the seventh grade. You’re basically her

                                      property.”

Lara Jean                     : “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Maxim violated         : Manner

Implicature                 : Peter is not sure where Lara Jean would bring the

  conversation to. She makes the topic jump from one to

  another without even caring about if Peter gets what she is

  talking about orderly.

6.      Chapter 38 (Page 192)

Peter                            : “How come you never dated anybody?”

Lara Jean                     : “I don’t know . . . because nobody never asked?”

Peter                            : “Bullshit. I know for a fact that Martinez asked you to

                                      Homecoming and you said no.”

Lara Jean                     : “What is it with you guys all calling each other by your last

                                      Name? It’s so- Effected? Affected?”

Maxim violated          : Relation

Implicature                 : Lara Jean try to change the subject/topic since she does not

                                      want to explain futher to Peter regarding why she never

  dated anybody.

7.      Chapter 40 (Page 212)

Lara Jean                     : “Well, do you miss him?”

Peter                            : “Who?”

Lara Jean                     : “Your dad!”

Peter                            : “Oh. I don’t know. I think it’s more that I miss how it used to

  be with us. Him and my mom and me and Owen. We were

  like a team. He used to come to every lacrosse game. He just .

  . . took care of things.”

            Maxim violated         : Quantity

            Implicature                 : Lara Jean expects Peter would answer her question by saying

                                                  yes or no. She does not even expect Peter will illustrate how

                                                  happy his family was back then before his parents divorce.