HOT: HOW TO DO COMPARATIVE LITERATURE QUESTIONS

1. Identify common types of literary comparison questions
- Compare two details in two literary works:
Example 1: Block D exam 2010: Compare the details of the full and still warm kettle that Tu took care of Ho with the details of the bowl of onion porridge that Thi No prepared for Chi Pheo.
Example 2: Your feelings about the detail "The birds are singing so happily outside!" that the character Chi Pheo felt after the night he met Thi No (Chi Pheo - Nam Cao, Literature 11) and the detail "Mi heard the flute echoing, feeling passionate and excited" that the character Mi heard on the spring night of love (A Phu's Wife - To Hoai, Literature 12)
- Compare two poems
Example 1: Block C exam 2008 (describing nostalgia) in two songs: Tay Tien by Quang Dung and Tieng hat con tau by Che Lan Vien
Example 2: Your feelings about the following two poems:
I want to turn off the sun
Let the color not fade;
I want to tie the wind
Let the fragrance not fly away.
(Hurry – Xuan Dieu, Literature 11, Volume 2, Education Publishing House 2011)
I tie myself to everyone
Let love spread to hundreds of places
To leave my soul with many suffering souls
Closer together, stronger life.
(From then on - To Huu, Literature 11, Volume 2, Education Publishing House 2011)
- Compare two paragraphs
Example 1: Block C 2010 exam (depicting the beauty of two rivers) in two essays: The Ferryman of the Da River by Nguyen Tuan and Who Named the River by Hoang Phu Ngoc Tuong
Example 2: Feelings about the following two paragraphs: “On New Year's Day, Mi also drank wine. Mi held back the wine jar and drank bowl after bowl. Then, drunk, Mi sat there, her face pale, watching people dancing and singing, but Mi's heart was still living in the past. Mi's ears faintly heard the sound of a flute calling friends at the beginning of the village...” (A Phu's Wife - To Hoai)
“He had to drink another bottle. And he drank. But he was so angry, the more he drank, the more sober he became. Sober, oh so sad! The smell of alcohol was not strong, he could faintly smell the smell of onion porridge. He covered his face and cried...” (Chi Pheo – Nam Cao)
- Compare two characters
Example 1: University entrance exam - block C 2009 The hidden beauty of: the picked-up wife in The Picked-up Wife by Kim Lan and the fishmonger woman in The Boat Out at Sea by Nguyen Minh Chau.
Example 2: Compare the character Dan Thiem in the excerpt Farewell to Cuu Trung Dai by Nguyen Huy Tuong and the prison warden in The Prisoner's Writing by Nguyen Tuan.
Example 3: The tragedy of Vu nhu To (Vu nhu To – Nguyen Huy Tuong) and Ho (The redundant life – Nam Cao)
- Compare the ending of the two works:
Example 1: 2012 University entrance exam: Compare the ending of the short story Chi Pheo by Nam Cao and the ending of the work The Picked-up Wife by Kim Lan
Example 2: Compare the endings of the two works Two Children by Thach Lam and Chi Pheo by Nam Cao.
- Compare author's style:
For example: Compare The Death Row Prisoner's Writing (Literature 11, volume one) with The Ferryman on the Da River, comment on the similarities and differences of Nguyen Tuan's artistic style before and after the August Revolution in 1945.
- Compare and evaluate two comments about a work
Example 1: The 2013 university entrance exam for group C can also be considered a form of comparison: Regarding the image of the soldier in the poem Tay Tien by Quang Dung, there are opinions that: the soldier here has the appearance of a warrior of the past; other opinions emphasize: the image of the soldier has the strong beauty of a soldier during the resistance war against France. Based on your feelings about this image, please comment on the above opinions.
Example 2: University entrance exam for group C in 2014: Comment on two opinions: One opinion says: The outstanding beauty of the Huong River is the poetic and romantic natural scenery. Another opinion emphasizes: The deep beauty of the Huong River is the cultural and historical sediments. Please comment on the above opinions.

2. Ways to do comparative literature essays
There are usually two ways to write this type of essay:
Continue: Analyze two texts in turn and point out similarities and differences.
Parallel: Find similar and different arguments and then analyze each argument in turn, combining them with parallel evidence from both illustrative texts.
* Method 1: Analyze in a sequential manner. This is a common way for students to approach this type of question, and is also the way that the Ministry of Education and Training directs in the answers to university and college entrance exams. Step one analyzes each subject in turn in terms of both content and art, then points out the similarities and differences. This way, students can easily develop arguments in the essay. The essay is clear, without confusing knowledge, but the difficulty is that when it comes to commenting on similarities and differences, students who are not proficient in the skills and have a firm grasp of the knowledge will repeat what has been analyzed above or make arbitrary inferences. The general model of this type of essay is as follows:
Introduction:
- Introduction (direct introduction without this step)
- General introduction to the comparison objects
Body
- Clarify the first comparison object (this step uses a combination of many argumentative operations, but mainly analytical argumentative operations)
- Clarify the second comparison object (this step combines many argumentative operations but mainly analytical argumentative operations)
- Compare:
+ Comment on the similarities and differences between the two objects on all levels such as theme, content, artistic form... (this step combines many argumentative operations, but mainly analytical argumentative operations and comparative argumentative operations)
+ Explain the difference: To perform this operation, it is necessary to rely on the following aspects: the social and cultural context in which each object exists; the writer's style; the poetic characteristics of the literary period... (this step uses many argumentative operations but mainly analytical argumentative operations)
Conclusion:
- Summarize the typical similarities and differences
- Can express personal feelings.
*Method 2: Parallel analysis is understood as parallel comparison on all levels of two objects. This method is good but difficult, requiring the ability to think closely, logically, and acumen in detecting problems for students to find the thesis of the article and choose suitable typical evidence from both texts to prove that thesis. For example, when comparing the two poems Country by Nguyen Dinh Thi and the excerpt Country by Nguyen Khoa Diem. Applying this writing method, students do not analyze each work in turn like method 1 but analyze and compare in parallel on the following levels: Origin - inspiration - image - material and lyrical tone, the general model of this type of essay is as follows:
Introduction:
- Introduction (direct introduction without this step)
- General introduction to the comparison objects
Body:
Similarities
+ Argument 1 (cite both documents)
+ Argument 1 (cite both documents)
+ Argument .....
- Difference
+ Argument 1 (cite both documents)
+ Argument 1 (cite both documents)
+ Argument .....
Conclusion
- Summarize the typical similarities and differences
- Can express personal feelings.
* These are the two ways to do a literary comparison type of essay, each way has its own strengths and weaknesses. In reality, not all essays can be applied exactly according to the template presented above. It depends on the type of question in each specific essay to determine which method to apply and how to apply it flexibly and appropriately. Sometimes, we can fully apply the ideas of the body of the essay, and sometimes we have to cut out a part to match the main requirements of the essay, or the writer's intention.

3. Illustration
To illustrate the steps of doing a literary comparison, I will give two examples for application. Example 1 will be done according to the method of doing exercise 1 - Sequential analysis; example 2 will be done according to the method of doing exercise 2 - Parallel analysis. The two examples are applied throughout the experimental part so that we can verify the theory of how to do the exercise and conveniently compare the strengths and weaknesses of each method.
Example 1: The contrast between light and darkness in the short stories Two Children by Thach Lam and The Prisoner's Writing by Nguyen Tuan.
This is a type of question with a direction: to study the light and darkness in two works, a type of question that compares two details in a work. However, if students do not ponder the question, they will only rush into analyzing the light and darkness of the two works and then find similarities and differences. But the question is not simply like that, students need to understand that the question emphasizes the contrast between light and darkness. That is, the intention of the person who created the question also wants to emphasize the purpose of the writers when building the contrast between the two types of light. From there, find the similarities and differences of each work. If the question requirements are understood correctly, the essay will certainly be better.
Example 2: The image of the soldier during the resistance war against France through two poems Tay Tien by Quang Dung and Comrade by Chinh Huu.
This is a type of question without direction or in other words, a type of open-ended question. With this question, the writer must find a suitable thesis. Regardless of how the thesis is determined, the reader must see the similarities and differences in the two works. This question can show similarities on many levels: era, image, ideal... differences in writing style, origin...
3.2. Detailed outline instructions
- Before an essay topic, analyzing and understanding the topic thoroughly is difficult, building a relatively complete and correct outline is even more difficult. Because there are many approaches to a literary problem. Before a literary question, there is rarely a single answer, especially open-ended questions. However, saying that does not mean that before an essay topic, no matter what anyone says, we must follow certain principles. An essay in the form of an essay, regardless of the type or format, usually has three parts: Problem setting (introduction), problem solving (body), and problem conclusion (conclusion).
3.2.1.Problem statement
- It is not unreasonable to say that good writing only requires reading the introduction. Of course, if you only read the introduction, you cannot evaluate the entire essay. But the introduction is really important to the writing. People often say "All beginnings are hard". When writing an essay with a good introduction, the "flow of writing" naturally flows and overflows. A confusing and awkward introduction will make the essay lack vitality, the writing style will not be coherent, and the ideas will become disjointed.
- For the literary comparison type of question, students are even more confused when writing the introduction because it involves two authors and two works. Many students do not introduce the comparison correctly. They often make the mistake of introducing two authors and two works in a disjointed manner, making the examiner feel like there are two introductions.
+ You should start from common points related to the two authors, two works, era, topic, related comments... to lead into the problem.
+ To have a good introduction, you need to make it short, complete (basic information), unique (attract the reader's attention to the issue you will write about) and natural.
* Example 1:
-Thach Lam and Nguyen Tuan are two writers of romantic literature, born in an era of many changes...
- Light and darkness in the two short stories are used as a principle to create story situations but also reach symbolic meaning about the opposition between good and evil, between dark reality and bright future...
* Example 2: Problem statement
- The theme of soldiers is a familiar theme of anti-French resistance poetry.
- Writing about the same topic, the beauty of the image of the soldier in Comrade through Chinh Huu's perception and the beauty of the image of the soldier in Tay Tien through Dung Dung's perception are different.
3.2.2 Problem solving
- Problem solving is considered the most important part of an essay because it accounts for the largest number of points in the entire essay. Therefore, in this part, teachers not only equip students with theoretical knowledge, knowledge about the author, and deep and broad knowledge about the work, but also have to guide students in writing skills: outlining, how to closely follow the requirements of the topic as well as the art of writing, and focusing techniques so that when practicing, students can do the essay at their best.
- The process of making a detailed outline for the problem-solving part of a comparison essay can be divided into the following steps. The questions always give objects for comparison: two poems, two paragraphs, two characters, two details...
+ First of all, it is necessary to isolate the subject into many planes for comparison. This step aims to develop the sharp intelligence and aesthetic sense of students. In general, the two overarching planes are ideological content and artistic form.
Depending on the subject being compared, there are ways to separate it into different small aspects such as: language, images, details, structure, sound, tone, theme, topic, idea and artistic inspiration.....
+ Then, it is necessary to comment and compare to point out similarities and differences. This step requires students to have careful observation, accurate detection and outstanding, clear expression, avoiding general and vague statements.
When commenting on similarities and differences, teachers also need to guide students to find comparisons on different planes such as:
-> Time and circumstances of birth
-> Topic, subject
-> Composition style
-> Ideological content
-> Artistic features
-> Position of contribution of work, author.....
If you compare the two objects (texts) compared on the above planes to generalize the problem, you will certainly find similarities and differences. Because the person who makes the comparison test questions often bases the questions on related issues.
+ Finally, evaluate, comment and explain the reasons for the similarities and differences. This step requires certain standards and a strong will and deep understanding beyond the text to avoid arbitrary, subjective and unconvincing inferences. This is the most difficult point in the essay, so it is not necessary for every exam to require students to be able to do it, but only to encourage students to find it to reward points. In fact, most of the answers to university and college entrance exams and excellent student exams in recent years do not require this idea.
* Example 1:
- Analysis of comparison object 1: The contrast between light and darkness in the short story Two Children
+ Darkness: Dense, covering the whole town and repeated many times: A summer night as smooth as velvet; the streets and alleys gradually filled with darkness; the whole road to the river, the road through the market back home was dark; the alleys into the village were even darker; the night in the town was quiet and full of darkness.... symbolizing the dark, stagnant, and confined life in the town... (that was also the image of Vietnamese society in the years 1930 - 1945).
+ Light: Light contrasts with darkness to accentuate the darkness.
The light in the town: small, weak, sparse, just flickering halos, bright spots, streaks of light,... symbolizing the flickering, weary fate of the people here...
The light of Hanoi in the nostalgia of the character Lien: Hanoi shines brightly....both the past and the dream of the future of Lien's sisters.
The light from the train passed quickly: the cars were brightly lit; the windows were bright; the copper and brass were sparkling.... the light of the train was completely different from the small, weak light of the town, guiding people towards a bright future...
-> The result of the contrast between light and darkness: A symbol of people living a life of namelessness in a dark, stagnant society but still constantly looking towards a brighter future.
- Analysis of comparison object 2: The contrast between light and darkness in the short story The Prisoner's Calligraphy
- Darkness: “dark ground”, “a narrow, damp dark room, walls full of spider webs, the ground littered with rat and cockroach droppings”…. embody a dark prison space, a stagnant, dark life full of evil and ugliness in a colonial and feudal prison. At the same time, darkness also symbolizes evil in life as well as in human nature.
- Light: “a twinkling evening star”, “a prime star bidding farewell to the universe”, “a square of white silk”, “the red light of an oil-soaked torch”… is the light of truth, of the human soul, of talented beauty, of a noble personality…
-> The result of the contrast between light and darkness is the victory of human conscience over evil, between the noble and the base...
- Comment on similarities and differences
+ Similarities
+ Both authors use light and darkness - a contrasting, opposing artistic technique that romantic literature often uses to create story situations. These are small details but contribute to conveying the content, ideas, and themes of the work.
+The light and darkness in the two works have both realistic and highly symbolic meanings. Darkness symbolizes evil, and light symbolizes good.
+ Difference
+ The contrast between light and darkness is built on a fierce opposition, with unexpected and sudden changes. This artistic technique leads the story situation to the end of the victory of light over darkness, of truth, beauty, and conscience over evil. Through that, the writer clearly shows his respect for Beauty.
+The contrast between light and darkness does not have any sudden changes. The light of the small town, the light from the train passing quickly, so the light only makes the darkness thicker, highlighting the suffocation and darkness of life here. Through that, the writer expresses sympathy for the small people, especially the fate of children in the old society - people living in darkness but constantly looking forward to a brighter tomorrow.
+Explain the difference
Both writers appeared in the literary period of 1930-1945, in a turbulent society, but their writing styles were different.
Nguyen Tuan: Representative of romantic literature, a writer who spent his whole life searching for beauty. His aesthetic inspiration often aimed at great beauty, nobility, great personalities... therefore the contrast between light and shadow is unexpected, in the end light and beauty must win.
Thach Lam: Although he was a member of the Tu Luc Van Doan group, his works were not romantic in direction, but a blend of both romance and realism. Thach Lam was especially interested in small, simple, everyday things, the world of children... so light and darkness did not have a sudden change, light did not completely prevail.
* Example 2:
- Alike:
+ Argument 1: The two works were both published in 1948, and are images of soldiers living and fighting for a noble ideal - protecting the fatherland.
+ Argument 2: They were all soldiers of Uncle Ho's army who lived and fought in the early days of the resistance war against the French, experiencing many hardships and challenges, but were ready to overcome all difficulties:
With the Tay Tien soldiers: They overcame the rugged and fierce nature (The steep slope was winding and steep; Every night in Muong Hich, tigers teased people), a life of deprivation and illness (The Tay Tien soldiers did not grow hair...)
For the soldier in Comrade is the spirit of enduring hardship (his shirt is torn at the shoulder, my pants have a few patches, my feet are not thick, I share a blanket at cold nights,...) and sharing malaria (he and I know each chill; Fever shakes, sweaty forehead...)
+ Argument 3: Both soldiers were not pushed back by hardships but grew up with great stature, full of strength, and an optimistic spirit: In Tay Tien, facing the harsh nature, they did not sink but emerged bravely and defiantly (In the remote clouds, the guns smelled the sky...). In Comrades, there is also the proud beauty of night watch (Standing side by side waiting for the enemy to come; The moon hung on the gun muzzle).
- Different:
+Thesis 1: Writing style
The image of the soldier "Tay Tien" is drawn with a romantic style.
The image of the soldier in the poem "Comrades" is expressed using a realistic writing style.
+ Point 2: Background
The Tay Tien soldiers left the streets, schools, and offices. They were young intellectuals from Hanoi, so they brought with them into the battle the dream of a romantic soul (Dreaming of Hanoi at Night, a Fragrant and Graceful Figure).
The soldiers in Comrades come from poor thatched roofs, from the countryside, from salty and sour land, from plowed land with rocks (Your homeland is salty and sour; My village is poor, from plowed land with rocks) so they bring into the fight the hard-working appearance of the countryside.
+ Point 3: Beauty of the soul:
The Tay Tien soldier has a heroic yet gallant beauty (Eyes staring, sending dreams across the border/Dreaming of Hanoi's graceful and fragrant figure at night). His soul soars before the beauty of nature (In the remote clouds, guns sniff the sky). An artistic soul in spiritual activities (The barracks are lit up with a torchlight festival; Look at you, in your dress since when; The flute plays a shy melody; Music about Vientiane builds the soul of poetry).
+ The beauty of the soldier's soul in Comrades is emphasized in the comradeship between soldiers. The basis for their feelings is that they share a poor situation, so they easily sympathize, have the same aspirations (Cold nights sharing a blanket become soul mates), share the same love for the homeland... It is that comradeship that creates fighting strength.
3.2.3 Closing the issue
- Conclusion is the last step to complete the essay. Students often take the conclusion lightly. With the mentality of “a good start makes a good ending”, plus the reason that time is almost up, they only need to “close” by summarizing a few ideas presented above.
- A correct conclusion, or not only concise, closes the issues discussed above, but students can have an open conclusion, a developed conclusion, an advanced conclusion, an extended conclusion to evoke many new associative thoughts in the reader.
Example 1:
- Two writers, two styles, but both meet in using the contrasting technique between light and darkness to express their own artistic intentions.
- These are small details but make up great value....
Example 2:
- These two images of soldiers have different beauties but have completed the portrait of Uncle Ho's soldiers in the early days of the resistance war against France.
- The image of the soldier has revived in the reader's heart a time of suffering but greatness of the nation.