If you're reading sparknotes, is the summary or analysis more important to read?

Question

I'm not cheating, to start off.

I'm reading Mark Twain for school & his sentance structure, phrases, vocabulary, etc. made the book straight up IMPOSSIBLE for me to understand.

So, I read the book and now I'm doing sparknotes. But, there's a "SUMMARY OF CHAPTER #" and "ANALYSIS OF CHAPTER #"

I was wondering which of them I should read.

Answer 1

i know how u feel. i'm stuck with tale of two cities :(

read both.

one is just gonna summarize what happened and the other is actually going to like elaborate and make more sense.

try http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/ if sparknotes doesnt work out for ya

good luck!!!!

Answer 2

I'd stick with the summary. It will reinforce your understanding of what you've read. I find that reading the analysis section prevents you from coming up with your own unique interpretation of the text.

Answer 3

Read the summary first. It helps you get an overall outlook on what is happening in the story. If you still don't get it, skip to the analysis. I usually do this first because I have no clue how to interpret this c**p from symbolic authors (BLEH!) or why I am in Honors English. You should look at cliff notes and  other websites for other interpretations also.