Literary genres include drama, adventure, epic, fantasy, fable, historical fiction, science fiction, mystery, biography and more. Stories categorized into the same genre abide by similar rules and expectations for characters, conflicts, settings, themes and plot development. Identifying a story's genre can give you insight into what expectations the writing should fulfill. Noting when rules of the genre are broken, bent or challenged can help you analyze the story's message and purpose.
The time and place in which a story takes place provide context for story events and character perspectives. Identifying periods of past, present and future and considering the specific qualities of the story's location inform you of that context, contributing to values, expectations and concerns characterizing the world of the story.
The way a writer chooses to arrange a story's events -- in sequence from beginning to end, in reverse, withholding information for a major revelation, jumping around from one perspective to the next, etc. -- impacts a reader's response to the story and informs the author's thematic purpose.
A story's point of view informs the degree to which its narrator may be untrustworthy or biased in conveying the world and events of the story. A third-person omniscient (knows and tells about all characters) or third-person limited point of view (tells about a single character) is objective, presented by a narrator with no role in the story itself. However, a first-person point of view is presented by a narrator who also participates in the story itself, and may therefore be skewed by that perspective. Point of view influences a reader's response to story events and characters, so analyzing why a writer chose the point of view he did can also provide insight into the story's themes and purpose.
Character descriptions, personalities, actions, desires, conflicts, growth (or lack thereof) and interactions with other characters let readers know about their purpose and significance within the world of the story. Readers pay most attention to major characters, but even minor characters deserve analysis, having been purposefully integrated into the story.
Identifying all perspectives of a story's central conflict (man vs. man, man vs. self, man vs. nature, etc.) and the ways in which characters do or don't resolve it also inform a story's thematic purpose.
Authors may use characters, objects, colors and other elements to symbolize abstract ideas like hope, love, desire, despair, greed and more, depending upon the story's context and concerns. Motifs occur when such symbolism, juxtaposition or literary devices recur throughout a story, signaling their significance in relation to the story's themes.
A story's elements all come together in a writer's exploration of several universal themes. The way he uses those tools gives readers clues regarding his position on a theme and his story's overall intent.