Write down what you think is the strongest viewpoint the author has. Sometimes a view will be stated boldly, but sometimes it is hidden or camouflaged in a minor character’s opinions. Also, write down even minor opinions that the author’s work seems to communicate.
Research the author’s biography to see if there are any likely experiences that might have affected the opinions expressed in the writing itself. For example, in George Orwell’s book 1984, Big Brother is a Stalin-like dictator who is negatively portrayed. George Orwell himself was a Socialist, but his experiences fighting in the Spanish Civil War turned him against totalitarian governments, whether on the Right or the Left. The book can be analyzed by comparing Orwell’s life to details in the book.
Note the author’s gender and see if details in the writing seem to be explainable by their gender orientation. This is a technique much used in the past two decades and is still quite popular, especially with the rise of Women’s Studies departments in universities. Biographical details related to gender, like marriages and divorces, sexual relations with others, or attitudes expressed in other writings by the author can be used to examine the viewpoint in the book or short work under study.
Take an outside theory and apply it to the work in question. For example, you can analyze an author’s viewpoint using Marxist assumptions about the role of an author, or Feminist ones concerning gender roles, or Freudian assumptions about the author’s psyche or interaction between Id and Ego. You can use religious assumptions about sin or redemption, or medical assumptions based on the author’s health and the effect it had on his opinions. The trick is to learn the key concerns of the theory in question, and then use them to examine the writer’s work. You may need to reread the text with those questions in hand, looking specifically for them.