Literary Analysis on The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Guidelines for Essay 1: Literary Analysis
• Word Count: 700-1000 words
Your goal in this essay is to demonstrate your understanding of a text, articulate a claim, and support that claim using evidence from the text. Here are your possible topics (you may tweak a topic slightly to suit your interests or just use a portion of the prompt if that works better).
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Examine the way the wallpaper in “The Yellow Wallpaper” serves as a metaphor for the narrator’s psychological state or position in society. How do the narrator’s specific descriptions of the paper help us to understand her or the limits placed on her by her circumstances?
Structure of the essay:
• Introductory paragraph that introduces the text(s) and describes what it is DOING using action verbs; a thesis statement that articulates a claim about the text(s) and answers one of the prompt questions.
• 2-4 body paragraphs (with topic sentences) that focus on specific aspects of the text in support of the thesis. You should provide some quoted and/or paraphrased material (properly integrated, cited, and analyzed) to illustrate your points.
• A conclusion that re-emphasizes your main point and reinforces why it (or the text) is important.
• A works cited page that includes entries for each work discussed, formatted per MLA guidelines
Along those lines, please watch out for vague pronouns cropping up in your writing. Vague pronouns are both a grammatical and a content issue. For instance, some students try to refer to complicated ideas that appear in the previous sentence with a mere “this.” You need to give “this” a more specific designation by adding a noun to it or replacing “this” with a specific noun. Example: instead of saying “THIS is seen in the story when Old Man Warner defends the tradition of the lottery” say “This acceptance of social norms at the expense of an individual’s rights is demonstrated when Old Man Warner . . ” Same rule goes for words like “it,” “which,” and “they.” You can use these words (it’s hard to avoid), but make sure they point to something specific that you have discussed. If not, make it clear to the reader what you are referring to.
A final note: MAKE SURE anything that you use is properly cited both on the works cited page AND in the text using parenthetical references wherever you have quoted from OR paraphrased a source. All major assignments for this class are run through Turnitin.com to check for plagiarism. I have found this a necessary step as I frequently fail students for plagiarizing