Your thesis and preliminary outline will point you toward details in the text relevant to your interpretation. As you begin drafting the body of your paper, make good use of those details.
Supporting your interpretation
As a rule, each paragraph in the body of your paper should focus on some aspect of your overall interpretation and should include a topic sentence that states the main idea of the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph should present details and quotations from the work that back up your interpretation. In the following paragraph, which develops part of the organization sketched in the outline in 7c, the topic sentence comes first. It sums up the significance of Janie’s marriage to Logan Killicks in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Janie finds her marriage to Logan Killicks unsatisfying because she did not choose him and cannot love him. The marriage is arranged by Janie’s grandmother and caretaker, Nanny, so that Janie will have a secure home after Nanny dies. When Janie objects to the marriage, Nanny tells her, “’Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection” (15). Janie marries Logan even though she does not love him. She “wait[s] for love to begin” (22), but love never comes. At first, Logan dotes on Janie, but as time passes he demands more and more work from her. Although she works hard in the kitchen, he wants her to perform traditionally masculine tasks such as chopping wood, plowing fields, and shoveling manure. When Janie suggests that they each have their roles—“Youse in yo’ place and Ah’m in mine”—Logan asserts his authority over her and doesn’t seem to relate to her as family: “You ain’t got no particular place. It’s wherever Ah need yuh” (31). As husband and wife, Janie and Logan are estranged from each other. Janie tells him, “You ain’t done me no favor by marryin’ me” (31). Janie’s leaving the marriage is the first step in her growing independence.
Notice that the writer has quoted dialogue from the novel to lend both flavor and substance to her interpretation (quotations are cited with page numbers). Notice too that the writer is interpreting the work: She is not merely summarizing the plot.
Avoiding simple plot summary
In a literature paper, it is tempting to rely heavily on plot summary and avoid interpretation. You can resist this temptation by paying special attention to your topic sentences.
draft: a topic sentence that leads to plot summary
As they drift down the river on a raft, Huck and Jim have many philosophical discussions.
revised: a topic sentence that announces an interpretation
The theme of growing moral awareness is reinforced by the many philosophical discussions between Huck and Jim as they drift down the river on a raft.
Remember that readers are interested in your ideas about a work—the questions you are asking and the details you find significant. To avoid simple plot summary, keep the following strategies in mind as you write.