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MLA Format

Literary Research Paper

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I. From Topic To Thesis

Pat, the student who will be your guide, has been given a research assignment topic

from which she will create a working thesis.

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Table of Contents

1. Pat’s Assignment 4

2. Selecting a Topic 5-6

3. Creating a Thesis 7-8

4. Pat’s Thesis Question 9

5. Pat’s Tentative Thesis 10

6. Pat’s Next Step: Library Visit Unit II

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Pat’s Assignment Topic

Write a 5-6 page research paper that explores one aspect of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” State your thesis clearly and provide two or three supporting ideas.

Cite at least five sources using MLA format.

• Formulate a thesis statement.• Go to the library to do research.• Plan the essay in the form of an outline.• Write the essay and then revise it.

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Hysteria?The rest

cure?

Gothic elements

in the story?

The yellow wallpaper?

This is an interesting story, but which topic

to choose?

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The wallpaper has a special meaning—

there must be a lot written

about symbols in the story. . .

The wallpaper must be

important—it’s in the title. . .

The narrator sees a woman

crawling around in it.

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Ways to Explore a Topic

• Formulate a thesis.

• Make an outline of ideas to support the thesis.

• Cluster/map ideas freely.

• Do a free write to put some ideas in writing.

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What is a thesis?

A thesis asserts the point or makes the argument the paper will prove.

An effective thesis is an overall umbrella for all the ideas in the paper.

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How to Create a Thesis

The best way to create a thesis is to ask a central research question.

“What is the meaning of the yellow wallpaper?”

The answer to the question is the thesis.

Also see:

Professor Jonaitis/Davis’ From Topic to Thesis Purdue Online Writing Lab

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Pat’s Working Thesis

“The yellow wallpaper in Gilman’s story seems to symbolize repression of women...”

I need to do some research now!

On to the library!

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Pat’s “Scratch” Outline

Meanings of Wallpaper

• Wallpaper as Prison (physical)—kept in roomHusband as jailerBars

• Social RepressionNo relatives, friends or outside contacts

• Women expected to be domestic—marriage, home, children Wallpaper as domestic confinement?

• Narrator’s view of wallpaper—symbol of her resistance/insanity (?)

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Pat’s Free Write

The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a prisoner in her own house. Her husband is a doctor and he makes sure that the narrator follows the rest cure to help her recover from a nervous disorder that is probably post partum depression. He doesn’t seem to care about her as a human being. He treats her like a child and doesn’t value her opinions. She is cut off from friends and relatives that she enjoys. He may think he is doing the right thing, but he is really an abusive husband. The removal of all intellectual and social stimulation is probably what drives the narrator crazy. Because she doesn’t have anything else to do, she stares at the wallpaper until she starts seeing things. Obviously, the paper is a symbol of her imprisonment by her husband, who represents the repression of marriage and women’s social roles in the 19th century. Women could not vote and were expected to marry and be wives and mothers, not work outside the home. They were stuck like the woman crawling in the wallpaper. I would have probably gone crazy, too, if I had been in that narrator’s position.