Explicating means slowly revealing meanings in a literary work or passage. First, choose a passage from one of the course stories that you identify as a key scene, a statement of theme, a crucial conversation, or perhaps choose an opening or closing section. Write an essay interpreting the passage line by line. Notice the significance of the details and show how they connect to the larger elements of the story, such as theme, character, or symbol. Begin your paper by quoting the passage and identify the page and paragraph in parentheses.
Your title should include a descriptive phrase reflecting your thesis followed by:
Creeping Woman: An Explication of a Passage in Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" (substitute selected story)
Your bibliography will list the short story:
Work Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." American Short Stories. Seventh Edition. Ed. Bert Hitchcock, et al. New York: Longman, 2008. 186-198.
Following is a possible approach to this assignment if you choose Chopin's "Désirée's
Baby" --
Notice the plot structure of this story--the background or exposition, the
complication, the climax, and the dénouement or resolution. Chopin carefully
connected each section of the story so that each part explains other parts.
Explicate one or two passages which demonstrate this crafting of the plot and
note how the excerpt (or excerpts) reinforces the theme.