Literary Analysis Essay Assignment on Yiyun Li
Suggested Writing Process

Read the stories and decide on a topic.

Watch videos and read articles about Yiyun Li from the Lib Guide posted on Moodle.

Read the academic articles suggested for your essay topic posted on Moodle.

Highlight or underline the quotes from the stories related to your topic.

Highlight or underline the quotes from the sources related to your topic.

Read the document “Help with Quoting” and complete the “Practice Quoting Exercise” in your
journal.

Use your information to create an outline using the “Suggested Essay Outline” posted on
Moodle.
Reading Assignment: Read the four short stories by Yiyun Li posted on Moodle DE--“Sweeping
Past,” “Love in the Marketplace,” “Persimmons,” “A Sheltered Life”
Essay Assignment: Analyze the theme of madness or revenge in a story or stories by Yiyun Li.
Topics:

Analyze characters: Why and how do different characters in Li’s stories display elements of
madness or revenge?

Analyze the setting: How does the cultural environment affect or determine the madness or
revenge in these stories?

Identify and analyze symbol(s) of madness in a story or stories.

One definition of madness is “mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it.” But
Emily Dickinson wrote, “Much madness is divinest Sense—/ To a discerning Eye—.”
Novelists and playwrights have often seen madness with a “discerning Eye.” In Li’s stories, the
madness or irrational behavior of several characters plays an important role. Does Li
view madness with a “discerning Eye” in these stories? Are the actions of his “mad” characters
“divinest Sense” or are they simply exhibiting “eccentric behavior”? Analyze the origins and
the impact of a character’s apparent madness on the central ideas of the text.
Academic Articles Suggested for Yiyun Li’s Stories by Title
Note: These articles are posted in Moodle for you to use.
“Sweeping Past”--
Chen, Stephen, H., et al. "Parental Expressivity And Parenting Styles In
articles on parenting
and China’s one child
policy
Chinese Families: Prospective And Unique Relations To Children's
Psychological Adjustment." Parenting: Science & Practice 11.4 (2011):
288-307. CINAHL Complete. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
Xiao-Tian, Feng, Dudley L. Poston Jr., and Wang Xiao-Tao. "China's OneChild Policy And The Changing Family." Journal Of Comparative
Family Studies 45.1 (2014): 17-29. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 11
Feb. 2015.
“Love in the
Marketplace”—
articles on mysticism
and madness and
China’s one child
policy
Heriot-Maitland, Charles P. "Mysticism And Madness: Different Aspects Of
The Same Human Experience?." Mental Health, Religion &
Culture 11.3 (2008): 301-325. Religion and Philosophy Collection.
Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
“Persimmons”—
articles on mysticism
and madness and
China’s one child
policy
Heriot-Maitland, Charles P. "Mysticism And Madness: Different Aspects Of
The Same Human Experience?." Mental Health, Religion &
Culture 11.3 (2008): 301-325. Religion and Philosophy Collection.
Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
Xiao-Tian, Feng, Dudley L. Poston Jr., and Wang Xiao-Tao. "China's OneChild Policy And The Changing Family." Journal Of Comparative
Family Studies 45.1 (2014): 17-29. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 11
Feb. 2015.
Xiao-Tian, Feng, Dudley L. Poston Jr., and Wang Xiao-Tao. "China's OneChild Policy And The Changing Family." Journal Of Comparative
Family Studies 45.1 (2014): 17-29. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 11
Feb. 2015.
“A Sheltered Life”—
articles on
postpartum
depression, parenting
in China, and the
article by Leyshon on
Yiyun Li (online
article, not in the
folder)
Chen, Stephen, H., et al. "Parental Expressivity And Parenting Styles In
Chinese Families: Prospective And Unique Relations To Children's
Psychological Adjustment." Parenting: Science & Practice 11.4 (2011):
288-307. CINAHL Complete. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
Kettunen, Pirjo, Eeva Koistinen, and Jukka Hintikka. "Is Postpartum
Depression A Homogenous Disorder: Time Of Onset, Severity,
Symptoms And Hopelessness In Relation To The Course Of
Depression." BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 14.1 (2014): 95117.Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
Leyshon, Cressida. “This Week in Fiction:Yiyun Li.” The New Yorker, 10 Mar.
2014. Web. 12 February 2015.
Help with Quoting for Literary Analysis Essay
*See pages 757-773 in Little, Brown and 221-241 in Word and Image for
more details and examples on writing a literary analysis essay.
Referring to authors and works
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The first time you make reference to authors, refer to them by their first and last names.
In subsequent references, use last names only: Rash’s stories are about characters who are suffering
hard times.
As a rule, do not use titles such as Mr. or Ms. or Dr.
Titles of articles, short poems, and short stories are put in quotation marks and the titles novels,
long poems, videos, plays, magazines, journals, or newspapers are italicized.
When introducing quotations from a literary work, make sure that you don’t confuse the work’s
author with the narrator of the story or a character in the story. Instead of naming the author, you
can refer to the narrator or speaker—or to the work itself. Only talk about Yiyun Li when you are
talking about how the stories are written or collected. Talk about the characters when you are
writing about the plot.
Remember to I.C.E. your quotes:
Introduce—The quotes from the stories need to be introduced.
 If you are quoting what a character says, you need to use the character’s name in your attributive
tag and explain who he is speaking to:
Ailin tells her granddaughter, “They went out for a field trip all by themselves and he choked
her by accident” (Li).
 If you are quoting dialog between characters in the story, you need to introduce the scene and
keep the same paragraph breaks as they appear in the story; if the dialog is going to take up more
than four lines of your essay, you need indent, and you will still use the quotation marks to show
who is speaking:
Parson discusses Danny’s thefts with the sheriff:
“Don’t do that as a favor to me,” Parson said. “If his own daddy don’t give a damn he’s
a thief, why should I?”
“How come you think Ray doesn’t care?” Hawkins asked.
“Because Danny’s been bringing things from the farm to me for months. Ray knows
where they’re going. I called him three months ago and told him myself. He said he
couldn’t do anything about it.” (24)
 If you are not quoting dialog, then introduce the scene from the story so the quote will make
sense:
Jared hides the ring in his room, so he can give it to Lyndee after Christmas vacation and
believes “once he gave it to her, Lyndee would finally like him, and it would be for real” (80).
 Write in present tense; do not use past tense verbs:
You should say: Edna asserts, “Nothing under the bantam. That’s four days in a row” (3).
You should not say: Edna asserted, “Nothing under the bantam. That’s four days in a row” (3).
 Use a variety of present tense verbs when you quote from the literature—acknowledges, agrees,
argues, asks, asserts, believes, claims, comments, contends, declares, denies, emphasizes,
realizes, notes, insists, etc.
 If what you are quoting takes up four lines or more of your essay, you need to indent your quote
and you do not need quotation marks--unless a character is speaking. (See page 700 for an
example.)
Cite
 For quotes from Yiyun Li’s stories, you will always have a parenthetical citation with the page
number(s), except for the story “Sweeping Past” since it is only published online. You only need
to put the author’s last name, Li, the first time you quote from her story:
Chanel sobs, “I think I have postpartum depression” (Li 62).
Auntie Mei insists, “Don’t speak nonsense” (62).
 You don’t need to always quote directly from the story; you can paraphrase (put in your own
words) and summarize long passages; however, you will still need provide a parenthetical
citation with the page number(s):
When Auntie Mei tries to get Chanel to eat, Chanel starts to cry and says she has postpartum
depression, but Auntie Mei tells her she is being silly (Li 62).
Explain
 After each quote, summary, or paraphrase from the stories, you need to explain how it relates to
your thesis. Don’t assume I am going to read the quote the same way that you do. Tell me how
the quote supports the idea you are trying to get across:
Parson discusses Danny’s thefts with the sheriff:
“Don’t do that as a favor to me,” Parson said. “If his own daddy don’t give a damn he’s a
thief, why should I?”
“How come you think Ray doesn’t care?” Hawkins asked.
“Because Danny’s been bringing things from the farm to me for months. Ray knows where
they’re going. I called him three months ago and told him myself. He said he couldn’t do
anything about it.” (24)
Even though Danny is Parson’s nephew, Parson does not seem to feel responsible for his
actions. He feels like it is Danny’s father, Ray, who should be responsible and he telephoned
Ray three months earlier when Danny first began bringing in items from the farm. Until the
sheriff is involved, Parson is happy to leave Ray alone to deal with Danny even though Ray
admitted to Parson that he could not stop Danny from taking the things from the farm.
Journal Assignment: Practice Quoting
1.
Quote something a character says that is related to your topic.
2.
Paraphrase something from the story that is related to your topic.
3.
Quote something related to your topic from one of the articles.
Suggested Essay Outline
I.
Choose a topic, then write an introduction with a working thesis statement. If you cannot
create a thesis statement now, don’t panic; write the introduction without a thesis and move on to step
2.; in graduate school, I was taught to formulate my introductions for literary analysis essays as
Subject + Summary + Topic + Thesis
Summary of stories
Introduce the topic you are writing about in this essay (character, theme, or symbol)
Thesis tell the reader your idea about the topic; if you like formulas, you can think of
your thesis like this: thesis = topic + your idea*
*Your idea needs to make an argument; it can not just be a statement of fact. You are
analyzing the stories, thinking about the topic, and then making a claim about how this
topic is treated in the stories.
II.
Body paragraphs need quotes from the stories and sources; remember to follow MLA
guidelines for the quotes.
A.
From the stories: Each body paragraph should have quotes and details from the stories
to develop your thesis.
1.
ONLY quote material if it’s worth quoting—otherwise, paraphrase in your own
words important information and cite the page number in parenthetical citations. Your
purpose in this essay is to discuss the significance of your evidence, showing how it
fulfills your thesis and develops your main idea. You are NOT retelling, describing, or
plot-summarizing the stories.
2.
Your quotes from the stories should just be related to your thesis. You need intext citations in the body paragraphs with the page numbers WHENEVER you use
information from all of the stories, except for “Sweeping Past.” When you quote
dialogue, you need to tell the reader the name of the character speaking in the attributive
tag and put Li and the page number in the parenthetical citation. For example, Chanel
tells Auntie Mei, “I think I have postpartum depression” (Li, “Sweeping” 62). See page
669-670 in Little, Brown on how to quote an author of two or more cited works.
B. From the sources, you need to integrate information from at least three library sources that
address the topic of your essay. You can quote from literary sources about Li’s writing or from
academic journals that discuss the topic of madness or the conditions in China. At least one of
your three sources needs to be an article from a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal. You may use
the academic articles in Moodle or any other multi-page, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal
article that you find in the library databases.
III.
Your conclusion should begin with a restated thesis, and then discuss the value of analyzing
these two stories together. How does it help you better understand this topic or the writer as a whole?