Body Paragraph Example

The following is a very successful body paragraph written by one of your fellow students. After the body paragraph is a chart breaking down the components of the paragraph. Notice as well that the quotes are integrated in with analytical and interpretive statements of how this text contributes to the overall point of the paragraph. This paragraph begins with a strong topic sentence and stays focused on proving the point identified:

     The paradoxical concepts of freedom and oppression displayed in the short story create a subtle juxtaposition between Clytie and Hermes through Hermes’ agricultural and messenger roles in the Greek legend. Hermes acts as Zeus’s swift-footed messenger, as such, he is the only God who has the power to transverse between the different worlds. He is also known as the God of Animal Husbandry; Hermes protects and/or herds cattle and other farm like animals. Welty uses Hermes’s connection to these land-locked animals as a reflection of Clytie’s same predicament on a conceptual level. Since Clytie has lost her prized possession, her identity, she has slowly drawn herself away from the community and has become more animalistic in her behaviors. The author explains with vivid imagery that she becomes so absent minded in her search for what she has lost that she would often stand in the middle of the street in the pouring rain “with the patience of almost a beast […] as if she were waiting for something,” until someone called her name (Welty 425). However, even after some would speak, she “didn’t look around, but clenched her hands and drew them up under her armpits, and sticking out her elbows like hen wings, she ran out of the street, “her poor hat creaking and beating about her ears” (Welty 425). This comparison is amplified with diction that has animalistic connotations of how she “savagely” and “rapidly” eats her food (Welty 430). Clytie adopts many of these animalistic characteristics, because her own identity is unknown to her.

Topic Sentence:	The paradoxical concepts of freedom and oppression displayed in the short story create a subtle juxtaposition between Clytie and Hermes through Hermes’ agricultural and messenger roles in the Greek legend.
Relevant allusion background:	Hermes acts as Zeus’s swift-footed messenger, as such, he is the only God who has the power to transverse between the different worlds. He is also known as the God of Animal Husbandry; Hermes protects and/or herds cattle and other farm like animals.
Explanation of Welty’s use of the allusion:	Welty uses Hermes’s connection to these land-locked animals as a reflection of Clytie’s same predicament on a conceptual level. Since Clytie has lost her prized possession, her identity, she has slowly drawn herself away from the community and has become more animalistic in her behaviors.
Textual evidence and Analysis supporting previous point:	The author explains with vivid imagery that she becomes so absent minded in her search for what she has lost that she would often stand in the middle of the street in the pouring rain “with the patience of almost a beast […] as if she were waiting for something,” until someone called her name (Welty 425). However, even after some would speak, she “didn’t look around, but clenched her hands and drew them up under her armpits, and sticking out her elbows like hen wings, she ran out of the street, “her poor hat creaking and beating about her ears” (Welty 425). This comparison is amplified with diction that has animalistic connotations of how she “savagely” and “rapidly” eats her food (Welty 430).
Restatement of main idea:	Clytie adopts many of these animalistic characteristics, because her own identity is unknown to her.