QUOTING SOURCES

A quote should always be used to illustrate a point you are trying to make. Don't just plop it down in the middle of a paragraph and expect it to speak for itself, particularly in any kind of analytical essay:

Joy has clearly been carrying around anger about her leg.  She is rude to her mother and she seems to relish the fact that she can make her external experience reflect her internal ugliness and meanness.  She is  "a poor stout girl in her thirties who had never danced or had any normal good times" (101).  Joy is also described as having a "blatant ugliness to her face" (101).

 Quotes should always be preceded or followed by some kind of  commentary. Make it clear why you are including the quote. What point is it helping you to illustrate? What does it mean?

Joy has clearly been carrying around anger about her leg.  She is rude to her mother and she seems to relish the fact that she can make her external experience reflect her internal ugliness and meanness.   The omniscient narrator strongly suggests that she feels sorry for her based on how she is physically described. For example, Joy is described as being 32 years old and from Mrs. Freeman's  perspective there is a "blatant ugliness to her face" (101).  O'Connor also focuses on Mrs. Hopewell's descriptions of her daughter: "She thought of her still as a child because it tore into her heart to think instead of the poor stout girl in her thirties who had never danced or had any normal good times" (101).  The story seems to suggest that because Joy has never had a boyfriend and is not physically attractive in the same way that Mrs. Freeman's daughters are, her mother has  never really accorded her any respect.  Living in this environment would no doubt make Joy even angrier.