Proof

I have selected the element "proof" to elaborate upon. Without proof in a literary essay, one's opinions are completely invalid. You cannot suggest that a character enjoys the color purple, unless you have quotes and passages from the text that state that the character enjoys purple. Even in the text does not explicitly say that the character likes purple, it might hint in some way. If this is the case, even more proof in necessary. Hints are something that can also be interpreted differently. Someone else may look at the same passage and interpret that the character likes blue. Either way, if these two people were to write literary essays, they would need proof to defend their ideas and statements.