How do you put a quote by a character from a book in an essay?

I am writing an essay about the book Lord of the Flies, I am quoting Jack, one of the main characters in the book. This is what I have:

Jack represents human’s capacity for evil. In the beginning, he desired peace and order like the civilized English boy that he was, “I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things.” (42).

42 is the page number.

That part of my essay is in the body paragraph. I already put what the title is and who wrote it in the introduction paragraph since the whole essay is about the book. So is just putting the page number like that the correct way to put a character quote? Also, are there any grammar mistakes?

When you quote a passage such as this, instead of listing the page number (42) at the end of the quote, you should list a footnote number. If this is the first quote that you're attributing, the footnote number would be "1". If you're using a word processing program, there is an option in your font menu called "superscript." Use that to type your "1". Then at the bottom of the page, in the lower margin, you list the footnote in the following format:

(1) Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. London: Faber & Faber, 1954. 42.


You list the author of the book, the title, the city in which it was published, the name of the publisher, the year it was first published and then the page(s) you are quoting, in that order.

If the essay is about "Lord of the Flies" it should be obvious that the quote comes from that book. In which case there is no need to put in a footnote acknowledging the provenance.

bhaisahab said:

If the essay is about "Lord of the Flies" it should be obvious that the quote comes from that book. In which case there is no need to put in a footnote acknowledging the provenance.

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I hesitate to disagree with a Moderator, but in my experience the standard footnoting format is always used, even in a single-topic essay. Some teachers require this simply to familiarize their students with the style. Also, it is standard to format as I indicated in the case of a novel that has been reprinted many times over the years so that the teacher knows exactly which edition the student is quoting. Just my two cents, though - I've been wrong before. (I remember that day...) :lol:

Whether you include an acknowledgement in a footnote or not, I suggest that you present that part of your essay like this:
Jack represents human’s capacity for evil. In the beginning, he desired peace and order like the civilized English boy that he was. On page 42 he says: “I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things.”