When supporting your ideas in a paper, when arguing a claim of any sort, you need to back up your claim with strong examples to support your claim.
Now, when you are writing about literature in particular, you need to support your claim with examples from the book in question. If you are writing about something else, then you may need examples from outside research or other sources. But in any and all cases, you need examples to prove your points. (And you need to support your examples with analysis, explaining to your reader how they fit your point).
How do you go about selecting the *best* examples? When there are many to choose from, it can be easy to be lazy and just pick the first example you see. However, not all examples are created equal.
I like to use an analogy to explain how to find the best evidence for your claim. Similarly to doing library-based research, it takes some time and effort--you cannot simply pick the first example that you see when you flip the book open. However, in the long run, choosing the best example will save you time, because it will do more work for you than if you picked a weaker example.
The analogy: The Murder Weapon
Say you are a prosecuting attorney for an infamous murder trial. You have three pieces of evidence with which to make your case against the murderer, but you are only permitted to share one piece in the courtroom.
Here are your three pieces of evidence:
The murder weapon itself, a gun that still have a finger attached to it from the person who shot the victim -- their finger just ripped off when they shot the gun.
A glove that fell on the ground with fingerprints from the murderer on it.
A cat, who witnessed it all.
Which piece of evidence should you use to win your case?
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