Sample Thesis Statements
for Scholarly Essays—College Bound
Place your thesis statement as the last sentence of the first paragraph.
Dedicate your whole essay to proving you are right.
Repeat a similar statement in your conclusion.
1. ADVERTISEMENT ANALYSIS
With highly strategic, subtle, and psychological images, messages, fonts, and symbols,
Abercrombie & Fitch ads continue to persuade consumers to pay far too much for clothing
that cannot make anyone truly possess improved beauty or self-worth.
2. ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM ARGUMENT
Anti-intellectualism is rampant in America, but no where is stupidity and superficiality more
rewarded than on MTV’s “Jersey Shore,” where “muscles and mammaries over minds” is the
only lauded, acceptable maxim.
3. ANTICIPATION GUIDE STATEMENT
(select a statement from the Anticipation Guide or select a statement or answer a
question from Prof. Bedard’s email to me)
Statement #7 “Hate is inherent to human nature” resonates with readers of One Flew Over
the Cuckoo’s Nest because this statement commands attention and leads us to deem it
profoundly untrue.
4. BINARY OPPOSITIONS ANALYSIS
An extremely revealing and salient binary opposition in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is
organic vs. robotic—once scholars focus on this binary, critical thinking possibilities abound.
5. CHARACTER ANALYSIS
If readers analyze Jim Sefelt’s portrayal, role, and traits, we can experience great epiphanies
about Kesey’s themes of oppression in America.
6. DREAM ANALYSIS
Each of the seemingly random objects in my dream—the convertible, Brad Pitt, the squirrel,
and the hands-to-doves transformation—should and can be viewed as revealing a vital
“truth” about me.
7. FILM ANALYSIS
Because of No Country for Old Men’s unique wide and tight camera angles and the lack of any
soundtrack whatsoever, the viewer becomes enmeshed in an introspective analysis of human
evil and cruelty.
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8. HERO ANALYSIS
My mom is my hero because she behaves selflessly and saintly even in the most adverse
conditions.
9. LENS ANALYSIS
Of all literary approaches, the Marxist lens best magnifies the essential meaning of Ken
Kesey’s salient One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
10. LITERACY AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Because of early Bible studies with my mom, mature film analysis with my dad, and rigorous
expectations with two high school English teachers, I am now empowered to analyze
sophisticated literature.
11. METAPHOR ANALYSIS
The dog meeting the car during Chief’s moonlight stroll surges as the most important
metaphor from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
The rape of Santa Claus, an American icon, howls out as the most powerful
metaphorical image in Kesey’s masterpiece.
12. MY BEST QUALITY
My best quality is loyalty to that which is good to me; as soon as a system proves itself to be
great to me, I will devote all I can to that system.
13. NOVEL EXCERPT
Poignant and perfectly positioned, the passage during which Chief Bromden speaks about his
football-playing days and his desire for a young, black girl is undervalued by literature
students.
14. SYMBOL ANALYSIS
The pill Chief Bromden has been taking for decades is the central symbol in Cuckoo’s Nest
because it signifies the rigid regimentation Americans are expected to “swallow” every
morning of their lives.
15. WHY? ANALYSIS
Go beyond the obvious; pizza is wildly popular in America because it is round, freezable, and
has handles.
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