AP English
Mr. Neff
Sample theses for “The Dead”
 (ex.) In Dubliners and, more precisely, through its
representative work “The Dead” and its protagonist
Gabriel Conroy, James Joyce employs an array of motifs
and symbols to set forth his thesis for both the cause
and potential escape from Ireland’s social paralysis.
[a Formalist/New Critic approach]
o Establish supporting claims and then find
evidence in the text to support each claim (wide
variety of social classes and positions
represented at the party; the dinner table
description as a symbol of conflict; intertextual
allusions to other paralyzed and awakened
“Dubliners”; connection between Gabriel’s
epiphany and snow as a symbol of unity). Produce
(rough) outline. Reorganize claims for best fit.
Begin draft.
 (ex.) In “The Dead”, James Joyce creates a moment of
dramatic irony in which his protagonist’s epiphany
differs from the reader’s epiphany; specifically, the
reader becomes aware of the limitations of the
protagonist’s epiphany. This contrast allows the
reader to learn the valuable lesson that Gabriel
Conroy cannot learn, and thus escape the paralytic
state in which Gabriel himself is tragically frozen.
[a more Reader Response-oriented approach]
 The point is, a thesis for a literary analysis should
be an argument (it’s debatable), it should be precise,
and it should suggest—to at least some degree—the
nature of at least some of the evidence that will be
examined or the approach that will be used to support
the argument.
If you’re looking for additional help, you could do worse
than the following sites, some of which are more extensive
than others:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/618/01/
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/thesis.html
and
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature.html