Thesis Statements for Literary Analysis
What is a thesis statement? A thesis statement is the
controlling idea of a paper. It expresses succinctly the idea
that the body of the paper will prove. Other names for the
thesis statement are "main idea," "controlling idea," and
"thesis." If the paper is a literary analysis, as all of the
papers you will write for your AP literature course will be,
your thesis statement will make a debatable claim about one
or more works of literature. Usually, thesis statements
appear in the first paragraph of the paper.
Can any statement be a thesis statement? No. A thesis
statement should be a fresh idea or opinion that is
supportable based on facts or evidence taken from the story,
poem or play discussed in the literary analysis. That is, a
paper's thesis cannot be a restatement of fact or an
unsupportable opinion. A thesis statement must also be
interesting and not immediately obvious. It must elaborate
an idea that most readers would find new and refreshing,
rather than unduly familiar or self-evident. A thesis
statement often suggests a particular way of reading or
understanding a story, an interpretation that the average
reader wouldn't see right away. The best thesis statements
are specific rather than general.
What would be an example of an excellent thesis
statement? Look at the statements below about "Sonny's
Blues" and decide whether each would work as a thesis
statement.
a. Because we sympathize with Sonny, the drug addict in
the story, rather than with his brother, the narrator,
"Sonny's Blues" presents a complex picture of drug use as a
means of coping with sorrow and fear.
b. In "Sonny's Blues," James Baldwin writes about two
brothers attempting to repair their relationship.
c. Both of the characters in "Sonny's Blues" -- Sonny and
the narrator -- change over the course of the story.
d. In "Sonny's Blues" Baldwin uses four female characters,
three of whom are mothers and one of whom is an artist, to
establish his theme that there's no way to avoid suffering in
life.
e. By the end of "Sonny's Blues," the narrator is liberated
from his warped personality; he finally begins to feel, which
means he will be freed from his fear and sadness.
f. Though many people would view the narrator as too
conservative and, for most of the story, not caring enough
toward his brother, the narrator's failings are easy to
understand. Often, the only way to gain a foothold in life is
to ignore people whose lifestyles or behaviors threaten your
stability.
g. Sonny's friend, who approaches the narrator at the
beginning of the story, tells the reader a great deal about
the world in which the brothers live.
Why does a paper need a strong thesis statement? A
paper needs a strong thesis statement so that it can make a
strong argument. Weak thesis statements can result in
papers with no clear direction or in papers that rely on plot
summary to fill their pages. A good thesis statement
predicts limits and organizes the content of the essay. In
other words, it notifies your reader about the scope of the
paper, telling him or her exactly what your paper will cover
and in what order.
Can a thesis statement be more than
one sentence? Yes. Often the best thesis statements are
complex enough to require two or even three sentences. If
you need several sentences to express your idea, use them!
Evaluation of the Thesis Statements:
a. Good. This statement suggests that the truism that "Drugs are bad"
would fail as an interpretation of the story, for it is too simplistic.
Interestingly, this thesis suggests that it will interpret the story's
ambiguous message about drug use as a way of coping.
b. The author of this "thesis" offers no interpretation of the
story at all, but rather merely a description of its plot.
Because this sentence is a statement of fact, and is
therefore not debatable, it is not a thesis at all. Every
successful thesis offers an interesting answer to the
teacher's favorite question: "So what?"
c. Central characters change in almost every story, so the
writer here hasn't offered an engaging or original idea
here. This might be a good beginning thesis, the sort that
helps a writer begin a project, but not the sort you'd want
your final audience to read. If you find yourself writing an
obvious or general thesis, such as this one, consider ways
you can interestingly limit your approach or narrow your
evidence.
d. Good. This thesis brings up a discussion of characters who
are probably usually overlooked because of their minor
status in the story. It suggests that gender, as a noncentral theme, might help readers understand Baldwin's
larger messages.
e. Good, though the vague, "warped" diction suggests that
this paper has a lot to prove. Among other things, the
paper has to prove that narrator is "warped" -- how
exciting! Compare this one to the boring "c" above. With
its focus on feeling and freedom, both of which would
need working definitions from the paper's author, this is
the more specific -- and much better -- version of the "c"
thesis.
f. Interesting! This thesis challenges what "many people"
would think about the narrator, and seem ready to
defend a perceptive psychological profile.
g. A good start, but certainly limited. It's good in that it
focuses on the minor character and suggests that it will
tell us something we probably didn't notice. But it could
be improved if it specified what "a great deal" means.
What, exactly, does the friend tell us? This author should
use the thesis sentence to give us a better understanding
of what themes or arguments he will raise in the essay.
http://cai.ucdavis.edu/uccp/sbthesishandout.html