(This Needs to Be Reformatted to Work with Critical Analysis of Essays Rather Than Stories

(This needs to be reformatted to work with critical analysis of essays rather than stories, but is a good basic idea)

Thesis statements for critical analysis

------Your thesis--your main point--should be something interesting you see in the essay. It should not be something so obvious that everyone who read the essay would agree with it.
------Your thesis should not stay on the general thematic level--it needs to delve deeper than that. Don't just tell me race is "present" in an story. This is too general.
------Let's take a story everyone has read, "Do What You Can" by Keith Scribner (the woman's letter to the judge), available at Here are some examples of unsuccessful thesis statements, what's wrong with them, and how to make them better:
EXAMPLE #1: "The main character in "Do What You Can" loots stores even though she's rich."
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS?: It's too obvious. Of course she's rich. Of course she loots the stores. So what? This is just summarizing something from the story.
EXAMPLE #1 (REVISED): "In 'Do What You Can," the main character loots the stores even though she's wealthy herself; this reveals deeper urges within her to break out of the social class constructs she lives with every day."
WHY IS THIS BETTER?: In the revised version, the person writing the thesis says what he thinks something MEANS to the story. He gives a deeper significance.
EXAMPLE #2: "'Do What You Can' has a lot to do with gender and can be read from a feminist point of view."
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS?: Again, no one would disagree. This is too general, too "safe." Write a thesis that takes a risk. What about gender? What about feminism, beyond the fact that it's present?
EXAMPLE #2 (REVISED): "In 'Do What You Can,' everything the main character gets away with is because of her gender, which shows that despite her 'rebellious' actions, she is actually powerless; all the power she has comes from her gender and not from who she is as a person."
WHY IS THIS BETTER?: Not everyone would agree with it. It's specific. It's interesting.
REMEMBER: Your thesis is an interpretation, and SHOULD be controversial. You are making an ARGUMENT about how to read a piece of literature. You are PROVING your thesis by analyzing the text. The whole point is to convince the reader that the way you see the story is a valid way.