Tips for Writing Thesis Statements-Sample Prompt:

In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively,

the present actions, attitudes, or values of a character. Several characters in
F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby must contend with some aspect of the
past, either personal or societal. After you have read The Great Gatsby, write
an essay in which you show how a characters relationship to the past
contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize
the plot.
Sample Thesis: In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Tom
Buchanan's privileged past illuminates the idea that material wealth
inevitably leads to a decline in moral values.
Here are the Thesis Essentials:
1.Title of Work (The Great Gatsby)
2.Author (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
3.Literary Device- (In this case) Character (Tom Buchanan) -This is the part
of the thesis that requires you to identify a literary device. This part of the AP
prompt is interchangeable. It could be a symbol, a setting, a scene, allusion,
metaphor, a character, plot (etc.)
4.Purpose: How and why Fitzgerald uses Tom's past to illuminate the idea
that material wealth inevitably leads to a decline in moral values. (This
statement answers how Tom's relationship to the past contributes to the
meaning of the work as a whole.)
Q: If I follow the formula won't my thesis sound boring and generic?
A: This is where a good vocabulary and active voice come in to play. Use the
formula as a foundation, then build on it with your vocabulary and active
voice.

THEME VOCABULARY
Brendan Kennys List of Abstract Ideas for Forming Theme Statements:
alienation
ambition
appearance v. reality
betrayal
bureaucracy
chance/fate/luck
children
courage/cowardice
cruelty/violence
custom/tradition
defeat/failure
despair/discontent/disillus
ionment
domination/suppression
dreams/fantasies

Duty
Education
Escape
Exile
faith/loss of faith
falsity/pretence
family/parenthood
free will/willpower
game/contests/sport
s
greed
guilt
heart v. reason
heaven/paradise/Uto
pia
home

identity
illusion/innocenc
e
initiation
instinct
journey (literal or
psychological)
law/justice
loneliness/solitud
e
loyalty/disloyalty
materialism
memory/the past
mob psychology
music/dance
patriotism

persistence/persev
erance
poverty
prejudice
prophecy
repentance
revenge/retributio
n
ritual/ceremony
scapegoat/victim
social status
(class)
the supernatural
time/eternity
war
women/feminism

IDENTIFYING and EXPRESSING THEME as THESIS

STATEMENT
Method A (sample from Writing Essays about Literature by Kelley
Griffith):
Subject
1.
What is the work about? Provide a one to three word answer. See Theme
Vocabulary above.
Theme
2.
What is the authors message with regard to #1 as it pertains to the human
condition? In other words, what comment does the work make on human nature,
the human condition, human motivation, or human ambition?
3.

In identifying and stating theme, be sure that the observation

(a) is not too terse to express the complexity of the human experience
(b) avoids moralizing words such as should and ought
(c) avoids specific reference to plot and characters
(d) avoids absolute words such as anyone, all, none, everything, and everyone

4.

Using both dependent and independent clauses, write a complex sentence which
fulfills the requirements above and which explains one of the major themes of the
work.

Sample for Anna Karenina:

Subject: sacred versus profane love
Theme: Although people can, through no fault of their own, become entrapped in longlasting and destructive relationships, sacred commitments, like marriage and
parenthood, take precedence over extramarital loves, no matter how passionate and
deeply felt they may be.

IDENTIFYING and EXPRESSING THEME as THESIS

Method B (adapted from material by Brendan Kenny):
1. Theme is an abstract idea (See Theme Vocabulary above.) coupled with a
universal comment or observation which addresses one of the following: (a)
human motivation (b) the human condition (c) human ambition.
2. A strategy for discovering a works theme is to apply questions about these
areas to the work.
* What image of humankind emerges from the work? If people are good, what
good things do they do? If people are no damned good (Mark Twain), how and to
what extent are they flawed?
*What moral issues are raised in the work? Who serves as the moral center of
the work? Who is the one person with whom the author vests right action and
right thought? What values does the moral center embody?
* Is the society or social scheme portrayed by the author life-enhancing or lifedestroying? What causes and perpetuates this society?
* What control over their lives do the characters have? Are there forces beyond
their control?
* How do the title, subtitle, epigraph, and names of the characters relate to the
theme?
3. In identifying and stating theme, be sure that the observation
(a) is not too terse to express the complexity of the human experience
(b) avoids moralizing words such as should and ought
(c) avoids specific reference to plot and characters
(d) avoids absolute words such as anyone, all, none, everything, and everyone
4. Sample for The Most Dangerous Game:
Men, when they are courageous and lucky, even in a hostile environment, can
overcome the odds against their survival.
5. Sample for The Catcher in the Rye:
In the presence of corruption, escape may provide some hope of preserving our
innocence but denies our responsibility to alter, rebel against or sometimes grow to
accept what we see as threatening.

STATEMENT

More Thesis Statement Tips:

1. Your thesis statement directs all of the ideas, quote selection, and
commentary in
your essay. Therefore, a muddled or imprecise thesis statement will lead to an
unclear or meaningless essay.
2. A thesis statement is NOT:
a. An abstract concept. For example, Greed is not a thesis statement.
b. A general universal truth. For example, the following sentence is
not a
thesis statement: For thousands of years, man has been greedy.
3. A thesis statement IS a statement that provides direction for the analysis of
a
theme or idea presented by a particular text. Therefore, in order to construct
an
effective thesis statement, you must first determine what a text is suggesting
about an abstract concept (like greed, for example). Your thesis statement will
address an abstract concept PLUS the evaluation of that concept through a
particular text.
4. A thesis statement for The Pardoners Tale might address the abstract
concept
of greed as it is handled in the story. The first two examples are NOT thesis
statements. The third one is a complete thesis statement.
a. Greed is something that man has struggled with for centuries, as
demonstrated in The Pardoners Tale by Chaucer. (Abstract Concept
only)
b. The Pardoners Tale, written by Chaucer, is a story about how three
men
kill one another while looking for Death. (Plot Summary)
c. The Pardoners Tale, written by Chaucer, suggests that the deadly
sin of
greed is stronger than any oath of friendship, and will ultimately lead
those
who give into its allure to their own destruction.