Formulate a working thesis.

Printed Page 479

Remember that an arguable thesis is not a simple statement of fact or an obvious conclusion. To get a sense of how you might formulate an arguable thesis, take a look at the thesis statements from the student essays you’ve studied in this chapter.

As an account of a professional doing harm under the pretense of healing, the story uncovers how a doctor can take advantage of the intimate nature of his work and his professional status to overstep common forms of conduct, to the extent that his actions actually hurt rather than help a patient. In this way, the doctor-narrator actually performs a valuable service by warning readers, indirectly through his story, that blindly trusting members of his profession can have negative consequences. (Lee, par. 1)

Through [the doctor’s] actions and words (uttered or thought), readers are able to see the freeing, transformative power of breaking with social conventions. Thus, they are also encouraged to rethink what is acceptable and unacceptable in polite society. (Wright, par. 1)

Printed Page 480

You may have already decided on the main claim you want to make in your short story analysis; if so, try drafting a working thesis statement now. The Ways In activities that follow may help. (Alternatively, if you prefer to develop your analysis before trying to formulate a thesis, skip this activity and return to it when you’re ready.)

Ways In

HOW CAN I FORMULATE AN ARGUABLE THESIS?

Write for ten minutes about your most promising ideas. After writing, read what you have written and see if you can find one main idea or claim that can serve as the thesis for your essay. Focus your exploratory writing on questions like these:

  • How can readers understand a character’s internal conflict or apparent change?
  • How is the story’s theme reflected in the way the story is told, the way the setting is described, how characters relate to one another, or some other aspect of the story?
  • How does the language used to describe the setting or the characters’ actions illuminate such things as the main character’s internal conflict, the relationship between characters, or the theme? (For example, the doctor-patient struggle described in “The Use of Force” forms the basis of Iris Lee’s argument that the story warns readers against blindly trusting doctors.)
  • What does the trajectory of the story (the plot structure) say about the characters or the culture? (For example, Isabella Wright’s analysis of the increasing tension between repression and expression, social conventions and human willfulness, underlies her argument about the value of breaking with these conventions.)

Reread the story with one of the following questions (or a question of your own) in mind, underlining passages or taking notes as you read:

  • How do my ideas about the story form links in a chain leading to some general conclusion? For example, Wright links two ideas: (1) pressure to adhere to social conventions and (2) reasons for breaking with these conventions. She is not simply retelling the story; she is stating her ideas about what happens in the story.
  • How can I present my ideas as a response to a question—either a question my instructor asked or one I composed myself? For example, in their essays, Lee and Wright responded to the first question we posed in the Analyze & Write section for “The Use of Force” (p. 503).
  • What, if anything, does the story say about what may be universally true about people and society versus what may result from specific historical, economic, or cultural conditions? About what is usually considered normal versus what is considered abnormal? About how some groups exert power while others may be oppressed or subversive?

Now reread your notes. Do they suggest one main idea or claim that can serve as the thesis for your essay?

Printed Page 481

Use the sentence strategies that follow as a jumping-off point; put your thesis into your own words when you revise, or use your own words and sentence patterns now:

  • Many readers of point to [state feature(s) of the story], but an important aspect of the story that is often overlooked is .
  • A common (or superficial) reading of [name story or character] is that [common conclusion], but in fact [your own conclusion].
  • Through the actions of [name character], [he/she/we] [is/are] led to this [surprising/alarming/disturbing] conclusion: .
  • Through the events unfolded in , [the main character/we] [is/are] led to this [surprising/alarming/disturbing] conclusion: .