L3-a: Drafting an introduction

L3-aDraft an introduction that announces your interpretation.

The introduction to a literature analysis is usually one paragraph long. In most cases, you will want to begin the paragraph with a few sentences that provide context for your thesis and to end it with a thesis that sums up your interpretation. You may also want to note the question or issue that motivated your interpretation. In this way, you will help your reader understand not only what your idea or thesis is but also why it matters.

The following is an introductory paragraph announcing a student’s interpretation of one aspect of the novel Frankenstein; the thesis is highlighted.

In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, Walton’s ambition as an explorer, to find a passage to the North Pole, mirrors Frankenstein’s ambition as a scientist, to discover and master the secret of life. But where Frankenstein is ultimately destroyed by his quest for knowledge, Walton turns back from his quest when he learns of Frankenstein’s fate. Walton’s story might seem unimportant, but paired with Frankenstein’s, it keeps us from missing one of the novel’s most important themes. Through the character of Walton, Shelley suggests that the most profound and useful sort of knowledge is not a knowledge of nature’s secrets but a knowledge of the limits of knowledge itself.