Question

I need help developing a thesis from the theme of a book. My book is "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett.
The theme I chose is about people working together to overcome obstacles and their fears in order to make a change. I am not very good at developing theses so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Your thesis statement is the central argument of your essay. It must be concise and well-written.

Your thesis goes in the introductory paragraph. Don't hide it; make it clearly asserted at the beginning of your paper.

Your thesis must make an argument. It is the road map to the argument you will subsequently develop in your paper.


Thesis statements must make a claim or argument. They are not statements of fact.

Statement of fact: "A candidates ability to afford television advertising can have an impact on the outcome of Congressional elections." This is essentially an indisputable point and therefore, not a thesis statement.

Similarly, the claim "The United Nations was established to promote diplomacy between major powers." is not likely to inspire much debate.

http://depts.washington.edu/pswrite/thesisstmt.html

Answer 2

Hi! The theme you chose sounds very interesting. Here's the first step to writing your thesis: what are you saying about that theme?

The difference between a theme and a thesis is easy: you just take your theme and say something DEBATABLE about it. Something that someone else might disagree with you about. Then, your essay will be about proving why your thesis is true.

For instance: Are you saying that people often work together to overcome their fears and obstacles and make a change? Or maybe that in order to make a change, people MUST work together to overcome obstacles? What do you think?

Answer 3

PS: make sure that your thesis is the last sentence of your 1st paragraph. And if you need any more help, don't hesitate to ask! :)

Answer 4

Well, the point of this essay is to discuss how the theme is developed throughout the novel using characters, setting, conflict etc. Does the thesis still need to be debatable? I guess your first example is something that I may use. That people often work together to overcome obstacles and their fears to make a change. Would that be good for this essay?

Answer 5

In that case, I would probably reference the development of the theme in your thesis. For instance: "Throughout this book, it becomes obvious that when people work together to overcome obstacles and their fears, big changes can occur."

Answer 6

Then you would have three "main points" of your essay:
1. in the book, people work together.
2. when they work together, they can overcome their obstacles and fears.
3. when they do this, big changes occur.

Those three points then become the 3 body paragraphs of your essay, in between your introductory paragraph and your conclusion paragraph.

Answer 7

Those would be good points but we have to use things like characters, setting and conflict and how they develop the theme. So one paragraph would be about characters, the next about the setting and then the last about conflict that hels develop the theme.

Answer 8

OOOhhh I see. OK. How about this then: "Throughout the book, Stockett uses characters, setting, and conflict to show that when people work together, they can overcome obstacles and their fears to make a change."

Answer 9

(Sorry, I didn't quite understand the assignment before.)

Answer 10

Aha, it's alright :P Your answer was good before anyways :)

Answer 11

haha thanks. This is actually better anyway, because it's more interesting to talk about HOW the author showed something than just what they showed. At least, that's what I think.

Answer 12

Now I'm having a little bit of trouble with my point about the characters. :/
So the thesis is about people working together but with the point of characters, I'm going to be talking about each one individually and their own obstacle or fear they have to face.
Now my question is, how do I tie that with the thesis?

Answer 13

hmm. Maybe you could connect it to whether or not each of the individual characters like to work with others or whether their fears prevent them from doing so. Or you could talk about how the only way for them to overcome their individual obstacles or fears is to join with others...

Answer 14

Great suggestion! Thanks again!