Thesis Statements

A thesis statement should be specific, clear, and clearly arguable.

For this paper you will want to make sure your thesis statement explains what specifically your fairy tale represents about its time period/culture.

Make sure to add qualifying language into your thesis, in order to make it as specific as possible. If you focus in on the phrase ''sort of,'' then you have picked up the qualifying language. Qualifying language is when a writer or speaker uses words that make a statement less or more certain.

For example:

Alissa Nutting's Brother and the Bird, a US revisionist tale of The Grimm's The Juniper Tree, deals with the contemporary issue of religious fantacism. Connections can be drawn between the mother in the story and modern-day religious fundamentalists who violently indoctrinate their children with their religious views.

 Another example:

Angela Carter's The Company of Wolves is a contemporary feminist revisionist version of Little Red Riding Hood which presents an empowered Little Red who is a street smart, sexually empowered, and fearless agent of her own destiny. This is in contrast to Grimm's and Perrault's weak and vulnerable, victimized Little Red.

*Bring a sample thesis statement for your paper to next class. Make sure you print it out! And whatever you do, do not copy my thesis statements.