Special Focus: Thesis Writing PracticeThis page is focused specifically on developing skills in writing an effective rhetorical analysis thesis, particularly if students demonstrate the need for further reinforcement or practice.
Overview For EACH of the following passages, identify the primary rhetorical strategies the author is using to communicate a larger, universal message.
Directions
Read the passages and annotate them.
For EACH passage, ask, What is the author DOING? Think of a strong verb. You may use almost any verb except uses (or its synonyms such as employs).
Ask what ELSE the author is DOING.
What is the passage about? That is, what is the ONE SINGLE WORD that you could use to categorize the major subject of this passage? Is it about slavery? Politics? Industry? Family life?
What major, universal message is the author trying to get across ABOUT THAT SUBJECT? (See "Help with Constructing a Theme" below). Your theme SHOULD USE THE ONE WORD EXPLAINING WHAT THE PASSAGE IS ABOUT. For example, if your passage is about hedgehogs, what message is the author giving ABOUT hedgehogs?
Write a thesis using the following template:
THESIS TEMPLATE:
In [TAG], [author name] [strong verb + strategy] and [strong verb + strategy] in order to convey the larger point that [universal message or theme].
Example: In the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson lists the offenses committed by King George III and declares the United States to be an separate nation free of Great Britain in order to convey the larger point thatindependence of colonized countries is a natural -- and inevitable -- process.
Passages
Passage One -- Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall
It all began with a simple question that no one could answer. It was a five-word puzzle that led me to a photo of a very fast man wearing a very short skirt, and from there, it only got stranger. Soon, I was dealing with a murder, drug guerrillas, and a one-armed man with a cream-cheese cup strapped to his head. I met...a young surfer babe in pigtails who ran straight toward her death in the desert....I kept looking, and stumbled across the Barefoot Batman, Naked Guy, Kalahari Bushmen, the Toenail Amputee...and ultimately, the ancient tribe of the Tarahumara and their shadowy disciple, Caballo Blanco. In the end, I got my answer, but only after I found myself in the middle of the greatest race the world would never see: ...an underground showdown pitting some of the best ultradistance runner of our time against the best ultrarunners of all time, in a fifty mile race on hidden trails only Tarahumara feet hadtouched. ...and all because in January 2001, I asked my doctor this: "How come my foot hurts?"
Note: The speaker of this passage is a character known as the Once-ler, who has come to a rich and densely vegetated island in order to cut down and use the island's primary vegetation, a species of tufted trees known as Truffulas, which the Once-ler uses in constructing all-purpose garments known as Thneeds. The Thneed industry becomes profitable, and in this passage, an environmental activist known as the Lorax berates the Once-ler about the destruction of the environment, a jeremiad to which the Once-ler responds with an affirmation of his capitalist values. At that moment, the final Truffula tree is harvested and the source of the industry has been exhausted. _____________________ "What's more," snapped the Lorax. (His dander was up.) "Let me say a few words about Gluppity-Glupp. Your machine chugs on, day and night without stop making Gluppity-Glupp. Also Schloppity-Schlopp. And what do you do with this leftover goo?... I'll show you. You dirty old Once-ler man, you! "You're glumping the pond where the Humming-Fish hummed! No more can they hum, for their gills are all gummed. So I'm sending them off. Oh, their future is dreary. They'll walk on their fins and get woefully weary in search of some water that isn't so smeary." And then I got mad. I got terribly mad. I yelled at the Lorax, "Now listen here, Dad! All you do is yap-yap and say, 'Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!' Well, I have my rights, sir, and I'm telling you I intend to go on doing just what I do! And, for your information, you Lorax, I'm figgering On biggering and BIGGERING andBIGGERING and BIGGERING, turning MORE Truffula Trees into Thneeds which everyone, EVERYONE, EVERYONE needs!" And at that very moment, we heard a loud whack! From outside in the fields came a sickening smack of an axe on a tree. Then we heard the tree fall. The very last Truffula Tree of them all!
No more trees. No more Thneeds. No more work to be done. So, in no time, my uncles and aunts, every one, all waved me good-bye. They jumped into my cars and drove away under the smoke-smuggered stars. Now all that was left 'neath the bad smelling-sky was my big empty factory... the Lorax... and I. The Lorax said nothing. Just gave me a glance... just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance... as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants. And I'll never forget the grim look on his face when he heisted himself and took leave of this place, through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace. And all that the Lorax left here in this mess was a small pile of rocks, with one word... "UNLESS." Whatever that meant, well, I just couldn't guess. _______________________________________________________________________________________
Passage Three -- The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
Note: In this passage, the speaker, a defendant in a court case, explains his essential philosophy: that "selfishness," as we think of it, is not a vice but a virtue, and similarly, selflessness is not the virtue it is commonly thought to be.
Men have been taught that the highest virtue is not to achieve, but to give. Yet, one cannot give that which has not been created. Creation comes before distribution -- or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above the man who made those gifts possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug at an act of achievement...Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.
Passage Four -- The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare
Note: In this passage, a Jewish character explains the reason why he intends to take revenge against a Christian character for wronging him.
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
As a bathtub lined with white porcelain, When the hot water gives out or goes tepid, So is the slow cooling of our chivalrous passion, O my much praised but-not-altogether-satisfactory lady. ________________________________________________________
Passage Six-- "Mother to Son," by Langston Hughes
Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor -- Bare. But all the time I'se been a-climbin' on, And reachin' landin's, And turnin' corners, And sometimes goin' in the dark Where there ain't been no light. So boy, don't you turn back. Don't you set down on the steps 'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. Don't you fall now -- For I'se still goin', honey, I'se still climbin', And life for me ain't been no crystal stair. ________________________________________________________
Passage Seven -- "The Ant and the Grasshopper," by Aesop In a field one summer’s day, a grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest. “Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?” “I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant, “and recommend you to do the same.” “Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; “we have got plenty of food at present.” But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food, and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer.
Passage Eight -- "Love Yourself," by Justin Bieber
For all the times that you rained on my parade And all the clubs you get in using my name You think you broke my heart, oh girl, for goodness sake You think I'm crying on my own? Well, I ain't....
Maybe you should know that My mama don't like you and she likes everyone And I never like to admit that I was wrong And I've been so caught up in my job, didn't see what's going on And now I know, I'm better sleeping on my own.
Cause if you like the way you look that much Oh baby you should go and love yourself. And if you think that I'm still holdin' on to somethin' You should go and love yourself.
EVEN MORE PRACTICE!!
Passage Nine -- Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
For several years, I had been bored. Not a whining, restless child's boredom (although I was not above that) but a dense, blanketing malaise. It seemed to me that there was nothing new to be discovered ever again. Our society was utterly, ruinously derivative (although the word derivative as a criticism is itself derivative). We were the first human beings who would never see anything for the first time. We stare at the wonders of the world, dull-eyed, underwhelmed. Mona Lisa, the Pyramids, the Empire State Building. Jungle animals on attack, ancient icebergs collapsing, volcanoes erupting. I can't recall a single amazing thing I have seen firsthand that I didn't immediately reference to a movie or TV show. A [stupid] commercial. You know the awful singsong of the blasé: Seeeen it. I've literally seen it all, and the worst thing, the thing that makes me want to blow my brains out, is: The secondhand experience is always better. The image is crisper, the view is keener, the camera angle and the soundtrack manipulate my emotions in a way reality can't anymore. I don't know that we are actually human at this point, those of us who are like most of us, who grew up with TV and movies and now the Internet. If we are betrayed, we know the words to say; when a loved one dies, we know the words to say. If we want to play the stud or the smart-[aleck] or the fool, we know the words to say. We are all working from the same dog-eared script.
It's a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless Automat of characters.
And if all of us are play-acting, there can be no such thing as a soul mate, because we don't have genuine souls.
It had gotten to the point where it seemed like nothing matters, because I'm not a real person and neither is anyone else.
I would have done anything to feel real again. _______________________________________________________________
Passage Ten - William Shakespeare, Othello Note: In this ironic passage, a sociopath explains the importance of keeping a good reputation.
Iago: Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls. Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. ______________________________________________ Passage Eleven -- Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild
Note: In this passage, Krakauer quotes at length from a personal letter written by Chris McCandless, the subject of his book. McCandless, a young man in his twenties, sought to reject the society around him. Entering the Alaskan backcountry with minimal food and supplies, McCandless did not survive. This letter is written to his friend Ron, who formed an essentially paternal bond with McCandless before McCandless left on what would be his fateful adventure.
“I'd like to repeat the advice that I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty. And so, Ron, in short, get out of Salton City and hit the Road. I guarantee you will be very glad you did. But I fear that you will ignore my advice. You think that I am stubborn, but you are even more stubborn than me. You had a wonderful chance on your drive back to see one of the greatest sights on earth, the Grand Canyon, something every American should see at least once in his life. But for some reason incomprehensible to me you wanted nothing but to bolt for home as quickly as possible, right back to the same situation which you see day after day after day. I fear you will follow this same inclination in the future and thus fail to discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us to discover.
Don't settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon. You are still going to live a long time, Ron, and it would be a shame if you did not take the opportunity to revolutionize your life and move into an entirely new realm of experience.
You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.
My point is that you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light in your life. It is simply waiting out there for you to grasp it, and all you have to do is reach for it. The only person you are fighting is yourself and your stubbornness to engage in new circumstances.” ____________________________________________________________________
Passage Twelve - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams Note: In this passage, the protagonist, a mild-mannered (but stubborn) man named Arthur Dent, wakes up to discover that his house is about to be bulldozed to make way for a freeway bypass. In order to stop this from happening, Arthur lies down in the mud in front of the bulldozer. Mr. L. Prosser is the man in charge of the bulldozing operation.
Fifteen seconds later he was out of the house and lying in front of a big yellow bulldozer that was advancing up his garden path.
Mr L Prosser was, as they say, only human. In other words he was a carbon-based life form descended from an ape. More specifically he was forty, fat and shabby and worked for the local council. Curiously enough, though he didn't know it, he was also a direct male-line descendant of Genghis Khan, though intervening generations and ethnic mixing had so juggled his genes that he had no discernible Mongol characteristics, and the only vestiges left in Mr L Prosser of his mighty ancestry were a pronounced stoutness about the tum and a predilection for little fur hats.
He was by no means a great warrior: in fact he was a nervous, worried man. Today he was particularly nervous and worried because something had gone seriously wrong with his job - which was to see that Arthur Dent's house got cleared out of the way before the day was out.
"Come off it, Mr Dent,", he said, "you can't win you know. You can't lie in front of the bulldozer indefinitely." He tried to make his eyes blaze fiercely but they just wouldn't do it.
Arthur lay in the mud and squelched at him.
"I'm game," he said, "we'll see who rusts first." "I'm afraid you're going to have to accept it," said Mr Prosser gripping his fur hat and rolling it round the top of his head, "this bypass has got to be built and it's going to be built!"
"First I've heard of it," said Arthur, "why's it going to be built?"
Mr Prosser shook his finger at him for a bit, then stopped and put it away again.
"What do you mean, why's it got to be built?" he said. "It's a bypass. You've got to build bypasses."
Bypasses are devices which allow some people to drive from point A to point B very fast whilst other people dash from point B to point A very fast. People living at point C, being a point directly in between, are often given to wonder what's so great about point A that so many people of point B are so keen to get there, and what's so great about point B that so many people of point A are so keen to get there. They often wish that people would just once and for all work out where the hell they wanted to be.
Mr Prosser wanted to be at point D. Point D wasn't anywhere in particular, it was just any convenient point a very long way from points A, B and C. He would have a nice little cottage at point D, with axes over the door, and spend a pleasant amount of time at point E, which would be the nearest pub to point D. His wife of course wanted climbing roses, but he wanted axes. He didn't know why - he just liked axes. He flushed hotly under the derisive grins of the bulldozer drivers.
He shifted his weight from foot to foot, but it was equally uncomfortable on each. Obviously somebody had been appallingly incompetent and he hoped to God it wasn't him.
Mr Prosser said: "You were quite entitled to make any suggestions or protests at the appropriate time you know."
"Appropriate time?" hooted Arthur. "Appropriate time? The first I knew about it was when a workman arrived at my home yesterday. I asked him if he'd come to clean the windows and he said no he'd come to demolish the house. He didn't tell me straight away of course. Oh no. First he wiped a couple of windows and charged me a fiver. Then he told me."
"But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had you? I mean like actually telling anybody or anything."
"But the plans were on display ..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the display department."
"With a torch."
"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard."
Help with Constructing a Theme THEME TEMPLATES These are some basic “templates” for themes and some example themes to show them in action. “X” and “Y” stand for the abstract terms you will plug into your sentence.
Without X, there can be no true Y.
X requires the existence of Y.
In order to have X, one must first have Y.
X does not automatically guarantee Y.
X is more/less [name a quality] than Y.
X will inevitably result in Y.
[Too much / Too little of] X will ultimately create Y.
X is the inevitable result of Y.
Example Themes – the abstract words in the first few examples have been highlighted.
Without truth, there can be no true love.
Loyalty requires the existence of honesty.
In order to have true virtue, one must first have choice.
Independence does not automatically guarantee freedom.
Justice is more valuable than life.
Excess passion will inevitably result in destruction.