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In effect, you are building a kind of literary argument with references from the text that
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show how the language and structure of this story develop and reflect the complexities of
the relationship between the narrator, who is a mother, and her daughter. This means that
a thesis statement that merely restates the prompt will not be effective:
In “Girl,” Jamaica Kincaid uses several literary elements and techniques to convey how
DIFFERENTIATION social values and traditions shape the complex relationship between the mother and her
Scaffolding daughter.
®
AP Teaching Tip. Remind students that This thesis acknowledges the prompt, but it does not make any progress toward
Analyzing Short Fiction
while they must address how literary ele- conveying an understanding, much less an interpretation, of how Kincaid develops that
ments and techniques combine to create complex relationship. A strong thesis also goes beyond a summary of the story:
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meaning in support of their interpretive
position about the concerns of the prompt In “Girl,” by Jamaica Kincaid, the narrator delivers a long list of instructions and rules
in the body of the essay, they do not about the proper behavior expected of her daughter.
necessarily need to include them in their The thesis above tells what happens in “Girl” in a general way but fails to identify any
thesis. Their thesis may be “closed” — literary elements or techniques that Kincaid employs — it’s missing insight into the
which includes the most important literary meaning of the story. This is why pure plot description does not leave room for you to
elements or techniques — or “open,” which develop an analysis.
does not. Furthermore, developing a defensible interpretation by reading a passage closely
does not involve your personal opinion about the topic: it focuses on the craft of writing.
Thus, a thesis such as this one is inappropriate:
DIFFERENTIATION The way the mother in “Girl” lectures her daughter tells me that she is more concerned
Scaffolding about appearances than she is in getting to know her own daughter.
®
AP Teaching Tip. Remind students Part of that thesis — the part about the mother’s concern for appearances — could
that an analysis should not include their develop into an interpretation of the story, but the judgment about the mother is
opinion about the subject. You may wish personal opinion and speculation that is difficult to support with evidence from the
to ask them to return to their exploratory text. In addition, the use of first person (“tells me”) is typically not useful in this kind of
paragraph to remove personal positions analysis because it pulls attention away from the focus of the analysis: the text itself.
or first-person reflections. Ask students to An effective thesis will focus on specific characteristics of the story’s literary
share their revisions with a learning partner. elements of style, so that in the body of the essay you can analyze how they help
convey your interpretation of the mother-daughter relationship. However, you must be
careful not to make your thesis so narrow that you’ll run out of things to say about it as
you write your essay:
In “Girl,” Jamaica Kincaid uses a series of clauses that form a single sentence to show how
social values and traditions shape the mother’s attitude toward her daughter.
Although this thesis identifies a literary element — a syntactical pattern — it’s short on
analysis. It does not go far enough because there’s no interpretation of what that
pattern reveals about the story or its characters. What is the mother’s “attitude,” for
instance? The fact that the story is one long complex sentence doesn’t automatically
tell us the answer to that question. An interpretation of what that syntax is
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42 chapter 1 / Analyzing Short Fiction
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