1C Sample Thesis for Tobias Wolff’s The Night in Question

Here’s a thesis I came up with for three of the stories. Notice I have 4 mapping statements that outline my essay:

“The Chain,” “The Life of the Body,” and “Bullet in the Brain” are three morality tales that warn us of the self-destructiveness of pride. First, we see that our pride works against our best interests resulting in our steady demise. Second, we see that pride blinds us from the obnoxious impression we make on others so that we become less and less connected to others, a condition that results in resentment, paranoia, and self-pity. Third, we see that pride masks our cowardice so that we go through life with the self-delusion of moral superiority when in fact we are morally bankrupt. Fourth, we see that pride, which obscures our most salient personal defects, compels us to scape-goat others for all of our problems, which are in fact the result of our own inner malignancies.

Here's another thesis:

Tobias Wolff's pathological characters reveal the self-destructiveness that results from BEE-ESSING. First, their delusion in their "powers" compels them to behave without proper social boundaries. Second, their BSing becomes a compulsion that they cannot stop even when stopping is in their best interests. Third, BSers dig themselves into deeper and deeper holes with their BS. Fourth, The BSer can lather himself up into such a state of self-righteous indignation that he becomes blind to his own pathologies.