Constructing Claims
How to write Thesis Statements
Prompt: What is the text critiquing and how is it demonstrated in the text
Response in The Youngest Doll: In The Youngest Doll by Rosario Ferré, the text is critiquing the treatment of women as shown through the aunt ands the youngest niece, showing readers that there is always an option to leave when one is being mistreated
Evidence
“Each day he made her sit out on the balcony, so that passerby would be sure to see that he had married into high society. Motionless inside her cubicle of heat, the youngest began to suspect that it wasn’t only her husband’s silhouette that was made of paper, but his soul as well.”
“One day, he pried out the doll’s eyes with the tip of his scalpel and pawned them for a fancy gold pocket watch with a long embossed chain.”
One night he decided to go into her bedroom to watch her as she slept. He noticed that her chest wasn’t moving. He gently placed his stethoscope over her heart and heard a distant swish of water. Then the doll lifted her eyelids, and out of the empty socket of her eyes came the frenzied antennae of all those prawns.”
Response in Encanto: In the movie Disney’s Encanto, the text is critiquing family expectations, as shown through Mirabel’s lack of power and her relationship with Abuela proving to readers that everyone is important in their own unique way.