Sample Theses or "arguments"
To write a good essay you need to have a personal opinion about belonging. This is your "thesis" or "argument". It doesn't have to be complicated, but it should be your own - your HSC marker doesn't want to read thousands of essays that all say the same thing!
A thesis should reflect something you have learned from your texts about belonging. Some simple theses are:
- To belong, we need to feel someone loves us.
- We all belong to our families and friends.
- Without a family it is difficult to find a place to belong
- Everyone needs a place to belong
- Life is meaningless if we have nowhere to belong
- Being an individual is more important than belonging
- You have to be alienated before you can appreciate belonging
- No one can take away your sense of belonging
- A sense of belonging can destroy a society
- A sense of belonging promotes confidence
- When a sense of belonging is created, people can enrich a group
- It is desirable to belong
- Without a sense of belonging, individuals lack a sense of stability and support
- A sense of family can be gained without any blood relations
- The concept of belonging deals with both acceptance and rejection.
- An individual’s upbringing creates a powerful influence over their sense of belonging.
- Finding a positive sense of belonging can help and individual to move on from negative groups they may have belonged to.
- When looking to belong, we seek trust and affection as well as a way of building our confidence
- A sense of belonging comes from a sense of identity
- Belonging is about choosing who we are and where we want to be
- We cannot belong until we understand ourselves
- A sense of belonging stems from a sense of inner wholeness
- An inner sense of balance allows the individual to belong harmoniously in the world
- Belonging can be created, supported or broken by relationships
- Only through understanding can an individual, group or community find a connection.
- Individual choices can create or destroy a sense of belonging.
- An individual may choose whether to/or not to belong.
- An individual or group may feel that they belong to a place or landscape.
- Belonging may be understood as an instinctive need of humanity
- Individuals (or a group) may encounter barriers to belonging
- Sometimes it is hard to balance belonging to a group with keeping one's individual identity
- To truly belong can take a lifetime, but to become isolated happens often.
A more complicated thesis will usually get you a better mark because it helps you plan your esasy better and lets you analyse the texts more deeply. Some higher-level theses are:
- Being alienated can be the catalyst for a true sense of belonging
- Belonging can come at too great a cost
- Belonging is more than just a consequence of family or race
- An individual’s indentity may develop through the process of belonging.
- The truest sense of belonging comes when you are on the outside of society
- Our sense of belonging depends on our socio-political context
- A sense of belonging can be more destructive than alienation itself
- The pressure to belong can destroy individuality
- The clash between our need to belong and our need for individuality provides a strong narrative focus
- Each individual is valued as part of the group. The individuals within the group matter more than the group itself.
- An inner sense of connection leads to an external sense of belonging
- A sense of the psychic wholeness is the pathway to belonging
- A metaphysical sense of communion transcends all physical connections
- An intrinsic sense of belonging transcends all external connections
- A sense of belonging begins instinsically and spreads out into the world
- Only the individual can determine whether or not he/she belongs and this will in turn shape a sense of self.
- Attitudes to belonging may evolve and change over time
- Each unique individual has the potential to enrich the community and foster a greater sense of belonging.
- An individual may belong to a religious, political or cultural ideologies.
A sophisticated thesis will outline your entire essay structure because they include several points that relate to each other (like a flow chart). Some sophisticated theses are:
- "belonging is more than a state, it is a dynamic process which is affected by the individual's personal circumstances and the relationship he/she has with others around him/her and the larger social circumstances which determine the course of action taken by the individual".
- Ironically, we can only develop a sense of identity when we belong to a group
- Perceptions of belonging shape the way that an author, character or responder may feel in relation to belonging.
Some theses are specific to particular texts. If you use this kind of thesis, make sure your related material is an exact match in theme (either agreeing or disagreeing with view portrayed in the set text)
- Giving disadvantaged people a chance to belong and feel connected in just one area can bring all round life improvement (Billy Elliot, The Simple Gift)
- By representing the problems faced by people who didn’t belong, the show has helped to build a bridge between the homeless community and the rest of Australia. (The Simple Gift)
- Different people can achieve connection through music (As you like it - if music is symbolic of other aspects of the Forest of Arden)
- Exile can be overcome by a sense of belonging (Peter Skrynecki)