Creating an Outline for Option 1

Introduction: 

• Establish the topic
• Identify the film you are analyzing
• End with a clear thesis statement

With the nature of poverty and hopelessness that can overtly be seen in the movie The Color Purple, it is hard to imagine that it can have elements of the American Dream and the belief that anyone can achieve anything if only they try—but it does. As is evident in the film The Color Purple, Franklin’s assertion that the American Dream is available to all people is correct because education offers the opportunity to attain it, the capitalist system that has undermined minorities can be their salvation through this dream and regardless of background, upward mobility is possible.

Thesis Statement (fill in the blanks on the right):

As is evident in the film The Color Purple, Franklin’s assertion that the American Dream is available to all people is correct because education offers the opportunity to attain it, the capitalist system that has undermined minorities can ironically be their salvation through this dream and regardless of background, upward mobility is possible.

Body Paragraph 1: Elaborate on the first point in your thesis statement

Topic Sentence: Through getting an education and the acquisition of written language, Celie starts to raise herself from the underprivileged to a more significant position.

Detail 1: Walker seems to admit that although the bane of the women she presents is part of the underclass, education can lift them up.

Detail 2: These characters are glamorous, and they seem to not fit within the confines of the overburdened black woman.

Detail 3: Celie, in fact, is seen working her way into a different, reasonable living style because of her education.

Concluding Sentence: Through education then, the dream for prosperity is possible in America

Quote(s) you will use to support this point: "Don’t let them run over you… you got to fight.”

Body Paragraph 2: Elaborate on the second point in your thesis statement

Topic Sentence: There is a possibility for upward mobility in The Color Purple

Detail 1: The American Dream is a belief in the ability to achieve the most of what we are innately capable with little regard to birth of position.

Detail 2: Celie is nothing until she begins to write the letters.

Detail 3: Once she does, she finds her voice and can begin her process of rising like anybody else.

Concluding Sentence: If Celie is not limited to the poorer echelons of society, then the American dream can be true for anybody else

Quote(s) you will use to support this point: "Until you do right by me, everything you think about is going to crumble.”

Body Paragraph 3: Elaborate on the third point in your thesis statement

Topic Sentence: There is an underlying assertion that the form of capitalism that has always kept women and minorities down can also be the source of their redemption.

Detail 1: Paradoxical to seek redemption through the system that has put them down

Detail 2: The movie seems to illustrate the superiority of the liberated African American woman against the one who is not.

Detail 3: Only through this will the dream that the United States represent be evident

Concluding Sentence: A paradox is thus seen in Walker’s insistence on the achievement of redemption via capitalism

Quote(s) you will use to support this point: “Folks don’t like nobody being too proud, or too free.”

Conclusion:

Summarize the main points in the body paragraphs and paraphrase your thesis.

In subtle ways, The Color Purple is an admission in the belief in the American dream. It is an assertion that education can still be used to break the class and poverty restrictions, that upward mobility is still possible. It is an admission that the same capitalist systems that have kept the African American woman on the fringes and limited the minority’s chances can be exploited to make the same people progress too. In many ways, it strangely is a nod to Franklin’s assertion on the American dream.