Example
The previous history of Ivan Ilych was the simplest, the most ordinary, and the most awful.

This one-sentence paragraph from Tolstoy’s novella The Death of Ivan Ilych acts as a thesis for Ivan’s life. Ivan, the work’s protagonist, is portrayed as an Everyman figure who does not think for himself, but whose actions are dictated by a societal comme il faut, or a sense of how things should be. Ivan makes decisions corresponding to what his superiors, family, and friends think is the best for him; his decisions are, therefore, based on what is decorous and pleasing, not on what would make his life worthwhile, or rewarding. Ivan’s life, when juxtaposed with Gerasim’s--an exemplar of a simple, yet empathetic and fulfilling life--may be see as truly shallow, and therefore simple, ordinary, and awful.