For our first official benchmark in English, we each had to write a 5 paragraph essay about The Odyssey. Our first paragraph had to include a thesis statement dealing with The Odyssey, relating it to "real life" and we had to tie it together. In our 3 body paragraphs we had to include a quote in each one and use examples in the story to prove our thesis statement.

For my analysis, I chose to do my essay on Odysseus and how he treats women. My thesis statement was "Odysseus disrespects women because in his mid he is better than them since he has so much power." I wrote 5 paragraphs on this thesis statement. I mentioned the powers Odysseus has such as he's a king, a general and he's handsome. I used specific quotes in the book to prove my thoughts and thesis.

If I were to redo this benchmark, I think I would put more thought into it and choose another more interesting thesis statement that wasn't so obvious.