Italo Calvino’s essay, “Why Read the Classics?”, has a very implicit thesis, because it does not seem to truly be in the essay itself. I found what I believe to be the thesis by reading through it and determining what I thought Calvino was trying to say. He gave fourteen different definitions of classics, and within those definitions and the explanations after each one, I found the implicit thesis. “The classics are those books about which you usually hear people saying: ‘I’m rereading…’, never ‘I’m reading…’” (Calvino 1). Here the author is pointing out that classics are not meant to be read once and then set aside. They are meant to be read time and time again so that you can fully understand their meaning. “A classic is a book which has never exhausted all it has to say to its readers.” (Calvino 5). Calvino is pointing out here that no matter how many times you read a classic novel, you will always discover something new that can affect your life. “ ‘Your’ classic is a book to which you cannot remain indifferent, and which helps you define yourself in relation or even in opposition to it.” (Calvino 7). I used these three definitions and their explanations to figure out a thesis for the essay. I believe that the thesis is: Classics are important in everyone’s lives because they never cease to teach us life lessons, so therefore we should reread them over and over to fully understand them. That is what I believe Calvino was trying to say throughout his essay.
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