For your introduction, start with the thesis statement and build context around that. Context will be whatever you need to say to lay the foundation for your thesis statement. You could always, for instance, explain the concept your thesis will be predicated upon in detail, perhaps giving an example of it for a hook.

It sounds like it needs to communicate a statement about how isolation and community are present in the story, "A Rose for Emily." So, you could write a thesis that says something like, "Emily is isolated by her community because she remains the same while the world around her changes." Or "Emily is isolated by the gossip circling around her and becomes more and more a hermit by the end of the story." You could take this many, many directions—just make sure it states an interpretation relating the two ideas together, not separately. For instance, don't say, "Emily is isolated because she doesn't get married and the community likes to gossip." Stated that way, the two ideas are not related. You could even take it further to be a theme statement by drawing a bigger inference about life from the story and stating the inference that way. For instance, "Communities can be isolating to those unwilling to adapt" or "Gossip is ostracizing and can bring isolation."

For the rest of your thesis, you will want to point out what aspects of the story build toward that idea. Are you going to analyze plot, character, setting, point of view—or a figurative device like symbolism, tone, diction, or imagery? Example: "Communities can be isolating to those unwilling to adapt. This is evident in the plot and the use of symbolism throughout the story." Symbols that could be explored for this thesis include the symbolism of the decay of the house, the symbolism of the title, and the plot point where Emily refuses to pay taxes. You will probably have to look at your body paragraphs after writing a draft and go back and revise the thesis.

For your conclusion, recap your main points in your body paragraphs and end with a thought your audience can chew on for awhile. This could be a quote related to the overarching idea in the text, a question, or a call to action. For example, "When it comes to being a member of a community, we are all responsible to adapt to a degree, or be left in isolation. Which begs the question: To what degree would you be willing to change to be accepted?" Or "If gossip is so isolating for the subjects of gossip, why do small communities tend to engage or relate to one another in this way. Can we find a healthier way to connect verbally than to use mutual acquaintances for our own entertainment?"

Writing requires thinking, so make sure you spend a lot of time thinking about the story and writing out your ideas. You will have to go through several drafts to write anything really solid; that is standard for every student. The weakest papers only identify, without keeping the deeper thoughts in focus, so try to focus throughout the paper on what deep idea you are trying to communicate and make sure it comes through. That idea should be clearly stated in the thesis, reiterated in the conclusion, and present through every body paragraph.

In "A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner, isolationism and community are both prominent themes. From the very beginning of the story, it is clear that Miss Emily is isolated from the rest of the community. The narrator states that "our whole town" went to Miss Emily's funeral when she died. No one had been inside her house for ten years. While the narrator is the entire town, a collective "we," Miss Emily stands alone. This is emphasized in several ways, including the way the narration describes different events in an us-versus-her manner. Another is how the town watches, judges, and interferes with the relationship between Miss Emily and Homer. Her home, which stands alone on a once select street, without updates, is symbolic of Miss Emily's standing as the last icon of a time gone by. The separation between the town, a community represented by the narrator, and Miss Emily, an isolated individual, is emphasized as the town comments, judges, and manipulates Miss Emily's life while she stands alone as a "monument" to the town's past.