Today in class we continued our discussion on Universal Themes. We worked on our own for a writing assignment, then in groups to reinforce our concepts. I was disappointed though in student participation outside of class and wanted to give students something to work with going forward. We can add to this as a class, but for now I thought this was a good starting place for our talk of Universal Themes. In this unit, you will be looking at Themes and Literary Devices. Themes are the broader ideas found in good literature, while figurative language describes the tools writers use to express those themes. Think of theme as being the painting, while literary devices are the different colors and paints that are used. Themes What are themes? From About.com: Finding the theme of a book is tough for some students because the theme is something you determine on your own, not something you find stated in plain words. The theme is a message about life that you take away from the book, which can be derived from a set of symbols or a motif that keeps appearing and reappearing throughout the work. To determine the theme of a book, you should select a word that expresses the subject of your book and try to expand the word into a a message about life. Below you will see words that have been expanded into a message. A theme should be a statement that expresses a universal message. There are many lists of themes. Some say there are 25 universal themes, others 40, while others say there are infinite themes. This is because themes can be determined by the reader. However, after hundreds of years of writing literature, a few themes have emerged that tend to repeat themselves. I have chosen a list of 32 themes. I found this list to be a good starting point. Remember, when examining any work of literature, the theme must be examined as close to the work as possible. Unlike math, there is not always a clear answer. This is part of the fun of literature, where the theme and messages can be passionately debated. Now for the list: 1. Alienation - creating emotional isolation 2. Betrayal - fading bonds of love 3. Birth - life after loss, life sustains tragedy 4. Coming of age - boy becomes a man 5. Conformity - industrialization and the conformity of man 6. Death - death as mystery, death as a new beginning 7. Deception - appearance versus reality 8. Discovery - conquering unknown, discovering strength 9. Duty - the ethics of killing for duty 10. Escape - escape from family pressures, escaping social constraints 11. Family - destruction of family 12. Fortune - a fall from grace and fortune 13. Generation gap - experience versus youthful strength 14. God and spirituality - inner struggle of faith 15. Good and evil - the coexistence of good and evil on earth 16. Heroism - false heroism, heroism and conflicting values 17. Home - security of a homestead 18. Hope - hope rebounds 19. Hopelessness - finding hope after tragedy 20. Individualism - choosing between security and individualism 21. Isolation - the isolation of a soul 22. Journey - most journeys lead back to home 23. Judgment - balance between justice and judgment 24. Loss - loss of innocence, loss of individualism 25. Love - love sustains/fades with a challenge 26. Patriotism - inner conflicts stemming from patriotism 27. Peace and war - war is tragic, peace is fleeting 28. Power - Lust for power 29. Race relations - learned racism 30. Sense of self - finding strength from within 31. Suffering - suffering as a natural part of human experience 32. Survival - man against nature Source : https://sites.google.com/a/patriothighschool.com/english-10-2011-12/assignments/themes Comments are closed.
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Writing Collection
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