Universal Themes

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