...106 March 08,2014 Theme In Literature What is the meaning of a theme in literature? A theme or moral of a fable is the lesson that is being portrayed within the story. It is a message that can be taken from a story and personified into one's life. Theme is immensely important in literature due to its ability to share the author's opinion and understanding about life and human experiences. It is impossible to tell a story without letting out one's views and attitudes toward a subject of the story. By sharing these views, it helps someone distinguish or open up to new ways of thinking and feeling. To demonstrate, the theme in Raymond Carver's short story "What We Talk When We Talk About Love" portrays multiple themes, which are love, language and communication, marriage, drugs and alcohol, and violence. Although themes are not directly presented, you can derive an idea or the evidence of what the theme may be from the characters, actions, and settings that formulate the story. For example, based on the what the characters of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love are trying to define as love, you can formulate that one of the themes are the elusive nature of love. For instance, Mel says, " I was going to tell you something. I mean, I was going to prove a point. You see, this happened a few months ago, but it's still going on right now, and it ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk about love like we know what we're talking about when we talk about love" (p. 729). He is...
Words: 1513 - Pages: 7
...contrast the theme of sexuality in three of the texts we’ve read so far. In several texts we have read in class so far there has been hidden meanings and in order to figure out these meanings we've had to analyze the context of the texts. One of the hidden themes we have found in several texts is that of sexuality. In the texts where it has been seen the most is that of the novel Dracula and in two Edgar Allen Poe poems, such as, "Annabel Lee" and "The Sleeper". These all have clear themes of sexuality in each though some parts are different, however, they all have similar traits. These three texts are alike not just because they have the theme of sexuality but they all deal with the death of a lady and how the main characters of these texts are attracted to their death which is preceived as uncanny. In the book Dracula by Bram Stoker Dracula is a vampire who finds a victim named Lucy who he sucks her blood until she dies when Lucy is dead she is still seen as beautiful by the characters and are all still in love with her although she is dead. In the poem "Annabel Lee" the character's love Annabel has died but he is still attracted to her and talks about her as if she is still alive and lays with her every night. The next poem "The Sleeper" is similiar to "Annabel Lee" because the main character has lost the love of his life a beautiful woman. The character like in "Annabel Lee" struggles to deal with the nature of life and death. The writer Poe describes that his love is just...
Words: 671 - Pages: 3
...This 1981 short story collection was written by Raymond Carver, it also happens to be a title of one of the stories in the book. The three common themes throughout the 17 short stories are: relationships(love), breakups, alcohol, and some violence. The characters watch love go in and out of their lives through the stories. You can also find one sentence paragraphs, which show important moments in the story or even a powerful shock, this is a very common strategy that Raymond Carver used in all of the stories in this collection. The book is easy to read and as the reader goes through the stories they get longer and the themes are shown more in depth. The characters seem to show their emotions when something happens or when they are flashing...
Words: 307 - Pages: 2
...Darwin Quinde Comp.Lit March 1, 2012 An Essay on love Love is a huge feeling that carries many other emotions along with it. The common theme on the poems “Love one another” by Khalil Gibran, “Meeting at night” by Robert Browning and “If you forget me” by Pablo Neruda is that love is more than just being next to the person that we love. In the three poems we see that love is the main theme but it is presents it in a different point of view in each one. In the poem “love one another” by Khalil Gibran the narrator talks about how individuality is important for relationships. The narrator tells the readers that love shouldn’t be rigid and inflexible in the first line of the poem “Don’t make a bond of love” because it could cause the end of a relationship. The tone of voice in this poem is a little persuasive. The narrator is trying to convince us that doing things together is good for a relationship but there should be things that people should do individuality. For instance, “Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone” demonstrates the narrator’s tone of voice and how people need their own time. The author uses imagery to show how love isn’t just about being together but it is also about knowing how to adapt to different situations in life. A perfect example of it is “Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.” Which demonstrate that love shouldn’t be rigid and not changing but instead passive and changing. The Narrators...
Words: 882 - Pages: 4
...The theme of love, specifically the challenges of being in love, is seen in both “The Great Gatsby” by author F. Scott Fitzgerald and “The Silver Linings Playbook” by author Matthew Quick. Love is shown in “The Great Gatsby” with the quote "She didn't know you were alive. Why There are things between Daisy and me that you'll never know, things that neither of us can ever forget.” The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.”(Pg. 73) this shows the theme because in this case Gatsby’s challenge is his unrequited love for Daisy, the theme is also shown here "You're acting like a little boy," I broke out impatiently. ” (Pg. 46) Because when Gatsby finally gets the chance to talk to Daisy he freezes up and that is a challenge because he can’t...
Words: 683 - Pages: 3
...interview, there were three main themes that Dr. Malone predicted will happen with respect to changes to work and they are: 1) Freelancers/Volunteers 2) Decentralization from traditional hierarchies and 3) Transition from productivity based organizations to intelligence based organization. With changing environment, we see all the three predictions of Dr. Malone actually happening around us. In the first theme Dr. Malone gives examples of companies like Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube and Linux, which have utilized the freelancers/volunteers and created a unique business model. Dr. Malone says that there are three primary motivating factors for people to do things, i.e., money, love and glory. I think people work for a combination of the above three factors. But companies like Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube and Linux have been successful because they let people do what they love and enjoy doing for fun. The fact that people do work while having fun has led to lots of volunteers contributing to the success of these companies. The big opportunity for management here is that they can get the work done at low cost by enticing people to volunteer and the big challenge is finding the right motivation for people to volunteer. To overcome these challenges Dr. Malone says that the employees must be viewed as customers and the same principles of marketing must be applied to them to entice them to volunteer. The second theme Dr. Malone talks about is about decentralization from traditional...
Words: 737 - Pages: 3
...Sorrowful and unrequited love are very similar types of love, expressed in poetry when a poet is feeling sad or has lost someone. Wind and Window Flower by Robert Frost and When We Two Parted by Lord Byron are two poems that express this type of love. In the poem Wind and Window Flower by Robert Frost the poet talks about unrequited love rather than sorrowful. The poem explores not being able to be with someone and losing them forever. The word “Breeze” and “Flower” are repeated many times throughout the poem and this emphasizes the fact that the people cannot be together. Lines 3-4 explain, who, and what the flower and breeze are. “She a window flower;/And he a winter breeze.” Because the reader knows that the flower is the girl and the breeze a boy the use of repetition on these two words emphasizes the...
Words: 460 - Pages: 2
... Literary Analysis Langston Hughes’ poem “Theme for English B” urges an individual to consider that African Americans and White people are not as different as they have been claimed to be in the past. Hughes poem uses punctuation and repetition to emphasize the theme everyone is alike no matter the skin color. Langston Hughes uses the literary element of repetition it is used to draw emphasis to statements about the theme. The theme equality is made evident in line twenty-one which states “Well I eat, sleep, drink and be in love”. This quote illustrates the theme of equality because all Americans no matter the color of their skin can relate to this quote. All African Americans and Caucasian Americans can say that they eat, they drink, and they feel love. Those facts are not only applicable to Caucasian...
Words: 978 - Pages: 4
...For the Love of a Sister Many of us have siblings. You want to care and love on them as much as possible. Saving Sourdi demonstrates the love one sibling can have for another sibling as well as the struggle it takes to care for a loved one. In Saving Sourdi, May-Lee Chai utilizes sibling love, family protection, and courage as the three themes that Nea demonstrates for her older sister. The first theme, sibling love, shows the relationship between Nea and her older sister. Their relationship goes back and forth between good and bad. “Uncle fired Duke… It was during the Saturday lunch rush when Sourdi and I were not working and could not witness what had happened” (May-Lee Chai 74). This is good because they get to see each other and spend time together. “Now when I crept into Sourdi’s bed at night, when she talked about running away, she meant Duke and her” (May-Lee Chai 74). This is not a good situation because her older sister talks about running away with Duke. If this happened, Nea would never get to see her sister anymore. Having sisterly love is important because you need that special connection if you have a problem. You may not want to talk with your parents right away about something but need someone to be there for you. A sister connection would be good in that situation. The next theme, family protection, shows what Nea would do to save her sister. “I grabbed the knife and ran back out to Sourdi” (May-Lee Chai 70). Nea grabs a knife and comes back...
Words: 556 - Pages: 3
...The Love Suicides Close Reading The Love Suicides at Amijima is a dramatic story written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon about a man who falls in love with a courtesan, Koharu. Because the man, Jihei, doesn’t have very much money, he cannot buy out the rest of Koharu’s contract. Leading them to creative a suicide pact. In this paper I am going to focus on page 53 and page 61. In this close read I will determine that although On page 61 it is important to understand who Jihei is talking to. If we look at the person he is talking to we see his wife Osan. She tells him how outrageous he is acting and how he deserves what’s coming to him. She talks about how ruthless and evil he is for sleeping beside her every night while in love with another woman. This response is what should be expect of anyone who is being cheated on -- disgust....
Words: 1690 - Pages: 7
...Wallflower is the famous book written by Stephen Chbosky about the 15-year-old boy Charlie, who is both the main character and the narrator in the story. Charlie is writing a bunch of letters to his “friend” who we do not know but Charlie is telling this friend absolutely everything he experiences throughout his first year of high school. These experiences include both friends, love, family and death. As mentioned Charlie is a 15-year old boy who is just about to start high school. At first he seems to be confused about his feelings because he says on page 3 that; “I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.” He is also a strong person, even though he has a breakdown towards the end of the book, but he is still standing tall despite the fact that his best friend Michael shot himself and his Aunt Helen molested him as a child and died in a car accident. Charlie is a very observant person, he talks a lot about his family and his friends and how they are doing and that is what makes him a wallflower. Just like Patrick says to Charlie; “You see things and you understand. You’re a wallflower.” Charlie never says much but he sees things and he is aware of everyone’s feelings, like when he sees his sister’s boyfriend hitting her and then tells his teacher, Bill about it. He is also very sensitive and cries easily. He dreams about Sam naked and most boys would never tell her about it, but Charlie does and that also indicates that...
Words: 855 - Pages: 4
...school, from finding friends, to heartbreak, and all the way to dealing with the past. The plot of the novel is written very well, when it was transferred over to the movie though the director left out some key plot pieces like, Candice’s pregnancy and abortion, Sam’s heartbreak, and Charlie’s story of being hit by his father once. Each key piece if included would have added nicely to the overall theme representation. Character representation was also a factor that was done poorly in the movie, Charlie, the main character, was lacking depth and connection. The novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, written by Stephan Chbosky, and the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower, directed by Stephan Chbosky, have very similar ideas and topics but they differ from each other in pieces of the plot and character representation, which results in the movie version lacking depth and development of theme. Even though the novel will never be just like the movie and the director cannot keep every part of the book in the movie, certain pieces of the plot are necessary and in The Perks of Being a Wallflower movie this is true, many of essential plot pieces were missing, affecting the overall themes. In the novel Charlie’s sister is pregnant and also gets an abortion, “She took a deep breath and brushed off the hair that was sticking to her face. That’s when she told me she was pregnant.”...
Words: 1654 - Pages: 7
...and Beautiful eyes,Beautiful face written by Nicholas Gordon both share their feelings about their crush. Both poems use their own distinct tone to help develop the theme, poetic devices to help the reader understand the narrator’s feelings and rhyme scheme. Gordon uses a very similar tone in both of the poems to help with developing the theme. Two lines from the poem, How can I tell you what I feel for you that help establish the tone is “You won't believe it! Better I stay mute” and “And yet I wish to tell you of my love”. The tone used in that poem is shy, the narrator is scared to tell their crush how they feel for them. The tone helps develop the theme, because even though the narrator loves this person to death, he is still scared and shy to tell the person that they love them. Similarly, in the poem, Beautiful eyes,Beautiful the...
Words: 623 - Pages: 3
...are several themes within the language of poetry; from love to divorce, to death and life, to war and worship. The themes of a variety of poems depend on the time and date the poem is written and published as well as what the poet likes and if there are any significant political or societal events happening. Sometimes, themes are easy to analyze and other poems are written in a way that the poet hides the message by using different languages. Death was important to poetry from the medieval times to the 20th century. Poets write about death resulting from being in love, young, and in war. The poems that strongly portray the themes of death over different centuries and cultures that will be analyzed throughout this paper are “Lord Randal”,...
Words: 2205 - Pages: 9
...Peter Tim Soriano Mr. Chalmers ENG 4U 16 December 2013 Illusion and Mendacity In Tennessee Williams’ plays Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire, several characters suffer by lying and by being unaware of reality. Both plays demonstrate and signify the themes of illusion vs. reality and mendacity through past trauma, alcohol abuse, and through strained family and marital relationships. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Brick is an example to all of these factors through his past with his friend skipper, his abuse of alcohol, and the lack of love he shows for his wife, while in A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche encounters similar problems as Brick with her past trauma and her alcohol problem. The two plays share many similarities in terms of themes but at the same time also share significant difference. In the play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Brick is troubled with his past memories that he tries to keep a secret. He mourns the death of his best friend Skipper and the death pushes Brick into a world of imagination and mendacity. He avoids talking about Skipper and when his wife Margaret who is been trying to fix her relationship with Brick brings up the memory of his friend Skipper. Brick gets upset and says, “One man has one great good true thing in his life. One great good thing which is true! – I had a friendship with Skipper. – You are naming it dirty!” (Williams 44) Brick is furious with Margaret as he threatens her with physical abuse before he mentions the one greatest...
Words: 1690 - Pages: 7
