To Explore a Theme

To Explore a Theme:

Rule One: Remember the title. What does it have to do with the book?

•         Look for words in the title to be used in the text. 
•         Look for synonyms and antonyms. 
•         Look for a play on words. 
•         Look for an allusion. 
•         Look for irony.

Examples
 

Rule Two: Look for the popular motifs.

                                      The Savior Motif

•      The character must come to bring enlightenment to people or to save people. 
•      The savior helps the weak or the minority. 
•      People may turn against this character because of the attempt to bring enlightenment or to help them.
•      The character may suffer for it. 
•      The character may die for attempting to bring enlightenment or helping the people. This death may be metaphorical. 
•      The character may be reborn in some way. 
•      The author may allude to another well known savior from literature or history. Popular in the ancient world was Prometheus while in the modern world, Jesus Christ is the more common allusion. Prometheus and Jesus are considered archetypes of the savior motif. 

Archetype: The best or first or most notable example of a complex idea. The archetype is a fundamental image that resonates with human beings.

Ex.: When Disney used the "circle of life" in The Lion King, they knew that they were tagging on to a fundamental image that the audience would be able to recognize and identify. The circular image of birth, life, old age, and death is a pattern that all of humanity can easily understand.

                              The Innocence to Experience Motif

The Innocence to Experience Motif is essentially the story of the path from the lack of knowledge to knowledge. An archetype of this motif is the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

.

Assignment: Become part of a small group for discussion. Read Genesis Chapters 2 and 3. Answer the following questions in group and prepare to give your answers to the class. 

• What is the man? 
• What is the dust? 
• What is the tree of knowledge? 
• What is the garden? 
• What is the man’s role in the garden? 
• What is the rib? 
• What is the woman? 
• What is the nakedness? 
• What is the shame? 
• What is the serpent? 
• What is the fig leaf? 
• What is the sweat? 
• What is the tree of life?

Discussion of Assignment: Have you ever tried to interpret dreams? Keep in mind that you are the creator of your dreams. All of the characters are yours. All of the plots are yours. You have created symbols and themes for yourself, unconsciously. Think of your dreams and try to discover what it is that you are trying to tell yourself. A person who has not bought a birthday present for a loved one even though the birthday party is tomorrow may dream that he is late for a test and when he sits down to take the test, hears the ending bell ring. It is possible that the dream is a reminder to him how he feels about being late in his obligations. What is the test? It may be the gift that he has failed to buy. It may be that buying the gift is a kind of test of love or friendship that he feels he must pass. The ending bell is the deadline that he has missed by not buying the present.

Just as dreams can be an indication of the thoughts and feelings of a single person, stories and fables that an entire culture is familiar with can be an indication of understanding of how a mass of people feel. Interpreting the story of Adam and Eve is much like interpreting a dream. Find the objects that seem to be important in the story and try to decipher them. By doing this, we can more easily see the deeper meaning of the story and why it is an allusion in A Separate Peace.

                                       The Twin Motif

The Twin Motif is difficult to explain, but essentially the author pairs two characters together that seem to complement each other in some way. These characters are not foils, but eerily similar and in many ways complete each other and, sometimes, are each other.

Ex.: Joseph Conrad wrote a novella called The Secret Sharer in which the protagonist meets on a boat a shadowy figure who confers with him and only he sees. This person is the protagonist; at least he is the part of the inner self that the protagonist did not know he had. Think also of the movie Fight Club.

Rule Three: Watch for the repetition of words or ideas.

In A Separate Peace, the concepts of fear and hate are repeated throughout the novel. 
 

Rule Four: Watch for the connection of ideas in a story.