Theme: A universal truth about life, living, or human nature that the author wants you to see/believe. The theme is focused on an idea or issue.
Idea or Issue: The theme may focus on religous, economic, equity, ethical, or any other issue that reaches beyond the literature and into the real world
Universal: Something which is not attached to a specific time, person or place. In other words, it could be equally true in ancient Egypt or two hundred years from now on a Mars colony.
Literary Elements: Any device the author uses to try an convey meaning in a story. You must label the literary devices you use! Conflict, characterization, imagery, metaphor and irony as well as more sophisticated ideas like foil characters, or motifs are all literary elements.
Primary Support: In a paragraph, you have one controlling idea in the topic sentence, but then you have subcategories within that paragraph. If you're writing a paragraph on English class, you might have primary supports that focused on the stories in English class and the writing assignments in class. It's just a way of organizing. In this paragraph, focus on a literary element (like symbolism) and then you will need two or three primary supports that organize that into subcategories (the symbolism of boots and the symbolism of trees).
Elaboration: The part of the essay where you explain how the literary element supports your theme. This is where you make connections and explain your insight... an insight that should be about more than just stating the obvious. This is your thoughts on the piece.
Third-Person POV (Point of View): When an author uses "he" or "she" to describe action from the outside. This is different from first-person where the author uses "I" and is part of the story or where second-person where the author talks directly to "you." You may not have "I" or "you" anywhere in this essay!
Academic Tone: This is a formal paper so you must you formal and academic language.
- Students should clearly state the author's theme or controlling idea of a piece of literature
- Students should identify literary elements that support that theme.
Okay, where do you start? Like always, at the beginning.
1. Read the book. (I'm not joking). Cliff's Notes and Spark Notes are wrong nearly as often as they're right, so read the book.
2. Use your journals to explore theme. If you track an idea through the book (such as the use of power or the reasons for personal failures), then each journal should help you "think out loud" about what the theme *might* be.
3. Reread your journals. What is your first thought about what the author is trying to prove? Can you see this truth in more than one character or situation? Does anything contradict your theory about the author's beliefs?
4. Write a formal theme.
5. Double check your theme. Is this *really* what the author wants you to get out of this book? Does any event or character contradict this? If so, you need to change your theme so that it reflects the *entire* book and not just one part of it.
6. Decide what literary elements support this theme. You can go simple with internal conflict or character development, or you can get fancy and talk about the authors use of motifs and foil characters to develop a theme. As long as you focus your paragraph on the literary element you claim to be writing about, you may chose any element.
7. Find all the quotes for this element... far more than you think you'll need. That way, you can pick and choose the BEST quotes. Hopefully your journals will help you track down the quotes because most of your journals and your essay should all be on the same topic.
8. Now you can start the essay. Review the structure below before going too far on your own.
| Gilgamesh learned that a person has to accept mortality and try to do good in the world. | This has an issue (moratality), but it is not universal because it's specific to Gilgamesh |
| People should act in a way that is just. | This is universal and being just is an issue, but it's not a "truth" it's a "moral." We *wish* the world was this way, but the author is not claiming it IS this way. |
| You can't expect other people to do things for you if you don't take care of yourself. | Big problem. There's no issue here, and it's not universal. "You" limits it to just the reader. |
Corrected Themes:
| Since all humans are mortal, only the good deeds a person performs in life survives. | Issues: mortality and goodness. And now, this applies to everyone, not just Gilgamesh |
| Those who act out of a sense of justice are more likely to discover truth. | Here this is something that you can argue is TRUE. It's not a moral. And "justice" and "truth" are good issues |
| If a person accepts responsiblity for changing his or her own life, that person is more likely to receive help from others | "A person" makes it universal and the ideas of "responsibility" and "help" are issues from the real world. |
Hint: Sometimes it's easier to write a theme if you start with a dependent clause.
If this happens, then that will happen.
When people do this, that is the natural consequence.
Topic Sentence: Author, Title, Theme, and Literary element
Primary Support (Major subcategory)
Evidence in the form of quote fragments and details
Elaboration
Primary Support
Evidence
Elaboration
Primary Support
Evidence
Elaboration
Closure: Return to Theme
| ......In Gilgamesh, the anonymous author uses the motif of dreaming. to clearly show that despite all of humanity's attempts to control the universe, humans have no power over the future or their own destines. In his first dream, this demi-god whose strength had never failed, King Gilgamesh, encounters a star that “was too heavy for [him].” A star often represents the future in the ancient world when people still read the stars. While Gilgamesh had inherited unbelievably and apparently unequaled powers from his goddess mothers, his dream warns him that a challenger will soon appear for the first time ever, and he can't control this future. Even though past experiences teaches Gilgamesh to see himself as above all others, Enkidu’s arrival challenges that belief. While he enjoys being all-powerful, he cannot change his destiny: to have a friend who is his equal and who can control his excesses. A similar idea is expressed in the fourth dream when “a great mountain falls on Gilgamesh and “pin[s] him to the ground.” The power and majesty of a mountain exceeds that of any man, and now this great hero who has never tasted defeat is trapped under something even more powerful than himself. He sees the change coming because even the most powerful people in the world know that fortune’s shift, luck changes, and the mighty can fall. This knowledge causes great fear, but Gilgamesh, for all his attempts to prove his powere, has no control over this destiny, which does prove true by the end of the story when he has lost his friend and any chance of immortality. Of course, Gilgamesh’s seventh and final dream is of far greater significance to the theme. In this dream, Gilgamesh sees “Etana, once king of Kish,” and “Belit-Seri” The Scribe, and other “kings, their crowns set aside.” The image of the crown is one of power, but here, the power has been "set aside" and these dead kings have no ability to reclaim that power. These powerful rulers and thinkers once “ruled on earth through the ages," and many, like Gilgamesh, no doubt wanted to find a way to conquer death and have this power eternally. However, that is not the fate of humanity. All these kings have been “humbled” and now no longer wear their crowns, suggesting that even the most powerful and influential people in the world have no power in the face the ultimate change, death. Instead, these powerful people must accept that their fate is now to live in the afterlife at the mercy of others who have authority over them. And in reality, no one can control or prevent death; death is a transformation to which all humanity must eventually yield. So, the various dreams Gilgamesh has definitely support the idea that humans are powerless to prevent this fate. | Topic Sentence: Author: anonymous // Title: Gilgamesh // Literary element: Motif // Theme: despite all of humanity's attempts to control the universe, humans have no power over the future or their own destines Primary Support 1 : The first dream Evidence: star Elaboration: Key words, like challenges, focus us on the theme, but it really needs more. HOW does this support the theme? Primary Support 2: The fourth dream Evidence: pins him to the ground Elaboration: powerful people. Fortures shift. Better. Primary Support 3: The seventh dream Evidence: Etana, Belit-Seri, kings Elaboration: YES! Here the elaboration focuses on HOW this motif proves the theme. And theme words are all over this section. Relate to real life: "And in reality" Closure: Much stronger. |
Rhetorical Devices
Dictionary of Literary Terms
Style Analysis Page
Ms. Cananday's Grammar Page
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Last Updated on 7-10-2008 |