Themes in Beowulf Notes
What’s a theme? Theme: a central, underlying and controlling idea of a literary work. As an abstract concept it may be represented by: Character Actions Images It’s generalization about human conduct may be serious or comic, profound or unsurprising. The theme is implied (the story will not say “And the theme is…”)
Huh? A theme is a phrase that summarizes the underlying meaning of the story AND a lot of other stories (including books, plays, movies etc).
An example thematic statement: Perseverance leads to the accomplishment of a goal. Here are at least 3 stories this thematic statement applies to…
Perseverance leads to the accomplishment of a goal. Finding Nemo Goal: Marlin & Dory’s goal was to find Nemo Perseverance: Despite all of the dangerous encounters and moments of despair, they kept looking Accomplishment: (spoiler alert) They find Nemo
Perseverance leads to the accomplishment of a goal. The Hunger Games Goal: Katniss needs to survive in the arena in order to live Perseverance: Katniss must fight others and elements (weather, hunger etc) Accomplishment: She survives and is taken back to the real world
Perseverance leads to the accomplishment of a goal. Frozen Goal: Find Elsa and bring her home so it is not winter forever Perseverance: Anna, Olaf and friends battle bad weather and becoming frozen to save Elsa so she can unfreeze their home Accomplishment: Anna helps Elsa realize love will unfreeze the town
Perseverance leads to the accomplishment of a goal. This is a theme because it is phrase that summarizes the underlying meaning of Finding Nemo, The Hunger Games, Frozen…AND a lot of other stories!
A thematic statement is an entire sentence! IMPORTANT: A thematic statement is an entire sentence! A thematic statement is NOT 1 word A fragment Do not include details from a story Character names, setting, specific quotes etc.
But…Sparknotes? Shmoop? One word/short phrases a thematic topic Topic=1 word. Theme=full sentence These topics can help you determine the FULL SENTENCE theme Example themes for the topic of: RACE Racism is learned so it can also be unlearned. Children are able to see the personality of someone, not just their race.
Practice: Why are the following NOT themes in To Kill a Mockingbird? Jem and Scout realize racism is bad. Race.
Answers: Why are the following NOT themes in To Kill a Mockingbird? Jem and Scout realize racism is bad. Do not include details from a story Jem and Scout are names that are specific to To Kill a Mockingbird Race. This is a topic. A theme must be an entire sentence.
What could be a thematic topic in To Kill a Mockingbird What could be a thematic topic in To Kill a Mockingbird? How about a thematic statement? Thematic Topic: Stereotyping/Judging Thematic Statement: The author believes that… Judging someone based upon appearances can lead to false assumptions (and should be avoided).
Thematic Topics in Beowulf We will be reading excerpts from Beowulf and recording thematic topics we notice as we read Record quotes that represent the thematic topics you are noticing (and please CITE these quotes) ESSENTIAL BACKROUND INFORMATION BEFORE READING: http://www.60secondrecap.com/study- guide/beowulf-the-summary/
Thematic Topic Chart Get a purple textbook and open to page 38 Have your thematic chart ready to go for notes as we read (we will address the BACK side of the handout when we are finished reading) Make connections with how the themes/depiction of a hero in Beowulf may have influenced our world/literary depictions of heroes today.