1. Determining Theme

2. What topics do you see repeated throughout the text?
In Romeo and Juliet, we saw…
Love
Death
Family Conflict
Fate

3. What topics do you see? Cruelty Hospitality Heroism Faithfulness
What about The Odyssey?
What topics do you see?
Cruelty
Hospitality
Heroism
Faithfulness

4. Theme
The theme is what the story teaches the reader—the life lesson, meaning, moral, or message about human nature that is communicated by a literary work.

5. Theme Take the topics from The Odyssey
Cruelty
Hospitality
Heroism
Faithfulness
Choose ONE of the topics listed above then write a STATEMENT about what Homer is communicating about the topic.
NOTE: Begin with “Based on the text, Homer believes that…”

6. THEME
Now, look at your statement and draw a line through “Based on the text, Homer believes that…”
What you have left is a THEME in The Odyssey.

7. Topic Love Fear of death
Topic Vs. Theme
Topic Love Fear of death
Theme People are often willing to sacrifice important things in the quest for love. The fear of death can be a change agent.

8. Your Assignment Divide your paper into FOUR sections.
What goes in each section?
In the upper left corner write a TOPIC and then a THEME that relates to your topic.
In the upper right, draw an illustration that represents how the theme is communicated in the text.
In the bottom left, write a quote that shows how the author develops this theme. (Think about how you would CITE if you were writing a CCC.)
In the bottom right, explain how your quote demonstrates your theme. (Think about what you would write in the CLARIFY portion of a CCC.)

9. THEME: Hospitality is necessary within a civilized society.
Your Assignment
TOPIC: Hospitality
THEME: Hospitality is necessary within a civilized society.
ILLUSTRATION
QUOTATION
“Enough. Give the stranger food and drink, my girls.” (Odyssey, Book 6, lines )
EXPLANATION
Princess Nausicaa of the Phaecians demands that her servants bring food and drink to the stranger Odysseus.