THEMES
What is a theme?
The theme is the central idea or message of a work of literature. It is often expressed as a general statement about life. For example, the topic of a literary work might be love. The theme would be what the writer suggests about love: that it is wonderful or painful or maybe both.
A literary work may have more than one theme.
True or false: Whitman is proposing a new way of understanding life and death in his poem. Support your answer
True
1.When should you capitalize compass points?
When referring to countries, you should only capitalize “east” when you are referring to it as the proper noun, such as “in the East” or “in the Middle East
How can we determine themes in literature?
How can I briefly summarize the poem in a way that includes the speaker’s point of view and tone, the setting, and the use of figurative language an imagery.
What topics are being addressed in the text?
What themes, or messages , is this author conveying about these topics?
How does each theme develop over the course of the text?
How do themes interact and build on one another?
How does the image of grass represent the cycle of life and death? Cite evidence from the text to support your response.
A blade of grass is alive. A sprout shows that the grass renews itself. Grass grows on graves, suggesting that the dead have gone forward. Death is not to be feared because it is part of the cycle of life.
When a proper noun is composed of several words, which words should not be capitalized?
For proper nouns composed of several words, articles, conjunctions, and prepositions of less than five letters should not be capitalized unless they are at the beginning of a title
What themes exist in the poem: Song of myself?
Originality, past traditions, independence
Many critics believe that Whitman’s poetry celebrates the democratic spirit and human equality. What evidence can you find for this?
Each individual has a place in the world and is able to make decisions about which road to take in life. In the speaker’s examples, the Southerner and the Northerner are equals, as are the farmer, artist, and gentleman.
Provide a suffix for contempt
Contemptible