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Identifying the theme(s) in literary works?


Emmi

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I admit I am not the best at English, but my school requires English A1 HL. :(

For summer assignments I've been assigned some books to read, and I need to analyze themes for them. How do you go about identifying themes and other important literary elements? It seems that every time I try to identify something, I don't do it right.

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I think themes are weird, vague buzzwords. Usually for books of literary merit, there are themes that stand out, but the thing is you can claim there's a theme, and it doesn't have to be everywhere. It doesn't have to be huge. You identify it by thinking about symbols the author uses and the voice of the author in the work and what you think the message of the work is.

Look at sparknotes.com. Look up a book you're pretty familiar with and read its themes. You'll get an idea of what they're asking for. And they support their claims with details from the text.

Usually, the central characters are involved in different types of conflicts. There might be related hypocrisy or unfairness, which might lead to a theme. Common themes deal with rights and freedoms of different groups of people, human emotions like fear and jealousy, how we see the world--like black and white, for example, maybe generation gaps or differences in cultures, etc. A theme could relate to anything. Other than looking at conflict, look at irony in the work and any commentary you think the author is making. Look at what the characters say and do and the setting. I don't know how to say this well but everything kind of comes together to bring about a theme. We as readers savor the finished product. Then we as English A1 HL students have to break it all down to look at the individual features and how they contribute to the larger effect.

Do you have specific literary elements that you have trouble identifying?

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I'd say I'm weakest in theme and symbols. If I see a thing or word/phrase that keeps repeating, I know it's probably something to make note of. The main symbols I can usually pick out, but subtle ones are harder to identify as to their meaning. Do you have any tips for identifying those more subtle things?

In past English classes we would have a list of themes and were told to find examples of them and support our claims. That I could do pretty well because I knew what I was looking for. This time we don't have a list, so we have to come up with our own themes. I figured that would happen eventually though, and might as well start now.

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