Intro: who are you and what are you doing here?
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Unit 1: Analyzing Theme
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Every text has a purpose. Sometimes it's to tell you how to build a shelf, where to find the store you are looking for in the mall, or how many calories are in your frappuccino. But beyond the land of straight forward functional, informative documents exists a deeper world of poetry, stories, songs, and novels. The challenge is understanding what these text mean. What is their purpose? How are they trying to change you as person once you finish reading them? In what way are they connecting you with the meaning of life?
Ah, the meaning of life... some say it's finding inner peace. Others uphold that there's a beauty in nature that we should all seek. And there are those who claim there is no sweeter feeling than gaining revenge upon a mortal foe... The purpose of these texts is called the theme. The author wants you to understand something about the world and your place in it. But what? In this unit we'll be learning very specific strategies and techniques we can apply to a text to help us understand it at the deepest level. Once we accurately can identify the theme, then we can start arguing about whether or not we agree... but not before. |
Unit 2: Comparing Themes
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Now that we have learned about themes and identified the themes of several texts, let's have some fun comparing the themes of different texts. For example, In Disney's Aladdin, a story about a young street rat who uses the powers of a magical djinn to pursue the hand of a Princess, the theme is that true power must come from integrity and honesty, not deception or trickery. Likewise, in Disney's Mulan, a young woman must pose as a man in order to help her nation battle against the invading hordes of Ghengis Khan. The theme of this tale is that love of one's country extends beyond gender; men and women should have equal ability to fight for their values.
Here's the fun part, Doesn't Mulan's use of trickery and disguise (convincing everybody she is male) go directly against the theme of Aladdin? Let's imagine that she and Aladdin met, wouldn't they argue about whether or not it's right to wear a disguise? So is Disney sending our kids mixed messages? Understanding theme is the first step, but it is a blast to be able to discuss and even debate the larger meaning of multiple texts. |
