Help and Enrichment
Do you need help with theme?
Themes are big ideas about life. Theme is the message about life or human nature that you learn from the story. A theme could apply to many different stories. For instance, the theme "We shouldn't judge people based only on their appearance" is found in the books Wonder (about a boy who has severe facial deformities and in Firegirl (about a girl who is badly burned). Here are some more examples of theme from The Outsiders:
And at these links you'll find more information and more examples for theme:
Do you need help with PEE writing?
Samples:
HP PEE presentation.pptx
Here is a sample from Annie B. with some editing and parenthetical citations added:
For my book of the month, I choose Tangerine by Edward Bloor. This book is about a kid named Paul Fisher who moves to a new town called Tangerine. He discovers many strange things, and this book is filled with many twists and turns. Tangerine is filled with many themes, but the one that appears the most is "Not telling the truth, and not saying what's on your mind can leave you with a big burden."
In the book, there are two high schools, and one is called Tangerine High School. Antonio, their football star, doesn't live in the school boundaries, so technically he isn't allowed to play for Tangerine High School. However, he doesn't tell anyone this and it leaves him with a big burden to carry around. The author later states, " It's time to start telling the truth little brother, you know what i'm saying?" (260). Not telling anyone, not even his sister, leaves Antonio with a big burden. At one point in the book, his sister tells Paul that Antonio breaks down a lot and sometimes cries. Later in the book, Antonio comes clean and is a lot happier and doesn't have to carry around his burden anymore.
In the middle of the book, Paul Fisher watches his older brother and his friend hurt someone, and that injury later killed him. Paul is too scared to tell anyone, including his mom, what he saw. The author mentions how this hurts him many times in the book. At one point Paul thinks, "'. . because Erik's a psychopath, Mom! Can you really not tell that?' but I didn't say anything" (275). "He turned and whipped the blackjack with a loud wack against the side of Luis head" (205). This is what Paul Fisher witnessed, but he never tells anyone until the end of the book. During the book, there are many times where he wants to tell someone, but doesn't and the burden gets heavier and heavier. When he finally tells someone what he witnessed a big burden is lifted and he too feels happier, free, and not trapped by enormous lie.
The following is from a student, Brielle B.
One of the themes in the novel Restart By Gordan Korman is " Honesty is the best policy"
When Chase, Bear, and Aaron are sent to the principles office. Chase takes the easy way out and is faced with consequences. [This needs the page number.] When they're sent to the principles office It would be a lot easier for the principle and Chase, if Chase would lie and go with Aaron and Bear's way. So Chase chooses to lie about what happened in the band room. While he is now free from consequences of "causing" what happened in the band room. He then is faced with losing his friends.
Chase Is honest with the Judge. He doesn't lie. In the end everything works out. [This needs the page number.] Chase has everything lined up for him not to have to go to jail, But the judge asks him if he can promise to never go back to his old self. He (Chase) has a choice. He could either promise he'll never go back to his old self or he could be honest and tell the truth. He chooses to take the risk of being honest. He tells the judge that although he could try as hard as he might, he cannot promise he will never go back to his old ways. In this way he is honest. Everything works out fine, And Chase is able to restart without a guilty conscience
Another sample:
One of the main themes in Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli is "Be yourself instead of trying to be someone else and you will be happier." The author expresses this theme when he says, "So I just enjoyed the feeling and watched the once amorphous student body separate itself into hundreds of individuals. Ironically, as we discovered and distinguished ourselves, a new collective came into being - a vitality, a presence, a spirit that had not been there before" (41). This shows that the students of Mica High School were all very similar until Stargirl showed up. They would separate each other into groups, but they were all basically the same. Once Stargirl showed up, they chose to be themselves and be different, instead of trying to be like everyone else. This made them much happier because if you be yourself you will be happier.
More evidence that shows this theme is stated when the author says, "'Why can't you be normal?' 'Why do you wanna be so different? "(67) Stargirl was different than everyone else, but she was happier because of this. This is revealed when the author says, "She laughed when there was no joke, she danced when there was no music. She had no friends, yet she was the friendliest person in school" (15).
Thank you, Adam F. !
Point: Pink or Red Evidence: Blue Explanation: Green
Unhighlighted: background information to help the reader understand
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A theme expressed in the short story “Three Skeleton Key” by George G. Toudouze is “"Don't let one bad experience stop you from doing what you enjoy.” The unnamed narrator of the story goes to work at a lighthouse on an island that is actually just a rock rising out of the sea twenty miles from land. He volunteers to work there because the pay is high and he is saving his money to get married. The island is said to be haunted, and the sea is shark-infested, but those details don’t bother the narrator.
The narrator tells us that “it was a nice life there,” and that he and his two companions “liked it there” (66). In other words, he enjoys it. He has companionship, the work is not too hard, they have views of the ocean and, at night, of their huge light illuminating the sea. They have plenty of provisions, a supply ship comes about every forty days, and each man gets shore leave every eighteen weeks. For this young man who has chosen to work on lighthouses and who hopes to save up a great deal of money, it is the perfect job.
His experience there becomes not so perfect when a ship filled with starving rats wrecks on their tiny island, and the rats invade the island. For almost two weeks the narrator and his two companions fight to survive the rat invasion. What they go through Is horrific, the stuff of nightmares. They cannot open doors or windows of the lighthouse which is literally covered with hungry rats. Then the rats break in, and the men have to fight them off, and are bitten and scratched. They are finally rescued, but one of the narrator’s companions dies and the other has gone insane.
Our narrator, in spite of the horrors he has experienced, decides to return to the lighthouse after it has been cleaned up and repaired. He tells us this:
“As for me—when they fumigated the light and repaired the damage done by the rats, I resumed my service there. Why not? No reason why such an incident should keep me from finishing out my service there, is there? Besides—I told you I liked the place—to be truthful, I’ve never had a post as pleasant as that one, and when my time came to leave it forever, I tell you that I almost wept as Three Skeleton Key disappeared below the horizon” (76).
The message seems to be that if people have a passion for something they should not stop doing it because they are afraid of past incidents. The narrator puts the past behind him, and continues doing what he likes. In fact, at the beginning of the story, he had revealed that he ended up working on lighthouses for thirty-five years (65). Perhaps it is true that too often that people let less traumatic experiences place limits on the rest of their lives.
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Here is an example of Point, Evidence, Explanation.
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Point -- Evidence -- Explanation
Point: Mike Patterson killed his father.
Evidence -- Mike Patterson said he was helping his father, they were facing traffic, and his father was hit from the right. (There are no page numbers on the evidence because it is from a radio broadcast.)
Explanation -- Mike's father used a crutch on the left side, and anyone helping someone with a crutch on the left would help on the right. If they were facing traffic, Mike would have been on the right side and would have been hit by the car, so Mike is lying.
Also, [Evidence] Mike said his father was hit by a car with Florida license plates in front, [Explanation] and Florida hasn't had front license plates for years, so Mike must have invented that detail.
A third piece of evidence is that the police officers saw blood on Mike's car. [Explanation] Blood on a car could indicate that the driver had hit someone or something. Because we also have evidence that Mike has lied about what happened, it seems likely that he was the one driving the car that hit and killed his father.
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Point:
One of the themes in The Outsiders is "Rather than solving anything, violence creates problems."
Evidence: In The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Johnny Cade is a teenage boy who belongs to a group of poor teens known as the Greasers. "His father was always beating him up, and his mother ignored him" (12).
Explanation: Beating a child doesn't solve any problems the parent may be having with the child. When parents are so harsh with a child, he is apt to have more problems. The narrator tells us that Johnny was like "a little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers" (11). He is most likely that way because he has been kicked or otherwise hurt too many times.
Evidence: Ponyboy Curtis, who in the first chapter of the book is being followed by a group of Socs (the richer teens who hate the Greasers), remembers when Johnny Cade was beaten severely by a group of Socs. "I had seen Johnny after four Socs got ahold of him, and it wasn't pretty. Johnny was scared of his own shadow after that" (4).
Explanation: Johnny has been beaten by his own father, then by another group of teens. Of course it leaves him frightened.
Evidence: Ponyboy later explains that "Johnny who was the most law-abiding of us, now [after being beaten by the Socs] carried in his back pocket a six-inch switchblade. He'd use it, too, if he ever got jumped again" (34).
Explanation: Therefore, violence, rather than solving anything, has caused Johnny Cade to be afraid, and that fear has become intense enough that he is willing to commit violence himself. The Outsiders shows us that violence has caused more problems, and could lead to more violence.
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