Today is Wednesday, October 26, 2016. Yesterday we talked a little bit about theme. Think back. Theme is a central idea in a piece of fiction and almost always shows us something about a human condition. In short stories, theme can be a single sentence. Since short stories are short, theme is usually a single message. We are going to analyze theme in two long novels: The Night Gardener and Esperanza Rising. Longer stories may have multiple themes themes that usually repeat, or come back again and again throughout the text. Longer stories may also have related themes that are connected. With theme, it gets a little mysterious. It can be confusing when we analyze theme because it's usually not literal. Theme is not right in your face. It is hidden in the text. That's why we need to look for clues.
Moving on, analyzing conflict can be just as hard as theme. Authors rarely just tell their readers, "Hey readers, this is the theme and conflict." Instead, they bury conflict and theme within the text. One of the fun parts of reading fiction is discovering conflict and theme for ourselves. However, it takes a little analysis. Let me stop for a minute and define this word for you:
ANALYSIS: The process of separating something into parts. Detailed examination of the elements or structure of something, usually for discussion or interpretation.
With fiction, we already know that we can break a story into parts. When we do this and look at parts of the story closely, we are analyzing what we are reading. Like a good detective, analysis means looking at clues and making sense of what they mean. Today, we will be reading in order to look for two kinds of clues. We will be looking for Again & Again clues and Memory Moment clues. I hope these are new to you so that we can learn them together. Have fun and enjoy!
Love, peace, and taco grease,
Mr. C
P.S. This will be a mammoth of a TED Talk! (See what I did there?)
From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
Kenosha Unified School District
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