response to literature essay

response to literature essay

Analyzing Themes in Literature

1. Introduction

Although themes are generally resonant or generally relevant within the whole of humankind experience, they are also particular. The fabric of a novel can consist of such topics as benefit, love, tyranny, particularly with the specific murders of Mary-Janet Peploss. As such, themes are regularly strongly linked, and the enrollment of a central or major theme in a work assists in underscoring that it is realized or demonstrated not in a series of disjointed incidents or events not in full. Because themes are theoretical and not typical physical facts, thematic inheritance and patterns are in the judgment of the beholder; they are influenced by the reader’s time, area, and personal experiences or background. Exceptionally, while a theme can be instinctively sensed and understood, repeated readings of the work of literary criticism allow the reader to concentrate on understanding precisely how a specific theme is understood or established, and how that realization authenticates the work or suggests different directions for interpretation.

Much literary analysis is dedicated to different layers and meanings within a single work of literature, but one thing that helps the reader discover the entirety that the author has placed in that work—whether novel, poem, or play—is the identifying of central themes within the work and understanding how those themes are shown or realized. In a larger sense, a look for themes in literature helps us grasp the work with greater comprehension, enthusiasm, and insight. Because literature is connected to familiar human experiences, it and its investigation into themes are suitable means of improving our comprehension of the humankind experience that literature is. In fact, themes are recognized by lines, a chapter, or a stanza, but are realized or demonstrated through the entirety of a work.

2. Identifying Key Themes

Certainly, one thing to be learned from this novel is that there are authoritative claims and reasonable requests for love, and that bigamy, slavery, or psychological abuse would not make the list. Without friendship, we don’t know how she gains moral strength, and we don’t know how unusual she is. There is also a complicated relationship between learning and morality. On the one hand, it is clear that Jane, who has been described as “thinking, cold, and astute” as a child, behaves no differently despite her morality. It is clear that her “intelligent initiative” can call the meal. And it is also clear that Jane, left to care for her cousins and her temple, respects the consequences of another unjust law. Social expectations, which are often unacceptable, which women should accept as “law” and “duty”, and which include any efforts that educate or empower these women are also key themes in the novel.

Many themes take time and context to understand and articulate. Other themes may be well-articulated by the author but obscure to the reader. Locating and identifying themes in literature can be tricky. Understanding some notable examples of literary themes can help you understand how they are used by some of the world’s best authors. Take Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre. Jane, an unusual young woman who is a plain, honest governess, known by the few who love her for her elaborately air-brushed appearance. She is plagued by the impossible love she feels for her sardonic employer. But Jane Eyre is more than a sad romance. Although the novel spends its fair share of pages on the incompatibility of social class and education with romantic love, about ninety per cent of the book is about Jane’s early years and the discovery and condemnation of his wife. While romantic love is one of the novel’s themes, the most intriguing and recurring themes are friendship and the conflict between creation and law.

3. Exploring Character Development

Writers reveal their insights into their character in many ways. Often the character will say or do something that provides the writer with a platform for storytelling. Details about setting, appearance of characters, and the aspects of character development we have pinpointed here form a part of every narrative. Whether it is a novel, a short story, or even an essay, a strong sense of setting accomplishes more. Hermann Hesse suggested, “Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.” A strong sense of setting will predispose a reader to believe in, even if for mere moments, the reality of the narrative.

To fully understand a work of literature, readers must appreciate the development and interaction of characters from the title role to the lowliest walk-on part. Writers who apply the following techniques help their characters come alive for their readers: an insight into the character’s personality, age, gender, racial heritage, social status, and other basic traits; body language, clothes, accent, and the details of the character’s environment; interaction with others. As a character encounters other characters, readers see how each figures in the relationships of the story; action based on personality and other traits. As characters make their choices and decisions, readers come to understand that individuals act in accordance with their tendencies, experiences, and insights.

4. Symbolism and Imagery

Rene Wellek and Austin Warren in their book “The Theory of Literature,” note that the possible number of images is countless and that no critic can ever hope to achieve an exact list of all images in a work. Images can be established using man’s five senses – tastes, odor, touch, sight, and hearing. Once the imagery is established, the larger symbol is built, and then the largest possible meaning is found. It seems as though imagery could only be established in reference to objects, but even a sound can be visualized in connection with an image. Colors often create the depth of the overall image; in many cases, the color seems to take on the properties of an important symbol when the color reappears numerous times in the story.

Symbolism and Imagery. Symbolism is when an object, action, character, or event is used to represent something else (a meaning, image, concept) that is generally considered to be better understood and more important. Generally, the symbol stands in for something else; in literature, this means that a symbol will stand in for a specific idea rather than the large idea standing in for all like the image does. That’s why we feel smarter once we recognize the deeper meaning of something in a story or a poem. Imagery often has more complexity attached to it than a symbol because it also involves mood and feeling. It’s the beginning emotion that image creates to draw the reader into the story – the meaning or picture that grows out of the image. In effect, the image is a small portion of the larger symbol, and the symbol is a small portion of the even larger abstract concept. The terms are often used interchangeably by many literary instructors; only a few colleges teach the dramatic difference between imagery and symbolism.

5. Conclusion

First, consider the idea of family. As Bess learns about life, she realizes that although some animals in the wild will always kill other animals, some animals in the wild live family lives. “Gentle Ben, Penny, and Bess are one family. What may be the most famous phrase in the free association of what term has many meanings, some even in contradiction with other using real human and animal experience.” Based on the common pre-Judaeo concept that everything is a part of everything of everyone in the world (Explain the concept. Actually, it’s merely my introduction of what I said was both ironic and totally unearned. More and more, however, it seems that Good for the Mind Orientation toward positive behavior generally, with a mere scrape.” In order for Reading treatments work, the children with animals.” Then, consider how Bess and Penny, the protagonist, change as they learn about love through their experience.

In conclusion, the transformation of the characters can be the most important theme of all in a classic novella such as “Gentle Ben.” Bess and Penny both see themselves and the other differently after accomplishing the processing of killing Ben’s mother and Ben after saving the girls from death. This is a recurring theme throughout literature and is an important life lesson in itself that we effect how we are viewed by our actions. People always have the capability to change and often it is the emotional response such as guilt that elicits such change. Throughout “Gentle Ben,” the characters continually change from the start of one event to the end of it, which in turn allowed the novella to be a happy ending.