Mod#2 - Universal Themes in Literature

9/5/2013

Nature. Photo credit: Karla Erdman, Brookgreen Gardens 2013.

Siblings. Photo credit: Karla Erdman, Steel Stacks, 2012.

Be sure to keep notes while watching the 24-minute Universal Themes in Literature video in VLN under Instructional Materials.

After watching the video, post an initial comment listing the 7 themes and 15 sub-themes mentioned in the video and briefly explain each one. Yes, all of your responses should be the similar, but you won't see them until I release the comments ;)

Then, once the comments are released on Tuesday evening (9/10), you will go back in and post a reply on one student's entry. In your reply, you will give one example of a piece of literature, short story, poem, song, movie, etc. for EACH Universal Theme. The example you provide does NOT have to be from the video.

Note: Be careful with taking notes. In order to earn full credit, you will need to be correct in your list of themes/sub-themes and explanations.

Steven

9/9/2013 08:35:51 am

1. Individual as Hero: A story where the main character is viewed upon as a hero.
-Heroes of Legend: Story with a designed hero, one who is meant to do great things.
-Heroes in everyday life: A story that has a hero in it that does small things that may be considered as heroic.
2. Individual and the Cosmos: Stating what a person thinks is past what humans know.
-Death: Stories about the unknown death
-Place in the universe: Stories about not know what is beyond the earth.
3. Individual and Nature: Stories where the main conflict is about a person and something going on in nature.
-Nature as a teacher: A story about nature teaching the main character a lesson of some sort.
-Cold, impersonal world: A story where nature creates a problem of some sort (death, injury, etc.) and has the main character resolves it.
4. Individual and Society: Stories about a person that faces conflict within the society.
-War: An individual that is included in a war of some sort; could be either a good thing or a bad thing.
-Oppression: A story about a person who deals with something happening in their community (unemployment, debt, etc.).
-Crime and Punishment: A story about a person who deals with a crime and then gets punished for that crime.
5. Individual and Family: A story about a conflict between a family member and the main character.
-Siblings: A story that, usually, has a type of competition between the siblings.
-Parents: A story that has a conflict between a child and a parent.
6. Individual vs. Individual: A conflict that is between two people that are not family members or the main character itself.
-Love: A story where the conflict has to do with the love for another character.
-Rivalry: A story that has to do with a rival of another person.
7. Individual vs. Self: A conflict between a person and himself/herself.
-Madness: A story about a person who goes mad.
-Self Doubt: A story about a person who encounters some sort of doubt about doing something or worries that they won't be able to overcome an obstacle.

Jess

9/12/2013 11:19:49 am

1. Individual as a Hero: Spiderman
2. Individual and the Cosmos: Harry Potter- J.K Rowling
3. Individual and Nature: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon- Stephen King
4. Individual and Society: The Stranger by Albert Camus
5. Individual and Family: Pride and Prejudice(Elizabeth and her family)
6. Individual vs. Individual: The Notebook-Nicholas Sparks conflict between Noah and Ally
7. Individual vs. Self: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Path

Sam

9/13/2013 08:07:15 am

An example of Individual as Hero is the story of Odysseus in Homer's the Odyssey. An example of the Individual and the Cosmos, specifically the sub-theme of death, is Edgar Allan Poe's "the Raven," because the poem centers around the death of the protagonist's wife. An example of Individual and Nature is Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. An example of Individual and Society is the song "Changes" by Tupac Shakur. In it, he describes the oppression of African-Americans in modern day America. It's a classic. An example of Individual and Family is the movie "Cheaper by the Dozen." I think this is a good example, because there are conflicts between the kids and Steve Martin. An example of Individual and Individual is the movie "Alien vs. Predator." This is a good example of this theme, because the aliens and predators have always been long time enemies, and they aren't related at all. They aren't even the main characters, and they have a lot of conflicts (with explosions.) An example of Individual vs. Self is the conflict in "The Tell Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe.

Christine

9/13/2013 09:44:36 am

-individuals and individuals
-Othello by William Shakespear
-individuals and family
-The Glass Castle by Jeannette walls
-Individual and society
-The Crucible by Aurthur Miller
-Individual and nature
-Lord of the Flies by William Golding
-Individual and cosmos
-Star Trek (film) by: Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
-Individual as Hero
-Captain America (film) by:Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
-Individual and Self.
-The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Jess

9/13/2013 09:55:11 am

1. Individual as a Hero: Spiderman
-heroes of legend: Odysseus in Odyssey
-heroes in everyday life: The Hundred Penny Box
2. Individual and the Cosmos: Harry Potter- J.K Rowling
-death: Because I Could Not Stop for Death- Emily Dickenson
-place in the universe: The Story of Creation- the Yoruba Tribe
3. Individual and Nature: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon- Stephen King
-nature as a teacher: The Maine Woods- Henry David Thoreau
-cold, impersonal world: To Build a fire- Jack London
4. Individual and Society: The Stranger by Albert Camus
-war: Antigone-Sophocles
-oppression: The Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison
5. Individual and Family: Pride and Prejudice(Elizabeth and her family)
-siblings: The Little Foxes
-parents: Romeo and Juliet
6. Individual vs. Individual: The Notebook-Nicholas Sparks conflict between Noah and Ally
-love: Romeo and Juliet
-rivalry: The Little Foxes
7. Individual vs. Self: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Path
-madness: The Tell Tale Heart-Edgar Allan Poe
-self doubt: Hamlet- Shakespeare

Tori

9/9/2013 10:41:07 am

The individual as hero is the first out of seven themes listed in this video. The heroic in everyday life are people who stand up for their own convictions and beliefs. The heroes of legends are sometimes forced into situations where they wouldn't usually find themselves and they are needed to perform heroic acts for self preservation. The Individuals and the Cosmos: Place in the universe is people's beliefs about how creation began. Though each ones tales are different; all life began the same. Death is something many people don't enjoy thinking about although it is a fact of life we all must face. Individual as Nature: Nature is a life giving force that shows us how beautiful the world can be, nature is our teacher. These same forces of nature can create cold impersonal world and be destructive to man and property. Individual and Society: When individuals break the law and commit crimes they are due for punishment. Oppression is cruel and its unjust of treatment. All people should be treated fairly by their individual. War and combat were thought to be noble practices in the middle ages. War serves no purpose but to kill people needlessly. Individual and Self: Madness is taken when the conflict comes upon its worst. Self Doubt is more commonly found between the individual and self. Individual and Individual: Love is feelings that people have towards one another. Rivalry could be competition between individuals for the affection of the same certain person. Individual and Family: Siblings mainly take the main focus on the story because writers and readers like the rivalry between siblings. Parents can also keep people apart from one another creating a major conflict.

Samantha

9/9/2013 05:25:38 pm

The seven universal themes in literature are the individual as a hero, the individual and self, the individual and individual, the individual and family, the individual and society, the individual and nature, and the individual and the cosmos.

Each of these themes have two or more sub-themes. The individual as a hero has heroes of legend and the heroic in everyday life. The individual and self has madness and self doubt. The individual and individual has love and rivalry. The individual and family has siblings and parents. The individual and society has crime and punishment, oppression, and war. The individual and nature has nature as a teacher and cold, impersonal world. The individual and the cosmos has place in universe and death.

The individual as a hero got its inspiration from characters in fiction. Heroes of legend is a common because an individual can look to these heroes as inspiration. The heroic in everyday life comes from certain stories where characters become legends because people learn from them. Also, the hero shows us how to act or the traits most valued by people in society.

Individual and self is the most universal theme in all of literature because the individual must find the courage to stand up to the conflicts they face. Madness is the most extreme form, and self doubt is a more common conflict found between the individual and self.

Individual and individual are connected by love and rivalry. Love is the most common connection. Rivalry is another common theme.

Individual and family is about an individual finding their place within their family. Siblings often bring about rivalry. The relationship between an individual and their parents is another common theme.

Individual and society is shown many different ways. Crime and punishment is the most common. Individuals can break the laws of society, but society can also infringe on the individual's rights. Oppression on the individual is also very common. It can be seen through the individual versus the state on different conflicts. Oppression and war are similar in the right to rebellion. War is a focal point in fiction and had been portrayed as good and bad.

Individual and nature is another common theme. Nature is viewed as a positive, life giving force and a teacher. Although, it can be seen as completely indifferent to what happens to an individual.

Individual and the cosmos is the story of creation. It describes how people are situated in out universe. The cosmos also involve the individual's death.

Steven

9/11/2013 09:54:51 am

Individual as the hero: The Dark Knight written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan
Individual and the cosmos: A Shocking Accident by Graham Greene
Individual and self: Mr. Solo Dolo by Kid Cudi (Written by Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi)
Individual and family: Motocrossed written by Ann Austen and Douglas Sloan
Individual and individual: Misery by Stephen King
Individual and nature: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Individual and society: Saving Private Ryan written by Robert Rodat

Samantha

9/12/2013 03:34:54 pm

Tori

9/13/2013 10:12:40 am

1. Individual as a Hero: The movie spider man.
2. Individual & Cosmos: The poem "I'm Nobody, who are you?" by Emily Dickinson
3. Individual & Nature: The movie Forrest Gump
4. Individual & Society: The movie Carrie.
5. Individuals & Family: The movie the Blindside.
6. Individual & Individual: Romeo and Julliet the play
7. Individual & Self: The poem Inner Conflict by YoAye Jay

Logan Handwerk

9/10/2013 06:21:55 am

The Individual As a Hero: Heroic qualities of characters that are shows within works of literature.
Heroes of Legend- Stories about heroic leaders in the past that stood up to make a change.
The Heroic in Everyday Life- Heroes that are characterized as normal people in society that perform a great or noble action.

Individual & Cosmos: Characters trying to find their role and live their life.
Place in the Universe- stories of creation and finding where a character belongs.
Death- People try to avoid death but cannot. It is used in many pieces of literature.

Individual & Nature: Many authors wrote about nature calling it both a positive life giving force, and a negative factor.
Nature as a Teacher- Nature was often viewed as a teacher.
Cold, Impersonal World- Nature can be completely indifferent to what happens to us.

Individual & Society: How individuals can be cold and indifferent to society.
Crime and Punishment- Society members break laws and will be punished accordingly.
Oppression- When a society defies the rights of the citizens.
War- The center of fiction since the first tales. Common to show war as positive in the past while others focused on the horror of combat.

Individuals and Family: Writings about finding one’s place within a family.
Siblings- Rivalry between siblings takes the stage in many works of literature.
Parents- Conflicts that come up with children and their parents.

Individual & Individual: The relationships that take place between individuals in literature.
Love- One of the most common themes that relates individual to individual, it is often protrayed as forbidden love.
Rivalry- Another common theme between individuals. They compete against each other for something the both need/desire.

Individual & Self: The most difficult conflict to get past. It is often the result of conflicts with others.
Madness- The conflict within you literally drives you insane and causes paranoia and anxiety.
Self-Doubt- This is the most common conflict between individual and self.

Logan

9/13/2013 05:58:44 am

Heroes of Legend- Odysseus
The Heroic in Everyday Life- Greek Mythology (Hercules)
Place in the Universe- Book of Genesis (Adam and Eve)
Death- Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson
Nature as a Teacher- Henry David Thoreau lived alone in a cabin because he did not like how humans lived their lives.
Cold, Impersonal World- Jack London’s expedition to the arctic north.
Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment
Oppression- Racism towards blacks during civil rights movement.
War- Ashes of Soldiers by Walt Whittman
Siblings- Lillian Helman’s character that goes against her brothers for self gain.
Parents- Romeo and Juliette
Love- Romeo and Juliette
Rivalry- The Little Foxes - Lillian Helman
Madness- Eleonora by Edgar Allan Poe
Self-Doubt- Hamlet

Christine

9/10/2013 11:01:16 am

Individual as a Hero
-Heroes of Legends
-The heroic in everyday life
-Odysseus- earliest heroes in western tale. Odyssey means any strange journey.
-Homer- words to visual things
-The heroic in everyday life, shows you how to act and how to value things in modern day life. represent the heroic in everyday life
-Some heroes don’t mean to be heroes, they just are sometimes.
-In the hundred penny box by Sharron Mathis, a young boy and his 100 year old aunt are close. She keeps a penny for each year of her life in a small old box. Michael's mother wants to replace the box and Michael is a hero by protecting the box that has sentimental meaning to his aunt.
-Heroism is great theme across many nations and almost always have a common conflict.

Individual and cosmos
-Place in the Universe
-Story of creation, every culture has their own version of how this world was created and why people exist.
-Yoruba tale- drops two sons to the earth bearing gifts, they fall to an earth covered with water so the god provides them a tree to land on. One of the sons (lazy) decides to stay there, the other son uses his gifts to create the world. He later goes on to be the leader of the Yoruba tribe.
-Bible- Supreme beings creates first two beings, Adam and Eve, who go on to be the ancestors of all people.
-Native Americans go on with this version but also adds the death of everyone.
-Death
-People avoid thinking about death, or they try to.
- “Because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me”- Emily Dickinson… Later Gwendolyn Brooks makes the same point.

Individual and nature
-Nature as a Teacher
-Cold, Impersonal world
-Nature is often viewed as a positive live giving force
-Thoreau went to nature to find a new perspective on life after getting fed up with human society
-Cold, Impersonal world- To build a fire by Jack London describes the arctic struggle in the North Pole. The main character makes one mistake and the mistake costs him dearly.

Individual and Society
-Crime and Punishment
-Human society can come into conflict in many different ways. Common through out richer society.
-The oppression of an individual is a common theme throughout the world.
-The story of Antigone illustrates the conflict of individual and state. Creon, king of Thebes declares that no one should bury the slain body of his sworn enemy Polynices; however, Antigone, sister of Polynices disobeys. She defies the law but society sides with Antigone.
-Long after the end of the civil war, African Americans were still not welcome as equal citizens in the United States.
-Ralph Ellison describes this oppression in his novel, The Invisible Man, which basically states that he is a human being created by god but is invisible to society.
-Alice Walker- wanted women to be treated equal.
-Thoreau inspired Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela to achieve all of the things they accomplished.
-War
-In earlier stories it was common to show war in a good positive light.
-Alfred Lord Tennyson honored soldiers in battle in his writing.
-Other writers focus on the horrors of war.
-Walt Whitman’s writings focused on the sacrifice on the many soldiers who served.

Individual and family
-Siblings
-Writers and readers are intrigued by the rivalries between siblings.
-Parents
-Romeo and Juliet- Parents and their petty squabbles are what keep these individuals apart.

Individual and Individual
-Love is one of the most themes that relates individuals from individuals, especially forbidden love.
-Rivalry is another common theme.

Individual and Self
-Madness
-Self doubt
-Most universal theme in all of literature.
-Downfall of many characters for example Shakespeare’s Hamlet and his quote “To be or not to be”

Sam

9/10/2013 11:33:00 am

THEMES:
-Individual as Hero
-Individual and Cosmos
-Individual and Nature
-Individual and Society
-Individual and Family
-Individual and Individual
-Individual and Self

SUB-THEMES:
(Individual as Hero)
-Heroes of Legend ~ These are the original hereos that portray strong, noble, and courageous individuals. An example of this would be Oddysseus in Homer's the Oddessy.
-Heroes of Everyday Life ~ These often show heroes in everyday life who do not fight dragons but fight for good on a smaller scale, instead.
(Individual and Cosmos)
-Place in the Universe ~ Individuals in stories often have trouble finding their place in the universe. They don't know what their role is.
-Death ~ Characters sometimes cope with the inevitability of death.
(Individual and Nature)
-Nature as Teacher ~ Nature is often portrayed as an omniscient, benevolent power that transcends human influence and power.
-Cold, impersonal world ~ Nature can also be portrayed as an indifferent presence in the world that doesn't take any of the characters into consideration. Because of this, it's more of a survival story. An example of this is Call of the Wild by Jack London.
(Individual and Society)
-Crime and Punishment ~ Individuals, in certain stories, break one of society's rules and are forced to be punished by society.
-Oppression ~ The inverse of Crime and Punishment, Oppression has the society infringing upon the citizens'/individual's rights. This sub-theme is used throughout the world.
-War ~ This sub-theme is also pretty straight forward. The individual must cope with the violent clash of two societies.
(Individual and Family)
-Siblings ~ Readers are intrigued by the rivalry between brother and sister.
-Parents ~ Individuals have problems with their parents.
(Individual and Individual)
-Love ~ An example of this is Romeo & Juliet.
-Rivalry ~ Individuals are competing with another individual.
(Individual and Self)
-Madness ~ An example of this is the Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe.
-Self Doubt ~ An example of this is Shakespeare's Hamlet. "To be or not to be?"

Jess

9/11/2013 11:28:45 am

The seven universal themes and their sub themes include:
1. The individual as hero-Characters in a work of literature whom display heroic qualities
Heroes of Legend-Stories become legends because people can learn from them and the hero’s traits are valued by people in the culture.
Heroic in Everyday Life- People who don’t necessarily “save the world” but they do heroic things
that others value.
2. The Individual and the Cosmos- Characters trying to figure out how the earth and themselves came into existence
Death-Characters try to avoid thinking about death.
Place in the Universe- Characters try to figure out where they belong.
3. The Individual and Nature-Many authors have written about nature. It’s often viewed as a positive life-giving force.
Nature as a Teacher-Thoreau is a prime example of nature as a teacher.
Cold, Impersonal World-Sometimes nature can be completely indifferent to what happens to us. It can be viewed in a negative way.
4. The Individual and Society- Society infringes upon the rights of individuals
War- A character whom is involved in was will most likely lead to death.
Oppression- This is a very common theme in stories throughout the world. It’s when society goes against citizen’s rights.
Crime and Punishment- When a crime is committed the character must either die or be otherwise severely punished.
5. The Individual and Family- A piece of literature involving trouble between family and an individual.
Siblings- Conflicts between brother and sister are seen in many works of literature.
Parents- Parents and children often have problems within novels. (ex. Romeo and Juliet)
6. The Individual vs. the Individual- Rivalries between two separate individuals.
Love- The troubles between a man and a woman in love causes many conflicts between individuals. (ex. Forbidden Love)
Rivalry- This is common in literature such as in “The Little Foxes”.
7. The Individual vs. Self- This is a problem between the individual and him or herself.
Madness- Edgar Allen Poe writes a lot about madness, which is when the person himself/herself becomes crazy due to the conflict within themselves.
Self-Doubt- This is when a character has lack of self-confidence. This is a very common conflict in literature.

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Mod#2 - Universal Themes in Literature

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