Clue #3

***This is a Biggie!! THEME***

1. What is a literary theme? Provide an explanation and then 3 one-statement examples of a literary theme that reveals truth about the universal human experience.
- A literary theme is a kind of idea that the author wants to tell or communicate to the reader. In other words, it is an idea or a message the author. This is the perception about life and human nature. For example, the theme for any kind of literary writing, can either tell us about love, life, beauty, friendship, conflicts, and many other things that consider thinking. The theme can also be described as an author's purpose for writing. The theme can be used to entertain people. This means, a story the author tells can communicate an exciting or an entertaining tale. The theme can also be used for humor. If the theme is used for humor, the theme isn't actually the humor itself, but the theme will be something beneath the humor ideas. Other examples that the theme can be used for are fantasy, life, and for exploration. All of these examples similarly gives us a simple idea about ourselves. I personally think that the literary theme reveals the truth that God made us and the literary theme for a purpose. Since we were created with free will, in other words the ability to analyze and think, God created the literary theme for this reason as well. God would have probably gave us the idea to the literary theme so that we could analyze it, and so that we could learn more about our universal life.

2. What is the theme of your life, as you see it right now?
- Everyone has a theme in their life. If a person doesn't have a theme in their life, they would be living with no purpose. This will be very sad; life will be difficult, boring, and irritating. As any other people have themes in their life, I too have a theme. Honestly, I don't know the main theme for my life, but one thing I found out as I came to this TCIS school, I found out that as harder you work, put more effort into many things not only studying, and praying hard helps your life develop better to a goal of success. When I was in Korean school, before I came to TCIS, I was really bad at studying and the major works that occurred in the school. After I came to TCIS, it felt like God was helping my life to be better. I was able to work harder, study better, and get a better social life in this school. I also had more opportunity to get to know about God and Jesus since I was a Christian. This eventually led me to pray more. As I kept on doing the things I have said, I was getting a better life; I enjoyed my life more. I figured living my life with a purpose was very important.

3. In your opinion, what is the theme of God's plan for this world?
- I personally have a whole bunch of opinions about the plan of God for this world, but one main thing that everyone else would be thinking is love. God would have probably sent us down to Earth for a purpose as I have said earlier. I think that purpose is to communicate and show his love to us. Just as we express our love to one another, God would have purposely sent us down here so that we could figure out how much God loves us. In the Bible, the major percentage of the Bible talks about love and how we should love everybody, the nature itself, and everything around us. Through my experience, it is way better to be loved, loving others, and to live with love than to live with hatred. I found out that living with hatred brings loneliness, violence, and depression. If everyone in the world would live with hatred, the world would probably end because of so much depression and violence. Since God gave us the idea of theme, he is using the idea of theme so that we could figure out his purpose of sending us down to Earth. He even proves His love by sacrificing His own son, Jesus. This is why I think that we should show Him respect for what He has done for us.

***This will give you the biggest clue in your quest to solve the short story mystery!!!***

1. How can you figure out a theme in a short story? Describe the process.
- In a short story, there is always a theme. The story must have a purpose it is being written, or else it would be terribly boring. We can always find out the theme for every short story, if we put enough effort in it. First of all, we should always consider the title. Many short stories gives us the basic idea about the story, what the story will be about. "The Utterly Perfect Murder", this title gives a lot of information of what the story will be. You might be able to think of at least 2 things from this title. Next, after you finished reading the story, you should think about the main character of the story. Then you should consider about the conflict the main character faces or the moral they face. Most of the themes should come from the conflict the main character faces. To do this, you should take a closer look at the background information about the main character. 3rd, you should locate the climax and figure out how what happened to the conflict. Also, you should be beginning to think what the author is trying to tell you. For more broadness, you should try to connect how the main idea relates to the humanity in general. Also try to connect with your own experience, just like the reader's response. Lastly, taking a look into the resolution gives you a more clearer idea of what the purpose of the story would be. After you finished all these stuff, you should now relate all of these ideas together to come up with one simple statement. Then you have the theme!

2. What is the theme of "The Utterly Perfect Murder", and how does this theme relate to your own life?
- The theme of "The Utterly Perfect Murder", is quite interesting. From the title, I found out that the story had to be related to some kind of revenge or murder crime. And as I went through the main character, Doug Spaulding, I found out that he wanted revenge on his best friend Ralph Underhill for doing minor problems. These include the bullying Ralph had done when they were young, the unfair trading with a statue and a baseball mitt, and Ralph not visiting Doug's house. I found out that the conflict of Doug was that Doug wanted to revenge on Ralph for what he had done, but he is afraid that Ralph might not remember him. In the climax, they finally meet, Doug wielding his gun. However, they realize who they were, and Doug can't shoot. Then the resolution, the two guys become friends again. Through all of this analyzing, I figured that the theme the author tried to tell us was that 'once a friend, friends forever'. I also had a similar situation a lot of times. One of my best friend, ***, he had done something bad to me, which was making a unfair deal just like Doug and Ralph, I was planning to do a revenge on him, but then my friend confessed to me and said sorry. This was when I also found out that we became better friends.

3. How is a moral of a story different from a theme?
- A theme and a moral seems very similar, but somehow very different. Many people would think that the both are same, because I once thought that too. The two literary elements are very different. A theme is built up along the story just as the title, character, conflict, climax, and resolution is built. However, you could consider the moral as like a goal for the story to tell and teach the readers. A theme makes you realize things about life, while the moral teachs us a lesson about life. There is a big difference between realizing and being taught. Theme is usually something more vague, which means that the idea of the theme will be probably something you can't see clearly, like friendship and love. However, the moral is more broad and clear. It is because you have to teach, you have to be very specific to teach someone about something. These are the big differences between a theme and a moral.

4. Read John 3:16. Is this a theme statement for God's story? How does this relate to the truth you might find in literature?
- In John 3:16, the verse talks about God's love towards US. It also mentions that He loved us so much that He gave up His one and only son, Jesus. As I had said earlier, this could be a part of the theme of God's plan. The theme I think that is mentioned from this verse is that You should believe the love of God for He has sacrificed His one and only son for us.
- As I read this verse, the verse awkwardly amplifies the idea of love and sacrifice. These are one of the main things that you can find in a literature. In many literatures, the main character, or the protagonist usually makes a sacrifice for the ones they love. Not all stories does that, but lot of stories do. This is why I believe that this verse and many story themes are related commonly.