1. The thoughts about writing the “Thematic” prompt essay that we looked at today in class…
Thematic Writing…
There are two initial components that you begin with (A) the basic theme that is being considered and (B) the quote that reflects this theme. So, for example, a thematic writing prompt might say something like the following…
“Here is a quote from Their Eyes Were Watching God –
“They fought on. ‘You done hurt mah heart, now you come wid uh lie tuh bruise mah ears! Turn go mah hands!’ Janie seethed. But Tea Cake never let go. They wrestled on until they were doped with their own fumes and emanations; till their clothes had been torn away; till he hurled her to the floor and held her there melting her resistance with the heat of his body, doing things with their bodies to express the inexpressible; kissed her until she arched her body to meet him and they fell asleep in sweet exhaustion.
“The next morning Janie asked like a woman, ‘You still love ole Nunkie?’
“‘Naw, never did, and you know it too. Ah don’t want her.’
“‘Yeah you did.’ She didn’t say this because she believed it. She wanted to hear his denial. She had to crow over the fallen Nunkie.
In a thorough well-considered paragraph explain what this quotation teaches the reader about the book’s attitude towards true love.
So in this example prompt, you have the quote (from Chapter 15 of the novel) and the theme (true love).
In the writing that responds to this prompt, you want to (A) introduce the reader to the quote that you are going to work with and make sure that you repeat the quote in its entirety, (B) place the quote in its proper detailed context (where it occurs in the book’s plot, what events surround and lead up to the quote, what characters are involved, etc.), (C) explain as clearly as you can the one over-riding perspective on the theme that is represented by the quote, and (D) explain how this perspective can be either (1) found in at two or three other places in the book or (2) contrasted in at least two or three other places in the book, and (E) a final closing sentence (or two) that adequately and interestingly sums and sews up the paragraph as a whole.
So…
In terms of suggested lengths…
Part A = 1-2 sentences, plus the quote in its entirety.
Part B = 3-4 sentences
Part C = 1-2 sentences
Part D = 3-4 sentences
Part E = 1-2 sentences
So, we are talking about somewhere between 9-14 sentences total (not counting the number of sentences in the actual quote).
2. Here are some quotes matched with themes. For our final exam you will select two to write on, using the stepxstep process outlined above.
Quote:
Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.
Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.
Theme: the differences between men and women (between genders)
Quote:
“Listen, Sam, if it was nature, nobody wouldn’t have tuh look out for babies touchin’ stoves, would they? ’Cause dey just naturally wouldn’t touch it. But dey sho will. So it’s caution.” “Naw it ain’t, it’s nature, cause nature makes caution. It’s de strongest thing dat God ever made, now. Fact is it’s de onliest thing God every made. He made nature and nature made everything else.”
Theme: Free will (nurture) versus Fate (nature)
Quote:
“Tain’t de poorness, it’s de color and de features. Who want any lil ole black baby layin’ up in de baby buggy lookin’ lak uh fly in buttermilk? Who wants to be mixed up wid uh rusty black man, and uh black woman goin’ down de street in all dem loud colors, and whoopin’ and hollerin’ and laughin’ over nothin’?”
Theme: racial prejudice
Quote:
“These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.”
Theme: Power and Judgment in Human Dealings
Additional theme: gossip and the power of language
Quote:
“Dey gointuh make ‘miration ‘cause mah love didn’t work lak they love, if dey ever had any. Then you must tell ‘em dat love ain’t somethin’ lik uh grindstone dat’s de same thing everywhere and do du same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore.”
Theme: Love
Quote:
“Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.”
Theme: Life and its many cycles and ups and downs
Quote:
“All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood.”
Theme: the relationship between God and human beings
Quote:
“..she began to stand around the gate and expect things. What things? She didn’t know exactly. Her breath was gusty and short. She knew things that nobody ever told her. For instance, the words of the trees and the wind. .. She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether. She knew that God tore down the old world every evening and built a new one by sun-up. It was wonderful to see it take form with the sun and emerge from the gray dust of its making. ”
Theme: Hope
Everything English Two 