Chapter 8 (VIII)

Journal Questions:

1. MACARTHUR AT THE BEACH. At the beach MacArthur has a very different perspective about the current situation than Vera does. How does he see their situation? Pick a line of dialogue that MacArthur speaks that captures his thoughts on what is going on. There is one particular line that is very chilling -- see if you can find it. You only need to pick one. (at least on paragraph)

Why do you think he feels this way? What in his past or in his life might motivate him to have this outlook? (at least one paragraph)


2. THEME DEFINITION. Copy down the definition for the literary term "Theme" from your red Language Arts textbook (The Language of Literature) on page R164.

"A theme is the message about life or human nature that is conveyed by a literary work.  A work may have more than one theme, and in manyh cases readers must infer the writer's message.  One way to infer a fictional worke's theme is to decide what general statement could be supported by experiences of the main character(s).  For example, a theme of "The Scholarship Jacket" is having to stand up for one's beliefs."
 


3. THEME BRAINSTORMING. Based on this definition, what do you see as at least four different, possible themes of our novel so far? Focus on the overall story so far.  Go back to the definition above and recheck if your four themes really can be considered to be "themes." (list of four)


A following examples of themes might help you to get started
           
             THEME death is a natural part of life           
             EVIDENCE “In the midst of life, we are in death.”

             THEME all men are capable of evil acts
             EVIDENCE “One of us in this very room is in fact the murderer.” 

              THEME a guilt conscience burdens the mind
              EVIDENCE “That's peace - real peace. To come to the end - not to have to go on... Yes, peace.”           

               THEME judgement and justice come to all
               EVIDENCE “I’m talking to you, young man. The day of judgment is very close at hand.”


4. CERS PARAGRAPH ON THEME
Choose the best theme of the four. Write a simple CERS paragraph using the following template and prompt.

PROMPT:
What is the central theme of the novel And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie?

TEMPLATE
CLAIM 
Make a simple Claim Statement as follows:

"The central theme of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None is __________________"

EVIDENCE
State a quote from the book that supports this Claim.  Include the page number as an in text citation such as:

"The following quote demonstrates this theme:  " ______________________________" (page number X).

REASONING
Explain why this quote demonstrates your Claim Statement by writing:

"The above quote proves that that the central them is __________________ because ______________________________."

SYNTHESIS
Connect the theme you chose to a similar theme from another book, movie or televisions show by writing something like:

"While the central theme of _________________________ is in And Then There Were None, this same theme also exists in _______________________________________ because they both have ____________________________ in common."


You may use the movie Clue if you like.