pre-reading
Prompt:
This book presents many of the same themes that we have already been discussing this year. Knowing these themes will help you develop text-to-text responses throughout the novel. Themes to explore:
- Secrets and secret lives
- coming of age
- search for identity
- relationships with parents
- resilience of the human spirit
- man's inhumanity to man
- discrimination, prejudice, bigotry, class structure (social class)
- literacy--the role of writing
- how death gives way to life
Response Required: Cover all parts of the question.
- Choose two themes from the list above. We will be working with these themes in class this week so it is suggested that you put this off until that day. Explain how each has been found in Heroes, Anne Frank, and/or Of Mice and Men.
In the story of Mice and Men, search for identity is based on pretty much the whole story. When George and Lennie are back in Weed, they're being searched down for Lennie pulling on the woman's dress. They then had to search for a new identity. This is why they moved to the farm, where they could work in peace until further notice. George and Lennie were going to have a life of their own in their brand new house, however it didn't last long till Lennie had killed their bosses sons wife. Lennie's identity then changed from hard worker, to murderer. This however, comes with consequences.
ReplyDeleteAlso in the story of Anne Frank, their identity was stolen away from them. They were Jews and they weren't respected by anyone back when the holocaust was around.
In the Story of Anne Frank, Anne had to not only deal with her family, but her families friends as well. Imagine being a small girl living in a small hidden apartment shared by maybe 12 people. I would go nuts. However, this is not truly so bad. You now have people you know you can share your feeling with because your all related in some way. Anne with her parents were difficult because her mother never understood her. Eventually, they ended up getting along.
Family is important, whether its because of your job, your relatedness, or even your identity.
Relation ship with parents was good first but then it got really bad because she could not handle that anymore living with so many people and depression.They had secret life on the war time in middle of the war
ReplyDeleteOne theme in this book that I found to really relate to the other books that we've read this year is relationships with parents. Lily barely knew her mother and her father is very mean and abusive. In Anne Frank, Anne has a wonderful relationship with her loving, caring, level headed father. But has a hard time connecting with her mother. And in Heroes, Francis had his parents taken away because of death at a young age as well. Another theme that I can relate to Heroes is the search for identity. Lily lables herself as the unpopular girl and the girl that will never be popular. She wants to find the part of herself that she can be proud to put her name on. Francis on the other hand doesn't want people to know who he is. He doesn't want the praise that comes with being a war hero because secretly he really isn't. He wants to find a new identity, start from scratch.
ReplyDeleteThe two themes I have chosen are Coming of Age and Relationships with parents. In the book "The Diary of Anne Frank" the two themes are found. The coming of age is when Anne Frank wants to mature and develope faster in hormones. Anne looks at her self every day in the bathroom to check she is to become of age soon. her relationship with her parents were found as well. Anne and her father have a great relationship. She doesn't like her mother too much. She never finds anything good to talk about and loves to bond with her father rather then her mother. This is how the two themes relate to the book.
ReplyDeleteRelationships with parents and resilience of the human spirit can be found in Anne Frank.
ReplyDeleteRelationships with parents can be found in Anne Frank. Anne has a good relationship with her father. She likes him and likes to spend time with him. She says that whenever she hears bombs at night, she always runs to her father's bed to sleep with him. Anne's relationship with her mother, however, isn't as good. Anne finds that her mother's crude jokes and sense of humor aren't how a mother is supposed to act. Anne refuses help or love from her mother because of that. Anne Frank's relationship with her father was good but the same cannot be said about her and her mother.
Resilience of the human spirit is also found in Anne Frank. Anne had to go through a sudden change in her life. That was moving out and going into hiding. Anne had to be resilient in that case. She had to adjust with her new life. She had to adjust to a new place, new people living with her 24/7 and having to stay silent the whole day. Because of that, Anne resorted to writing in her diary. That's how she adjusted. She could just write down whatever she was feeling in the diary. That was her way of adjusting to her new life. Anybody can be resilient and this is how Anne Frank was.
Relationships with parents and resilience of the human spirit can be found in Anne Frank.
Coming of age:
ReplyDeleteIn the story “Anne Frank” the coming of age takes part in the story line. Since Anne is getting older her parent want her to be more mature and like Margot. Her age is effecting how her parents treat her. Anne likes to have fun and joke around. Her mother wants her to be proper and act her age. Peter Van Pels is also living in the annex. All of the parents believe that Anne and Peter like each other (even if it is true) but because of their age and how they happen to be different genders. The coming of age throughout the story makes Anne frustrated that her parents want her to be exactly like Margot and that they think Anne likes Peter.
Search for identity:
In the book “Heroes” the main character Francis is on a search for his identity. After a failed attempted of committing suicide and the love of his like being raped, Francis is left with a large hole in his heart. He has to find who he really is throughout the book. While he is on a mission to kill Larry LaSalle, he has to hide behind a wall of clothes because his face was destroyed by a grenade. Francis need to realize “we are who we are” and that no matter what you look like, what is inside truly counts.
The theme ‘relationships with parents’ has come up in all three novels we have read so far this school year. These Novels are Heroes, Anne Frank, and Of Mice and Men. This theme in heroes comes up, but sort of in an odd way. Francis’s parents died when he was young and he was living with his Uncle. But his Uncle was not the father figure in Francis’s life, Larry LaSalle was. Larry showed Francis that he could be good at something. He showed him that he could become a champion. Larry inspired Francis and Francis looked up to him until a certain incident. Larry definitely proved to be Francis’s father figure while he was growing up. In the Diary of Anne Frank there were two different types of parenting and relationships with parents. Anne did not like her relationship with her mother. Her mother was always telling her what to do and what not to do. There was nothing Anne could do without her mother commenting about it. Mrs. Frank, Anne’s mother, sort of babied Anne in the Novel the Diary of Anne Frank. Mr. VanDaan and Mrs. VanDaan treated Peter totally opposite. I wouldn’t say there relationship was stronger, because it wasn’t. But, Peter’s parents let him have his space when he needed it. They treated him as if he was an adult. I would definitely say that the relationships between the different families in the Diary of Anne Frank were not similar. In the novel Of Mice and Men, Lennie does not have a father. Like Larry was to Francis, George was like a father figure to Lennie. George would look after Lennie and help him out. When Lennie was in trouble and had to leave town, George helped him out and fled town with him. George would stand up for Lennie when people were disrespecting him and teach him skills on how to defend himself or how to stay calm. I would say that in the novel Of Mice and Men, Lennie completely looked up to George and thought of him as like a father. These are all examples of how the theme ‘relationships with parents’ came up in all three of these novels.
ReplyDeleteAnother theme, ‘mans inhumanity to man’, also comes up in these three novels. In the novel, Heroes, it comes up in one scene. This is the scene where Larry tells Francis to go home, thus so he could have one last dance with Nicole. Instead of having one last dance, Larry rapes Nicole. He took away her childhood and innocence and changed her life forever. After the rape, Nicole wanted nothing to do with boys or men. This is a great example of the theme ‘mans inhumanity to man.’ It also comes in the novel, The Diary of Anne Frank. This book is about how people were brutally abused or murdered. Because of there religion these people were but in death camps, where they were cooked in ovens and murdered. How could people do this to other human beings? Why would they do this? This is another great example of the theme, ‘mans inhumanity to man.’ One last example is the novel, Of Mice and Men. In this novel there is discrimination against race, brightness, and ability. One man, Crooks, in this novel was not talked to, not bunked with, not eaten with because one, he was African American, and two he was crippled. Just because someone has a different race and ability than you doesn’t mean they aren’t human. This man was treated as a lesser person instead of an equal. This is an example of the theme, ‘mans inhumanity to man.’
The theme "secrets and secret lives" is found many ways in Hereoes. Francis is trying to keep his entire identity a secret after going to the war ad blowing off his fce. He tries to be as quiet as possible, so no one realizes that its actually him. He also had to hold the secret about Nicole, his crush, being raped by Larry LaSalle, his mentor. Also, he holds away his secret of wanting to kill himself by going to war. He wanted to keep his family's name respected, so he went to the war, trying to kill himself at every opportunistic he had.
ReplyDeleteLiteracy: one of the most important things in life. Without literacy, we would have never known the hardships that Anne Frank had to go through during the times of her hiding. She kept a well updated journal, and with that gave inspiration because of her courage and determination.
Secret lives and relationships with parents are two themes in Secret Life of Bees and Anne Frank. “Then signaling her to be quiet, I cracked the door to see if the policeman was back at his chair.” This quote shows that Lilly has a secret life because she is sneaking around. Anne Frank lives a secret life because her and her family are in hiding
ReplyDeleteAnother theme is relationship with parents. Lilly has a bad relationship with her dad and does not see him as a father figure. Anne Frank’s relationship with her mom is not great because she finds it harder to talks to her mom than it is to talk with her dad
There are many similarities in the theme of The Secret Life of Bees and other books we have read this year. The idea of secret lives has appeared in The Secret Life of Bees and in Heroes as well. Lily and Rosaleen keep their real lives hidden to the Boatwright sisters. Lily told them her mother and father were both dead, and they were visiting her Aunt in Richmond. This, of course, is not true. Lily thinks that if she told them the truth right away, they won't give her any information. In Heroes, Francis also kept his life hidden from everyone. After the war, he obscured his face with bandages, so no one would notice him. He told people his name was Raymond, and mostly kept to himself. Francis didn't wan people to know who he was for a number of reasons. Mostly, it was because he planned on killing Larry. Also, because he was extremely self conscious of his appearance after the war.
ReplyDeleteThe theme "coming of age" is present in both The Secret Life of Bees as well as The Diary of Anne Frank. The characters in both books, had to grow up at a very young age. Anne, Margot and Peter never really had a chance to be normal teenagers. Living in that time period, and more specifically living in the secret annex, restricted them tremendously. Lily doesn't live the life of the average teenager either. She doesn't have any friends, or even anyone her age that she can talk to. Her mother died when she was only four years old, so growing up was very hard for her. Lily's father his horribly cruel to her, leaving her to have only Rosaleen.
Sue Monk Kidd includes many different styles and techniques of writing in her stories.
ReplyDeleteLily has co me to a point in her life where she is of the time of coming of age. She feels as if she should fix her hair to perfection or wear the nicest clothes because she is now 14 years old. This can relate to Anne Frank because of her desire to grow up. She always wished she could grow up fastly and blossom like all of her friends did. She wanted to get her period more than anything in the world. The situation with Peter also shows hows she grew up since she entered the Annex.
There was a lot of discrimination on the books that we read this year. In the Secret Life of Bee's, it takes place during a time of segregation and racism. Lily is traveling with Rosaleen to Tiburon to find her mother. The reason why August took them in is because of the fact that nobody else would take them in, bieng different races. In Anne Frank, the holocaust is taking place. It is a very racist and horrible time in history. Anne was forced to hide in the Secret Annex in order to save her life.
The theme of 'Secrets and secret lives' is used in both Heroes and The Diary of Anne Frank. In Heroes, Francis Cassavant has a very big secret. He hides his identity, or at least tries to. He keeps his secret concealed very well. Francis covers his face with a bandage and scarf. His secret only got out when he reunited with his old war buddies. In Anne Frank, Meep and Mr. Kraler have secret lives. They have to pretend like they don't have Jews hidden in their workplace, and have to look like they have normal lives. Their secret lives got figured out when the Gestapo raided the Annex, and captured Anne, along with everyone else.
ReplyDeleteThe theme of discrimination is also used in both Heroes and Anne Frank. In Heroes, Francis is discriminated because of the way he looks. People treat him differently because of his face. People stare at him on the streets, like he's from another planet. In Anne Frank, at that time, all Jews were discriminated against. They would be sent to concentration camps, and would be killed, for no reason at all. People in Germany thought they were disgusting. This is how 'Secrets and Secret Lives' and discrimination is used in both books.