Literature Project for English 9

[araskates]

My assignment is to write a common thread to three of the works that we had read and studied this year. Compose a thesis about this common thread and give examples in a formal essay. We must choose 3 from any of the following literary works: Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, A Tale of Two Cities, Lord of the Flies, or To Kill A Mockingbird. We must choose one of the following to use as our common thread: love, death, persecution, deceit, discrimination, hate, violence, fate, innocence, desire, war.
I'm stuck! I need to get started, and then i'll be able to handle it from there. Help!?

[PabloQ]

Are you looking for advice on which 3 works to read and what theme thread you should be looking for in each?
I'm not as familiar with The Lord of the Flies, but it plus TKAM and Romeo and Juliet could certainly cover innocence or discrimination.
The Odyssey plus R&J and TKAM or Tale of 2 Cities could cover love, violence, maybe fate. But the Odyssey will probably take the longest to read. Depends on how big a crunch you are really under.
Good luck.

[Nightshade]

I have moved this thread, to a more suitable place.
Now what is the problem....
I suppose one way to get started would be to get a massive piece of paper say A1 size and draw a nice pretty table put the themes ( or threads whatever you want to call them down in the rows and all of the books down in the columns then put highlights in relevant books and choose the three books you seem to have the most to say about and the theme that interested or jumps out at you the most.

another method would be to brain storm( or mind map to be more politically correct) each book individually with the themes in different colours.. maybe put useful quotes on colourful post it notes and stick them on the paper.
And that should get you started.

[JBI]

You simply must make a chart of similarities (thematically) in each work, and then choose 3 that correspond the best.

[bounty]

araskates, to follow up on whats been said so far--its been awhile since i read the odyssey but if i am remembering rightly, its love of wife and home that sustains odysseus until he finally makes it back. the end of a tale of two cities is the very definition of love. and my goodness romeo and juliet is so much about love as well----for my part, as a thesis, id put forth that love leads people to transcend the boundaries that life puts in front of us---and in each of those three works, you will see plenty of clear obstacles the characters have to overcome.

whaddya think?

[mjga]

My assignment is to write a common thread to three of the works that we had read and studied this year. Compose a thesis about this common thread and give examples in a formal essay. We must choose 3 from any of the following literary works: Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, A Tale of Two Cities, Lord of the Flies, or To Kill A Mockingbird. We must choose one of the following to use as our common thread: love, death, persecution, deceit, discrimination, hate, violence, fate, innocence, desire, war.
I'm stuck! I need to get started, and then i'll be able to handle it from there. Help!?


Easy - R&J, TKaM and Lord of the Flies and you can cover each of those themes thoroughly.