“Harrison Bergeron”
Kurt Vonnegut
Focus on Literary Terms
• Satire is any kind of writing or speaking or
art that ridicules or mocks some weakness
in individuals or in society. The main
weapon is laughter.
• Examples?
Point of View
Third-person Omniscient
• Who tells the story and how is it told.
• Third-Person Narrator (uses pronouns he, she or they)
Omniscient: the narrator is all-knowing and takes the
reader inside the characters’ thoughts, feelings, motives
as well as shows what the characters say and do.
“The boy with the fair hair lowered himself down the last
few feet of the rock and began to pick his way toward the
lagoon. Though he had taken off his school sweater and
trailed it now from one hand, his gray shirt stuck to him
and his hair was plastered to his forehead.” Lord of the
Flies- William Golding
Point of View
Third-person LIMITED
• Third person, told from the viewpoint of a
character in the story.
“In his black suit he stood in the dark glass where
the lilies leaned so palely from their waisted
cutglass vase. He looked down at the guttered
candlestub. He pressed his thumbprint in the
warm wax on the oak veneer. Lastly he looked
at the face so caved and drawn among the folds
of the funeral cloth, the yellowed moustache, the
eyelids paper thin. That was not sleeping. That
was not sleeping.”
All the Pretty Horses- Cormac McCarthy
Point of View
First Person
• Story is told from the point of view of one of the
characters who uses the first person pronoun “I.”
“I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since
I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt
Hardbine’s father over the top of the Standard
Oil sign. I’m not lying. He got stuck up there.
About nineteen people congregated during the
time it took for Norman Strick to walk up to the
Courthouse and blow the whistle for the
volunteer fire department.
The Bean Trees- Barbara Kingsolver
Theme
• Theme: central, underlying, and controlling idea of a
literary work.
• Abstract concept represented by a character, by actions,
or by images in the literary work.
• A generalization about human conduct.
• Ordinarily expressed in a full sentence and it may even
require a full paragraph.
Theme= What it is NOT
• Cannot be expressed in a single word.
• Not the purpose of the work (entertainment or
instruction)
• Man versus nature is not a theme, it is a conflict.
• Unlike a moral or fable, the theme is seldom, if
ever, stated.
How Do I Figure Out the Theme?
• You must first understand the plot, the characterization
and conflict, the imagery, and the author’s tone.
• Identify the subject in one word…
• Then, explain in one or two sentences what the author
says about the subject.
• NOTE: Many stories have more than one theme and
there is seldom just one “right” answer!
What’s the theme?
• Think back to some of the short stories and novels you
have read…
• Brainstorm a list of 5 subjects that the authors deal with
in the literature.
• Write one sentence for each SUBJECT describing the
theme (what the author says about the subject)
For Example…
• Literature: To Kill A Mockingbird
• Subject: Racism
• Possible Theme: Justice is often withheld from
economically deprived racial minorities.
Vocabulary- What Do You Know?
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Symmetry
Cowered
Hindrances
Synchronizing
Consternation
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Calibrated
Luminous
Vigilance
Winced
Active Reading: What do I
highlight?
• Vocabulary words in context
• Questions about the text: highlight the sentences
and add your handwritten annotations
(questions and comments).
• Text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world
connections: highlight AND ANNOTATE!
“Harrison Bergeron”
• Anticipation Guide
Agree or Disagree?