Theme: Essential ideas to the book, or a unifying idea

Motif: A motif is a structure or literary device used to keep the plot moving, or inform readers of something

Symbol: A symbol is a real-life, concrete version of an abstract idea

Themes: Unchecked ambition: Macbeth starts out as a good fellow, but once the witches prophesy he will be king and his wife starts telling him Macbeth becomes deluded, and once he is king he has no legal system to stop him committing more crimes ; Absolute power corrupts absolutely: Macbeth commits a heinous crime to become king, but once he is in that position he commits many more terrible acts that add to his conscience, he runs Macduff out of the country and kills his family so that Macduff cannot speak or act against him, he kills his once close friend Banquo and tries to kill Banquo’s son so that Macbeth’s line will rule and not Banquo’s.

Motifs: Hallucinations: Macbeth’s hallucinations show the readers that he is not cut out to be a murderer and that he is slowly losing his sanity, they also reveal things that could not be revealed otherwise; Violence, Macbeth is one of the most violent plays (books for that matter, too) that I have read, Macbeth kills everyone, women and children and friends and family.

Symbols: The environment: when Macbeth does something bad storms brew, and when Hecate and the witches are around the weather acts up too, Duncan’s star horses ate each other and attacked their handlers.; Guilt and Blood: the blood symbolizes their guilt, with Lady Macbeth constantly washing her hands and Macbeth seeing bloody things.

Connecting Theme, Motif, and Symbol

Theme: Absolute Power

Motif: Violence

Symbol: Guilt/Blood

Relation between the three:

These all relate to each other because they all cause each other. When Macbeth becomes king he kills more and more thus: absolute power à violence, but the more Lady Macbeth and Macbeth kill the guiltier they get and the more insane and blood-ridden their lives become, leading to Absolute Power à Violence à Blood (Insanity and Guilt).

Motif exemplifying the theme and symbol:

As stated earlier in the relation section they are all interconnected. Violence leads to absolute power at the beginning and starts the whole cycle it is also this violence that creates Lady Macbeth syndrome. So, basically it all stems from this violence.

Fitzgerald first begins using weather as a motif when Nick arrives at the Buchanans' mansion, underscoring the situation's mood. When he arrives, the weather outside is warm, sunny, and windy. This description gives the readers the idea that Nick's visit will be happy and friendly with happy and friendly people. However, the readers soon learn that this is not the case. As the chapter progresses, Tom says the following: “It's up to us [Nordics] who are the dominant race to watch out or these other races will have the control of things” (Fitzgerald 14). From this quote, the readers clearly realize that Tom is an absolute racist and an irrational bigot full of hauteur. Believing in the Nordics' superiority over all other races, Tom advocates Nordic domination over others. This is simply one example of the fact that things don't go warmly inside the home.

Fitzgerald further presents Tom as a supercilious libertine when the readers learn that he commits himself to an affair and, because of the affair, is not present at the birth of his child. Because he didn't appear when his own child is born, he makes evident his uncaring and selfish nature. The readers later learn that he easily gets irritated and Tom and Daisy's relationship is certainly not reciprocal. Daisy is not so perfect herself, since she talks and acts lazily and cynically. As seen, the weather outside the house juxtaposes sharply with the “weather”, or mood, within the house: When is warm and sunny outside, it's stormy inside. Fitzgerald's juxtaposition shows the readers how superficial the Buchanans and wealthy people in general are.

The average American believes that they have a perfectly happy life. In reality, the situation cannot be further from the truth. The upper-class try to cover up their ugliness with all their money and power, as Daisy and Tom do. The weather serves as an important aspect in this scene and will be even more important later on.

Although Fitzgerald uses the weather for juxtaposition, he uses it for more than just that, as it also coincides with a present mood. Following a few chapters, when Gatsby decides to meet Daisy, he meets her amidst a rainy weather, foreshadowing an awkward or unpleasant situation. Sure enough, when Gatsby finally gets together Daisy, the incredibly awkward situation keeps all the characters almost dead silent: “For half a minute there wasn't a sound. Then from the living room I heard a sort of chocking murmur and part of a laugh followed by Daisy's voice on a clear artificial note” (91). This clearly demonstrates the situation's awkwardness: none of the characters make a sound until Daisy laughs. Her laugh, which would go unnoticed in any other situation, rings clearly here. Furthermore, the author describes her laugh as being “artificial”, indicating that Daisy fakes it to relieve the present tension. This silence and unpleasantness between the characters corresponds with the rain. Like rain, their shyness ruins what could have been a pleasant reunion.

Later, Nick goes outside and leaves the two alone. The rain starts clearing and the sun starts shining by now. When Nick returns, he finds that the tension is dramatically relieved. No longer reticent, Gatsby and Daisy joyfully laugh, cry, and joke around with each, as old friends do. Here, the rain's end symbolizes that the initially awkward and quiet moment between Daisy and Gatsby has “cleared up” and the situation has “brightened up”, like the sun's arrival. The chapter finally ends with Nick “walking out of the rain” (102). When he walks out, he is met with rainy weather again showing that Daisy and Gatsby's relationship may deteriorate in the future. This foreshadowing proves itself correct when readers later discover Daisy eventually deserting Gatsby and not appearing at his funeral - the funeral of a man who has dedicated his whole life to her. As seen, the weather's significance becomes larger and larger as the story progresses, with weather becoming a major indicator of the situation's mood.

Similar to the weather representing awkwardness and rejoicing, it can also represent anger and passion amongst the characters. As time passes a little more, Gatsby, Tom, Daisy, Nick, and Jordan go to New York on a day which is the year's hottest day. Throughout this chapter, Fitzgerald constantly describes the weather as being excruciatingly hot. When readers look back at the story, they realize the weather gets hotter and hotter as the book progresses. The reason for the increasing is more than just marking spring's transition to summer; the heat coincides with Gatsby and Daisy's growing love and Gatsby and Tom's growing tension. The gang's excursion to New York occurring on the year's hottest day means this is the day when Tom and Gatsby's tension and Gatsby's Daisy's love come to a crisis. Daisy's quote foreshadows this future crisis: “'But it's so hot,' insisted Daisy, on the verge of tears.

"And everything"s so confused'” (125). Her association of confusion with the weather implies a coming confusion, passion, emotion, and conflict. As expected, although this chapter is not the book's climax, it is the most intense part of the book. It is in this very chapter that Tom openly scorns Gatsby about Gatsby's reputation and his love for Daisy. It is also in this chapter that Daisy ultimately has to choose between leaving with Gatsby or staying with Tom, and she chooses the latter. Thus, it is very fitting that all this passion and conflict occur on that year's hottest day, as the hot weather correlates perfectly with the conflict.

The last portions of the book, Gatsby's death and the aftermath, are worth noting for its complex weather, since Fitzgerald adds both a more positive and darker meaning to it. On the day of his death, it is the first day of autumn, when the temperature starts getting chilly. This chilly weather is a perfect setting for the cold-blooded murder that's about to occur. Thus, in this chapter, the most hateful action occurs. After Gatsby's death, Nock holds Gatsby's funeral on a rainy day. In the arts and literature typically portray funerals on a rainy day, and they occur on a rainy day for a reason. Even though the rain in this case does not represent awkwardness, it underscores the dejection within the funeral attendant's hearts and the situation's unpleasantness.

But, at the funeral, the rain represents more than just sadness. What is most significant about this rain is a quote one of the attendants or the minister at the funeral says: “Blessed are the dead that the rain falls on” (183). This is clearly an allusion to either the English poet Edward Thomas or the famous 17th Century English proverb, “Blessed are the dead that the rain rains on,” or possibly both. In Edward Thomas's case, the line “Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon” (line 7) appears in his poem “Rain”. Despite the poem's melancholy mood, Thomas does include these lines: “And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks/ For washing me cleaner than I have been” (lines 4-5), which precedes the line first mentioned. These lines make the rain a symbol of spiritual cleansing and therefore, the dead, cleansed by the rain, are truly blessed.

The English proverb, however, means that if the rain falls on a coffin, it indicates that the deceased's soul has arrived safely to the afterlife. In both the proverb and the poem, rain takes a positive connotation and embodies a blessing. This spiritual cleansing corresponds well with Gatsby's numerous religious associations and Nick's idea that Gatsby is the only moral person he meets in the East. Thus, it is perfect that someone moral and surrounded by religious imagery be spiritually cleansed before ascending to heaven. In Gatsby's funeral, the rain serves as both a symbol of sadness and cleansing, and Fitzgerald's ability to skillfully incorporate the weather sheds much meaning into the book.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells a story of love, ambition, and tragedy. His characters in the novel are as diverse as the weather employed. One minute it is raining, and the next minute, it is completely sunny. All this weather serves a purpose, whether to emphasize the tension or to show spiritual cleansing. The weather's ultimate purpose is to underscore the situation's mood and relationships between the characters. This is clearly present in numerous situations where the weather plays a significant role. It sheds light on the wealthy people's corruption and Gatsby's spirituality. In the end, Fitzgerald crafts a book that not only interests the readers, but is also full of vivid weather imagery that adds much significance to the book's meaning.

O'Brien uses the word “things” in the title because the soldiers do not only carry equipment and supplies, but also emotions of love, terror, grief, and longing. Throughout the book, O'Brien includes many themes and motifs to inform the reader that the physical burdens underscore the emotional. These themes and motifs include: A fear of shame as motivation, an ambiguous morality, and loneliness.

Burdens During the War

Throughout the book, O'Brien tells how the men figuratively carry the weight of their reputations because of the presence of stress, strangeness, youth, and immaturity. However, at times O'Brien tells a specific story about a specific character and their emotional burden that weighs them down throughout the war. For example, in the first story of the book, titled “The Things They Carried”, O'Brien talks about Lt. Jimmy Cross and his burdens of responsibility, the longing for love, and deciding which is more important. Another example is the story “stockings”. In this story, O'Brien talks about Henry Dobbins's longing for love and comfort. To help himself with this emotional burden, Dobbins wears his girlfriend's pantyhose around his neck. By doing this, Dobbin's comforts himself with the superstition that the pantyhose are a good luck charm, and he also satisfies his longing for love by being able to smell the scent of his girlfriend when he wears the pantyhose around his neck. O'Brien shares these stories in order to show the reader that there's more than meets the eye when judging how tough one's burdens are during the war.

Emotional burdens after war's end

Not only does O'Brien share burden stories during the war, but he also shares stories about emotional burdens that continue to define characters after they are released from duty. For example, in O'Brien's story “Love” (which occurred in a post war setting), he informs us of lt. Cross's longing for the love of Martha which hasn't diminished. O'Brien also shares the story of Norman Bowker's post war struggle with guilt in “Speaking of Courage”, and follows up with his eventual suicide in “Notes”. O'Brien shares stories of emotional struggle in various settings to show the readers that war is not a one-time thing, because the emotional burdens may last forever, even when the physical burdens are dropped.

Shame as Motivation

In "The Things They Carried", O'Brien shares the theme of fearing shame as a motivation. This theme is expressed throughout the book in terms of men wanting social acceptance. A good example is when Curt Lemon wants to avoid a negative social status by having a perfectly good tooth pulled. Besides the events in war, the theme of fearing shame as motivation shines in O'Brien's story, “On the Rainy River”. In this story, O'Brien's beliefs put him in the position of either choosing to flee to Canada, and avoiding something he thinks is unjust, or give in to his fear of being labeled as a coward by his community and fight. O'Brien decides to fight, motivated by his fear of shame. This story is meant to show the reader how heavy of an emotion burden this theme truly is.

Morality Issues

Often times, O'Brien shows that the ugliness of war, combined with personal issues and immaturity, can lead to the men practicing an ambiguous morality. That is, the men's sense of right and wrong bend. For example, Cross's sense of morality is absent when he burns an entire village to get even whit what he's done. Also, Rat Riley tortures an animal to death because of the loss of a friend. O'Brien even becomes morally confused when he shares a story of wanting revenge when war is already ugly enough. He wants the reader to ask him “where is the morality and sense in making more enemies than you need to?” O'Brien's exposure of this motif is meant to show the irony of morality in war…there are no morals.

Motif of Loneliness

Another motif O'Brien shares is the motif of loneliness. Often times during a post-war setting, men can become emotionally lost and feel alone. In “Speaking of Courage”, Bowker drives around aimlessly because he feels there is nothing to live life for, not even himself. Also, Lt. Cross's longing for Martha causes him to obsess and, in turn, put himself in an isolated and lonely state of mind. Once again, O'Brien shows that even after the equipment is put down, the emotional burdens live on.

Conclusion

The Things They Carried was an excellent display of true burdens. The themes and motifs O'Brien provided showed the true power emotional longings have on one's thinking, feelings, and beliefs. O'Brien's stories not only educate a reader about alters in psychology, but they also prove the thesis of physical burdens underscoring the virtually impossible emotional burdens.