Senior English Critical Writing Handbook - Selwyn House School

The most important of these methods may be explicit statement. The student should quotewhatever passages speak of the main theme and the sub-themes directly and explicitly.Conventional, third-person narratives and often first-person narratives nearly always includesuch passages.Recognition ScenesMany authors resort to stopping the action at some point near the crisis, limiting the setting toone locale, and presenting two principal characters in confrontation. At such places the readersees the theme of the work struggling towards formulation both in words and in attitudes. Here isa list of the opposing values such characters may represent in confrontation (it is not, of course, acomplete or exhaustive list):Commonsense versus ImaginationHope versus DespairBrotherly Love versus BigotryLife versus ArtInnocence versus ExperienceResponsibility versus IrresponsibilityCourage versus CowardiceLove versus WarTenderness versus ViolenceForgiveness versus RevengeActivity versus PassivitySincerity versus HypocrisyDiscipline versus IndulgenceIntelligence versus IgnoranceSensitivity versus InsensitivityMaturity versus ImmaturityAppreciation versus RejectionIdealism versus MaterialismCapitalism versus CommunismIndependence versus ImperialismPatience versus Temper and ImpatienceResilience versus RigidityOptimism versus PessimismPatriotism versus TreasonSensuality versus SpiritualityBoredom versus EnthusiasmBeauty versus UglinessIndividuality versus ConformityFreedom versus DeterminismKnowledge versus HappinessTradition versus OriginalityNature versus ArtificeHumility versus PrideAction versus Contemplation32