Republic of the Philippines

MARINDUQUE STATE COLLEGE

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Tanza, Boac, Marinduque

Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSEd) Major in Science

Re-Accredited Level III – AACCUP

ESPEJO, Ericka Shane R. Literature 2 (World Literature)

BSEd III- Science Dr. Annalyn J. Decena

Title of Literary Major Themes Key Points

Works & Its Author
Common Sense – Inevitability of The outstanding theme is the inevitability of
Thomas Paine American America gaining independence. The sole
Independence purpose of writing Common Sense was to
awaken the sleeping American consciousness
concerning the British subjugation. Paine
posits, “Ye that oppose independence now, ye
know not what ye do; ye are opening a door to
eternal tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat of
government”. This assertion underscores the
fact that America has to gain independence by
all possible means, and for those that cannot
stand the idea, they are clueless of what an
independent government can do to its
subjects.
The Pestilence of A large part of Common Sense is dedicated to
Monarchy attacking monarchy, both as an institution and
in its particular manifestation in Britain. Paine
puts the theoretical attack in Biblical terms,
arguing from the text of the Bible that the
monarchy originated in sin. Paine presents his
specific problems with the British monarchy,
with his attack on hereditary succession and
with the numerous grievances he makes
against the present king. Throughout the text,
Paine paints monarchy as a pestilential form of
government conceived in sin and which
succeeds only in which creating tyrants who
rule over a degraded public. Monarchy created
aristocracy and aristocracy in turn created
corrupt system of succession. Taken together,
the system of government which ruled Europe
for centuries brought to the masses of its
population nothing but blood, poverty and
inequality. A revolution for independence from
England would therefore be just the first step
in the dismantling of a heinous system.

In Paine’s view, citizens should have the

 Republic of the Philippines
MARINDUQUE STATE COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Tanza, Boac, Marinduque

Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSEd) Major in Science

Re-Accredited Level III – AACCUP

opportunity to choose their leaders as opposed

to automatic succession and he regrets that the
“original sin and hereditary succession are
parallels”. In other words, the monarchical
form of governance is evil.
The Purpose of Paine commences his arguments by defining
Government the terms and conditions of government. The
concept of government is containment: it
exists to keep natural inclinations toward
“wickedness” in check so that a society can
thrive. The purpose of government is to act as
a restraint upon the darker impulses of human
nature which potentially serve to undermine
the natural inclinations of a society to progress,
pursue happiness and populate. Since
government exists fundamentally to ensure a
positive outcome by acting in a negative
capacity, the logical outcome of this
consideration is directly addressed by Paine
who identifies that form of government which
ensures the “least expense and greatest
benefit, is preferable to all others.”
The Inevitability of Another key point in Paine's argument derives
British Oppression from considering what will happen if America
reconciles with Britain. Paine argues that even
if the colonists reach an agreement with
Britain, the problems that have developed
between the colonies and the king will
inevitably repeat themselves. New taxes will be
levied and parliament will interfere with
colonial life. Paine attempts to demonstrate
this in two ways. First, he points to the history
of colonial relations with Britain, especially the
events surrounding the Stamp Act. Second, he
attacks the structure of Britain's government,
arguing that it is corrupt and unjust, and will
inevitably lead the British to continue
mistreating the colonies.
Letters from an Individual and Among the most significant and recurring
American Farmer - J. society’s themes of Letters is that of the individual and
Hector St. John de relationship with society's relationship with their environment;
Crèvecœur environment the work has been read as an “impassioned,
unqualified defense of American agrarianism”.
The theme appears especially in Letter II, III and
in the letters describing Nantucket and
 Republic of the Philippines
MARINDUQUE STATE COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Tanza, Boac, Marinduque

Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSEd) Major in Science

Re-Accredited Level III – AACCUP

Martha's Vineyard, where James' views are

expressive of the doctrine of environmental
determinism, that human growth,
development and activities are controlled by
the physical environment. In Letter III he says:
Men are like plants: the goodness and flavor of
the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and
exposition in which they grow. We are nothing
but what we derive from the air we breathe,
the climate we inhabit, the government we
obey, the system of religion we profess, and
the nature of our employment.
The treatment of Letter IX represents a turning point; having
slaves witnessed a slave left to die horribly in a cage,
James begins to question the goodness of
humanity. He wonders how the inhabitants of
Charles Town, where he saw the dying man, are
able to turn a blind-eye to the horrors and
abuses of slavery, and suggests that the
institution must be ended.
The Black Cat – Domestic Violence In “The Black Cat” the unnamed narrator offers
Edgar Allan Poe us a parade of violent acts. Eye gouging,
hanging, axing – these are the gruesome
highlights. Until the end of the story, when
somebody is killed, the detailed accounts of
violence are focused on Pluto, the black cat
who moves from pampered pet to persecuted
beast. The story brings light to the cycle of
domestic violence that often accompanies a
disease like alcoholism. Unable to deal with his
own feelings of unhappiness, the narrator
takes his rage out on his wife and his pets. This
is not uncommon for people who abuse alcohol
and have issues with their temper. The families
are often the routine victims of the alcoholic’s
blackouts and paranoia. For whatever reason,
the wife stays with the narrator, and this
decision highlights of the most dangerous
consequences of domestic violence: her
murder at the hands of her husband.

In the text he said, “This spirit of perverseness,

I say, came to my final overthrow. It was this
unfathomable longing of the soul to vex
itself—to offer violence to its own nature—to
 Republic of the Philippines
MARINDUQUE STATE COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Tanza, Boac, Marinduque

Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSEd) Major in Science

Re-Accredited Level III – AACCUP

do wrong for the wrong’s sake only—that

urged me to continue and finally to
consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the
unoffending brute.”
Love He confesses a great love for cats and dogs,
both of which, he says, respect the fidelity of
friendship, unlike fellow men. The narrator
marries at a young age and introduces his wife
to the domestic joys of owning pets. Among
birds, goldfish, a dog, rabbits, and a monkey,
the narrator singles out a large and beautiful
black cat, named Pluto, as his favorite.
Guilt The narrator is consumed by guilt about what
he's done. He does not seem to fully realize the
amount of his guilt, insisting that he is not
bothered by what he has done, but his guilt
manifests in subconscious ways. He sees a
vision of a cat in a noose in the ruined remains
of his burned down house. Guilt also causes him
to knock on the exact part of the wall that he
buried his wife behind, which causes the
trapped cat to cry out and alert the police to the
presence of the narrator's wife's corpse. If the
narrator was not feeling guilty about
murdering his wife, he would have kept his cool
when the police were searching his house and
possibly gotten away with her murder.
Freedom and “The Black Cat,” a claustrophobic tale of
Confinement marital life gone wrong, offers a distinct
movement from freedom to confinement. We
meet the narrator already in his prison cell,
writing, to free himself from his bonds – the
literal bonds of the cell, and the bondage
confining his mind and heart. How he became
so trapped is the subject of his writing and the
reason why he has taken the pen to the page.
We learn how he traps his wife and pets in a
cycle of violence and abuse. As things go from
bad to worse, the physical spaces the
characters inhabit shrink. While the man's story
begins in a house of wealth and comfort (or so
he implies) it ends in brick tomb in the cellar of
a rundown building.
Transformation In “The Black Cat” some form of
transformation occurs in nearly every

Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSEd) Major in Science
The Tell-Tale Heart –
Edgar Allan Poe
Confinement
Republic of the Philippines
MARINDUQUE STATE COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Tanza, Boac, Marinduque
Re-Accredited Level III – AACCUP
paragraph. For the narrator, these changes are
psychological. After he gets married, his
personality spirals deeper and deeper toward
the dark side, cruelly abusing his pets and his
wife. His initially happy home life is turned
upside down, and everyone involved is
adversely affected and changed for the worse.
Like many horror stories, “The Black Cat” also
offers the possibility of supernatural change,
though this might just be a figment of his
imagination, or an excuse to deflect blame
from his crime. According to him, “I knew
myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at
once, to take its flight from my body; and a
more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured,
thrilled every fiber of my frame.”
Guilt Guilt is a significant theme in the story.
Although the narrator does not feel guilty of his
crime openly, however, it is his guilty
conscience which leads him to confess his
crime. At first, he murders the old man in his
room and calmly hides his dead body
underground. Then he calmly receives the
policemen and leads them across the house.
However, in the hearts of his heart, he feels
nervous with the passage of time. Slowly and
gradually, he hears sounds which he did not
hear previously. He becomes anxious and tries
to evade the sounds by making a commotion.
However, his guilt does not leave him until he
confesses his crime. He is of the opinion that
the heartbeat is that of the old man’s heart but
actually it is his own heart pumping with guilt.
Externally, he enjoys killing the old man but his
guilty conscience does not let him enjoy the
brutal act.
The theme of confinement is central to the
story. The actions in the story are confined to a
house only. Neither the narrator nor the old
man go outside the house throughout the
story. The narrator wants to break this
confinement by murdering the old man but is
unsuccessful. He murders the old man but
never breaks his confinement.
 Republic of the Philippines
MARINDUQUE STATE COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Tanza, Boac, Marinduque

Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSEd) Major in Science

Re-Accredited Level III – AACCUP

The narrator thinks he will escape the life of

confinement by killing the old man who is a
threat to his freedom, according to him, but
never succeeds. Instead, after killing he
becomes more confined to the old man’s room.
First, he would roam around the house but
after killing him, he sits with the policemen in
the old man’s room. He does not leave the
room until he confesses his crime.

This confinement can imply that the narrator’s

own psych has imprisoned him and he is unable
to escape it. He thought he would gain freedom
by killing the old man unaware of the fact that
it is his mental confinement rather than his
physical which never lets him free.
Insane verses Sane Though the narrator clearly and repeatedly
insists he is sane, his actions, motivations, and
words all demonstrate that he is not. Before
killing the old man the narrator signals his
mental imbalance by sneaking into the old
man's room seven nights in a row at exactly the
same time. Moreover, his lack of any actual
motivation for his murderous animosity toward
the old man, and the apparent delight he takes
in executing his plan, point to his extreme
emotional derangement.

However, the coherence of the narrative voice

pulls me toward the opposite conclusion. The
diction is intelligent and demonstrates
thoughtfulness and insight. Until the explosive
final line (“ ‘Villains!’ I shrieked, ‘dissemble no
more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—
here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous
heart!’ ”), the narrator seems to have complete
control of what he does and says. He shows
awareness of his own psyche, and he shows
empathy even when he's about to kill the old
man. On the eighth night he sneaks into the old
man's room, recognizes the old man's moan as
the “stifled sound that arises from the bottom
of the soul when overcharged with awe,” and
says he “knew the sound well.”
 Republic of the Philippines
MARINDUQUE STATE COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Tanza, Boac, Marinduque

Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSEd) Major in Science

Re-Accredited Level III – AACCUP

Murder He kills an old man though he loves him. He

holds no grudges against him and murders him
without any motive. The old man’s “vulture-
eye” makes the narrator angry and he decides
to kill him. He attends to every minute detail in
the process of murder; carefully kills him,
disjoints every part of his body, and then buries
the body parts underground in the room.
Love and Hate The narrator loves the old man, while hating
the man’s blue eye. The old man’s eye, the
narrator says, “Was like the eye of a vulture, the
eye of one of those terrible birds that watch
and wait while an animal dies, and then fall
upon the dead body and pull it to pieces to eat
it.”