Motif v. Meaning

Motif v. Meaning

             Don't have sex with your best friends boyfriend. The negative effects of banging your best friends boyfriend is a moral portrayed throughout the entirety of the show, Gossip Girl. The act of doing such a thing isn't the universal idea, it's not what helps the character develop, and it's not a way to detect change either. Therefore, banging your best friends boyfriend is not the theme of Gossip Girl, but the moral. Oftentimes a theme is overlooked as a moral or a complex life lesson, however a theme is simply an underlying meaning of a literary work. A moral is a overall lesson being taught by the author to the readers. Although not all stories have morals, when an author includes one to their writing, it is important to decipher the difference between the theme and the moral. Examples of this are “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe,"  What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie and “The Thing Around Your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Overall, each of these short stories have prominent themes, however they lack a significant lesson. 

            “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe presents a strong theme which emerges throughout the story: hate can overpower love. Poe shares the story of a man whose animosity of one's certain feature changes his emotions toward the former friend. Although the narrator may love this man, the simple distaste for his eye drives him to a point of insanity. The narrator says, “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (Poe 1).  The idea that love is less impactful than hate makes this story what it is. It would be a stretch to say that “Tell Tale Heart” contains any true morals. The entirety of this story failed to further its readers knowledge and understanding of an abstract aspect of life. 

            Sherman Alexie’s “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”  beholds many important themes that structure the development of the character. Growing up as a Native American, Jackson's life was never going to be easy. His pure intelligence gave him a chance at going to college, but the affects of alcoholism and homelessness prevented him from reaching his goals of becoming successful. “I grew up in Spokane, moved to Seattle twenty-three years ago for college, flunked out after two semesters, worked various blue- and blue-collar jobs, married two or three times, fathered two or three kids, and then went crazy” ( Alexie 1). The theme of this short story is homelessness permeates potential. Jackson may have potential to achieve great things, but such an obstacle gives him the disadvantage. His true goal of moving to Seattle was intended for school, however his main priorities went in the opposite direction fairly quickly. You could say the moral of this story is to not be homeless, or don't be an alcoholic, but in some cases those things are inevitable. Alexie is implementing more than just those statements. He is trying to explain to us that this character was held back because of the situation he had been put in. It wasn't his choice, if he could he would do good for this world. “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” held the universal idea that homelessness does indeed permeate true potential.

             “The Thing Around Your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a clear representation of a piece of writing, containing strong themes and unintended morals. Difficulty of facing new culture, could be looked at as one of the dominant themes in this story. The main character migrates from Africa to America with falsified opinions of the over glorified country. She has difficulty finding her way, soon left on her own to make it in the new country. “You thought everybody in America had a car and a gun; your uncles and aunts and cousins thought so, too. Right after you won the American visa lottery, they told you: In a month, you will have a big car. Soon, a big house. But don't buy a gun like those Americans” (Adichie 1). America is looked at to be a place where life is far easier, this may be the case in some aspects, but as the character experiences it's not exactly what it is made out to be. She uses “the thing around her neck” to describe her difficulties in this new world. The development of the character improves where later she describes the object on her neck to begin to let go. Difficulty of facing new culture is clearly what allows the main character to change and improve her life in the new world. There are again no morals that blatantly appear while reading this story. 

             Themes oftentimes are not plainly exemplified in a story, but they are always present. A theme is most accurately described as the subject or topic which structures the entirety of the work. Commonly, the theme of a story is confused with the moral of a story. A moral is a lesson being taught to readers through the writing of the author; essentially, it’s what the reader gets out of the story. The theme of a story is not presented to teach the reader, but rather provide a principle to shape a story around.