Themes
What do you feel were the three key themes in this novel?
Provide a brief justification for each.
Provide a brief justification for each.
posted by Mr. Sylvan at
6:17 PM
About
By Michael Gerard Bauer. Tom Leyton is a reclusive Vietnam veteran. When Joseph Davidson, his young neighbour and a talented artist, is asked to draw a portrait of him, an uneasy relationship begins to unfold that will force each to confront his darkest secrets. You are to navigate your way through the questions on the blog, putting forth your ideas, and responding to the ideas of others. You can also contribute questions of your own which you would like your colleagues to comment on.
4 Comments:
I think the three key themes in this novel were:
How we perceive others. Joseph automatically labels the running man as bad, scary and crazy without even meeting him. The book shows how people can stereotype others immediately without getting to know them, and how what people first see is often only a small part of that person.
Another key theme in the book is the way war can affect someone. This book shows through Tom Leyton how war can destroy a man inside and ruin the rest of his life. We see how, because of what he did in the war, Tom Leyton hates himself and is afraid of himself and the outsisde world.
The book also shows the importance of friends and family. We see how Caroline takes care of Tom and the impact Joseph has on Tom. We also see Joseph growing up rarely seeing his father and the impact that has on him. We see how Joseph and his mother come together to help each other out when Joseph's father is possiblty dead.
By
Dom, at 6:36 PM
I strongly agree with Dom on all these points. I believe the three main themes in the book were how some people can prejudge others, how one person is all it takes to get your problems better and the effect that war has on people years later.
Joseph has heard by others that Tom is crazy; he is very hesitant to go over to his house and ask to draw a portrait of him. But when he finally meets him and starts talking with him he realizes that he is kind and is just scared to leave his house.
Tom never leaves his house because he is scared and scarred from the war. He never makes any progress with his problems because he never talks to anyone about them. But when Joseph comes to talk to him about his problems he begins to overcome them
War is a terrible thing not only do thousands of people die but many people are affected years later, sometimes imagining that there are still in combat and scared for their life.
By
The Sam, at 8:20 PM
I strongly agree with Dom and Sam the mains themes of this novel are; how we perceive and judge others, the importance of friends and family to share your thoughts and troubles with, and the way war can strongly affect people’s lives.
The theme of perceiving others and judging them before you even know their real story or anything about them. This happens continuously in the novel like Joseph judging the running man and Tom Leyton before finding out what kind of people they really are and what events have happened in their past.
Needing friends and family is a key aspect in everyone’s life. You need friends and family to talk to and share your problems with without them all your problems build up inside and this is very bad for you.
War is a horrible place to be and often people who have been in war will always remember events that have happened and quite possibly scarred them for life such as a friend or close one dying or many other horrible things that happen such as you ending the life of another human being.
By
OLLIE, at 12:09 PM
As 'dom', 'sam' and 'ollie' have already said, the three key themes in this novel are:
1. How we perceive and judge others.
2. The importance of friends and family to talk to or just to be with.
3. The way war can strongly affect people’s lives.
Joseph judges both Tom Leyton and the running man before meeting both of them and at the end of the novel before Tom's death Joseph and Tom were quite good friends.
The major example of friends and family especially being important to other people in their lives is Caroline and Tom and how she takes care of him very well.
Just knowing that the reason for Tom's strange behaviour was related to War really makes you think about how great the affect of War can be on people and it isn't just in this book; people all over the world have suffered from being traumatized after going to War.
By
Dylan, at 9:49 PM
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