PE3 Assignment

Lesson 3 assignment



Themes





Definition of theme: Something laid down, a subject or topic of discourse or of artistic representation, subject, topic, idea, a continuing story line



A dramatic premise and a theme are not two items meaning the same thing. They are different. If the dramatic premise (DP) is the keel of the story, then the themes are the ribs. The difference is there can only be one DP, but there can be multiple themes. Themes are sort of like subtopics, and the DP is the main topic. See if you can identify the DP and themes below.



REMEMBER! to identify a DP, use the template, "____leads to ____."







Identify the dramatic premise and themes suggested by the following story's synopsis. (Try finding a positive DP and negative one)



While you're at it, identify, the central character, supporting character, life changing event, and three crisis.

Woe is Me





Once upon a time, there was an overweight young girl named Lucy who ate too much of all the wrong stuff. In Wall Mart one day, she bought a book called Eating Responsibly. Every night she read this book for inspiration. Unfortunately, inspiration wasn't enough. Later that week, she heard two of her friends joking about her weight problem. She bursts into tears and was sent to the school nurse's' office.



The nurse gave her a pamphlet entitled "Nutrition." Every night, she studied it along with her inspirational book. Still she couldn't break the cycle and found herself eating between meals. Her personal life was a mess and eating eased her anxiety. On top of everything else, her boyfriend, Frank, dumped her after class one day saying she was too fat. This trauma caused her severe anguish and suicidal thoughts until she resolved to turn her life around.



She began by deciding she would only eat three nutritious meals a day. Her newly acquired self-discipline paid dividends and kept her from gaining any more weight. Her test came when she went to McDonald's with her friends. She was very proud of herself, only ordering a glass of water. As time went on, there was good news and bad news. While her weight wasn't increasing, neither was she shedding any of those excess pounds. Another setback happened when she called her ex pleading to take her back. He rebuffed the poor girl telling her he might reconsider if she lost fifty (50) lbs.



"Woe is me!" she lamented.



A friend told her about Weight Watchers. She signed up. The program offered classes on Monday and Wednesday nights. The first was "Setting up a Diet." The second was "Counting Calories". For the next six months, she religiously attended those classes, learned the teaching points and took them to heart. At the end of six months, after losing sixty (60) pounds, she ran into Frank.



"Wow! You're a knockout," he said, "How about the movies Saturday night?"



"Sorry, I have other plans," she replied.





Dramatic Premise: Good health leads to options. Extra effort leads to greater choices.

Life changing event: When Lucy realized that while she wasn’t gaining any weight, neither was she losing any and then she joined Weight Watchers.

Three Crisis: 1, Lucy over hearing her friend’s talking about her. 2. Going to McDonald’s and only drinking water. 3. Frank dumping Lucy.

Central Character: I think Frank is the central character. It was his two parts in the story, dumping Lucy, and rebuffing her pleas, that caused Lucy to finally resolve to change her eating habits.

The supporting character Lucy. The story is about her and it is Lucy that the DP follows.