Extracting Themes

I plan to spend a good deal of time during the lead-up to the first assignment explaining what it means to "isolate a theme" from a larger heterogeneous piece of text. One early in-class assignment I plan to use involves the brief introduction to Fast Food Nation, which brings out some of the main concepts that will keep returning during the course: illusion/reality in particular. The section starts:

"Cheyenne Mountain sits on the eastern slope of Colorado's Front Range, rising steeply from the prairie and overlooking the city of Colorado Springs. From a distance, the mountain appears beautiful and serene, dotted with rocky outcroppings, scrub oak, and ponderosa pine. It looks like the backdrop of an old Hollywood western, just another gorgeous Rocky Mountain vista. And yet Cheyenne Mountain is hardly pristine. One of the nation's most important military installations lies deep within it, housing units of the North American Aerospace Command, the Air Force Space Command, and the United States Space Command" (Schlosser 1)

This juxtaposition of tranquil facade and violent reality will be central to the course. Since the introduction is only 2 pages long, I'll photocopy it and bring it to class as a handout. The first part of class will be dedicated to a discussion of what a "theme" actually is, how to isolate one, etc. After that, I'll hand out the intro to Fast Food Nation and give them some time to read it over. I will ask them to do some free writing that articulates, in their own words, what the major theme of the passage is and why it might be important. Then we'll discuss the section as a group and brainstorm on the board, generating as many interpretations as possible. I would like to reinforce, in addition to what it means to extract a theme, both the plurality of possible interpretations and the importance of providing evidence in support of a claim.

Because this section also applies to one of the central themes of White Noise, I think it will be a particularly useful exercise. They will have already begun reading the novel, so the rest of the class will be dedicated to relating the work we've done in-class to the novel itself. Hopefully, this will convey how themes are universal and that understanding how to identify and explore them is an invaluable tool.