And Then There Were None Themes

What can ruin lives, destroy families, and cause self-destruction, but does not physically exist? Guilt. In Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business, the debilitating effects of guilt are used to show the importance of dealing with problems as they come. This is shown through the character development of Dunstan Ramsay from the moment of the accident with Mary Dempster, through to Ramsay’s midlife, and finally to the end of his “life” that the readers have become to know.

With grades where an A is never found and an IQ comparable to a goldfish, you can guess that Donovan Curtis is far from a genius. But you don’t have to be brilliant to be the hero of the story. In the novel Ungifted by Gordon Korman, several themes are presented. One theme could be there is always a way to solve a problem. Another important theme might be it’s better to work together. Additionally, a theme to consider is friends and family will always be by your side. In Ungifted, the main character Donovan Curtis is a rebel who always finds himself in trouble. When he ends up breaking the school’s statue of Atlas, all he wants is to avoid getting in trouble. But, the superintendent Dr. Schultz is hunting down Donovan to make sure that he’ll

“Ten little soldier boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were Nine…One little soldier boy left all alone; he went and hanged himself And then there were None” (Green). A group of 10 strangers are sent to the mysterious Soldier Island for a so called vacation. What they don’t know is that there is one murderer among them. During their first night on the island, a mysterious record reveals the darkest secret of each person, they are murderers. Soon after that, the first murder is committed and death is among them. As the crowd of ten diminishes, the china soldiers on the table do as well, until there are none. In And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, the theme of guilt is portrayed when Vera Claythorne hangs herself, when the record is played on the gramophone, and when Miss Emily Brent has flashbacks.

Guilt is a powerful emotion that can greatly affect the course of a person’s life. Dunny’s character, in Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business, first experienced guilt at an early age due to a tragic accident. A snowball that was meant for Dunny hit a pregnant woman, Mrs. Dempster, causing her to go into premature labour. Although her child, Paul Dempster, survived, the guilt that Dunny experienced from his part in the situation would stay with him for the rest of his life. Guilt stayed with Dunny’s character throughout his life, and continually affected all of his actions.

In the book, Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperini was majorly obsessed with vengeance throughout the end of the book that his life was consumed by the quest for it. Louie felt as if the Bird had stolen his dignity at the POW campsites, where he was beaten, humiliated, starved, and stripped of his powers of self-defense. Louie was overwhelmed with his anger that the only objective he sought was to get revenge on the Bird. In other words, Louie was angered about his loss of dignity at the POW campsite, he wanted to get revenge on the Bird by killing him, and how Louie eventually forgives the Bird for what he did to him. These three reasons show how Louie’s loss of self-dignity in the POW camp was pursued.

And Then There Were None is an enthralling mystery novel by esteemed author Agatha Christie. It is a horror filled scenario in which ten people are trapped on an island, and get killed off one by one, the deaths corresponding with the children's rhyme ‘Ten Little Indians.’ In order to benefit themselves, three alliances are formed throughout the novel: between Blore, Armstrong, and Lombard; Claythorne and Lombard; and Armstrong and Wargrave. The alliances have great impact on the characters’ actions and the novel itself, in aiding or hindering the murderer, and building suspense as alliances fall.

In “A Jury of Her Peers” Minnie Wright demonstrates the deranging effect of isolation. She grew up a joyful young women with all her peers, but drifted away when she became Mrs. Wright and wedded Mr. John Wright. Minnie Wright became socially and emotionally isolated in her own home. This caused her to lose her sanity. The effects that isolation had on Minnie Wright negatively affected her own life and the life of those around her, especially including her husband who she murdered. As the story “A Jury of Her Peers,” progresses it becomes more evident that Minnie Foster is in fact for sure the person who is responsible for the murder of her husband. In the time period “A Jury of her Peers” was written women were also victims of a treatment called the “rest cure.” The rest cure isolated women away from society and in some cases drove them mentally insane as shown in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The story of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Finally, the reader is introduced to the character around whom the story is centered, the accursed murderess, Mrs. Wright. She is depicted to be a person of great life and vitality in her younger years, yet her life as Mrs. Wright is portrayed as one of grim sameness, maintaining a humorless daily grind, devoid of life as one regards it in a normal social sense. Although it is clear to the reader that Mrs. Wright is indeed the culprit, she is portrayed sympathetically because of that very lack of normalcy in her daily routine. Where she was once a girl of fun and laughter, it is clear that over the years she has been forced into a reclusive shell by a marriage to a man who has been singularly oppressive. It is equally clear that she finally was brought to her personal breaking point, dealing with her situation in a manner that was at once final and yet inconclusive, depending on the outcome of the legal investigation. It is notable that regardless of the outcome, Mrs. Wright had finally realized a state of peace within herself, a state which had been denied her for the duration of her relationship with the deceased.

A: The “Ten Little Indians” rhyme guides the progression of the novel. The singsong, childish verses tell the story of the deaths of ten Indian boys and end with the line that gives the novel its title: “and then there were none.” A framed copy of the rhyme hangs in every bedroom, and ten small Indian figures sit on the dining-room table. The murders are carried out to match, as closely as possible, the lines in the poem, and after each murder, one of the figures vanishes from the dining room. The overall effect is one of almost supernatural inevitability;

A trait that stands out in the book is the symptom of bodily memories. In Melinda’s case, during a frog dissection in her science class, she remembers the opening up and even says, “She doesn’t say a word. She is already dead. A scream starts in my gut – I can feel the cut, smell the dirt, feel the leaves in my hair.” (81). One of the other symptoms that Melinda has is self-harm. The first time that this is shown in the book, Melinda says this, “I open up a paper clip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this? A whimper, a peep?” (87). Melinda also has a hard time talking to her parents about the rape to which she says, “How can I talk to them about that night? How can I start?” (72). Some victims recover from such a traumatic experience, while others don’t and live a lifetime of depression and must undergo intense therapy. In Melinda’s case, she finds redemption by talking to her parents and the guidance counselor, and putting her faith into her teachers, friends, and her art project at school. Because rape can affect anybody anywhere, everyone should be aware of the circumstances, and how to deal with it.

Consequently, the guests, one by one, are mysteriously murdered. The guests that remain soon realize that all of the deaths are linked to one thing: the nursery rhyme located in each of the bedrooms in the house. Unbelievable as that may be, the guests begin to turn on each other becoming very paranoid and suspecting everyone that poses a threat. And Then There Were None keeps the reader guessing until the very end when the unlikely subject, Justice Wargrave, the retired judge, is the mastermind behind the mass murders. Through his sense of justice and longing to invent the perfect murder mystery, Wargrave succeeded in killing all nine guests going unsuspected. In his confession, he describes how he constructed his perfect murders and how he killed himself so that no inspector could solve the mystery. The strange mystery of Indian Island remains unsolved for the detectives, but the guilt of knowing the murderer will linger on the reader’s lips.

The author Agatha Christie who wrote the novel And Then There Were None set the theme of a powerful journey leading the main characters in a decision of survival and fate, the way the author Agatha Christie goes into different elements to show how this theme came about is irony. She uses this technique to get the audiences full attention on how the mystery in this novel bring about missing characters and will be the lost standing Agatha Christie is not one of your ordinary authors; she brings a point in the novel which is a very suspenseful view that will catch your attention.

Throughout the story, it is overtly shown how guilt can play a powerful role in one’s actions, which is fundamentally shown through our protagonist, Duncan. Duncan is a teen who suffers from a phenomenon known as survivor’s guilt as a result of him being unable to save Maya from drowning. Being tormented by his guilt for over a year, Duncan sees the discovery of Roach’s journal as an opportunity to redeem himself as he subconsciously cannot bare the thought of being accountable for another death. (McNamee 104) After the killer dies, he is able to find closure as he no longer feels responsible and vindicates himself for Maya’s death. Through this, readers are able to perceive how the redemption of guilt can be a pivotal factor to lead to a person’s gallant actions while they recuperate from their guilt, thus showing how the redemption of guilt can empower heroic actions.

She grieves for her husband a very short time. She then begins to feel a sense of freedom. This initially makes her feel guilty and

Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is considered a masterpiece. It is her best-selling novel and had sold more than 100 million copies since it was published in 1939. Our culture was likewise highly impacted by the book and it has been adapted into a play, and a video game, and 25 different movies/tv shows. This locked-door mystery has ten strangers lured to an unknown island by a mysterious individual and, one-by-one, murdered off according to a nursery rhyme. Created in 1945, the first movie was adapted by René Clair and quickly grew popular worldwide. Starring Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, and June Duprez, who all did an exquisite job producing Agatha Christie's classic all over again. While René Clair made significant changes to the movie, his changes successfully stayed true to the book.