Gabriel Garcia Marquez

of the people in his city and he becomes loved. He did a great deed for his people, and he felt very gratifying about it. Although this played a role in his personality

Many modern stories use themes and ideas similar to those of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. These two novels were written in the time period most heavily influenced by British Romanticism and shared many philosophies and ideas that were surfacing during their creation, and were prominent in the lives of the authors. There are multiple shared themes such as the criticism of the time period in which the novels were written, and the effect of a person's surroundings on their mental state and overall identity. However, one of the most prominent themes is the battle that occurs when a person’s reasoning, and their passion fall into conflict. This conflict is best represented

Throughout history, literature has served as a prominent tool in the examination of social values, ideas, and dreams. In addition, literature has provided a vital connection between historical, social, and political events. Through the incorporation of religious principles and philosophies, writers have discovered a way to portray different time periods, characters, feelings, and most importantly God.

Themes are known to characterize the main idea or the many conflicts that occur within a storyline. They are the hidden foundation that the storyline follows. It is clear to say that both of these outstanding pieces of work have similar themes such as nature v. humanity, man v. man, and man v. himself. Nature v. Humanity is presented in the short narrative of Lanval through the characters of the Queen and young

There is themes which is the central idea of a story and then there is universal themes. A universal theme is an idea primarily about an aspect of human life that umbrellas several other stories. Universal themes can be identified through literary devices such as symbolism, metaphors, foreshadowing, and . The stories that will be focused on to recognize universal themes are “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury and “The Interlopers” by Saki. “A Sound of Thunder” is a science fiction short story where a man with the name of Eckels hires a time travel company so he can go back and kill dinosaurs. “The Interlopers” is a suspenseful short story that mainly centers on the plot in which two men who call themselves Georg and Ulrich are destined to kill each other since their past generations hated each other. Both stories main themes are completely different however, they both show multiple universal themes. The universal themes in “The Interlopers” and “A Sound of Thunder” represented by literary devices are all events and actions are important and everyone has limits.

For years, literature has been used to teach us important morals and life lessons. These life lessons are often universal in nature. This means that no matter what age, gender, or status a person is, anyone can relate to the theme being discussed. For this reason they are called universal themes. Non- universal themes are themes that are specific to the story being told, but are not considered universally understood. The following demonstrates that Beowulf and Gilgamesh both have the same universal thematic statement concept of fear in addition to a multiple non-universal themes throughout them.

he was a unique person who affected many people’s lives. Some would identify him as a rebel,

Past history reveals the various tragedies of many lives lost while under the rule of the dictator, Trujillo. “The Farming of Bones” and “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” were two different stories of innocent characters who lived and were affected during Trujillo’s reign. These stories targeted the central problems that the characters went through and the amount of impact it caused them through this cruel leadership. During that time, many were oppressed and were forced to cope with the life style that Trujillo created. Oppression played a significant role in the characters because it led to a loss of identity; however, the two stories shared the various characters’ power of hope, belief, and silence as a means of reconstructing

Juan Luis Guerra was born in Santo Domingo, DR. He is singer and compositor. He became famous in the world from 1985 until now for his beautiful songs. He founded 440 orquest also he has sold more than 20 millions of copy.

Magical realism is a genre that portrays both reality and fantasy. As defined by Faris (2004) in Ordinary enchantments, magical realism is a genre of writing that includes an irreducible element of magic and details that suggest phenomenon (Faris, 2004, p. 7). He describes the irreducible element as: “…something we cannot explain according to the laws of the universe as they have been formulated in Western empirically based discourse…” (Faris, 2004, p. 7). In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story, The handsomest drowned man in the world, the facets of magical realism are rife. He uses magical realism to enchant the reader. The story is of a small cliff-side and coastal community

All stories consist of a few common structural elements found universally in myths, fairy tales, dreams, and movies. They are known collectively as The Hero’s Journey. Understanding these elements and their use in modern writing is the object of our quest. Used wisely, these ancient tools of the storytellers craft still have tremendous power to heal our people and make the world a better place (xxvii).

In every literary work, there are themes. A theme is a broad idea, moral or message of a book or story. One individual may construe the themes of a book or story differently than another, but that is the pure beauty of themes. One great literary work is The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller. Succinctly, the play is about the Salem witch trials that took place in Massachusetts in 1692. Throughout the story, the townspeople indict their neighbors of being a witch and practicing witchcraft. On the surface, this historical drama has a few universal and enduring themes. Themes are universal because regardless of where in the world, the ideas still relates to everyone and is understood. Themes are enduring because the ideas are found

within a novel. The six components to define magical realism works are; lyrical writing, examination of the character of human existence, criticism of society, especially toward the elite, acceptance of events contrary to the usual operating laws of the universe as unextraordinary, cultural hybridity, and authorial reticence. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin is categorized under works of magical realism, but does not hold all six characteristics that define a purely magical realistic literary work. Zevin’s Elsewhere retains all the components of a literary work of magical realism except for authorial reticence, which keeps Zevin’s opinions involved with the plot.

Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare, two authors at the pinnacle of the cultural rebirth of Europe during the 1500s, ironically died on the same date (this fact is a bit confused by the distinction between the Julian and Gregorian calendar. Indeed they both died on the date of April 23, 1616, but England had not converted to the Gregorian Calendar, so they did not die on the same day, but they did on the same date, as Spain's Julian calendar correlated Cervantes' death to Shakepseare's). Shakespeare even read Cervantes' masterpiece The Delightful History of the Most Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha, but it is probable that Cervantes never even heard of Shakespeare, let alone read one of his plays or

The eccentric. The marvelous. These are just a few words used to describe the genre of ‘magic realism’, which is also known as ‘magical realism’ (the usage of the term, as well as its history, has been debated from the beginning, but shall be bypassed as it is an entirely different topic from what is to be discussed in this commentary). Although Oxford Dictionaries defines it as “a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy”, others have also interpreted the genre in various other ways. However, the genre itself has a set of elements and characteristics that make them its own, which helps differentiate it from fantasy, as written pieces in magic realism are sometimes mistaken to