Literature and the Art of themes Themes, the central ideas that are explored by literary works, are expressed as either subject matter (themes that are universally expressed) or the message of the story (themes that express an idea or teach a moral). “The Catcher in the Rye”, first published in 1951, “A Man for All Seasons”, first published in 1960, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, first published in 1960, “Catch-22”, first published in 1962, “A Clockwork Orange”, first published in 1962, and “Disgrace”, first published in 1999, contain similar and dissimilar themes even though some of the set of works differ in years of publication. In the following dissertation the themes in the set of works, “The Catcher in the Rye”, “A Man for All Seasons”, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “Catch-22”, “A Clockwork Orange” and “Disgrace”, will be compared and contrasted with one another. Firstly, the themes, “a heaven believer atheist”, “innocent youth” and “anxiety and alienation” from “The Catcher in the Rye” will be examined in three paragraphs. Secondly, the themes, “religion versus faith”, “power causes corruption” and “peace and integrity” from “A …show more content…
Jem is baffled by the extreme prejudice towards black people that the citizens of Maycomb County possess (Matthews, 2014). Another example of “corruption of innocence” is Scout – she has matured and lost the childlike vision she had of Arthur Radley, “The Radley place had ceased to terrify [Scout]…” (Lee, 1960:248) (Matthews, 2014). Scout and Jem neither experience the world through the lenses of childhood innocence anymore nor do they view it the same as adults, “… I’ll never understand those folks as long as I live” (Lee, 1960:228), because, as a result, they do not have the prejudice and hate that the adults possess (Matthews,