Common Theme Digital Poster with Smore

Create a digital poster that depicts the recurring themes across the works that you have read throughout this course. The purpose of this component is to develop 1) a critical awareness of issues in literature, and 2) an understanding of the continuity and universality of themes and genres in world literature.

In literature, a theme is an idea or concept that is central to the story. This could be a single word or short phrase that summarizes “what the story is about.” Common literary themes, like conflict between the individual and society, coming of age, struggles against human nature, self-doubt, revenge, and the dangers of unchecked ambition, which are common across time and culture and are usually implied rather than stated explicitly. This digital poster will represent one (1) universal theme that recurs in at least two different stories. It will be created using Smore which is a free online tool for creating interactive posters loaded with text, graphics, music, videos, and more. If you have not done so by now, you need to create a free online account at http://www.smore.com/.

Task in Detail:

Your digital poster will have two parts. First, you will create a 1 – 2 minute video within Glogster discussing 2-3 common themes that you observed across multiple stories. The second part is to decide upon one of those themes to be the subject of the rest of your poster. You will include the following:

1. 3 – 5 quotes and explanations of how these exemplify the selected theme from at least two different works that you read.

2. 3 – 4 images and/or video clips that illustrate the selected theme.

Feel free to add colors and graphics to make your poster creative and attractive! Once you have finished adding all the elements you want to include, save the poster, make it public and copy the URL so you can paste it.

The theme will be “Courage” and the two stories that will be used is the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey (both readings are attached)

Some commonalities are: 

– Both were powerful leaders

– Strongest of their race of peoples

– The two lead characters both had  – Great physical abilities bestowed to them by the gods.

– The two lead characters both had – Experiences dealing with great battles against evil 

*Readings are attached