tld

Themes and Literary Devices
Many authors convey themes and lessons on power, free will, and destiny, using various literary devices such as plot movement, character development, literary style, and dramatic flavor. The methods of portraying these themes and lessons vary depending on the type of literary work. Fiction writers, such as Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare, use these literary devices extensively. In contrast, non-fiction writers, like Sue Halpern and Jerry Fodor, might not use as much character development or plot movement as the fiction writers and narrators would.
In �Oliver Twist,� Charles Dickens uses many types of literary devices to show themes of power, destiny, and free will. He shows the lesson of destiny through plot movement. Throughout the book, Oliver gets into a lot of trouble and many bad things happen to him because of his childish innocence and ignorance of the criminal world. He is lured into trouble many times but his destiny is to having a bright future and knowing about his family. Then, by accident he meets the people willing to help him and destiny wins over. This example also shows how plot movement is influenced by power. As a result of Oliver being such an innocent child, he does not have enough psychological, physical, or social power to save himself from being connected to a criminal network. What saves him is the power of his friends like Mr. Brownlow and Mrs. Maylie, who poses a strong social, psychological, and economical power in order to help Oliver get what he deserves.
The lesson of power is also shown in �Oliver Twist� through dramatic flavor in the scene where Sikes murders Nancy. Sikes is a very strong and powerful character. �Grasping her by the head and throat dragged her into the middle of the room.� This selection gives the reader a better understanding that Sikes as a very physically powerful character because dragging someone, who is struggling to get away, on the floor by the head and throat is difficult to do.
In �A Midsummer Night�s Dream,� by William Shakespeare, the lesson of power is shown through character development. Oberon, the king of the fairies, has magical powers, the possession of which influences the course of events in the story. He knows that a certain flower can make a love potion and so he uses this knowledge to make things better for himself and other characters. For himself, he gets the changeling from Titania after using the love potion on her. Also, Demetrius falls in love with Helena and they get married along with Hermia and Lysander, and Hyppolita and Theseus, even though Hermia�s father wanted her to marry Demetrius. The happy ending is brought forth by magical powers.
Shakespeare also conveys the lesson of power through literary style. The metaphor �love is said to be a child� means that love is an innocent power that Helena has for Demetrius and Hermia has for Lysander. This power is very strong and true and because of this, almost nothing can stop it from winning over in the end.
The methods in which the lessons of power, free will, and destiny are shown through non-fiction are somewhat different. In �Heart of Darkness,� Sue Halpern explains how psychological power (knowledge, education, analysis), and free will (to do or support experimentation and research as a way to help people) help people try to find a possible cure or relief to Alzheimer�s disease. The lesson of free will is stated flatly �we do have free will, in a sense, for everything we do affects everything that follows� this means that we can supposedly choose a healthy life and try to do everything we can to prevent and stop the disease.
The quote by David Shenk �Through the Alzheimer�s prism, we can experience life�s constituent parts and understand better its resonances and quirks�it is more painful than many people can ever imagine, but it is also perhaps the most poignant of all reminder of why and how human life is so extraordinary, it is our best lens on the meaning of loss,� contains metaphor to describe the power to understand how bad of a loss people with Alzheimer�s experience. It makes us understand how much power we poses.
In �Don�t Bet the Chicken Coop,� Jerry Fodor uses a lot of symbolism to describe the theme of power. The essay explains how the humans are not yet enough psychologically powerful in order to understand which idea is right � materialism or phenomenology. The title of the article itself represents the argument and that both ideas cannot be proven. The readers should not even �bet the chicken coop� on whatever they think is the right answer. Another symbol used in this essay is the broom tree, which also symbolizes the same argument. The broom tree is said to be visible from far away and when one came closer it would disappear. This is just like the argument because when we look at it in general, almost everything can be explained by science and the theory of materialism. However, when we look at it in more detail, questions that we cannot answer appear.
In conclusion, the way and author describes power, destiny, and free will, depends on the author and the type of literary work. Non-fiction authors rarely use literary devises like character development and plot movement; they tend to use more metaphor, symbolism, and dramatic flavor. Fiction authors use various literary devices extensively.