What is universal theme?
a central message that applies to anyone, anywhere
a central message or insight that is revealed through a story
the time, place, and social/historical context in which a story takes place
a piece of writing that uses careful and deliberate word choice

Read the excerpt from the land. of my brothers, i was closest with robert. i suppose, in part, being the same year's children made us close, but there were other things too. we had been together practically since birth, and we always took care of each other. when i got into trouble, robert was there to pull me out of it if he could, or at least to see me through it, and i did the same for him. the passage provides evidence of why paul and robert have physical conflicts. paul and robert avoid social conflicts. paul is the least influenced by robert. paul is motivated to ask robert for .

At first i was afraid to approach him—then the fear left me. he was sitting looking out over the city—he was dressed in the clothes of the gods. his age was neither young nor old—i could not tell his age. but there was wisdom in his face and great sadness. you could see that he would have not run away. he had sat at his window, watching his city die—then he himself had died. but it is better to lose one's life than one's spirit—and you could see from the face that his spirit had not been lost. i knew, that, if i touched him, he would fall into dust—and yet, there was something unconquered in the face. how does the conflict at the beginning of the paragraph move the plot forward? the narrator realizes that he is scared of the gods. the narrator realizes that he distrusts the spirits the narrator realizes that the god was a man. the narrator realizes that he is powerful like the gods.

The first step in synthesizing is to a. compare a particular source you are considering to the other sources you have already selected. b. parrot what other sources have said. c. ignore sources with information that runs counter to your claim. d. insert large chunks of information from one or two sources into your essay.