What is the theme of the following passage?

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.…” (The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe)

One summer's day, a merry Grasshopper was dancing, singing and playing his violin with all his heart. He saw an Ant passing by working hard to store food for the winter. “Come and sing with me instead of working so hard,” said the Grasshopper “Let’s have fun together.” “I must store food for the winter,” said the Ant,“ and I advise you to do the same.” “Don’t worry about winter, it’s still very far away,” said the Grasshopper, laughing at him. But the Ant wouldn’t listen and continued to work. When winter came, the starving Grasshopper went to the Ant’s house and humbly begged for something to eat. “If you had listened to my advice in the summer you would not now be in need,” said the Ant. “I’m afraid you will have to go without supper,” and he closed the door. What is the theme?

Alan had very few responsibilities, but one of them was to clean his room. It did not take long, but Alan still didn't like doing it. One day Alan thought of a way to save some time. Rather than putting everything neatly back in its place, he decided to just throw all the stuff on the floor into his closet. His mom would think that he had cleaned his room, and it would only take a fraction of the time. Alan was pleased with himself for thinking of this brilliant idea. He figured that this would save a lot of time and energy. The next time his room got messy, he piled everything up in the closet and the pile grew. It grew and grew. Then Alan's friend Steve called. "Alan, everyone is playing baseball at the park. Do you want to play too?" Alan loved baseball. "That sounds great, Steve. I'll be right there." Alan went to grab his baseball mitt when he realized that it wasn't in its usual place. Alan thought to himself, I guess it's in the closet. When he opened up the closet door, he was faced with a huge, unnavigable mess, some of which poured out as he opened the door. Alan began digging through the pile in a frantic attempt to find his mitt. He dug and dug, and as he dug his room got messier and messier. Soon his room was the messiest that it had ever been, and he still hadn't found his mitt. Alan sighed in despair. By the time he found his mitt, the boys had long concluded their game and Alan had hours of cleaning ahead of him before he'd be allowed to leave.

What is the theme of the story?

What is characterization?

What are the two types of characterization?

__________ is when the author directly tells the reader something about a character's personality or traits.

___________ is when the author reveals a character's personality through their actions, interactions, thoughts, etc.

This quote is an example of _________ characterization. "Mr. Pirzada and my parents spoke the same language, laughed at the same jokes, looked more or less the same. They ate pickled mangoes with their meals, ate rice every night for supper with their hands."

This quote is an example of _______ characterization. "This house is in a pasture, too, like the other one. No doubt when Dee sees it she will want to tear it down. She wrote me once that no matter where we "choose' to live, she will manage to come see us. But she will never bring her friends."

What can you learn about Sally from this quote:

"Sally ran quickly; she didn't want to miss out on band class!"

What can you learn about John from this quote:

"John put his hair under a baseball cap for the day. He threw on yesterdays jeans and decided that was good enough to head out."

What can you learn about the Sam from this quote:

"After Sam had called them over dramatic, Darren and Kai hadn't spoken a word to each other or Sam."