I am writing an essay on bradbury for english, and I have to explain his unviersal theme in all his books. could you give me an idea of what this would be? I've read Graveyard for lunatics,
fahrenheit 451,
From the Dust Returned,
The Martian Chronicles,
Medicine for Melancholy,
and I'm in the middle of Death is a Lonely Business. I just have so many that would work I don't know which to use! please help!

You have read more Bradbury books than I have. And others on this website will certainly have better ideas about your problem than I will.
But in the meantime, if you are truly in a hurry, put all those good ideas you say you have, in a hat, and pick one.

I would recommend you list the books horizontally across the top of a page, then list all the major themes in each book under that book. When you're done, you may find a single theme that is repeated in all the books. If so, go with that one. If not, find a theme that is fairly universal across the list.

I think this would help you organize your thoughts, and shouldn't really take you all that long. It would also serve to help you outline your ideas and identify which source(s) you would use.

thank you so much! I think that will help me. I also was able to have my english teacher help me with my ideas too. but thanks again!

percussionjunkie:
what percussion do you play? Are you involved in springline/drumline/etc.?

I play bass drum in drumline, percussion ensemble, and our school has a steel drum band. it is very fun because you learn a lot about the caribbean style of music.

Wow, that's really cool. What state/organization do you compete in? I know a lot of people involved in the whole drumline scene over here in California. Up until this year, I was the artistic designer for the award winning Alvarado Intermediate School in Rowland Heights, California. I made all their sets, props, and costumes, and did the choreography for their actors. I also helped come up with the overall design of the show, the story, etc. I am not doing their current show, however, because their old instructor left to go to university and I, wisely, resigned with him.

[This message has been edited by groon (edited 12-11-2003).]

that's awesome! well, I'm in oklahoma and we have four or five competitions we go to. our school did a show called the anatomy of the heart this year, which involves an actor sitting in the pit. it was a very new concept for the likes of oklahoma. we have a guy in indiana who writes our shows and we make our own props each year. does the school that you were artistic designer at participate in a winterline/springline? we are currently trying to persuade our directors to let us do this.

Yeah, they first competed in the American Drum Line Assoc. (ADLA) but decided for more of a challenge and began competing in the Southern California Percussion Alliance (SCPA). Their last show "The Voice of Insanity" was, in my opinion, probably the coolest show ever. It featured an actor and the show was about a man who almost died in a car accident, but when he was revived, he had gained the ability to hear people's thoughts. The sounds of the voices were represented by the sounds of the drums. Of course, he can't block out the voices and they gradually torture him to madness. At the end of the show he realizes that he never actually survived the car accident and the voices he is hearing are his eternal punishment. Sort of a freaky Twilight Zone thing, with really cool creepy music.
Here's a really poor quality picture of the setpieces I painted. They were not unveiled 'till the last couple seconds at the end of the show. The tallest one is over eight feet tall! http://artconspiracy.com/conspiracy_eye_gallery_item.asp?itemid=64392&id=1649072584

[This message has been edited by groon (edited 12-12-2003).]

groon,
very cool paintings! You are very talented.

those are awesome! our show was about a teenager studying for a biology test on the anatomy of the heart and is cramming for it. then he realizes that there is more to the heart than mere functions and thinks about his girlfriend. finally there is a dream sequence and he is a surgeon operating on a man having a heart attack with the drums playing the heart beat, which incoperates the knowledge he needed to know for the test in with dream. it was very cool because drumline went from regular marching band people into surgeon! we had a big prop in the back that changed scenes on it-nothing as cool as your works, but for us it was pretty good.

wow, that's pretty cool though, I've seen alot of drum shows, but I kinda wish I could have seen that one. What was the music like? We also used the heart in the voice of insanity show. The show started with a flatline sound, then someone shouted "CLEAR!" and the flatline changed to beeps accompanied by a heart sound. Then the whole drumline came in at the same time, using the beeps and heartbeat as a countoff. At the end of the show as he realised he was really in hell, the heartbeat and beeps came back again and with one final crash of the drums, the beep flatlined, and the pictures were revealed. (they had been covered by black cloths throughout the whole show)

[This message has been edited by groon (edited 12-16-2003).]

that's awesome! yeah our show was really fun. right now we're doing percussion ensemble and getting ready to host okpas, which is a statewide percussion event, and we'll be playing with michael buritt, liam teague, and some famous drummer, I think his last name is thompson? anyways, it'll be extremely fun. we are working up a song call shadow chasers-it is crazy!