Determination

Author's Note: This essay was written to demonstrate my knowledge of theme.

What drives you to do certain things? What motivates you to do things you wouldn’t typically do? Determination is a main theme in the book Hoot by Carl Hiaasen. In other stories, determination is also relevant for many reasons.

One of the reasons I think that the theme is determination is that the running boy was determined to save the owls. He trespasses on private property. On that private property he vandalized some of the building equipment. Knowing that they wouldn't bulldoze over a kid, he shoved himself into an owl’s den.  His actions distracted the workers from destroying the land.

Another reason why I think determination is the theme is that Roy was determined to help the running boy save the owls. Roy went back to see what he could do to help the running boy. He went to see if the pancake house had all their permits to build on that land. He also gave his own name so the running boy’s parents did not know he left boarding school and was in town.

A book that has the same theme is Hunger Games. What makes me think that the Hunger Games has determination as the theme is that Katniss wanted to save Prim and Peeta. The evidence of her wanting to save Prim is that she volunteered in Prim’s place for the hunger games (in the district that they come from many people don't volunteer). The evidence that she wanted to save Peeta is that she risked her own life to get medicine for one of his wounds and she yelled out his name when they said there can be two winners from the same district.

In both Hoot and Hunger Games, the main characters were driven by a certain purpose. Their purpose caused them to do things they would not normally do. Motivation fueled their determination throughout the story and helped them succeed in the end.