Teaching High School Students the Importance of Theme Using Popular Songs

My high school classes just finished reading the stories in Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man. We use the book as a follow-up to The Canterbury Tales, since the tattooed traveler links Bradbury's stories much in the way Chaucer links his tales through the various pilgrims.

One assignment the students have really enjoyed is a theme activity. The students are required to select ten of the stories in the book, and relate each one thematically to a song they know. Each thematic link is worth 5 points in total. I give one point for each story identified, provided that each title in punctuated properly. One point is awarded for each song title wit the same punctuation stipulation. I also give one point if students identify the artist of the song. The other two points are earned if the students provide a written explanation of the thematic link between the story and song.

I was really pleased with the results I received from my students this year. They listed quite a variety of songs from all different decades. Many of them listed "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns 'n Roses as a thematic link to the story "The Veldt," in which children have a magical nursery that takes them to Africa.

The story "Kaleidoscope," about a group of astronauts who are falling to separate deaths after their rocket splits, brought several different responses. One student compared it to Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" because the men described a similar sensation as they fell through space. Several students linked the story thematically with "Gotta Go My Own Way" from High School Musical.

Students examined the story "The Long Rain" from a few different perspectives. The astronauts' constant search for sun domes to protect them from the rain led one student to link the story to "I Can See Clearly Now" by Johnny Nash. Since one of the astronauts commits suicide, several students linked it to songs such as Lil Wayne's "I Feel Like Dying" and "Adam's Song" by Blink 182.

One student appreciated the anti-war theme in the story "The Concrete Mixer." He chose to link it with John Lennon's "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier." The alien invasion from the story "Zero Hour" elicited several students to compare it with the song "My Alien" by Simple Plan. A story about dead writers living on Mars ("The Exiles") because earthlings burned their books led one student to compare it to Usher's "Let It Burn." Though The Illustrated Man's sixteen stories all involve space travel, each story has a separate theme. A good way to reinforce a student's understanding of theme, I have given this assignment using songs. I have been teaching the book for almost five years, and this is always one of the assignments on which my students have success.