The Arm Of The Starfish Theme Essay

As most books do, Madeleine L'Engle’s The Arm of the Starfish has many recurring themes. Similar to books, other forms of stories also contain these themes. This includes movies, music, plays, and poetry. After analyzing Robert Frost’s poem, Two Tramps in Mud Time, I picked up on a few themes that correspond with the storyline of The Arm of the Starfish. Themes are important to recognize in stories because it deepens the reader’s understanding of the emotions within the story.The three main themes I came across between this book, and poem were trust, business, and choosing between good and evil.

The first theme I recognized was choosing between good and evil. This is a theme that can particularly connect to the reader,

because it’s something we all encounter on a daily basis. The fifth stanza of Two Tramps in Mud Time, says “...The grip of earth on outspread feet, the life of muscles rocking soft, and smooth and moist in vernal heart.” This line could be interpreted to say you need to be strong to make big decisions. Adam needs to not only trust O’Keefe, but also himself. He needs to be firm in his choice, despite the distractions around him. We see the way Adam interacts with Kali at a more loving way, being that they like each other. This makes it difficult for Adam to be strong with his gut choice because it will go against her, possibly putting Kali in danger. At this point, he doesn't know that Kali is acting against him. Adam needed to keep perspective of the consequences his actions may result in. This theme, choosing between good and evil, is important to keep in mind while reading The Arm of the Starfish because Adam is constantly being pressured to make the best possible decisions with the limited time and background knowledge he has. A line from the second stanza of Two Tramps in Mud Time also says, “...You're one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, a cloud comes over the sunlit arch, a wind comes off a frozen peak, and you're two months back in the middle of March.” These lines really put you in Adam’s perspective. Time is moving so quickly, with so many interfering problems. He has to make quick, wise decisions. When making these choices, he has to not only be able to recognize good and evil, but to have a general idea in mind of what the consequences to his actions may be.

The next theme I picked up on was business.

This may seem minor and obvious, but it does play an important role in both the book, and the poem. The first stanza of Two Tramps in Mud Time says, “I knew pretty well what he had in mind, he wanted to take my job for pay.” In the poem, two tramps are trying to take advantage of the narrator by taking his job, so they can get paid. In the book, both sides, O’Keefe’s and the Cutter’s, are trying to take advantage of Adam by manipulating him to get him to work for them. In the beginning of the book, Adam originally went to Portugal to work for O’Keefe. After he met Kali in the airport, and she told him to watch out for O’Keefe, he wondered if it was really safe. After hearing both sides of the story, and figuring out that O’Keefe was his safest bet, he discovers he has made the right choice. O’Keefe’s regeneration experiment wasn’t just a hobby, he was using it for a good cause. He was trying to see if humans could regenerate limbs just as starfish could, since he discovered something humans and starfish have in common. If the experiment had gotten into the wrong hands, like Typhoon Cutter’s, he could have abused the science of the experiment. This theme is important because it displays the main scenario of the story. Adam first got into this ordeal with an invite to work in O’Keefe's

lab.

The final, and main theme I found was trust.

The second stanza of Two Tramps in Mud Time says, “That day, giving a loose my soul, I spent on the unimportant wood.” This line tells that the narrator is recognizing they are wasting their time with strangers. In The arm of the S rfish, with limited time and trust, Adam needed to decide which of the sides would be considered a waste of his time, due to lack of trust or importance. The poem also had an interesting part in stanza four. It said, “The lurking frost in the earth beneath, that will steal forth after the sun is set, and show on the water its crystal teeth.” I interpreted this as saying that after you get on someone’s “good side” , and your friendship is warm, it’s easy for that person’s dark side to emerge. Adam was smart, recognizing that Kali could’ve potentially been playing him. Adam pretended as if he were totally on her side, despite that fact that he actually still was rushing on her. Little did Kali know, O’Keefe had told Adam what she could’ve been planning. Kali then turned on Adam, as if i would be a total shock to him. The last line of this stanza said, “...and show on the water its crystal teeth.” This goes to say that beneath someone's still surface, they can have an entirely different character with different intentions. Trust is a huge theme of this book, if not the single most important. Trust is used to portray how Adam interacts with different characters, and what he bases his quick

decisions off of.

After reading and annotating my thoughts on Robert Frost’s Two Tramps in Mud Time, and Madeleine L'Engle’s The Arm of the Starfish, I’ve discovered that choosing between good and evil, business, and trust are the main themes of this book. Whether it be a song you hear in the car, or a movie you watch, there are themes to every form of storytelling. Without themes, stories wouldn’t have a clear way of embracing emotion to captivate the reader.