6.10 Determine Theme Worksheet

In the story, a community center has a wall of donated keys hanging on hooks. Each key is labeled with a word: “Studio,” “Gym,” “Library,” “Garden.” The director explains that the keys are symbolic—“a reminder that access is something we can share.” A boy named Reed volunteers and starts guarding the wall like treasure. When kids ask for keys, he quizzes them and sometimes says no. One afternoon, Reed sees a girl pacing near the “Library” key. She doesn’t ask. She keeps leaving and returning. Reed finally offers the key. The girl’s shoulders drop with relief. “My house is too loud,” she says. “I just need quiet.” That night, Reed changes the labels. Under “Library,” he adds a second word: “Breathe.” He understands that the keys were never about control. They were about opening doors.

In a literary fiction excerpt, the narrator describes a family photo album with missing squares where pictures were torn out. The narrator’s aunt says, “Those years were complicated,” and flips the page quickly. Later, the narrator finds the torn photos in a drawer. The faces are familiar but the settings are not: a different house, a different city, a different set of friends. When the narrator asks about them, the aunt replies, “We edited ourselves to fit a story people would accept.” The narrator returns the photos to the album, but not in the original places. They slip the torn images into clear pockets at the back. “It’s not neat,” the narrator admits, “but it’s honest.”

In the fable, a candle complains to a lantern: “You shine only because you steal my flame.” The lantern replies, “I do not steal. I carry.” The candle insists on being independent and refuses to be placed inside the lantern. Alone in the wind, it flickers wildly. A gust extinguishes it. The candle’s wick smokes, and it can no longer light itself. The lantern, still burning from another candle inside, leans close and shares its flame, relighting the wick. The candle says nothing, but it allows the lantern to shelter it the next night.