human nature theme

This is a general theme pertaining to distinguishing characteristics - including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting - which humans tend to have naturally.

21 total · 5 choice · 9 major · 7 minor

StoryLevelMotivation
ahp2x18 choice Stephen learned that money isn't everything to everyone. Stephen spoke about the general human instinct for larceny and only fear of getting caught kept us in check.
movie: Persona (1966) choice At the core of the story was the idea that we all play-act our way through life, that we are all conceited liars through and through.
movie: Rashomon (1950) choice the overarching point seems to have been the priest's loss of faith in humanity upon hearing about the selfish and cruel actions of everyone involved
tz1959e1x25 choice The moral of the story was spelled out as: "people are the same everywhere" while emphasizing that we all have ugly character flaws, foremost xenophobia.
tz1959e1x28 choice It was illustrated that people, Rocky in particular, need some adversity in front of them to overcome in order to lead a fulfilling life.
ahh1x20 major A point of the story was that Janice reminded people of uncomfortable truths that they would rather not be reminded of.
movie: Appleseed (2004) major The Seven Elders spelled out the recurring theme of humans being violent, warmongering beings who are generally slaves to their emotions.
movie: Dark City (1998) major The Strangers were experimenting with humans to analyze their individuality in the hopes that some insight might be revealed that will help their race survive.
movie: Lucy (2014) major A message of the film is that a loss of humanity comes with increased intelligence.
movie: Ready Player One (2018) major In the end, the viewer is shown that the point of playing video games was not necessarily to win, but rather to explore and have fun, by finding Easter eggs, for example.