What is the universal theme of this excerpt? Hard work pays off. Love conquers all. Dramatic life events cause change. Things are seldom what they seem.

C). Dramatic life events cause change.

Explanation:

The Theme is defined as the underlying message or central idea that the author wishes to convey through his work. The Universal theme is the idea that is common to the human discipline and deals with basic human concerns, issues, or nature through everyone can connect irrespective of their cultural or geographical differences.

In the given excerpt, the universal theme that the author is conveying would be the change that the dramatic live events bring in our life. Here the dramatic event(red Corvair trail) in Johnny's life led to such a change in his life that 'he's now scared of his own shadow.' This discusses the basic human nature of experiencing major changes after a dramatic event in our life through which each individual can relate. Thus, option C is the correct answer.

on my last

wordsworth tends to see nature as 'out there'; a presence which surrounds humans, and contributes to human life, but is different from humans. if you look at a typical wordsworth poem (there was a boy, ye knew him well ye rocks) - wordsworth talks about nature as something that needs to be learned about and understood, nature is different from us.  

if you look at a byron poem (the isles of greece is a good one) - byron looks at nature mainly for what it already means to man. wordsworth will look at a landscape and see the mountains, trees, valleys, and rivers as almost spiritual presences - wordsworth wants to get to know nature.  

byron will look at the same landscape and he will want to know who lives there, what are the villages? are there any farms or mines, is there some history?  

wordsworth looks at nature for what it is; byron is forever asking what it means.  

wordsworth thinks that humans are part of nature; byron thinks that nature is part of being human