Themes

Perseverance:  When you persevere you can get anywhere 

Hope: When you have hope you can do anything

CEWEWC

A central theme of “Intensity”, by Dean Koontz, is that self-defense is good. In the text, it says “She didn't pull the trigger and she set the gun down” Chyna had come up the stairs to find Vess and she had her gun but she did not pull the trigger which caused her to be tied up because she lost her chance to escape and get away. She did not use self-defense and instead, she put her gun down instead of trying to escape. Later in the book, it shows that Chyna doing what she did caused this punishment by not using self-defense, “She got tied up and lost her chance to escape” If Chyna had pulled the trigger and used self-defense when she came upstairs she would not have been tied up and hooked to a table. She would have escaped and been free but now she is in Vess’s house and lost her chance to escape. Later on in the text, we can see Chyna learned the theme by her doing this, “Chyna lit the flame and it lit Vess on fire” Chyna had a lot of gasoline on herself from when Vess shot the gas tank and the gas exploded everywhere. Chyna used self-defense when she chose to light the flame on the lighter and set him and herself on fire which caused her to run away and find people to help her get away safely and alive. At the end of the book, Chyna gets rewarded because she finally learned and did the theme, Her reward was “Chyna got away and Vess was locked up forever” If Chyna had not gotten the lighter from the gas station and used self-defense and if she had chosen not to light the lighter, she would most likely be dead and she would have bullets in her chest from Vess’s shotgun. In conclusion, this shows that Dean Koontz's “Intensity” central theme is that self-defense is good.