Connections
This is basically telling you to compare different things together that creates a meaning in the story. For example, in the Three Little Pigs each of their houses are made of different materials: straw, sticks, and bricks. This creates a meaning by showing how much effort each pig put into building his house—clearly the pig who made the straw house didn’t put much effort since straw is not strong and he probably just piled it up. The stick house was made with more effort since sticks are stronger and takes a longer time to stack. The brick house was made with most effort since brick is really strong and heavy, therefore taking a lot of time and effort to build it. Now for the analogy. An analogy is just a complex word for figurative language, and some examples of an analogy are “I’m so cold I feel like I’m in the arctic”, or “That shiny coin looks like a miniature sun”. An analogy in the Three Little Pigs is that ”the wolf blew so hard, the breath from his mouth felt like a tornado”. This analogy means that the wolf blew very hard and that he’s doing this because he’s really hungry for those pigs.
Theme
Theme is the lesson that is taught in the story. You can find the theme by using the comparisons I said—the theme of the Three Little Pigs is hard work always pays off because by comparing the houses they’ve built, we can see how much each pig worked hard for.