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Hey, this is Mr. Sato. Let's talk about theme.
OK, you have to find the theme in some book you read for school? Well, I think that, with
a few exceptions, theme is the most important element in a work of literature, because the
theme is the literary work's primary purpose.
And by literary work, I mean any written work of art, like a novel, play, short story, poem,
or even a screenplay. The theme (and here's your definition) is the central idea of a
work of literature.
I often over-simplify this term for students by saying it's kind of like the moral of the
story, the life lesson the author wants you to take away from the book. It's the message
or meaning.
And that meaning isn't just about the characters; it's more abstract than that; it applies to
you and me, and everyone. The theme is usually universal, but at the very least it's an idea
that's bigger than just these characters and this fictional world. Don't tell me that the
theme, in the Lion King, is that Simba had to go back to rule his kingdom. The theme
is bigger than just that one character. The theme is that all people should live up to
their responsibilities because they are needed by the people around them. You see? That's
a theme.
Also, theme is not the same as a "subject." The subject of a work can usually be expressed
in a word or two: family, courage, the nature of love. Right? That's the subject. However,
the theme is the idea the writer wishes to express about that subject. It's an opinion,
not a fact. If you tell me the theme is "love," I'll say that's wrong, and ask you, "what
ABOUT love?" The theme isn't a thing; it must be an opinion about that thing.
That's why I tell students not to merely Google "what is the theme of this book?" Because
you'll often get things like, "one of themes of this book is love" or "social justice."
The way I define it in my classes, those are subjects, not themes.
Love isn't a theme. Love stinks is a theme. Get it?
And it would be best if the opinion you came up with wasn't too obvious, like, "it's good
to be fair." That's pretty obvious and almost no one would disagree with that, so it isn't
very interesting.
And if that's all you need for the assignment you're currently working on, you can stop
watching now.
But theme is actually a little more complicated than that.
You know how in life, we notice things and have experiences, we put things together in
our minds and we gain insight or understanding about the world? We develop generalizations
about how the world works, or what people are like. For example, after several instances
of having people pop up unexpectedly to help you reach some important goal, if you're an
optimistic sort of person, you might say to yourself: "Well, I guess that's how life is.
When you're trying to reach a difficult goal worth reaching, help will become available
even in the unlikeliest of situations." It's a nugget of wisdom you earned through observation
and experience.
You do this. Everyone does this. Chimpanzees can do this. Chimps learn that every year
about this time, food can be found in this particular area. They make a generalization
based on their experiences.
That's a similar process as detecting a theme in a work of literature. When you read a work
of literature, that book is a model of the real world. It's like a map or a globe. The
author who created that model wants you to see the world through his or her eyes, and
probably hopes you'll come to similar conclusions about it. But she usually doesn't put it on
a plate and just say it outright because it wouldn't really mean anything to you that
way. So she shows you what some slice of the world looks like and expects you to put things
together in your mind, just like you do in real life, making generalizations about the
world based on these imagined experiences. We gain insight and understanding about the
world that way.
This is something that chimps can't do. If you show a chimpanzee a map of a room and
show them that the banana is behind this door-on the map-the chimpanzee can't apply that understanding
to find the actual banana in the actual room. This process of making abstract meaning from
a model is one of the things that makes us human.
And just like in real life, a good work of literature is complex and could contain many
themes, some large and obvious, some small and less obvious. If you're writing a theme
essay for the first time, it might be a good idea to go with the big, obvious theme. That's
completely fine. I recommend it. But if you want a more interesting challenge, you could
write about some smaller, more original theme. Either essay could earn you a good grade,
as long as it was well written and well supported.
In some cases, a book could even contain contradictory themes. A play or novel could present two
opposing themes and leave the choice to the reader. Or two separate readers could come
to opposite conclusions. You might read a book and you say the theme was that "hard
work pays off." Then your friend reads the same book and says the theme is that "hard
work is meaningless; it's luck that matters." So, just like in real life, two people with
similar experiences can come to very different conclusions. And as long as each person can
back up his or her theme with evidence from the book, then his or her opinion is legitimate.
Now this might sound strange, but you can even come up with a theme that the author
did not intend or even flatly rejects. The author of a poem might say in an interview
that he did not intend for readers to conclude that the strong should conquer the weak, but
you might see that theme in his poem anyway, regardless of what he says. And if you can
back that up with evidence from the text, then, for you, that's a theme in that poem.
The reader owns the meaning, not the author.
One of the best ways to find a good theme is - A. - to see what happens to the main
character. Readers usually identify with the main character, especially if he or she is
a protagonist, a sympathetic character with whom we identify. I say this because some
main characters are unsympathetic, like the main character of Crime and Punishment, a
very bad guy, and not all readers will identify with him.
In either case, if the main character changes over the course of the book in a good way,
then a theme could be that readers should do whatever he did. So if a character is heroic
in some way, the theme could be that those qualities are admirable and that we should
be that way in our own lives.
If the main character changes in a bad way, then the theme might be to avoid making that
character's choices.
For example, in Arthur C. Clarke's science-fiction story, "If I Forget Thee, O Earth...," we
learn that the main characters are stranded on the moon because the human race has made
the Earth uninhabitable because of nuclear war. Because we see that the characters' situation
has changed in a very negative way, the theme is to avoid doing what they did. A theme of
this story could be that mankind should learn to solve its conflicts without war or violence.
And if you're interested in symbolism, here's a key to theme that served me well in college.
Ask yourself: if the main character is a symbol for all mankind, what is the author saying
about mankind? The answer to that could be your theme.
B. Sometimes, authors have a character just state the theme, often near the end of the
book. It's often some meaningful conclusion about mankind or some aspect of life. A character
might say something like, "Well, Bob, love is like that, isn't it? Sometimes it's sweet
and sometimes it's sour. But you know, I'll take my chances." So the theme could be exactly
that: that love can be pleasurable and it can be painful, but it's worth the risk. Not
all books contain a statement like that, but some do, and it's worth keeping an eye out
for one.
C. Another way to find a clue is to look at the title. That won't help with titles like
Animal Farm or Romeo and Juliet, which are merely descriptive, but a lot of the time,
authors put hints in the title.
After you read Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, think about when the killing
of a mockingbird was talked about and what was going on in the book at the time. What
was being referred to? That will point you towards a main theme.
Finally, D. Look at the main conflict. What forces are pitted against one another in this
story, and who wins? And why? I don't mean what specific characters, I mean step back
and look at what big group or idea is struggling against some other bigger group or idea. Let's
say it's a ship captain and his crew struggling against a massive, uncontrollable white whale,
like in Moby ***.
Look at that in an abstract way. That's mankind vs. nature. So maybe the theme has something
to do with man's conflict with the massive, uncontrollable forces of the natural world.
So, let's review quickly. And I'll put in some time indexes too, so if you want, you
can re-hear those particular sections.
1) Theme is kind of like the moral of the story. It's the message or meaning.
2) Theme is bigger than just these characters and this story.
3) Theme and subject are not the same thing. Theme is a debatable opinion about a subject.
4) The abstract meaning in the book applies to the real world we live in. The ability
to do this is uniquely human. 5) Literary works can contain many themes.
Any theme is legitimate if you can back it up.
6) The meaning belongs to you, not the author. 7) Ways to find the theme include:
Looking for changes in the main character Watching for clear statements of theme
Examining the title And looking at the conflict.
Making meaning from literature-finding a theme-is one of the best things you can learn. Because
it's a real-world skill that will allow you to learn from experiences that someone else
has had, that you haven't actually experienced yourself-and in turn, you can apply that wisdom
to your own life, to be a smarter and happier person.
And what is more important than happiness?