Theme

1. Theme • Being able to clearly articulate the theme in the thesis and/or introduction was one of the biggest differences between passing and non passing essays. • Having a great theme gives you the chance to tie your support back to it and answer the “so what?” • Here are some guidelines to think about when writing about theme. This is applicable to both fiction and poetry.

2. Definition from Elements of Fiction “The theme of a piece of literature is its controlling idea or its central insight. It is the unifying generalization about life stated or implied by the story. To derive the theme of a story, we must ask what its central purpose is: what view of life it supports or what insight into life it reveals.” (90)

3. Principle #1 • “Theme must be expressible in the form of a statement with a subject and predicate” (95). In other words a COMPLETE sentence. • Don’t say the theme is “faith.” That is a subject. The theme statement must be about the subject. What about the subject is the author trying to reveal to the reader? • Don’t just give a phrase like “faith and doubt.” To make it a theme, you must convert it into a complete sentence. “Faith can grow through doubt” or something like that. (see you handout for WAY better examples)

4. Principle #2 • “The theme must be stated as a generalization about life” (95). • Not character specific • Don’t refer to specific places or events

5. Principle #3 • “Be careful not to make the generalization larger than is justified by the terms of the story” (95). • Terms like every, all, always should be used cautiously (I would try to avoid these words as you will sound preachy.) • Terms like some, sometimes, may are usually more accurate

6. Principle #4 • “Theme is the central and unifying concept of a story” (96). • It must account for all the major details of the story • Must not be contradicted by any detail of the story; you can’t overlook a detail in the story to prove your theme---maybe your theme is wrong if a story detail can disprove it! • Theme must exist inside the story not the outside. The facts that are clearly stated or implied in the story must support your theme, not your life experiences.

7. Principle #5 • “There is no one way of stating the theme of a story” (96). • As long as your theme meets the criteria mentioned so far, there is more than one way to state the theme. • Also, with a book as large as Owen Meany, I think you can have more than one theme. Just make sure they don’t contradict each other.

8. Principle #6 • Theme should not be a simple cliché even if it may express the theme accurately. • It’s lazy • It loses the value of the story • Perhaps start there, but then expand on it. AP readers will give you a lower score for not thinking deeper and so will I! 

9. What theme is NOT • One word is not a theme---that is probably the subject • Man vs. nature (or any variation of this) is not the theme—that is the conflict • An abbreviated story line is not the theme---that is the plot • Symbols or motifs such as armlessness/amputation is not a theme---it could symbolize something connected to the theme

10. What Theme is • The theme is stated in a complete sentence and reveals to us what we have learned about a particular subject. It is a universal truth that applies to more than just one story; it applies to life. Example: “If you ran into your house and told your mother that you had just read a story about…” • And she said, “Why that is a very good (exciting, funny, whatever) story.” You would have told her the plot. • However, if she said, “Ahhh, that is true,” you probably told her the theme. • The theme is the “ahhh,” that which we know to be true.