English 12 Short Story Notes – Unit 4: Theme

1. English 12 Short Story Notes – Unit 4: Theme • Theme is: • The controlling idea or central insight • A unifying generalization about life • Some stories lack a definite theme and these are most often escape literature, such as horror, action, or suspense stories. • Theme exists in all interpretative literature when: • The author seriously attempts to record life accurately • The author uses a theory of life as a unifying element which the story is meant to illustrate. • A theme must: • Not be over-simply stated • Not be considered moralizing or overly didactic but increase the reader’s awareness and understanding of life subtly • Permit the interpretative writer to challenge the reader’s prejudices, feelings and opinions • Here the reader, although not agreeing with the theme, still gets another view of life

2. There are seven main principles in the statement of theme: 1. Theme must be expressed as a full thought, not a fragment 2. Must adequately state a generalization about life 3. Must take care not to make a generalization that is greater than justified by the purpose of the story 4. Must be the central and unifying concept of the story, not a side issue 5. The author’s inside meaning must shine forth, not the reader’s outside prejudices 6. There is no one way of expressing theme, but the end result must ring true 7. The theme must not be reduced to one familiar saying as this often misses the point or value of the story.