Theme : What’s the Big Idea?

Theme: What’s the Big Idea? Mrs. West

Theme is… • A message or truth about life or people that applies to everyone. • For example: I can’t ever get what I want! Can you figure out the theme, or the message that applies to everyone, here? “You can’t always get what you want.”

Let’s practice finding the theme of a song before we try to find the theme of a story. Are you ready to get up and dance?

Sing the Lyrics while you dance

So let’s find the theme… Look at the first verse: Zydeco is music that’s traditionally from the South The theme is: Music comes from within and can be enjoyed by anyone, young or old. They say I'm a rapper, and I say no… They say what you doing tryna do some zydeco… I just let the music come from my soul… So all of my people can stay on the floor… They got a brand new dance (come on), you gotta move your muscle… Brand new dance, it's called the Cupid Shuffle…It don't matter if you're young or you're old (here we go), We gone show you how it go… The artist is saying that music comes from his soul, or from within him The artist makes a point that whether you’re young or old, you can enjoy music

What about theme in literature? • Still“A message or truth about life or people that applies to everyone.” • Theme is a discovery of truth that we uncover from a text that we can relate to our own human experience. • What does this “relate to our own • human experience” stuff mean?

The Human Experience • If we read a well-written story about two friends who betray each other, we may feel that we have lived through the betrayal ourselves. • We can connect our emotions to the outcome of the story. • That’s because WE’RE HUMAN. • We can relate what we read in a story to our own lives, because we have HUMAN EXPERIENCES.

Theme is important! • Have you ever read a story that’s really, REALLY, old?

Stories that last a long time have their theme to thank. Dealing with Loss These stories tend to focus on the big truths in everyone’s life. Ambition The joys and problems of friendship Greed Accepting Responsibility Understanding Love Themes that people can relate to the human experience never get old – whether they were written hundreds of years ago in a snowbound Alaskan village, or yesterday on a laptop in Japan.

What theme isn’t. Theme is what a story is really about – what the story reveals to you about life. Theme is not plot. Plot is what a story is about – characters, setting, events, etc.

Where does the author tell you the theme? They don’t! Here are some questions to ask yourself when trying to identify the theme of a story: • How has the main character changed over the course of the story? • What has he or she discovered by the story’s end? • What is the story’s title? • Does it reveal anything special about the story? • Which passages strike you as especially important to the story? • What ideas about life do they suggest?

Why evaluate theme instead of just enjoying the plot? While you may not agree with all themes, putting theme into words brings it out in the open, where you can look at it critically and decide if it fits with what you know about life. • Read a story about gang life and you’ve absorbed the idea that the world is a dangerous place where problems are often solved through violence. Because the theme will get through to you whether you realize it or not. • Read a story about teen romance and you’ve been told once again that nothing is more important than finding true love. Huh?!

Now you’re an expert on theme.

Theme : What’s the Big Idea?