O.C. Writers

By Andrea Lewis // 

It wasn’t until Billie Kelpin, author of Falling Idols, asked this question about one of my stories that I started looking at and for the theme in my writing. To my embarrassment, I wasn’t quite sure what she meant. She re-phrased, “What is your story about, what is your point?” That, I learned, was my theme.

Of course, I knew about themes, of course, I recognized them in other writers’ work, but to my shame, I never thought of my work having a theme. Don’t ask.

As the research on this topic progressed, an entire process unveiled to answer questions like: how do writers choose a theme for their stories? At what point do they decide on the theme? Is theme the same as message? Questions and decisions that writers make in the writing process, that prompt for deeper analysis of their own work.

A. Definition

Before anything else, defining the concept was needed. With only slight variations, all definitions seem to agree on one aspect: a theme is a point that a story makes.

In Theme Versus Meaning, Donald Maass adds that [a theme] is “a lesson, an instruction for what’s wrong and how to fix that, or how we should live better. […] it points out “something we must heed about ourselves and our world.” 

Author of Wired for Story, Lisa Cron condenses the essence of a literary theme in two questions:

• “What does the story tell us about what it means to be human?”
• “What does it say about how humans react to circumstances beyond their control?”

Since “all stories make a point, beginning on page one,” Cron urges writers to ask themselves about the point of their story in terms of “What’s in it for the readers?” In other words, why would anyone read a particular story, what are they going to learn from it?

Instructional Designer Yvonne Rosas places story theme along with its message and defines them as “the driving forces that help communicate the author’s ideas to [the readers].” “They help us understand the bigger picture of a story. They help us connect to a story on an emotional and critical level. In short, message and themes are a big reason why humans really love stories.”  

The Editors at Reedsy simplify the definition of theme to what the book is about. Which was Billie Kelpin’s question to me, as well.

B. Why are themes important?

Omnipresent in literature, themes play several roles.

• Food for thought: K.M. Weiland sees themes as “fundamental truths that inevitably affect human morality,” because they provoke readers to question their existence in terms of honesty and, even, morality.
• Two-way highway: Sean Glatch at Writers.com identifies that themes work both 

     – For the story: themes influence and determine “characters’ decisions, mood of the words and moral that readers interpret.”

     – For writers: learning to recognize various themes in literature, will allow writers to develop “stronger works of prose and poetry.”

• Awareness carriers: The Editors at Reedsy also identify a two-fold importance of themes:

     – For writers: awareness of their theme will allow them to create engaging content with deeper significance.

     – For the readers, themes enhance their reading experience in several ways:

a. Universality: stories with specific content become universal because all stories are about the human condition. Thus, characters follow the universal truths of humanity.

Reedsy editors exemplify this principle with Sayaka Murata’s “Convenience Store Woman”: although the story is peculiar, the central conflict is universal (individual vs. society) and it should, therefore, resonate with most readers.

b. The “what if” experiment: complex ideas are discussed through narrative in the form of a hypothesis. Characters become imagined case studies of human behavior, examining how different people react to the same events.

Example: William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” has human morality as its central theme. Hypothesis: “if isolated from society, human beings would not act morally anymore.” The complexity of morality becomes the main source of tension that propels the story forward.

c. Unity provider: themes unite and organize separate narrative strands in novels and anthologies. What seem to be unrelated stories or points of view, become united by common themes.

Example: “The Truth That Can’t Be Told” by The Lake Forest Writers’ Roundtable is a collection of short stories and poems built around a central theme: a truth that cannot / should not be told. The stories are unrelated, written by different writers, yet they all focus on the same theme.

C. Theme and message

When analyzed in relationship with the message of a literary work, theme gains its universality. Opinions converge in that theme is universal, while message is the example of that theme.

Yvonne Rosas calls theme “the big idea in a story” and defines its universality as abstract and applicable to everyone. The message, however, is an example of the big idea, shaped by the specifics of the story: characters and their environment. “Messages are specific to the story, related only to the characters of that story.” For instance, the theme of love is abstract and universal, but the form that love takes in a story is the message of that story.

Rosas compares “This Side of Paradise” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger, since both works are about young men figuring out their role and identity in society. She defines the theme as finding oneself and growing up as an adult, but the stories and the context of their characters are different. Each character goes through situations specific to their environment. “Those situations are messages,” concludes Rosas.

K.M. Weiland emphasizes that most of the times, the message of the story rests in the lesson that the character learns. While the theme is the “big idea” or the universal principle such as justice, mercy, joy, peace, love, the message is the specific example of that theme in action.

• “the plot events that act upon the character and force him/her to take action, that is where the message is”
• Theme is inclusive, message is exclusive: the theme applies to everyone, the message applies only to the characters in that specific situation.

D. How and when do writers find their theme?

As most stories start from a character being stuck in a situation, the theme will arise from the message. The way the character responds to that situation will determine the theme.

Weiland concludes that theme and message are organically linked: the theme creates the message, or the other way around. For instance, she writes on her blog, in “Jane Eyre” the “theme is self-worth, the message is that even a great love isn’t worth enslaving your soul.”

“Only once you’ve identified your story’s message can you use it to bring to life your story’s theme, in the most powerful, integrated, and subtextual way possible.” (K.M. Weiland)

Lisa Cron advocates that “knowing the theme of your story in advance helps” on several levels:

• Writers will be able to measure their characters’ responses to the situations that they are facing
• It will affect the way the story question is resolved

Will all writers know in advance the theme of their work? Sean Glatch at Writers.com writes that some writers will start from a theme and build the plot with the characters and conflicts based on the theme, but most will write out the story and might not even realize the themes in their writing until after writing it. So, there is hope for me!

E. Most common themes

Since themes are big ideas that picture human nature in confrontation with crisis situations, Glatch identifies around twenty literary themes ranging from circle of life, coming of age, faith and doubt, family, fate vs. free will, good vs. evil, identity, justice, loneliness, man vs. nature, man vs. self, man vs. society, power and corruption, pursuit of love, revenge, survival, war and more.

The Editors at Masterclass analyze six major themes that can easily develop into subthemes:

1. Good vs. evil – the classic battle may oppose two characters against each other or a main character against society or other versions thereof. The theme may be explored through the character’s external actions and dialogue or through his/her internal struggle to do the right thing when faced with temptation.
2. Love – the most universal theme in literature is either a force for good that inspires people to sacrifice themselves for others, or a toxic force that drives people to madness or violence.

Variations on love:

1. Forbidden love – yearning and disapproval collide in forbidden love stories; think Romeo and Juliet.
2. Family love – love between children and parents or siblings often explore the costs or challenges of family loyalty. Think “Sound and Fury” by William Faulkner and “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult.
3. Unrequited love – the pain of loving someone who does not return your affection. Think “Phantom of the Opera” by Gaston Leroux.
4. Friendship – the power of friendship to carry people through hard times and change them whether for better or for worse. This theme is especially common in young adult literature.

3. Redemption: failures or tragedies set the scene for a sad story, but it doesn’t have to end this way.
4. Courage and perseverance: the triumph of the human spirit in the face of adversity is a greatly popular theme in literature, film and real life.
5. Coming of age usually produces a bildungsroman, a classic story follows one or more characters during their journey of growing up into adulthood.
6. Revenge: a common plot in literature, it sets up a conflict between one character and his/her enemies as he/she journeys to avenge wrongs done to them.

 F. How do writers support their themes?

Sean Glatch identifies that writers explore theme through the entire plethora of elements of a story: characters, plot, settings, conflict, word choice, literary devices. He exemplifies the theme of power and corruption in an analysis of George Orwell’s allegoric novel, “Animal Farm.” The editor at Writers.com points out the way Orwell supports the theme through plot, characters and literary devices, all of which contribute to paint a true resemblance with the real-life events during the rise of Communism in Russia.

The editors at Masterclass advise on three ways that writers can create literary themes in their work:

• Put characters in conflict with one another: conflict is where characters act and speak, thus the opportunity for readers to extract the theme.
• Reinforce the theme with motifs – recurring images or details that highlight the central ideas through repetition. For instance, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, the lavish parties emphasize the theme of excess and materialism, and the pursuit of the American dream.
• Use symbols to represent the theme – objects, characters or settings that are used to represent something else while supporting the theme. Symbols may appear one time, or throughout the story. The green light in “The Great Gatsby” is the symbol for his dream of a better life with Daisy. He reaches for it in the beginning of the book, it becomes unreachable in the end.

It took a question and some research to understand at what point we think of theme, how we support it in our work, and its relationship with message. At the time Billie Kelpin asked that question, she also helped me answer it with one short sentence. It was about mother love – a mother who would do anything to save her child. That answer helped me see the story in a new light. It helped me emphasize the elements that best supported the theme. From there on, I learned and forced myself to understand my point, my “about.” That made all the difference.

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ANDREA LEWIS lives and writes in Huntington Beach. She was born in Romania and moved to the United States at the age of 34, after meeting and marrying her husband. She writes memoir and personal essays, with a recent attempt at freeform poetry. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times.