Theme → Author’s Commentary

Writers have neatly packaged their ideas for sale.

by Shawn Hassen

Studying literature at the micro level makes for discerning students.  Studying literature at the macro level–makes for discerning human beings.

Hopefully our students have been honing their logic and gaining some valuable practice in their micro studies. Now, let’s put them on a simple step-by-step track to studying literature on the macro level. It’s time to show them how the elements of literature work together to create the theme, which will give rise to the author’s particular comment on that theme, which will reveal his or her worldview, which may be a personal, eclectic combination of ideas, or a certain recognizable belief set already existing in culture, known as a philosophy. So, here’s how this works. . .

Theme so simple.  

The elements of literature that students have been studying reveal a piece’s theme. But first, we must define the term. To be honest, the waters are a little murky. Some definitions are enigmatic, while some are too big, too academic, or include too much. Advanced Placement students or college English majors may enjoy the rhetoric of these oft ethereal definitions, but what about the majority of our students? A simpler definition works best as we teach students to think through literature systemically and logically.   

To know what theme is, students have to first know what it is not (because chances are, they currently have the worst possible misconception in mind). The theme of a fictional work is not the “lesson learned” or the “moral to the story.” It makes sense that small children reading fables might want to get fancy and explain to their parents that the “theme is that the early bird gets the worm,” or “slow and steady wins the race.” As they get a little older, this [mis]understanding turns into statements such as “good always wins” or “friendship matters more than money.” This is perfectly fine for tots, but if young scholars keep viewing these moral statements or truisms as themes, then they are going to become increasingly confused when they begin to study philosophy and worldview. It is imperative to teach students that they cannot express theme as a “lesson learned.” To begin retraining them, I successfully told my students “Do not express theme in a complete sentence. Don’t use a verb.” Magic. The dreaded lesson learned goes out the window.    

Knowing what theme is not now paves the way for understanding what it is. Students should think of theme as the big idea(s) that all of the elements have been building toward. A more detailed way of thinking about theme is to consider it as the overarching fabric of nameable big idea(s) that the threads of the piece have all been weaving. Threads weave together to create a fabric of some sort.  The threads are the elements of literature; the finished product is the piece of fabric. Let’s break down this definition. 

First, let’s note the redundant use of the word overarching. It’s a little bit of overkill, but it helps emphasize to students that theme is not something on one page of the novel. You can’t blink and miss it. It is the culmination of all of the elements in a piece working together. Symbolism will point toward the theme. The conflicts will point toward the theme. The theme is the entire, completed fabric made up of threads.

Secondly, the phrase nameable idea(s). Themes will always be ideas recognized by all peoples, such as justice, integrity, friendship, loneliness, good vs. evil, the struggle for equality, isolation, and so forth. These phrases and fragments are universal ideas on display in the piece of literature almost as if the writer plucked them from the very air that we all breathe. A theme will never be within the sole, private context of the piece of work, such as “Jane’s loss of the water bucket” or “Piglet’s patience with Pooh” (as opposed to “the patience between friends”). Theme will never reference characters or other specifics in the piece of literature--it must always be an expression of universal ideas that go beyond the mere context of words on the page.  

 Finally, it is vital that students recognize that this definition is all there is to it. Nothing less, nothing more. On the one hand, theme is complex in the making. Every literary element within a piece of literature is building toward the theme(s). All of the characters, the conflicts, any symbols that may have been used, particular details of plot, irony, the climax–all of the literary elements work together to create the theme, so as we pour over the evidence and the details of a piece of literature, we must respect the complexity. On the other hand, the expression of theme needs to remain simple, best expressed as fragmented phrases or words. If students start talking about the author’s opinions or their own opinions—whoa, stop!  Don’t let students go there yet. First things first. We start by reading the novel. We'll annotate and ponder the details. This fuels our discussion of the elements.  And the elements reveal the theme. Now we can add the next ring to our diagram, with arrows pointing from the center and moving outward. Our core is the piece of literature. The next ring encircling it is titled Elements. The next ring encircling both is now labeled Theme. The arrows move from the center outward because the literature gives rise to the elements which then reveal the theme.

Students should be prepared for the fact that many novels contain more than one theme, and the same can be said of some short stories, as well. Let's apply our logical approach to studying literature so far to the popular short story, "The Birds," by Daphne du Maurier. We read and annotate the piece, carefully studying the elements with which it was crafted. These elements allow us to discover a central theme in the story: power of nature.

Author’s Commentary--opinions for sale.  

Once students have identified theme(s), they must now use all of the novel’s evidence to expound upon the writer’s beliefs about that theme. More often than not, writers express what they believe and possibly hope to convince readers of. If the theme is isolation, for instance, what does the writer say about isolation? Students must sort through the novel’s evidence:  Who is isolated?  According to this writer, what or who caused the isolation? Does this writer believe isolation is good or bad? Does the writer suggest that isolation can be overcome or should be overcome? How? Or why not? The elements of literature and evidence from the story or novel will reveal theme and “prove,” so to speak, the author’s comment about that theme.  

Continuing with our example from "The Birds," we can now see how the evidence points to the author's commentary. The birds' victory over the characters reveals the writer's belief that nature is or can be more powerful than humans. Note that we express author's commentary in a complete sentence (as opposed to the fragmented theme).

So where do writers' beliefs come from? A future post will discuss the next ring to our study-of-literature diagram: worldview.