LITERARY THEMES

Commonly found in creative writing

LITERARY THEMES

Themes can be found everywhere: movies, literature, stories, art…

The theme of a fable is its moral.The theme of a parable is its teaching,

The theme of a piece of literature is its view about life and how people behave.

THEME•Underlying meaning of the story•A universal truth•A significant statement the story is making about society, human nature, or the human condition

The theme of a literary work is its underlying central idea or the generalization it communicates about life.

Theme? The Meaning of Life?The theme expresses the author’s opinion

or raises a question about human nature or the meaning of human experience,

TOPIC and OPINIONAt times the author’s theme may not agree with your beliefs.

Even then, if skillfully written, the work will still have a theme that illuminates some aspects of true human experience.

The author’s task is to communicate on a common ground with the reader.Although the particulars in your

experience may be different from the details of the story, the general underlying truths in the story may be just the connection you and the writer are looking for.

The quest for immortality

The individual’s relationship and obligation to society. (man vs. society)

The individual’s inward journey to understand oneself and to identify who he or she is. (man vs. self)

The individual’s relationship and obligation to the natural world. (man vs. nature)

How do we achieve justice?

The individual as hero: what it means to be a hero or antihero.

What it means to be a survivor.

The individual’s experience of alienation and despair.

The artist’s relationship and obligation to society.

What tomorrow’s world holds for us.

TOPIC = LOVE (need an opinion) Marriage and Familial love Romance Platonic or companion love Altruistic (for the good of everyone)

love Love of country Admiration and infatuation Possessiveness and jealousy Intense dependency Logical sensible love Unrequited (unfulfilled/unreturned)

love Self-centered love Godly love Erotic love

Role of institutions (man vs.institutions)

A THEME IS A STATEMENT WITH A TOPIC AND AN OPINION

(Follow the format):in ink, in cursive: In the novel Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, the theme is stated in the following manner: [topic] and [opinion] (in a sentence).

The theme in a paragraph can also be called a thesis!