What's a theme?

According to Holmon and Hunt's A Handbook to Literature, a theme of a work of literature is "a central idea . . . . the abstract  concept that is made concrete through representation in person, action, and image.  No proper theme is simply a subject or activity [(i.e., love, war, race)]. . . . Theme . . . impl[ies] a subject and a predicate of some kind--not just vice in general, say, but some such proposition as "Vice seems more interesting than virtue but turns out to be destructive."

Holmon and Hunt's definition may seem a little too fancy, but essentially they are saying that a theme is a central idea in a work.  You should state a theme as a generalization (a broad statement or principle), and it should have a subject and a predicate.  For example, one issue that is addressed in William Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily” is change, and how hard change is for people to accept; however, you wouldn't state the theme as about how hard change is.  That hits the topic of the work, but it doesn't express it as a complete thought, with a subject and predicate.  In addition, you wouldn't say the theme is Emily’s unwillingness to change leads to her problems.  That statement does have a subject and predicate, but it is too specific to the work--it is not a generalization. You probably could say that a theme of the work is this:  a person’s unwillingness to change will lead to problems. This statement works because it has a subject and a predicate AND it is a generalization that could be supported from evidence in the work. There are certainly other possibilities, but this one could probably be supported from textual evidence.

 But how do you determine a work's theme?  Can you figure it out right off the bat?  NO!

First off, not every piece of literature has what we might call a theme.  Some poems in particular just describe an experience; the writer does not necessarily develop a central idea.  If the work is very literal and just seems to describe an event, then it probably doesn't have a theme (so you probably don't want to write about it).

Determining a theme takes a lot of time and effort.  You probably won't be able to read a work once and then state a theme for it.  In order to determine a theme, you basically need to analyze the work (break it down)--you go through the work, break it into its parts, and try to understand the relationships among the different elements like we do in class.  Go through steps like these:

• read the work for the pleasure and for the sound of it

• paraphrase it; try to understand the structure of the plot and all its parts

• look up words you don't understand and determine denotations and connotations

• explicate the work (whether it's a poem or story)

  • describe the characters and how the author develops them

  • determine the significance of the setting

  • determine what kind of point of view the author uses and if the narrator is reliable

  • look for any uses of symbols or irony and determine their significance

  • think about the importance of the title

  • separate out all the images that you think are striking and see if there is a pattern among them

  • analyze the aural elements if your workis a poem (alliteration, meter, rhyme, etc.)

• determine what you think is the work’s purpose

• try to explain the relationships among all of these parts of the work

Remember a theme is essentially a general idea that is expressed through these elements, so by understanding the elements and their relationships, you should be able to formulate a theme. 

Tips for stating a theme:

• make sure your statement has a subject and a predicate;

• make sure your statement is a generalization;

• avoid using clichés like "war is hell" or "love conquers all;"

• try to state the theme simply and clearly, but don't oversimplify the idea; capture the complexity of the theme as much as you can.