My English teacher recently brought up something that I've never really thought about before. He said that every story has some kind of theme in it. I've never consciously used a theme before, I've always been more focused on plot pr character development. So I was just wondering, is it important to have a theme for your story, or is a good plot enough? Does it really matter, and will anyone even notice? I'd love to hear your advice on this.
Hey just felt like doing that lol, but anyway to your questions.
I think that whether or not writers realize it, there are always themes in their stories. I generally have themes of courage, honor, loyalty, chivalry, integrity, and all that stuff in mine. And sometime much deeper themes as well. My books are Christian-themed if you are talking more genre-based theme.
In my literature class, we've been told that the the plot is what happens and the theme is what it means. So, I agree with Messenger—you unconciously make a theme with every story that you write. Though, it varies with the interpretation of your readers..
“Hope for the Best. Expect the worst. Live is a Play. We're Unrehearsed.” — Mel Brooks
Theme is the general "here's what the work is discussing". In a sense, the theme can be your character's progression— if your character starts off selfish and learns the values of selflessness, then the theme is selflessness.
It's what readers walk away with. It's something that shows as being important or central to your work.
For me, personally, I plot around a theme. So I give the character a goal or some sort of recurring motif that comes up (loyalty is a big one in my current project), and I try to push my character around that as often as possible.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo
Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
...Okay, so if I had to say my stories have themes, I think most of them would be something to the effect of, "Home is a terrible place to be, and friends are the worst kind of people." ...Doe that even count...?
Themes! Themes are greatly underappreciated in novels, and those that don't have one usually tend to be quite dry. Sometimes they're evident, sometimes they're not, but they're always there.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Harry Potter
Spoiler! :
According to JKRowling, Death, and overcoming it, is a major theme in Harry Potter. It starts with the death of his parents. In each book the death of a character forces Harry to accept death, overcome loss and become stronger as a person, where his counterpart, Voldemort, tries so hard to avoid his own death that he tears apart his own soul.
As a reader, as we follow Harry's journey we find ourselves forced to overcome the same difficulties.
Hunger Games
Spoiler! :
Vanity and appearance is a major theme. At first vanity and the obsession with strange appearances is something of the wealthy, and anything to do with it is to be resisted. But as Katniss becomes a symbol of the rebellion appearances start to matter even more, and she has to learn to use her fame for good, not for the sinisteries that the people around her intend it for.
In the end she learns to use her own image and fame for good things, rather than letting herself become a pretty doll for someone else's cause.
Song of Ice and Fire
Spoiler! :
This is a long series and has a lot of themes. Power, love, yada yada. One that I find interesting is the theme of Identity. In the beginning each character has a steady world to live in- a lineage to follow, a throne to claim. As things get jumbled up each is forced to find their own sense of who they are- Jon Snow maintaining the Black even among the Wildlings, Tyrion who makes use of his intellect when the world thinks he's useless, the younger Starks each finding their own quest. Without that theme the characters and the plot would be more like a really, really long game of chess.
If a novel were a tree
The theme would be like the trunk. Without one, you've just got branches. That may be a great plot, and those are some fine looking branches, but without the trunk you've just got a shrub. It's the thing that echoes throughout the plot and the characters journeys. Sometimes you can read a novel that feels empty for some reason that you can't quite put your finger on, and that's often because it lacks a theme.
Unconcious themes
Often we'll put a theme in even without realising it- usually depending on something we want in our own lives. I have a theory that this is how fantasy epics turn into cheesy romances, because romance is a big thing to adolescents and if they don't choose a theme to focus on then the one they don't choose will emerge instead.
Home is a terrible place
Think about it. If your whole novel had the theme that home is a terrible place, then imagine that being the message your reader walks away with. Wouldn't you rather something like 'you can be a better person even if your homelife sucks' or 'blood isn't always thicker than water.' The same with friends. 'Learning to forgive' or 'accepting who we are' seem like more optimistic themes that will give the reader something more from the book.
As @Tenyo said you definitely need some sort of theme but I personally believe that you don't need to sit down and say "I'm going to write a story about the theme of flowers" it comes more naturally than that in my opinion.
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