The theme is the message the story presents. It does so by a combination of all its parts: what happens in the story; the place where it takes place; the characters and what they're like and whether/how they they change; the narrator and his or her attitude toward things; the writing style; and any symbols that appear.
The short way to name a theme is with a word or phrase. I call this a theme idea. For example, some might say that the theme of a certain story is grief, or coming of age, or coping with loss. But that doesn't go very far; the real question is, "What about grief, or coming of age, or coping with loss?" What does the story have to tell us about its theme idea?
And so we have the theme statement, or theme sentence. This is a more complete version of the theme idea, one that really tells us the story's message.
A really good theme statement has several characteristics.
- It's a whole sentence, a statement, not just a word or phrase.
- It accounts for the major events of the story, not just certain ones.
- It applies beyond the confines of the story. That is, it could apply to other people, perhaps us. That means it doesn't specifically name the people or events in the story, but is more general.
- It's not a cliche or too obvious. "Don't judge a book by its cover" is trite and superficial, so wouldn't be a good theme statement.
Suppose you were going to write a theme statement for "Romeo and Juliet." You know the rough plot, right? Kids fall in love. families are feuding and won't let them marry. For complex reasons, Juliet takes a portion that makes her seem dead. Romeo thinks she's really dead and kills himself from grief. Julie wakes up, sees what's happened, and kills herself, too.
These would be bad theme statements:
- love (too vague)
- teenage love is usually doomed (too short and incomplete)
- always look to see if someone's really dead before killing yourself from grief (fun, but only accounts for one event in a complex story)
- members of feuding families shouldn't fall in love (sounds like a moral, not a theme)
- a boy and girl from warring families try to be happy, but end up dead from a set of mistakes (this is just a plot summary and doesn't convey any message at all)
Good themes for "Romeo and Juliet" might look like this:
- The bad blood of feuding families may eventually bring doom, not only to those who create the feud but to the next generation.
- Young people in love against all odds can be so passionate and unrealistic that tragedy results from their dramatic intrigues.
Each of these statements tries to cover the major points of the play. They are worded in a general way, so they could apply to real people. They are what we take to be the author's overall message.
How many themes can a story have?
Novels can have several themes. But there can probably be only one for a short story, since most short stories don't have subplots and multiple issues going on. However, there can be different ideas about what that one theme is. I've seen groups of students come up with four or five related, but different, themes, and we liked all of them.
So don't think you have to find the one right answer. Different people bring different ideas to their reading and come out of it with different "takes" on a work. There's often more than one right answer, though some answers may be closer to the writer's intent than others.
