Themes: A New Definition

A successful theme essay begins with thinking through the core concept. The noted literary critic Michael Myers defines a theme as “the abstract concept that is made concrete” via the action, characterization, or description and other formal elements of literature.  Therefore, consider how the idea works: what are its parts, is there a sequence to its action, what are its causes (immediate/direct as well as distant/hidden), what types or kinds fit this concept, or what does it cause? Be alert to the limits of the idea so you can approach it by contrast as well.  Don’t forget that major truths are paradoxical, meaning that they can contain their opposite too.

Some things to avoid: (1) leaving the theme general, (2) using a saying or life platitude as your theme—distinguish “theme” from a “moral,” (3) organizing by source rather than by an aspect of the theme (like plot summary)—instead, use topic sentences to extend your thesis interpretation and use at least two texts to support that idea, and (4) merely showing that a text is exemplifies your idea rather than showing how  texts refine the idea or an aspect of it.

Some Notes on Themes

• Themes can be defined and used in many ways. However, ultimately, a theme is a concept that reveals our human nature.
  • It is an idea that transcends any individual work of literature: it should be present among many works. Themes are the truth about ourselves and works of literature are windows into that truth.
  • If this sounds grandiose, it is. Sorry :-) Put simply, you could also say a Theme is an aspect of human culture the person analyzing literature sees as a common thread among works of literature meant to describe human culture.
• Themes are often not treated with respect and that doesn’t achieve the potential of the theme.
  • Often times, people describe themes in single words or phrases
    • Examples:
      • “Love”
      • “Going home”
      • “Despair”
    • These example themes are awful.
      • Consider “Love”
      • There are so many types of love it’s sickening!
        • The love I have for my daughter is very different from the love I have for video games
        • The effects of love when it is returned are very different from when love is not returned
        • And so on…
      • The same is true for any of the other example themes I have listed
      • Sometimes textbooks deliver a “Theme” table of contents with lame themes like these:
        • “American Dreams and Nightmares”
          • Which is it? What about them?
        • “Journeys”
          • Why did they devote a chapter to an apparel store?
        • “Law and Disorder”
          • Which is it? What about them?
        • And so on.
    • A stronger theme uses a full, complete, and very specific sentence.
      • Example:
        • Adults lie to themselves in order to make them feel better about their past.
      • Note my example is a complete sentence
      • It’s also a complete, specific idea: it looks at the action specifically (it’s not lying to just anyone) and the motivation for it.
    • Works of literature may disagree on elements of the theme: that’s ok! That’s like two different academic journal sources disagreeing on whether torture is an effective form of national security. Your sources may disagree: your job is to use both (or, in our case, all three) and determine which is more right.
• Theme structure can be broken down into two components:
  • Theme essay structure
  • Sub-themes
• Theme essay structure is easy: you’ve already done it in previous classes.
  • You must use compare / contrast structure
    • This is the part you’ve engaged before
  • You must avoid writing about only one work of literature in a paragraph
    • That’s not comparison
  • Rather, write about all the works you plan to examine in the paper in each body paragraph
  • Each paragraph is organized around a sub-theme (see below)
  • The structure is as follows
    • Topic sentence explains the sub-theme
    • Explain how one work of literature shows that sub-theme
    • Transition sentence to another work of literature
    • Explain how another work of literature shows that sub-theme
    • Transition sentence to the last work of literature
    • Explain how the last work of literature shows that sub-theme
    • Final sentence ties it all together
      • It gives me the take-away for comparing all three
  • Each work of literature gets full source integration and explanation as usual
  • Each body paragraph is its own sub-theme
  • Expect long paragraphs! That’s ok
• Sub-themes
  • These are aspects of the main theme that build that theme up to what it is
  • Consider my example theme from earlier:
    • Adults lie to themselves in order to make them feel better about their past.
  • We can break this down into component parts:
    • Adults lie to themselves
    • To make them feel better
    • About their past
  • This is just a simple break down of the specifics of the sentence; that’s how it should be.
  • Each of those component parts needs explanation. Try asking questions about them.
    • What is it to lie to oneself? How do we do it? What does it look like?
    • We can create further sub-theme questions that extend the idea:
      • Do we do this realizing we are lying to ourselves? Or do we not realize? Why or why not?
    • The first set of questions could be answered in a body paragraph
    • The second set of questions could also be a body paragraph.
    • Lead yourself forward through explaining your theme by asking questions.
      • Why do we want to avoid the pain of our memories?
      • Do the lies actually comfort us or do they not really take effect? Does the pain we are trying to avoid linger in any way?
      • Why do we seek to avoid our pasts?
      • Do we lie about our futures? Do we lie about our presents?
    • There are more possible questions, but I’m going to cut for time.
  • Answer sets of questions in body paragraphs to progress and fully explain your idea.
  • Avoid phrasing topic sentences as these questions. Doing the questions game is only for outlining. The topic sentences should already predict an answer.
    • Topic sentences don’t need to predict the works of literature though. Do that in the introduction instead.
  • Any sub-theme (just like the overarching theme) can have works of literature that disagree on the answer to the question. That’s a good thing!!!
    • The last sentence of the sub-theme’s paragraph should process the different works of literature and help the reader come to a conclusion based on their agreement / disagreement.