Chapter Five Part 1
So you know now that one way to find the themes of a text is to look for ‘quotable’ bits, and another way is to see if it’s stated in the ending somewhere. But what do you do if the theme isn’t actually ever stated outright? (Hint: sobbing in despair is not the answer.)
Well, to find the theme of a text that doesn’t helpfully state it outright for you, we need to look at both the characters, and the ending.
(Endings provide important clues for you about a story’s theme mostly because this is where we find out which characters we’re supposed to pay attention to, so really we’re just looking at characters.)
Some helpful hints.
Look at the ending. Which characters end well? Sometimes, this means that the character gets a happy ending. Other times, however, the character themself might end sadly (dead, for example) but might succeed in getting what they wanted (they died, sure, but they saved their family by doing so).
So stop and think for a moment about which characters it seems like the story wants us to side with. I’m going to shorthand by calling these the good characters, even though they can actually be totally immoral; ‘good’ here just means ‘the characters the story wants us allied with’.
Now do the opposite: who ends ‘un-well’? They might get a literal sad ending, or they might just fail to achieve that thing they’ve been striving for, or they might succeed, only to find it was the worst thing in the world (I mean, Jafar gets what he wants in Aladdin, but I think we can all see that wishing himself into genie-hood wasn’t exactly ‘ending well’). I’m going to shorthand these characters as the ‘bad characters’, noting again that this has nothing to do with their actual morality.
The reason it’s important to identify this is because generally speaking, a text suggests to us that we should do as the good characters do, and avoid doing as the bad characters do. And remember, if a text is commenting on what we should or shouldn’t do in our own lives—that’s theme.
(Jafar: Think through the consequences of your actions. Don’t be a monumental, power-hungry jerk. Addictions to power never end well. Phenomenal cosmic power often results in itty-bitty (emotional) living spaces. Etc.)
So. You’ve done that, and we know which characters we’re supposed to identify with, and which ones we’re supposed to reject.
Now we need to examine the journey these characters go on to see what they learn along the way, because the lessons the characters learn? Yup, that’s theme.
There are a few helpful questions you can ask yourself when thinking about a character’s journey.
- What is the character like at the beginning of the story?
- What is the character like at the end of the story?
- What changed? What did they have to learn to be or do in order to get to the end?
(If you’re looking at the ‘bad characters’, you can also ask, “What did they fail to learn that led to their downfall?”)
Sum up that change in a nice, generally-applicable sentence, and you have a theme. In Zootopia, Judy Hopps started the story thinking that she knew everything and could tackle anything on her own. By the end, she’s realised that she has blind spots too, and has learned some humility—as well as how to work as part of a team.
What changed in her attitude? Arrogance changed to humility, independence to team work.
Summing those up in generally-applicable sentences, we get:
Even when you think you’re well informed, you don’t know everything and you’re still subject to bias.
(Or, even more simply, humility is preferable to arrogance.)
Even competent people need a team to support them in their work.
(Chapter continued next time)
Introduction
Ch1 The Point Of A Text
Ch2.1 Thesis Statements
Ch2.2 Thesis Statements
Ch3 Quotes Are Usually Themes
Ch4.1 Theme In Fables
Ch4.2 Theme In Fables
Ch5.1 Finding Themes
Ch5.2 Finding Themes
Ch6 Subthemes
Ch7.1 Theme + You
Ch7.2 Theme + You
Ch8 Why Stories? Recognising Patterns
Ch9 Why Stories? Memory Aids
Ch10: Why Stories? Social Cooperation
Ch11: Why Stories? Power Structures
Ch12: Why Stories? Empathy
Conclusion