Part Five ThemeSection One DefinitionTheme is why an author writes or what he has to say, the central and dominating idea in a story, the central idea or statement about life that unifies and controls the total work, the comment or statement that the author makes about the issue, problem, or the subject. Theme is not the issue, or problem, or subject!Some points about theme:1.1)A theme, organically and necessarily related to the works total structure and texture, always comes from the interplay of the various elements of the work, not an intellectual abstraction superimposed on the work by the author.2.1) readers may differ on what the theme of a given work is, but such different opinions or interpretation of the theme should be plausibly rooted in the facts of the story. 2)the theme of a given work may not bee in accord with the readers particular beliefs and values.The rich ideas in literature, which may strike us, at least initially, strike us as unpleasant, controversial, or simply wrongheaded, shouldnt be dismissed out of hand, because such fresh and challenging ideas and insights have the power to liberate our minds and our imaginations and to cause us to reflect critically about our own values, beliefs, and assumptions.3)the idea(s) expressed by the authors is closely tied to their values, or value system; thus, the ideas of the authors are assumed to grow out of their values and the values are embodied in their stories along with the ideas/themes. We readers should accept the storys theme as it is presented to us even if it is thought to violate the truth of our experience or experience of others.Section Two Theme identification 1.to identify the theme of a work of fiction is to formulate in our own words the statement about life or human experience made by the total work, involving us in analyzing many elements in their relation to one another and to the work as a whole.2.Some value of theme identification: force us to bring together and to understand the various aspects of the work, in which process we may notice things previously ignored or undervalued. Theme identification is a way to test our own understanding, to focus our response, and make the work finally and fully our own.3.Rough classification of themes:Theme in literature, in the form of a brief and meaningful insight or a comprehensive version of life, is the authors way of communicating and sharing ideas, perceptions, and feelings with his readers or, often of probing and exploring with readers the puzzling questions of human existence, most of which do not yield neat, tidy, of universally acceptable answers.1) the ideas that constitute a works theme may be: (familiarity)A. relatively commonplace ones that easily fall within the framework of our own experience;B. fairly complex and abstract-somewhat difficult to understand and put into words, either because we have not encountered them before or because they relate to concepts that are in themselves relatively more difficult.2) (application/gererality) A. some themes are topical in nature, involving ideas that are valid only in relation to a specific time and place, or to a specific set of circumstances.B.others are universal in their application.3)the theme may be (degree of identification)A. explicitly stated by one of the characters who serves as a spokesman for the author or by the author in the guise of an omniscient narrator. Such explicit statements should be taken seriously into account but characters and narrarors alike can be unreliable and misleading.B. not stated but rather implied by the works total rendering of experience and only gradually revealed through the treatment of character and incident and by the development of the story. 4)The theme may be less prominent and less fully developed in some work of fiction than in others. The detective, gothic, and adventure fiction, where the goal is to entertain by producing mystification, including chills and nightmare, works of this type, often dont have a demonstrable theme at all.4.theme identification1) distinction between a works theme and its subject/situation:A. theme, an assertion about something, is the abstract, generalized statement or comment that the work makes about a concrete subject or situation, usually formulated in complete sentences.B. Subject/topic: area of concern Example: subject-“love for human being”; theme-“the love of a man and a woman is so positive that it can literally rescure people from death” 2). Our statement of theme is certainly to does the work full justice, to cover its total significance.The test of any theme to be proposed is whether it is fully and completely supported by the works other elements. Our statement of the theme is not to leave certain elements or details unexplained, or those other elements and details all confirm our statement.3) the title of the work may often suggest a particular focus or emphasis for the readers attention to the theme, that is, t