1. Elements of Fiction
Focus onTHEME

2. EnhancingYour Understanding
1
3
2
Directly
Stated
Importance of Theme
Indirectly
Implied
Whos telling this story anyway?
3. 4. Directly Stated
Putting it in so many words
1
5. The themeof a fable is its moral.
6. The themeof a fable is its moral. The themeof a parable is its teaching.
7. The themeof a fable is its moral. The themeof a parable is its teaching. The themeof a piece of fiction is its view about life and how people behave.
8. Theme
In Robert McNeils article,
The Trouble with Television
There are problems with television.
9. 2
Implied Indirectly
Saying it, but not saying it
10. In fiction, the theme is not intended to teach or preach. In fact, it is not presented directly at all. You extract it from the characters, action, and setting that make up the story. In other words, you must figure out the theme yourself.
11. Life is a yo-yo. It's a series of ups and downs.
THROUGHmetaphor
12. THROUGHsimile
Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream
deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore
and then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load
Or does it just explode?
Langston Hughes
13. THROUGHpersonification
Sleeping in the Forest
by Mary Oliver
I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
14. Luke, I am your father.
THROUGHtone of voice
15. THROUGHsymbols
Mockingbirdsdont do one thing but . . . sing their hearts out for us. Thats why its a sin to kill a mockingbird.
Harper Lee
16. THROUGHimagery
Shakespeare uses imagery to depict a theme of madness throughout the play. Following the murder of Polonius, Gertrude describes Hamlets madness by . . . declaring Hamlet is as mad as the sea and wind when both contend/ which is the mightier, (Shakespeare, IV, i, 8-9).
17. A novel's whole pattern is rarely apparent at the outset of writing, or even at the end; that is when the writer finds out what a novel is about, and the job becomes one of understanding and deepening or sharpening what is already written. That is finding the
theme.
Diane Johnson
18. 3
Importance of Theme
Get the message across
19. Although the particulars of your experience may be different from the details of the story, the general underlying truths behind the story may be just the
connection
that both you and the writer are seeking.
20. I identified in a very deep way with the individuals I was writing about because the theme that runs through this story is of extraordinary hardship and the will to overcome it.Laura Hillenbrand
Connecting us to humanity
21. INPIRING society
If it awakens in us as a whole how important that is - the theme of how conquest and ambition are meaningless without contribution - I think then as a society we're in better shape. I hope people are inspired to be the best.
Rob Morrow
22. Its aword
Not
The whole theme of Interview with the Vampire was Louis's quest for meaning in a godless world. He searched to find the oldest existing immortal simply to ask, What is the meaning of what we are?
Anne Rice
23. So, whats your theme?
We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don't know where you're aiming, you don't have a goal. My goal is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, she cared.
Mary Kay Ash
24. Want to jump to a bookmark in your video? Hover over the video and youll be pleasantly surprised.
Did we mention you can add bookmarks, includefades, andtrimyour videos now?
Fountain Geyser
25. FOCUS ON FICTION
Whats Your Message?