Theme

• P&P theme - A theme is one sentence that sums up what an author is telling readers about some aspect of life. Here are some guidelines from Perrine's Literature to help you observe a story's theme:
1. "Theme should be expressible in the form of a statement with a subject and a predicate."
2. "The theme should be stated as a generalization about life."
3. "We must be careful not to make the generalization larger than is justified by the terms of the story."
1. "Terms like every, all, always should be used very cautiously; terms like some, sometimes, may are often more accurate."
4. "Theme is the central or unifying concept of a story."
5. "There is no one way of stating the theme of a story."
6. "We should avoid any statement that reduces the theme to some familiar saying that we have heard all our lives, such as 'You can't judge a book by its cover.'"
7. Reno would add that with a large story (a novel) there may be several themes an author portrays.

• Try moving from topic to theme in P&P (below is an example):

• Topic - love
• Subtopic (what kind?) - romantic love
• Cliche? - Love is blind (do not use a cliche as a theme)
• Theme (what about romantic love?) - Austen's Pride and Prejudice develops the theme that romantic interest often obscures the vision and critical observation of those who are in the grip of attraction.