What does the literary element theme mean?

Answer 1

1st answer: In a book, the author is trying to teach you a lesson. When there is a book about friendship, the theme is friendship.

2nd answer: It means what the story is telling you, for example the story can be telling people to always be truthful.

It's the moral, or the lesson of the story.

3rd answer: The theme of a story is the topic what the story is all about. For example the recurring problem in a book. Don't confuse this with the motif of a story. These are recurring elements of the story (a bit similar to the theme), but a story has one theme and multiple motifs.

Answer 2

Sometime the writer will just come right out and tell the reader. You could look for this. The theme is the main idea that links all the parts of a story together, and some books will just say straight out in the beginning what they are going to show you. Sometimes, though, the writer isn't so forthcoming and the reader has to deduce the theme by himself. If that is the case, here are some things to look for:

• Ask what lesson would I learn if I went through the experiences in this book? For instance, in Tess of the d'Urbervilles you might be inclined to suspect that life is just one endless tragedy. In The Odyssey you might think that clever people always triumph.
• Ask yourself how the story makes you feel. Sometimes the theme is difficult to express in only a few words and is only a nebulous collection of impressions. In The Furnace the theme could be 'God is best when he is far away.'
• Follow the protagonist. Anything she is supposed to learn about herself or a problem is usually an important theme.
• Look for any patterns or repeating ideas (i.e. Poe's use of heightened senses)
• Look at the genre - every genre has themes that are common to the genre.
• What mistakes must characters learn from, or what difficult decisions must they wrestle with?
• Analyze the conflict (man vs. man, vs. society, himself, nature, supernatural, technology, etc. At the heart of the conflict is often a theme the author wants you to chew on.
• Look for an idea that fits with many parts of the story or one that is repeated.
• Don't overthink it. Themes are usually simple. Here are some examples: honesty, acceptance, don't be greedy, treat others the way you want to be treated, beauty is only skin deep, love others, don't boast, don't think you are better than others.

Answer 3

Theme is the big idea a story is trying to tell you. Most stories have a message that comes through while reading them. For example, one of the many themes in the story of Hamlet is the mystery of death. This is seen in the appearance of the ghost, Hamlet's soliloquy "To be or not to be," and Yorick's skull.

Answer 4

It's the moral, or the lesson of the story.

Answer 5

When discussing literature, theme means the central idea around which the poem, story, play, novel, essay or a book is developed. A theme is as essential as water is to sea.

Answer 6

You look by the characters action