Every story has a theme, sometimes multiple themes!

Once you understand theme,

you'll begin to understand what you read much better. Read on to learn what theme
is and how to identify theme in a story.

What Is Theme?
Theme is an underlying message or the big idea of a story. This message could tell more
about human nature or life in general. Many stories have more than one theme.

There are several ways a reader can piece together the story's theme. The reader can ask
himself or herself these questions:

 Do the characters learn anything throughout the story?

 Do the characters change at all?
 Do the characters have any beliefs about life or people in general?
 Why do the characters act the way they do?

The theme of a story is never directly told to the reader. It needs to be figured out by
making an inference. An inference is putting together puzzle pieces to determine a
larger picture.

If your mother started putting on her galoshes and raincoat, what could you infer the
weather is like? You could infer that it is either raining, or it will rain soon. No one
needed to tell you the weather forecast. You can infer that by putting the information
together.

What Are Some Common Themes?

There are several themes that typically show up in stories. These include:

 Courage
 Perseverance
 Family
 Friendship
 Growing up
 Acceptance
 Loyalty
 Transformation
 Compassion
 Honesty
 Cooperation
 Are you a fan of roller coasters? I bet you didn't know that roller coasters
and stories have a lot in common. Read this lesson to find out what plot is
and how plot is like a roller coaster, and learn about the five parts of a plot.

What Is Plot?
 Imagine yourself strapped into a seat on the world's tallest roller coaster. Your car slowly climbs
up to the top of the ride's largest peak, then down you go! Did you scream?
 The series of events that make up a story, called a plot, are a lot like a roller coaster ride: smaller
events lead up to a big dramatic event, then the story coasts to an ending.
 Every story has a plot, whether it's a novel like James and the Giant Peach or your favorite TV
show, and all plots have a common structure. A plot structure is made up of five main parts that
happen in the same order: beginning, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

 Exposition or introduction. This establishes characters and setting. Not all your world-building
happens here, but this is where you show your readers what “normal” is for your characters. That
way, readers will know what’s wrong when we hit the next step.

 Rising action, which reveals the conflict. You know that quote about getting your characters up
a tree, then throwing rocks at them? This is rock-throwing time. Here’s where you raise the stakes
and begin building up to the story’s climax. It’s crucial that your readers know what’s at stake
here; it’s also critical that they clearly understand the conflict.

 The climax, or turning point. You’ve been building up to this moment all story long. This is the
moment that matters most, the moment a character’s choice determines the outcome of the
conflict. The big conflict must be addressed here. If you did it right, this is the worst (i.e. best)
moment of tension in the whole story, setting your readers on edge, which means now it’s time
for . . .

 Falling action. It’s time to wind everything down, nice and easy. Here’s where you address all
the other problems and questions you’ve brought up, filling in the holes. More importantly, this is
also where you explore the results of your characters’ decisions. Think consequences,
folks; every choice your characters made have had an effect, and however they resolved the
conflict, here’s where we see what happened after.
 Resolution. Now, in the resolution, you’re establishing “normal” all over again—but the new
normal, incorporating the changes and experiences of your characters. Your readers can sit with
your characters a little in their new normal, emotionally wrapping everything up so your reader
can put the book away without flipping back through the pages to see what they missed. It’s a
scene-closure with enough finality to deserve those two words: The End.