LITERATURE

ELEMENT
ENGLISH LITERATURE
THEME
 WHAT IS A THEME?
A theme is a recurring concept, an idea that you might mull over

and consider in relation to the main idea. It’s usually a message

within the work, giving the story significance or a lesson.

Authors don’t often spell their themes out for you, though. You have

to make inferences based on evidence from the text.

Example of
PEACE AND WAR
common theme
NATURE

As a literary device, theme allows the author to

present and reveal all aspects of human nature
GOOD VS. EVIL
and the human condition.

LOVE
 STEPS TO IDENTIFY THEME IN
LITERATURE
Sometimes, it can be difficult to spot the theme of a story or other writing.

When looking for themes in more subtle literature, you might find it easiest to follow these steps:

IDENTIFY THE PAY ATTENTION TO

CHARACTERS, SCENE, CONSIDER THE TITLE RECURRING WORDS
PLOT, AND CONFLICT AND CONCEPTS.

STEP 1:
CONSIDER THE TITLE
MANY TIMES, THE AUTHOR USES THE TITLE TO

SHOWCASE THE THEME, EVEN IF THIS ISN’T OBVIOUS

TO THE READER UNTIL THE VERY LAST SENTENCE.

STEP 2:
IDENTIFY THE
CHARACTERS, SCENE,
PLOT, AND CONFLICT
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing
elit. Mauris consequat at tortor id ullamcorper.
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per
conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos.
STEP 3:
PAY ATTENTION TO
RECURRING WORDS AND
CONCEPTS
Sometimes, authors repeat ideas and terms so
that the reader has no opportunity to avoid the
theme. Other times, authors subtly hide their
themes within synonyms, similarity, or emotion.
THANK YOU