Theme

Theme

Identifying Theme

What is Theme?

Theme is NOT:

Theme is the message conveyed by a text

What does the author want the reader to learn?

Implies a conflict or an argument about the core idea and usually both.

Theme is often abstract

1. Subject

2. Character changes

3. Conflict

4. Title

5. Does your theme apply to the WHOLE work?

Main Idea

To Kill a Mockingbird

The coexistence of good and evil is a main idea.

Then, what is a THEME regarding this main idea?

Theme is...

Theme is NOT:

• Expressed in a SENTENCE
• "Friendship" is a topic;
• "Friendship is dependent on sacrifice" is a theme

Practice: Identifying Theme

• Moral
• Fables
• slow and steady wins the race
• Topic
• Love, courage, friendship

• Revealed over the course of the story through motif and symbols

http://www.movieweb.com/movie/paperman/full-movie

Theme makes you think ABOUT the topic, but doesn't necessarily tell you what to think.

Fill in the chart as you watch the short film