Theme exercise

[Mike Dickson]

I struggle with some level of perfectionism I think. I dissect everything and rarely move forward until I feel I understand it completely. Theme is one of those things I feel like I don’t understand well enough so I thought I would write a short story focusing mainly on theme. With that said, I’ve come to Nathan’s board to see if what I think may be a good theme, is in fact, a theme at all.

A man is shipwrecked on an island with little food and water.

He finds he is not alone on the island; a Polynesian tribe inhabits the island as well.

The man runs out of food, runs out of water. The inhabitants who clearly have food and water keep him at a distance reluctant to help.

Near starvation, the man attempts to forage and fish for food without success. It’s then when he is at his lowest; he receives food and water from the tribe.

He continues to receive food and water but only when he forages for food and water himself.

A plane passes by on a regular basis; it isn’t until he takes elaborate steps to signal the plane is he rescued from the island.

Theme: He who helps himself, receives help
Or something like that.

Again, this is meant as an exercise on theme, nothing more, I left out any plot description etc. from this post, so I can focus on the theme.

Thansk to all

[polymath]

Theme and message are closely bound, inextricably in my sense of theme's importance to unity and coherent narrative relevancy. In the given example I do see self-reliance as an undercurrent theme. The message closely fits too. Self-reliance is its own reward.

However, I see a deeper, perhaps larger unifying theme-message with the power to write the story with a little guidance from the writer. Society expects, depends upon, and encourages self-reliance for the greater good. The twin, mutually exclusive and diametrically oppositional forces of survival of the fittest and compassion for fellow beings are invoked. Which way the story's direction goes with the message might rely on the viewpoint attitude toward both and coming to an accommodation with the tough decision of which has priority and provides the greatest benefits for the greater good. Or contrarily, invoking majority rules' tyrrany over individual needs or the harms mass culture expectations inflict on culture or . . . and so on.

[Louise Curtis]

I'm part of a weekly discussion group (theoretically a Bible study, but not everyone who attends is even Christian - we just like arguing, preferably over moral things) and last night we talked about morals/messages in fiction.

I ran and fetched four well-written examples -

"The Monstrous Regiment" by Terry Pratchett (the plot is about a girl who disguises herself as a boy to join the army, and finds out she's far from the only one). The message is: "Girls are just as good as boys - and just as stupid too." (Also, war is stupid.)

"Heroes of the Valley" by Jonathan Stroud (the plot is about a boy who wants to be great and mighty like the heroes of old, and when a man is killed in a stupid way, there are suddenly new stories - and they're about him). The message is "Heroism isn't what it looks like in the stories".

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" by C.S. Lewis (the plot is about a voyage to find seven exiled lords who were loyal to King Caspian's father). The messages are a series of Christian allegories (told within the story - CS Lewis is on record as saying he wasn't actually aiming to write allegory, just stories that resonated with him as a Christian). The film is more didactic than the book.

"The Amber Spyglass" (Book three of his "Golden Compass" trilogy) by Philip Pullman (the plot is about a battle between the repressive church and the heroic and compassionate girl that the church is trying to kill to prevent her fulfilling a prophecy). The message is that the Christian church is repressive and wrong, and self-aware consciousness is vital.

All four have very clear morals, but as a reader it's extremely annoying when:
a) a character states the moral/s (CS Lewis has Aslan - who is like Jesus - directly say quite a few things, including, "In your world, I have a different name.")
b) There is no sense of balance, or room for the readers to think for themselves - eg in his entire trilogy Philip Pullman has absolutely no worthwhile, compassionate or intelligent characters who are part of the church (he wrote the series as a reinterpretation of "Paradise Lost", in which the serpent is the good guy). Regardless of the state of the church as a whole (and please let's not argue about THAT) there are good and bad people in every religion.

Both Lewis and Pullman intended to literally convert readers to their religion (in Pullman's case, atheism). It distracts readers from the story, and that's unforgiveable (unless you want to write stories just for people who agree with you - a lot of Christians love the Narnia series for the extra level).

My favourite is the "Heroes of the Valley" story, because the "message" actually opens up the issue of heroism, rather than telling the reader what to think.

So (look! I have a point!) I hope all of us will open minds with our themes, and not close them.

[polymath]

You've hit upon another facet of theme, Louise Curtis. Moral is as inextricably bound to theme as message. Also, part of rhetorical arts' persuasive intents from equally inextricable method and message. A narrative isn't fully realized without a moral, method, message, and theme according to the few in-depth writings I've found on the subject of theme.

E.M. Forster in Aspects of the Novel distinguishes writers as preaching, visionary, or mystic. He makes no value judgments about them, favoring identifying them by which aspect stands out loudest. He acknowledges no fully realized narrative lacks any of the three aspects, but one does stand out. He qualifies them based on the concept of a Subtle Mind approach. A good preaching writer tells readers how the writer wants others to think, delivering a message sufficiently toned down to not beat readers over the head with it, but clearly not leaving the message open to interpretation, albeit often sort of like preaching to the choir. A visionary writer portrays the human condtion from a novel perspective and leaves much open to interpretation. A mystic writer transcends the human condition with an inspirational message inspirationally delivered, sufficiently inspired sometimes to actually change minds.

Ms. Emily Dickinson said it best: "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--- / Success in Circuit lies / Too bright for our infirm Delight / The Truth's superb surprise / As Lightning to the Children eased / With explanation kind / The Truth must dazzle gradually / Or every man be blind---" (Poem #1129.)

Theme and its associated attachments is a key to accomplishing any given one of the above.