Themes are the main ideas or meaning that run through a text and may be shown directly or indirectly. When working out themes it helps to look closely at the language choice, setting and characters.
When you focus on a theme within a text, expand your exploration beyond simply identifying main themes, like hate, family, relationships, power. Instead look at how themes relate to each other, by exploring conflicting ideas and the clash of opposites at the heart of them. For example:
conflict - us versus them, friends versus foes, the state versus the citizen
family - feelings of safety versus desire for independence
love - desire for something forbidden versus attainable love
power - the individual versus the state, man versus nature
place - an idea of paradise versus reality, the idea of home versus exileWhen someone is away from their home country and is refused permission to return.
nature - the separation of man from nature, natural beauty versus destruction
An interesting theme involves a clash of opposites. Love as a theme is more interesting when there is conflict. If two people meet, fall in love and there are no problems, then it is not a very interesting story. Without something trying to stop love, the story has nowhere to go.
You can give structure and energy to an analysis essay by discussing the opposite sides of a theme.
The following extract is taken from a short story called Your Shoes by Michelle Roberts:
Your father didn鈥檛 mean it when he told you those things the other night. You鈥檝e got to understand, he lost his temper and used some unfortunate expressions. At your age I鈥檓 sure I wouldn鈥檛 have known the meaning of any of those words. As a young girl I鈥檇 have been hit if I used such language as I鈥檝e heard you use. I was very old-fashioned. Square, they called it then. I grew up in a very old fashioned family. Of course we had a marvellous time together, but my father was very strict. It didn鈥檛 do me any harm.
Your Shoes, Michelle Roberts
This extract suggests some interesting, contrasting themes: