Theme: What's Your Story's Idea?

Theme is many times associated with the message of stories based on the terminology we're familiar with from writing essay and research papers in high school and college. However, theme in the world of fiction is the most basic, generic idea of stories and books. In essence, themes are the main idea or what stories are based on. Below in the colored chart are types of themes that could be in short stories or novels. 🔍

A man thinking of an idea while sitting at his desk.

TYPES OF STORY THEMES

Good vs. Evil	Revenge	Lies
Friendship	Courage	Survival
Love	Truth	Deception

Now, let's take a look at some examples of themes for a few novels below. 🔍

EXAMPLES OF THEMES IN BOOKS AND NOVELS

HATCHET BY GARY PAULSEN

The latest front cover of "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen

In the novel "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen, the story is about a thirteen-year-old boy named Brian Robeson who rides in a plane to visit his father, after discovering the devastating news of his mother's infidelity. Unexpectedly, the pilot suffers a heart attack and crashes the plane in a Canadian wilderness, the boy being the only survivor of the accident.

The theme in this story is survival, as the boy is alone with nothing but a hatchet to use as a tool, striving to stick it out the best he can in the great outdoors while hoping to get help and somehow to be rescued. Some books can also have more than one theme, such as my latest novel, "The Pact of Freedom."

MY HISTORICAL FICTION NOVEL, "THE PACT OF FREEDOM."

The front cover of my Christian and Historical fiction novel, "The Pact of Freedom."

Within my novel, "The Pact of Freedom," the story is about an eighteen-year-old, slave master's daughter named Mildred "Millie" Crabtree who is friends with a mulatto house slave named Pearl and dreams of leaving the horrors of slavery in the South to fulfill her dream of becoming a children's fiction writer in the North. Her mama dies suddenly at her birthday party, which places her into her mother's role as missus in Crabtree mansion. Eventually, Millie and her slave friends flee in hopes of freedom with Noah Shepherd, a redhead, Canadian violinist who's an undercover abolitionist.

The themes in this story include the following: freedom, coming-of-age, true friendship, loving one's neighbor, equality, and a little romance, all of these represented by Millie and the slaves' long perilous journey, Mille and Pearl's close, interracial friendship in the midst of the institution of slavery, the kindhearted station masters who take care of the slaves, and the affectionate encounters off and on between Millie and Noah.

CLOSING REMARKS:

Themes are one of the foundational pieces of writers' stories and novels and help to create thematic significance within them. If you want your stories to become more memorable and standout among readers, first consider thinking about what the main subjects and topics of your stories are during the prewriting stage of your writing and then branch it out from there to describe the morals or messages you want to convey to your readers. All right, that's the end of this post. If you found it helpful, please, give it a (heart❤️) and share your thoughts or comments 💬 below.)