When I asked that last question, I was asking you to think about the author’s intentions. Most authors, in addition to telling a story, want their stories to explore ideas. The “theme” is the dominant or central idea of the story. It is seldom stated explicitly–most stories do not have a “Moral” at the end.
A theme is not the same as a plot. The plot is what happens in a story, the events that take place in the story. A theme is the ideas the story asks you to think about.
For example, in “All About Suicide,” Luisa Valenzuela is telling you about Ishmael–but not just about Ishmael. We know he’s just one of many people in the country who have died. (“It’s becoming a vice.”) So maybe the story is asking you to think about what it’s like to live in a country where you can’t speak freely, and where it’s easy for the government to kill. How might that affect a person’s character? His way of handling problems? And Valenzuela doesn’t tell her story straightforwardly, in the same way that people may not be able to speak straightforwardly in this country. So the truth gets confused, and you never really know what it is–just as someone living in this country would have to deal with never knowing the real truth; the most he could hope for would be the official version of the truth for that day.
A story may have one theme; more often, it has several, as you can see from Valenzuela’s story.
Interpreting Literature
But! A note of caution, here. While it is usually true that there is no single correct reading of a text, your interpretation must be supported by the text. It is often tempting to “read into” a work things that are not there. After all, we all bring our own experiences and preconceptions to anything we read. Like scientific theory, literary interpretation must have a basis in fact: you must be able to support your interpretation with dialogue, descriptions, events, or other details from the text.
The Reading Process
- Read the story once, all the way through.
- Highlight or otherwise mark the text to identify key elements: words, phrases, or images that are repeated; any elements that seem out of place or unnecessary.
- Make notes in the margins of any ideas that occur to you about what the writer’s theme(s) might be, any questions you might have, or the definitions of any words you didn’t know and had to look up.
- Read the story a second time, and make note of anything else that occurs to you.
Literary Criticism
But you should not accept the ideas of any critic unquestioningly. Each critic, like other readers, has his own interpretation. And different critics come up with very different conclusions about the same work. For an example of this, look on pp. 494 ff., where you will find the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, followed by three articles and a sample student paper, each with a different interpretation of the story.