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Although a text may appear to be about events that take place, the themes are the important ideas and meanings that run throughout the text. For example, Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about a group of school boys stranded on an island. However, the writer is also presenting the reader with some important ideas - themes like the loss of innocence and the conflict between violence and reason.

Other common themes in fiction include:

• power
• love
• money
• death
• appearance and reality
• heroism
• technology in society
• friendship

One of the easiest ways to spot themes is through motifs. A motif is a repeated image or idea in a text that helps develop a theme. It helps to know that the word ‘motif’ comes from the French word for pattern. For example, in the novella Of Mice and Men, there is a focus on the images of hands throughout the text. The image of hands could develop various themes, including violence and identity.

Identifying a theme in an extract

In an extract you might only be able to say what themes are suggested. When working with a short extract of a fiction text, it helps to look closely at the language choices to work out the themes.

Example

Look at this extract from the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Try to identify the themes that run through this extract.

What an excellent example of the power of dress, young Oliver Twist was! Wrapped in the blanket which had hitherto formed his only covering, he might have been the child of a nobleman or a beggar; it would have been hard for the haughtiest stranger to have assigned him his proper station in society. But now that he was enveloped in the old calico robes which had grown yellow in the same service, he was badged and ticketed, and fell into his place at once--a parish child--the orphan of a workhouse--the humble, half-starved drudge--to be cuffed and buffeted through the world--despised by all, and pitied by none. Oliver cried lustily. If he could have known that he was an orphan, left to the tender mercies of church-wardens and overseers, perhaps he would have cried the louder.

Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

There are plenty of hints that poverty and class are important themes. For example:

• Oliver is an “…orphan of a workhouse…�ĝ
• There is reference to “…his proper station in society…fell into his place at once…�ĝ
• It is suggested that everyone has a position given to them at birth – their place in the class system.
• The emotive, choice of vocabulary, “despised by all, and pitied by none…�ĝ, suggests Oliver will suffer because of his low position in society.
• The satirical tone of the language suggests the writer does not approve of this situation.

Identifying the themes of a text is an act of inference. You can make links between the themes of a text to the characters, the setting and the language.

Don’t confuse the topic with the theme. For example the topic of a text could be two friends travelling around looking for work on ranches, but the themes might be friendship and the pointlessness of dreams as seen in Of Mice and Men.