Danielle is a teenager who gets along with everyone. She tends to wear jeans and a T-shirt and rarely wears jewelry. She really wants to be friends with Erin, a popular girl who always wears dresses, makeup, and jewelry. How might Danielle conform to become friends with Erin? Danielle gives Erin her social media screen name.

Danielle continues to wear jeans and a T-shirt to school.

Danielle asks to sit with Erin at lunch.

Danielle starts wearing dresses and jewelry to school.

Explanation: Although the genres of fiction, poetry, drama, and literary nonfiction are different, all writing within these genres has themes. Each theme is not merely the topic of the writing but is a truth the author wants the reader to understand. For example, love is a topic commonly explored by writers.

A photograph of a stage production of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It is of the famous balcony scene.

Source: romeo_juliet_0400_filtered, Daniel_dimarco, Flickr

To read a play like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and to say its theme is “love” is to miss the point that Shakespeare is trying to make about love. Romeo's and Juliet’s families despise each other and forbid the teens’ love. This forbidden love ultimately leads to the deaths of the young lovers. Shakespeare wants us to understand that love is more than an emotion; it is a force that can cause violence and destruction.

Understanding Theme

A painting portrait of Queen Anne Boleyn of England

Source: Anneboleyn2, Wikimedia

If theme is a way of seeing the world through the author’s eyes, then as we read works by different authors that tackle the same theme, we will see their differing viewpoints about the same topic.

Let’s take a look at an example. The lines below are from the poem “O Death, Rock Me Asleep” attributed to Anne Boleyn. It was presumably written while she waited for her execution in 1536.

Farewell, my pleasures past,

Welcome, my present pain!

I feel my torments so increase

That life cannot remain.

The theme of this poem is that death is a welcome relief from the torments of life.

A photograph of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. He is a man in his 30s wearing a jacket and bow tie.

Source: Dylan Thomas photo, Wikipedia

Now, read this stanza from “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” written by Dylan Thomas in 1951 for his dying father.

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

How might you figure out the theme of this poem? You can start by asking questions such as the ones that follow. Even if you can’t answer all of the questions about a work, it’s good to keep them in mind.