Theme Questions
Explain the ways that ideas and points of view may represent the values of individuals and groups in literary texts, drawn from historical, social and cultural contexts, by First Nations Australian, and wide-ranging Australian and world authors.
‘What is this text about?’ does not mean ‘what happens in it?’ A theme is an idea the whole text is examining, and a one-word answer will never be enough.
Builds onYr 7 · Character Questions
Method
A theme is a sentence, not a word
‘Loyalty’ is a topic. The text suggests loyalty is easier to promise than to keep is a theme.
Theme is not plot
Plot is what happens. Theme is what the text is saying about it. Retelling the plot is the commonest wasted answer.
Find it in three places
A real theme shows up in more than one character, more than one event, or more than one point in the text.
The writer need not agree with a character
A character can be wrong. What the text suggests is what you are being asked about.
Worked example
e.g. Discuss one theme explored in the text. Support your answer with evidence. (4)
- Name the topic in one word, just to get started.Belonging.
- Turn it into a sentence — what does the text say about that topic?The text suggests belonging is something granted by others, not chosen.
- Find your first place it appears — usually a character.The narrator is only accepted once the neighbours decide she is.
- Find a second place — usually an event or a turning point.The invitation to the funeral matters more than the years she lived there.
- Find a third — often the ending, or a repeated image.The gate is mentioned every time she is excluded.
- Explain how each piece supports the sentence you wrote in step 2.In every case belonging is given or withheld by someone else.
- Check: could you write the same answer about a different text? If yes, it is too general.Make it specific to this text.
Practice
Turn each of these into an answer that could score.
1
A learner answers a theme question with: The theme is friendship. Why is that not enough?
AnswerIt names a topic and stops. Say what the text argues about friendship — for example, that friendship survives disagreement more easily than it survives silence.
2
An answer retells the plot in order and adds this shows the theme of courage at the end. What has gone wrong?
AnswerThe plot is doing the work the analysis should do. Choose three moments, not the whole story, and explain what each one shows about courage.
3
A character says wealth is the only thing that matters. Is that the theme?
AnswerNot necessarily. That is the character's view. Ask what the text does with it — if he ends up isolated, the text may be arguing the opposite.
4
How do you know your theme statement is specific enough?
AnswerTest it against another text you know. If it fits both equally well, it is too general to earn marks here.