Source: The Three Little Pigs, Leslie Brooke, Project Gutenberg

There are some helpful ways to figure out the themes of a story when they are implicit. You know from our discussion of “The Three Little Pigs” that you have to do some thinking about what your own experiences are and connect them to the events and characters in the story. You have to infer, or make some good guesses, about the theme based on the information that you’re given. One simple way is to follow this four-step process:

1. Find the topic, the subject, of the story. See NOTE below.
2. Figure out how the topic helped the character(s) grow or change.
3. Make this into a general statement on life by taking out the specific characters and the specific plot of the story. For example: People (pigs) who plan ahead (build brick houses that are safer) are sometimes better able to keep bad things (wolves) from happening.
4. Check your process by answering the questions
1. Does the theme mention a specific character? (Answer should be NO)
2. Does the theme talk about plot at all? (Answer should be NO)
3. Could the theme apply to another story? (Answer should be YES)

NOTE – To find the topic of a story, pay attention to the story’s elements and ask questions like these:

• Who is (are) the main character(s)?
• What happens to them?
• Do their thoughts and feelings change during the story? If so, what or who makes them change?
• Are there any issues that arise more than once in the story? (This gives you clues about what the author might be concentrating on in the story.)

Now let’s practice finding a theme using inference. Read the following text, and when you’re finished, write a theme statement for it. Use the chart below to check if what you’ve written sounds like a theme. You can then click on Check Your Understanding after the chart to see some possible responses.

Source: Basketball through the Hoop, Cyrus Andiron,
Wikimedia Commons

In his sophomore year of high school, Henry Williams tried out for the varsity basketball team at Hoggard High School in Buda, Texas. But at five feet and eleven inches tall, the coach believed that Williams was too short to play at that level, so he was cut from the team. Williams was disappointed and hurt, but he didn’t let this obstacle defeat him. In fact, it pushed him to work even harder. He trained vigorously and grew another four inches the following summer. When he finally made the varsity squad, Williams averaged 25 points a game and went on to become the highest scoring player for the Dallas Mavericks.

Here’s a graphic organizer showing how you can check your theme.

Is your THEME the real deal?