How Theme is Your Story's Shadow
Something that has been coming into my conversations lately, is the idea that theme is like your storyâs shadow. Or perhaps, more accurately, its shadow puppet.
Setting, characters, and plot are more concrete. They are (more or less) physical. But theme comes out of them when an outside intelligence (writer or reader) shines light on them. This casts a shadow to form a shape, or a puppet.
Learning about and writing theme can be difficult, in part, because you canât hold and mold a shadow itself.
You have to shift what casts the shadow.
To create the right shadow puppet, you have to rearrange the handsâthe story elementsâthe right way.
And if you cast an incoherent blob on the wall and claim it makes a cat, itâs not going to be effective.
This is the equivalent of a writer trying to slap on a thematic argument through âtelling,â when the story itself doesnât âshowâ or back up the argument. This usually manifests in a character being philosophical or preachy somewhere in the storyâtrying to force a meaningful discussion on a topic that is irrelevant enough to be un-meaningful.
On the other hand, a professional-level writer may understand how to arrange the characters and plot in a beautiful, coherent way, so that it casts an elaborate shadowâeven if the writer never looks beyond the story.
This is why you can sometimes find powerful, thematic literature, written by someone who doesnât know how theme works. Just this last week, I was listening to a hugely successful writer talk for hours about his approach to writing, without even addressing theme. Yet Iâve seen his work used by others when discussing theme.
He surely knows all about rearranging the hands appropriately, so when anyone intelligent comes to look, they shine the light on them to find the thematic shadow. It doesnât matter so much that he doesnât understand theme. He understands the underlying principles that make up the theme.
For the rest of us, we need some help. And understanding theme before we get to a professional level, will help us reach that level faster. Furthermore, I have sometimes wondered how much better a successful writer would be, if they did properly understand theme. I mean, imagine if their stories were even more impactful!
In order to cast a great thematic shadow, we need to understand its physical counterparts.
Here are the critical pieces:
1. Your protagonistâs dominating qualities, worldview, and/or lifestyle
Your protagonist has dominating qualities. She might be a survivalist like Katniss. Innocent like Frodo. Miserly like Scrooge. Overly protective and codependent like Marlin in Finding Nemo. Or something else. One, if not multiple, of these qualities tap into the theme.
2. Your protagonistâs arc
How your protagonist changes or remains the same because of the plot, regarding those qualities, conveys a value of those qualities. Scrooge gives up his miserly ways to live a better life. This implies that being miserly can hold one back from a better life.
What a character wants versus what a character needs can also play into this.
3. Antagonistic forceâs qualities and worldview
Because the antagonist is opposing the protagonist, the antagonist is also challenging the protagonistâs dominating qualities. The antagonist either leads to the protagonist changing those qualities or at least tests the protagonistâs commitment to those qualities. At some point, in some way, the antagonist is usually thematically opposite of the protagonist.
4. How that antagonistic force is resolved
At the climax, the protagonist and antagonistic force go head to head. Itâs what makes the climax, the climax.
Who wins and how, conveys a teaching about those qualities and worldviews. Katniss must defeat the antagonistic force by proving she will do more than simply save herself and survive (which is what they expect). She must be willing to risk dying to save Peeta and beat the Games.
To defeat death, Scrooge must be willing to let go of his miserly ways and realize real wealth comes from relationships and helping others.
In the denouement, those who gain something greater (and this may only be internal), are those who have the âcorrectâ view, while those who are punished have the âwrongâ view. The âcorrectâ view is the theme.
Here are the supporting pieces:
I actually debate where to put this one, because I think itâs more important than the other supporting pieces, but not as important as the critical pieces.
The Influence Character is important because they influence or impact the protagonist. The Influence Character and protagonist are connected in some way, but they usually have different methods or views when it comes to dealing with life. These differences tap into the theme.
Most of the time, the Influence Character has a worldview that the protagonist comes to understand and adoptâa worldview that is âcorrect.â This embodies the theme. However, in some stories, this will be reversed. (And there can be variations.)