Themes and messages · Year 12
A theme is a big idea that runs through a text: friendship, courage, growing up, power. The theme is not what happens (the plot) but what the text makes us think about life.
Key facts
- A subject is a word or phrase: friendship. A theme statement is a sentence about it: True friends stand by you in hard times.
- Look at what the main character learns or how they change: that is often the theme.
- Look at the ending: who is rewarded, who is punished, how characters feel. Endings often show the writer's message.
- Writers show themes through characters' choices, repeated images and symbols, and the title.
- A text can have more than one theme. Support each one with evidence from the text.