Theme Statement Defined: How to Write a Theme Statement

In creative writing, the theme of a story is the central point the author aims to make through their work of fiction. A work of literature will likely explore many different themes, but one in particular. Themes aren’t necessarily morals. Rather than directly prescribe a course of action to the reader, a theme is an insightful observation about the world and the human condition.

A theme statement is a general statement that concisely explains the main point of a literary work. For example, in a movie about high school, this might be something to the effect of “Students coming of age can change the teachers’ and parents’ lives, too.” Similarly, for a novel about how one ethical choice disrupts the lives of an entire group of people, the theme statement might be “One person’s free will comes with the potentiality to constrain the choices of others.”

Once you feel comfortable making inferences about the author’s point of view, writing a theme statement becomes much easier. Follow these seven simple steps to write an effective theme statement:

1. 1. Ask what the writer believes. Do your best to put yourself in the writer’s shoes. Ask yourself what the author wishes they made the clearest to their readers throughout their writing process. See if other classmates or friends who have read the same book agree with you.
2. 2. Be descriptive instead of prescriptive. The theme of the story you’re reading will tell you something insightful about human nature, but you shouldn’t necessarily view it as a clear-cut, black-and-white moral precept. Themes are generally more ambiguous, as literature of all forms plays with the gray areas of ethics and human behavior. Ensure your theme statement describes the book’s lessons without passing a value judgment on whether those lessons align with your own values.
3. 3. Discern changes in the characters. You can crack the theme of a piece of writing by looking at the kind of change the main character undergoes. If the hero starts out very arrogant and ambitious only to become humble through the events of the story, odds are the lessons of this journey are the main theme the author wanted to explore. Example theme statements might be “An ambitious person can accidentally sow the seeds of their own destruction” or “When hubris leads to a downfall, a person can become better for it.”
4. 4. Go beyond mere topics. Theme statements should present a complete thought about the author’s intent rather than just express basic topics in their work. For instance, “selflessness” might be a story theme, but it’s not a theme statement. In this scenario, ask how selflessness manifested itself in a specific character over the course of the book. Perhaps the theme statement would shape up to be something like “Selflessness paves the way for people to love you more than selfishness does.”
5. 5. Look for nuance. Themes generally try to convey complex and abstract ideas about human beings and how they behave, so forgo clichés in pursuit of more nuanced thematic ideas. To capture major themes in a piece of literature, look for the deep territories of the human psyche the writer hopes to explore. You’ll have a hard time boiling down a literary masterpiece to something as simple as “Be kind” or “Love conquers all.”
6. 6. Understand there are multiple themes. You’ll encounter many different themes throughout a well-written piece of fiction, but for a theme statement, focus on the central message of the work. Write out all the potential themes and then ask yourself which the author spent the most time exploring. See if there’s one thematic idea that ties all the others together. Once you can answer those questions, you’ve found your central theme.
7. 7. Write succinctly. Whether you’re dealing with a short story or a massive tome, your theme statement should be relatively short. One complete sentence will suffice, as this is a very concise form of literary analysis. You can always explore every nook and cranny of what the writer was trying to say in greater depth later. Think of this as a literary thesis statement: a very brief summation of a much broader argument.

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