How to Find the Theme of a Book or Short Story

If you’ve ever been assigned a book report, you may have been asked to address the theme of the book. 【小题1】 A book’s theme is the main idea that flows through the narrative and connects the components of the story together. A work of fiction may have one theme or many, and they aren’t always easy to pinpoint right away. In many stories, the theme develops over time, and it isn’t until you’re well into reading the novel or short story that you fully understand the underlying theme or themes.

Themes can be broad or they can focus on a specific notion. For example, a romance novel may have the obvious, but very general, theme of love, but the storyline may also address issues of society or family. 【小题2】

A book’s theme is not the same as its plot or its moral lesson, but these elements are related and necessary in building the larger story. 【小题3】 The moral is the lesson that the reader is supposed to learn from the plot’s conclusion. Both reflect the larger theme and work to present what that theme is to the reader.

【小题4】 Often it is suggested by a thinly veiled lesson or details contained within the plot. In the nursery tale “The Three Little Pigs,” the narrative revolves around three pigs and a wolf’s pursuit of them. The wolf destroys their first two homes, shoddily built of straw and twigs. But the third home, painstakingly built of brick, protects the pigs and the wolf is defeated. The pigs (and the reader) learn that only hard work and preparation will lead to success. Thus, you can say that the theme of “The Three Little Pigs” is about making smart choices.

If you find yourself struggling to identify the theme of a book you’re reading, there’s a simple trick you can use. 【小题5】 For example, you could say preparation best symbolizes “The Three Little Pigs.” Next, use that word as the foundation for a complete thought such as, “Making smart choices requires planning and preparation, which could be interpreted as the moral of the story.”

Franz Kafka wrote that “a book must be the ax (斧子)for the frozen sea inside us.” I once shared this sentence with a class of seventh graders, and it didn’t seem to require any explanation.

We’d just finished John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men. When we read the end together out loud in class, my toughest boy, a star basketball player, wept a little, and so did I. “Are you crying?” one girl asked, as she got out of her chair to take a closer look. “I am,” I told her, “and the funny thing is that I’ve read it many times.”

But they understood. When George shoots Lennie, the tragedy is that we realize it was always going to happen. In my 14 years of teaching in a New York City public middle school, I’ve taught kids with imprisoned parents, abusive parents, irresponsible parents; kids who are parents themselves; kids who are homeless; kids who grew up in violent neighborhoods. They understand, more than I ever will, the novel’s terrible logic—the giving way of dreams to fate.

Year after year, however, we are increasing the number of practice tests. We are trying to teach students to read increasingly complex texts, not for emotional punch (碰撞) but for text complexity. Yet, we cannot enrich the minds of our students by testing them on texts that ignore their hearts. We are teaching them that words do not amaze but confuse. We may succeed in raising test scores, but we will fail to teach them that reading can be transformative and that it belongs to them.

Some people actually read to get sleepy. But in general, we do not want to fall asleep while reading a book or studying. Reading books was taught to us as an activity that should be done in our spare time. 【小题1】. We recommend you read a book for at least half an hour a day. Remember, the most important and healthy food that can improve your brain is the book.

Many people, even if they are enthusiastic about reading, start to fall asleep after reading for a while. 【小题2】. However, the books we read in our childhood to put us to sleep created a wrong perception. Ever since we were little, we read books to sleep and we were told stories. An application such as falling asleep by reading a book is among the main reasons for this situation. The question of why we feel sleepy while reading a book is confusing for many people. Let’s consider the answer to this question together.

【小题3】. If you try to read a book at an hour when you are tired both physically and mentally, you will cause your body to spend more energy. Inevitably, people get sleepy when reading a book at night.

According to experts, the act of reading a book causes the brain and eyes to work hard, causing sleepiness after a while. While following the words on the pages and transforming them into meaningful sentences by interpreting the letters, both the brain and the eyes exert effort. 【小题4】.