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Theme in Literature

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Submitted By HopeM
Words 1513
Pages 7
ENWR 106
March 08,2014
Theme In Literature
What is the meaning of a theme in literature? A theme or moral of a fable is the lesson that is being portrayed within the story. It is a message that can be taken from a story and personified into one's life. Theme is immensely important in literature due to its ability to share the author's opinion and understanding about life and human experiences. It is impossible to tell a story without letting out one's views and attitudes toward a subject of the story. By sharing these views, it helps someone distinguish or open up to new ways of thinking and feeling. To demonstrate, the theme in Raymond Carver's short story "What We Talk When We Talk About Love" portrays multiple themes, which are love, language and communication, marriage, drugs and alcohol, and violence.
Although themes are not directly presented, you can derive an idea or the evidence of what the theme may be from the characters, actions, and settings that formulate the story. For example, based on the what the characters of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love are trying to define as love, you can formulate that one of the themes are the elusive nature of love. For instance, Mel says, " I was going to tell you something. I mean, I was going to prove a point. You see, this happened a few months ago, but it's still going on right now, and it ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk about love like we know what we're talking about when we talk about love" (p. 729). He is saying that even though they speak on the meaning of love like they really know what it is, he is pretty sure none of the couples actually know what they are trying to say. He tries to precisely define love by telling a story about an elderly couple that almost died in a car accident. The ending result of his story ended up being that the old man was depressed because he was wrapped in

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