Themes, Messages and Society: notes

Theme and plot

• Plot: what happens. Theme: the big idea the story is about, such as greed or loyalty.
• Message or moral: the lesson the writer wants readers to take away.
• Writer's purpose: to entertain, to teach, to warn or to protest.

Common themes

• Love and family, power and its abuse, greed and corruption, justice and injustice.
• Tradition against change, poverty and hope, gender roles, education.
• Colonial rule and independence, which appear often in Zimbabwean writing.

Finding a theme

• Look at what the main character wants, what stops them, and how it ends.
• A theme is a full idea, not one word: "greed destroys friendship" is better than "greed".

Society

• Books reflect the time and place they come from, so know the setting's customs and history.
• Writers can criticise society by showing the result of bad choices.
• Support any point about a theme with a short, accurate reference to the text.