Theme (narrative)

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In narratology, literary criticism, film studies, dramatics, and related disciplines, a theme is any major topic, subject, or message within a story. Themes are ideas that are central to a story, which can often be summed in a single abstract noun (for example, love, death, betrayal, nostalgia, or parenthood) or noun phrase (for example, coming of age, humans in conflict with technology, seeking spirituality in the modern era, or the dangers of unchecked ambition). A theme may be exemplified by the actions, utterances, or thoughts of characters, as in the theme of loneliness in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, wherein many of the characters seem isolated and long for community with others. It may or may not overlap with a thesis—a text's or creator's central argument or position regarding a theme from the story. A story may have many themes, especially longer works, such as novels, plays, films, and television series. Themes often explore historically common or cross-culturally recognizable ideas, such as ethical questions, and are usually implied rather than stated explicitly. An example of this would be whether one should live a seemingly better life, at the price of giving up parts of one's humanity, which is a theme in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Along with plot, character, setting, and style, theme is considered one of the components of fiction. Themes can be divided into two categories: a work's thematic concept is what readers "think the work is about" and its thematic statement being "what the work says about the subject".