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Developing themes | Reading

Authors build themes in stories using symbols, settings, dialogue, and actions. Themes link big ideas to the story's action. To find themes, readers can look for repeated symbols, how settings affect characters, dialogue that mentions similar ideas, and important character decisions. Created by David Rheinstrom.

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  • starky seed style avatar for user saniya_johnson
    I'm still confused about what a Sage character is?
    (33 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Ray P
    He can literally mimic any character.
    TrUsT ThAt ThE EnErGy Of ThE UnIvErSe WiLl mAkE yOu A rEaLlY gOoD sPaCe WiZaRd, LuKe
    (61 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user michaelivy
    could a story that is based off mostly action but could have a sad tone
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    He said Vold...... I mean you know who
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  • starky sapling style avatar for user ashokroh000
    Spiderman and Hulk had a mission. They had to find the infinity
    stones before Thanos did. Spiderman and Hulk went into the rocket, but the rocket was too small for Hulk. Instead, they used another rocket that was 12 ft tall, 14 ft wide, and 16 ft deep, and immediately launched the rocket. When they got into space, they first headed to planet Altaz. There, they found weird looking people with bent toes, short, red hats with feathers, and clothes of red, maroon, and brown. Spiderman used the rocket computer to look up what the people on Altaz were called. They were called Altazlians. Spiderman went to talk to the Altazlians with Hulk. The two superheroes asked the Altazlians if they knew anything about the infinity stones. The aliens said the reality stone was in the cave of fire, and that if you step on the wrong stone, fire would rise up for 5 seconds. At first, Spiderman and Hulk didn’t know what to do. Later, Spiderman came up with the idea that Hulk could just carry him and just walk through the cave to the stone without worrying because the fire is approximately 5 ft and Hulk 7 - 8 ft tall. They got the reality stone and went to the next planet to get the next stone. The next planet they went to was called Tilo. People who lived there were called Tiloieeans. Spiderman and Hulk asked if they knew anything about Infinity stones. The Tiloieeans said the space stone was in a multiverse only 5 mins away from their planet. They also said the space stone was in the middle of nowhere. When Spiderman and Hulk went to the multiverse, they looked everywhere and couldn’t find the stone. Since they could not find it, Hulk started punching in random places in space to see if he would punch the stone. Spiderman started shooting webs everywhere but was more careful when he was looking. Suddenly Spiderman saw a shiny blue thing, so when Spiderman touched it, he realized it was the stone. Then he grabbed the stone and put it back in the rocket. The next two stones, the time stone and the mind stone were pretty easy to find. The time stone was on the planet 2xlr8x. The Mind stone was on the planet Meerickularous (mee-rick-yule-arus). They had to dig a hole deeper and deeper until they found the stone. They did the same thing for both planets. The next planet they went to was Pitamorous (pit-amor-ous). People on Pitamorous were called Pitamorians. The pitamorians had blue or black hair. They only wear yellow and the average height is around 5’10”. The girls had yellow tips on their hair and wore blue space rocks as earrings. Spiderman and Hulk have asked if they know anything about Infinity stones. They said the power stone was in a purple glowing cave. To get the power stone, you have to fight the purple fire minotaur. Spiderman went to the cave to fight the minotaur. When they got to the cave, Minotaur came out and asked “what do you want” in a very deep and boomy voice. Spiderman said they came to find the power stone. The minotaur’s tip of the horns started to flame with purple fire. The minotaur smiled evilly and swoosh! His purple glowing ax almost hit spiderman when he threw it. Then the minotaur’s fist lit up with fire and punched hulk so hard. It actually hurt Hulk. The fire though did not have an effect on Hulk. Hulk grabbed the minotaur and spiderman shot webs at the Minotaur’s chest, arm and legs. Spiderman tried to tie him to the cave. Then Hulk immediately started punching Minotaur super hard. Boff! Boff! Boff! Then Hulk broke the Minotaur’s horn and stabbed the Minotaur’s right in the chest. The Minotaur turned in to ashes. Spiderman and Hulk got the power stone and went to next planet, HD specter. One HD specter, there was no name for the people pm HD specter. Spiderman and Hulk noticed all the people’s houses looked haunted. “I’m getting the creeps”, Spiderman said. It was a little chilly in HDspectre. Whoooo. The wind whispered across the deserted street. People there only wore gray, black, dark blue and dark purple. Spiderman and Hulk asked the people there if they knew anything about the Soul stone. They were very quiet, but Spiderman and Hulk could hear them. They said it’s at the top of the abandoned skyscraper, on Eerie Street. They also said you have to be careful. The ghosts/souls might attack you, possess you, or scare you. If you are quiet, you will be fine. Spiderman and Hulk went to the skyscraper. It was black with lots of cracks in it. Whoosh, they heard a big gust of wind. The door opened. They went inside the skyscraper. There was a dusty golden floor and 2 staircases. Spiderman and Hulk decided to split up. Spiderman took the staircase on the left, and Hulk took the one on the right. Spiderman took a left, then a right, then a left, and heard something. Woosh! Nothing happened after that, so Spiderman continued running but became quieter. He saw a room softly glowing orange. Spiderman got in and waited for Hulk. He heard a sound, “THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!”. Spiderman realized it was Hulk, whoosh!. Hulk started walking quieter. Spiderman noticed there was a door opposite from where he was standing. Spiderman realized that Hulk would come out through the opposite door. Hulk came in and asked when did you come, “like 2 minutes ago”, Spiderman said. “Oh”, Hulk said. They grabbed the stone and were about to run out quietly. They heard a deep voice that said, “where do you think you are going”. The two froze for a second. The ghost possessed spider man for a second and shot the web at Hulk’s face. Hulk knew it was a ghost who made spiderman shoot webs at him. So he did not get mad. The ghost possessed spiderman again. Hulk grabbed spider man's arm and slammed him to the ground. Hulk was about to slam spiderman to the ground again but then spiderman shot 2 webs at Hulk. Spiderman was about to pull Hulk to the ground too but Hulk grabbed Spiderman and threw him. Hulk broke the webs and the ghost left them alone. They took the soul stone and went back to the rocket. They went back to earth and gave the infinity stones to Ironman. The next day, they celebrated with a party!
    (17 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Niraj Sihag
    the yoda voice was really good
    (13 votes)
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  • starky sapling style avatar for user Drago
    So is David saying that everything's theme is "You can learn anything?"
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    Upvote if you like Lord of the Rings
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    Ur videos make it possible to actually UNDERSTAND ela
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  • piceratops ultimate style avatar for user padmapriya.dubasi
    how do you find a really deep theme? Like one that isn't a cliche, just my own theme that has a deep meaning?
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Video transcript

- [David] Hello, readers! Let's talk about themes and how authors can intentionally build messages into fiction. Now, to recap a little, themes link big ideas about the world we live in with the action of a text. For example, in "The Lord of the Rings" stories and films, the One Ring represents absolute power and how dangerous that is. How do we know that though? How did J. R. R. Tolkien, as an author, develop that theme in the text? How can we go deeper, beyond that headline of the Ring equals the dangers of absolute power? Good readers can look at a whole text from beginning to end and identify where the author purposefully chose words, included details, or directed action that develops or reveals the overall theme. It's not just that characters say, "Oh, no, the Ring's super-dangerous." In fact, I believe in "The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf says, "No, with that power, "I should have power too great and terrible. "And over me, the Ring could gain a power "still greater and more deadly. "Do not tempt me!" The characters say that, they do, but it's also about how they behave around the thing. It's how the plot is shaped around this object and how a group of people come together to identify this Ring as a dangerous, magical artifact that needs to be destroyed for the good of the world. It's not just dialogue. It's also descriptions by the author and actions taken by the characters. So let's go through some of the ways that an author can develop theme within a story, with the important caveat that you won't always be able to detect a theme in a text until you're already finished reading it for the first time. This, to me, is one of the great pleasures of rereading. You've already worked hard to get an understanding of the text, so now you can go back and pick up all the stuff you might not have noticed the first time. So one way to develop theme is through the repeated use of a symbol or an object. The Ring in "Lord of the Rings" is a great example because characters are always talking about it. But it could really be anything, a design, an object, an animal. Imagine a story about a child who wants to grow up to be an engineer that develops airplanes. And throughout this story, birds keep showing up, birds on the protagonist's windowsill, her favorite teacher's bird earrings, maybe she has a best friend named Robin. And from that, we can see the idea of flight is a theme in this story, and all of these bird-related things go back to this character's desire to take flight. Changes in setting are a fine way to develop themes. How is a location portrayed? How does it match with the way characters feel or behave when they appear in these locations? Imagine a character who desperately wants to be alone. So at a tense portion in the story, she flees to a distant mountaintop. When she gets there, what's the weather like? Is it cold, snowy, and forbidding on the mountain? Is it an active volcano, bubbling with lava? Is it clear, peaceful, full of snowdrops and mountain goats? What would an author be trying to say with those decisions? How should we, the reader, feel about that character's solitude? If it's snowy and forbidding, is it a symbol of the character's coldness, of their hardening up? Does the volcano reflect the character's explosive potential? Or does the beauty of the lonely mountaintop mean this was the right decision for the character to take? Dialogue that repeatedly references a similar idea can be a way to develop theme. When characters mention something a lot, it's probably because the author is thinking about it and maybe wanted to build it intentionally into the story. Imagine a teenager in Ancient Rome who's preoccupied with honor and his family name and how he's worried he won't live up to the achievements of his ancestors. If that's something that he's insecure about, he might think about it often or talk about the concept of honor or the social standing of his family. You can also see this presented as explicit lessons by a sage character, usually older and wise. Think of Moana's grandmother or of Yoda. They'll say something explicit like, "Go do the thing your heart wants, Moana," or, "Trust that the energy of the universe "will make you a really good space wizard, Luke." I'm paraphrasing here. Or think of Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz," saying, "There's no place like home." She says it again and again. The words are so powerful that they're used as a magic spell. And words so powerful that they become magic is really just another way to say theme. It doesn't need to be said aloud to be thematic. Some of the most powerful moments in storytelling come from action, not just dialogue. Momentous character decisions, like Maui giving up his powers to save Moana or Harry Potter's climactic battle with Voldemort, are chock-full of themes, self-sacrifice, the power of love, the importance of honesty. Some of these themes can be expressed without speaking a single word. And I should be clear. Sometimes you need to finish the story before you can look back on it and understand how parts of it contribute to the theme. You might need to get some distance before you can see how all of the pieces fit together. If something really sticks with me, sometimes I like to go back and reread parts of a book once I've gotten a sense of its theme, to see how the author has threaded theme through the text. Now, if you look very closely at the videos I make here at Khan Academy, if you really squint your eyes and listen carefully, you'll notice that all of them share the same theme, which is you can learn anything. David out.