DJ Holloway at 2012-08-27 15:27:52:

The theme is the suggested meaning of a text beyond its explicit elements (plot, character, etc.) It is more than a concept, it should be a commentary on the concept. So "love" is not a theme, but "love conquers all," "love is everywhere," "true love is a lie" are all themes. Themes are also not specific to the film/story, rather they are taken from the text and could apply to humanity as a whole. Staying on the "love" tip, the theme of Titanic can't be "Rose's love for Jack goes on" because that only applies to them. Instead, it's "love goes on," which can apply to all of us.

Debbie Moon at 2012-08-27 16:53:56:

I like the idea that theme is a question that the protagonist has to find an answer to by the end of the story. Often the antagonist offers one answer, the protagonist is already living another option, and what he chooses as the end is some kind of compromise or synthesis. Example (since I've just re-watched it) Point Break poses the question "What do we have to do to feel truly alive?" Johnny Utah thinks he's living life to the full; Bodhi awakens him to a whole new world of experience, but the price is violence and crime. Which answer will Johnny choose, or is there a third way, a compromise? The idea of theme as a question works really well for me...

Scott at 2012-08-27 17:21:36:

DJ, you hit on a dynamic against which I often come up with my college students. Me: What's the theme of your story? Them: Love. I'm reminded of a Trivial Pursuit game I lost because the question was: "The Bible says this is the 'root of all evil'". I answered: "Money." The actual answer: "The love of money." Money is not a theme. The love of money is. One thing you're driving at, I think, is there is a specificity to theme as well as a universality, as contrasted with something generic, is that right?

Kevin Price at 2012-08-27 23:08:57:

If we take the view that a story shows the microscopic examination of human behaviour under certain conditions (e.g., throw the protagonist into a pond with crocodiles and watch him get out), then theme is the 'stuff' of those behaviours and conditions. Theme is the set of recurring fictional ideas that show which aspects of the human condition are being tested under the circumstances of the story. Theme also has a moral dimension; that is, it is the author's personal expression on the morality of the situation in which the characters are placed. This moral view is expressed as dilemma and becomes contested throughout the process of the story; there are always multiple facets of the argument, but under the story conditions, it is proved. For example, David Simon in The Wire expresses the idea that "We have an inability to recognise or solve our own problems." The moral view Simon takes in The Wire is that when journalists stopped asking 'why', the media stopped questioning what was going on in political and institutional structures, and this has resulted in a state he calls "The audacity of despair." It means institutions, organisations and political power prefer not to recognise and solve the problems. He uses the same theme for Treme, based on the premise that it wasn't a storm that drowned 1800 people in New Orleans, but the inability to recognise a man-made problem and act to solve it ... (barges broke loose in the canal and destroyed the wall, which let the water in.) It's a very powerful theme because it goes to the heart of true evil, it shows what happens when systems become corrupted by an excessive push for profits or misuse of statistical measurement systems. I think the idea of theme can be a very powerful tool in the writer's toolbox, it's a matter of understanding where you stand on the moral issues exposed by the story and positioning your characters to contest it for you. It's also useful for keeping the story aligned to the conditions that are being tested, and forces you back onto your characters and how they view the moral argument presented by the theme differently. >> David Simon, The Audacity of Despair