the top common themes in literature

Common Themes in Literature

It has been argued that there are anywhere between 3 and 40 main themes in literature that continue to be explored by each successive generation of writers.  No one knows for what the real number is–it depends on who you ask–but below is a list, not necessarily inclusive, of the most common ones.  There are many variations, and there are often overlaps as well.  So, right or wrong, in no particular order, here they are. 
 

The Great Journey

This follows a character or characters through a series of episodic adventures as they travel.  It may be a sad story or a happy story, or it may even be comedic.  Huckleberry Finn, Heart of Darkness, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and The Odyssey are good examples.  In film, this theme can be seen in Apocalypse Now and National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Loss of Innocence

Sometimes called the “coming of age story,” this most commonly introduces an “innocent” character to the evil or complexity of the real/adult world.  In literature, we might look at David Copperfied or most of the Nick Adams stories by Ernest Hemingway, like “Indian Camp” and “The End of Something.”  In film, we might look at Stand by Me.

The Noble Sacrifice

The sacrifice can be for any reason except self–a loved one, an enemy, a group of people, the whole of humanity, a dog–but the bottom line is that the protagonist sacrifices himself or herself in an effort to save others.  In literature, this is demonstrated in the story of Jesus in the New Testament and King Arthur in Mallory’s Morte d’Artur.  This theme is used is used in the films Glory, Armageddon, The Green Mile, and in just about any war movie where the hero dies gloriously.

The Great Battle

The Iliad and A Tale of Two Cities are classic examples of this theme.  It is about people or groups of people in conflict.  It is sometimes a good vs. evil story like 1984 by George Orwell, but not always. The film The War of the Roses, starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas, is an example of a battle in which neither character is wholly good or evil.  In theatre, we see this theme at work in Westside Story and Les Miserables.  We often see this theme in horror or science fiction, like in Alien and Terminator,  where the antagonist–a monster/creature/human/alien/computer/etc.– is trying to kill the protagonist, who must fight to stay alive and/or defeat the antagonist.   Sub-categories would be person vs. person, person vs. nature, person vs. society, person vs. technology and etc. 
 

The Fall From Grace

This theme shows us people going where only God should go, doing what only God is meant to do, or attempting to do something that human beings should never do.  This is always followed by misfortune, whether it is the direct result of their action or an act of God.  We see this in the tales of Coyote’s theft of fire in the Native American tradition, or in the story of the Tower of Babel and the Garden of Eden in The Old Testament.  Other examples would be the Prometheus myth, Pandora’s Box, and the story of Icarus. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly is another work exploring this theme, and we have seen it at work in the films Jurassic Park and Westworld.

Love and Friendship

Romeo and Juliet is a classic love story, as is the story of Lancelot and Guenivere.  The films You’ve Got Mail and Message in a Bottle are also love stories.  The ending may be be happy, sad, or bittersweet, but the main them is romantic love.  Also included in this theme is platonic love–friendship–like in the movies Wrestling Ernest Hemingwayand Midnight Cowboy.  All Romance novels, whether straight or gay, fit into this category.   All “buddy films” like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Thelma and Louise fit into this category.

The Capriciousness of Fate

Greek tragedies fit this category.  Often, there is a major reversal of fortune.  It could be from good-to-bad or from bad-to-good.  Oedipus Rex is a classic work that explores the concept of fate and destiny, having an unhappy ending. Cinderella is also a reversal of fortune story, but has a happy ending.  In film, we have seen this theme at work in Pretty Woman.  The common element is that there is some force guiding the person’s life over which he or she has no control.

Revenge

The subject is obvious, but the outcome differs.  Sometimes the outcome is good, like in the movies Revenge of the Nerds or Animal House.  Sometimes the outcome is bad, as in Macbeth and Moby Dick.  Other movies based on this them are Revenge, staring Anthony Quinn and Kevin Costner, and Payback, starring Mel Gibson.

The Big Trick

In this one, someone or some group of people intentionally trick someone else.  Rumplestiltskin and Little Red Ridinghood are in this category.  Stone Soup is an old story in which several men trick the inhabitants of a village into providing them with food.  This theme was evident in Snatch, starring Brad Pitt, and The Sting, staring Robert Redford and Paul Newman.

The Big Mystery

Something unexplained happened and it is the protagonist’s job to find an explanation for it.  The story of Sherlock Holmes are good examples, as are the Hardy Boys andNancy Drew mysteries.  In film, we have seen it Silence of the Lambs and The Maltese Falcon, and it took a comedic turn in Clue and The Pink Panther. Almost all police and detective dramas work within this form, as do most espionage and spy thrillers.  Agatha Christy and Tom Clancy work within this form.

if you want to write…

 

If you want to write, don’t err by setting the bar too low. Maybe you want to write like Emily Dickinson. Maybe you want to write like Nabokov. Just be willing, at the end of the day, to look at your work and say, ‘That’s not as good as Nabokov, but boy, it’s as good as I could make it today.’ Fall in love with books and with modes of being. I just spent a pile of money I can’t afford on opera tickets to see Wagner’sGötterdämmerung. Think of all the cocaine I could have bought with that eight hundred dollars! Yet here I am blowing it to go sit in a room with a bunch of stiffs next Tuesday night. I’m in love, I can’t help it.

Mary Karr in My Ideal Bookshelf

You should date a girl who reads

 

“You should date a girl who reads.
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she has found the book she wants. You see that weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow and worn.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry and in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things must come to end, but that you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.” 
― Rosemarie Urquico

 

on the art of documenting your day

 

Document Your Day

 

 

“Writers use many tools from formal to artsy to do just that. How do you record your life? What do you use to ring the bell of your muse?

 

“Notebooks; sticky-notes; logs, journals; task lists; cards; blogs; wall charts; scrapbooks; wish boxes; genii; scrolls; quills and ink; watercolour pencils; character hats and costumes; wizard robes; spell bottles; ancient wisdom; authors from the past; personal mugs or cups and saucers; rituals; what if’s; mindmaps; any maps; reading a loved book; chocolate dainties; shoes and slippers; dressing gowns; cosmetics; hairstyles; walking; breathing; being quite; knitting; creating writing dolls; early morning flower picking; wicked cats and another pets; doodles; a special lunch; writing love letters to a poet; strolling to the letterbox; going down memory lane; imagining other times; photographing your day; an old bookshop; boxes filled with pictures that restore your senses; a deep bath; fragrance; scribbling on a roll of brown paper; dawdling around the zoo or museum; browsing gift stores; buying beautiful cards for yourself; keeping labels; celebrating anything on any day you please; pledging yourself to the sea; observing a seed flowing to the light; inventing a new character; writing a recipe; crafting your own journal; collecting anything; ensconcing yourself with objects that allow you to melt into the Higher Self, and above all “a room of one’s own”.