ENG2D Exam Practice
Question Number 5: Theme
Topics to Cover
• What is theme?
• How do you state the theme?
• Why only one sentence?
What is theme?
The theme is the message of the piece. The theme is to a
poem what a thesis is to an essay. It is the main
argument, the point the poem is making. You can ask
yourself, What does this poem want me to learn?
Poems tend to appeal to the heart as well as the head.
You can ask yourself, How does the speaker want me to
feel about the subject?
Furthermore, poems use perspective. They often offer a
different way of looking at something. You can ask
yourself, Is the poem showing me a new way of looking at
this subject?
In summary,
For poems, think head-heart-eyes.
• What is the poem teaching me about life?
• How does it want me to feel about the
subject?
• Does the poem want me to see the subject in
a new light?
How do you state the theme?
The Five Commandments of Stating Theme
1. State the message, not the plot.
2. State the message of the particular piece; don’t state a
theme that is so general, it can apply to various pieces.
3. State the message that is relevant to people in the real
world; don’t get stuck in the world of the fiction.
4. Separate yourself from the piece; state the theme of the
piece even if that theme contradicts your own personal
belief.
5. Use your own unique ideas and wording; do not use a
cliché.
State the message, not the plot.
WRONG: The theme of the poem “The Raven” is
that a raven comes to the door of a man who is sad
over the loss of his love, Lenore, and taunts him
with a repeated phrase, “Nevermore.”
BETTER: “The Raven” shows us that dwelling on
the loss of a loved one can affect a person’s mental
health; we need to find ways to cope with grief.
State the theme of the particular
piece.
TOO BROAD: War is bad.
MORE PARTICULAR to Romeo and Juliet: Wrath
not only fuels strife and war, it destroys the
individual from within.
Make it relevant to the real world.
TOO PARTICULAR: The theme of Animal Farm is
that pigs need to exercise some self control when
they revolt against humans; otherwise, they will
become self-indulgent, power-hungry humans
themselves.
MORE RELEVANT TO REAL PEOPLE: Through Animal
Farm, Orwell shows us that idealistic initiatives can
be destroyed by corruption and thirst for power.
State the theme of the piece even if the theme
contradicts your own beliefs.
Sometimes it’s difficult to see the theme of the piece you’re reading
because, like most of us, we view things through a screen of our own
personal values. When you’re asked the theme of a piece of literature,
though, you’re being asked what the piece is communicating, not what
you believe. Sometimes that’s hard when you fully disagree with the
message of the piece.
WRONG: Of Mice and Men shows us that we must never give up
hope; the solution to problems that threaten our very lives may exist
just outside the reaches of our present knowledge.
MORE ACCURATE: Of Mice and Men portrays the collapse of the Great
American Dream in that socio-economic conditions in the modern
America have made it impossible for the poor to raise themselves up
from poverty.
Use your own unique ideas;
use your own unique wording.
WRONG: Treat others the way you want to be
treated.
NOT GOOD: Absolute power corrupts
absolutely. (You have to use your own words.)
BETTER: See any of the positive examples from
the previous slides.
Why only one sentence?
This criteria is there because when we were making up
the exam, we decided that having you express a complex
idea tested your writing skills as well as your reading
skills, just like all the other questions on the exam. The
various questions on the exam exercise different writing
muscles, so to speak.
If you do not have a complex idea, a simple sentence will
do, and that is that.
However, the challenge arises when you do have complex
ideas about the message of the piece. Now it’s hard to
compress everything you understand in only one
sentence.
Writing Skills
The work you did in your grammar book
provided you an opportunity to learn how to
write complex sentences structures that will
allow you to say more in a sentence without
allowing the sentence to become a run-on or
comma-splice.
Some structures at your disposal:
• Compound Sentence (two independent clauses joined by a
coordinating conjunction or semi-colon)
• Complex Sentence (an independent clause and a
dependent clause)
• Compound-Complex Sentences (two independent clauses
joined by a coordinating conjunction and a dependent
clause)
• Complex List (See grammar book section on “Semi-colons”
of you want to know what that is.)
• Independent clause with colon introducing another
independent clause or complex list.
• You don’t really have to know what these are; you just have
to be able to write a sentence that isn’t a run-on.
Getting all the instruments playing
Head, heart, eyes, one sentence, no run-on...
The poem “Loneliness” reframes the concept of
loneliness: it strips sadness from the word and,
instead, shows us how to welcome it with
acceptance and contentment because it is an
opportunity to think about things, a process we
need in order to build our own unique identities.
Final Word: A Couple More Toadies
There you have it. The exam addresses a variety of
reading and writing skills. It’s very difficult to be
perfect at everything, so just polish the things you
do well, put some effort into improving the things
you’ve been struggling with, and don’t wait.
The exam requires clarity of thought, which means
you must be rested, well-fed, comfortable, and
calm. Study now so you can sleep well the night
before, eat breakfast the morning of, wear
comfortable clothes that day, and trust yourself.
Good luck!