Every text carries implicit information about a specific subject. This represents the theme of a book and always answers the question: what is the narrated discourse about?
The text’s theme is the main idea developed in the reading, expressing a general and constant concept throughout the text. It is the means that connects the components that structure the information.
In order to understand the nature of the theme of a book, it is important to understand whether the text is:
Starting from the theme, the author exposes a premise in which he provides his point of view on the chosen motif, thus defining his ideological position.
The reader must discover the meaning expressed by the dialogues or narrated events. The theme is an abstract element that must be represented in a word. It is not limited to measures of space and time, and a theme can be the origin of many stories.
The works can have several themes, which are sometimes identifiable when reading and finding the so-called sub-themes. This is why, starting from a specific idea, a book’s theme can be developed broadly.
For example, when reading a romantic-style book, the basic idea is love. Still, other aspects such as family, society, and religion are addressed, complementing and giving meaning to the theme, as occurs in the classic Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
For some classic authors, there are only three themes: life, love, and death, from which others are related, such as family, friendship, self-improvement, envy, religion, the struggle between good and evil, personal traumas, politics, power, sexuality, technology, among many others.
Having as a characteristic its universality since we find them in all cultures and human societies. Being able to be included in:
They are actions used as the theme of texts regardless of the genre to which they belong. These are seen in prose, verse, theater even in a genre like a review, for example, paperhelp.org review.
Literary themes form the central axis of the plot and are the link between the situations devised by the author.
Generally, the following basic techniques are applied:
Ask yourself: How do I recognize that this is the right title for this text? What is the subject matter of the text? What idea does the author want to express?
Another methodology to identify a text’s subject is through classifying phrases and words. Using nominal syntagms, it is possible to identify characteristics that serve as a connecting thread of the information contained.
Subtopics are the main issues in a given paragraph that allow distinguishing between the general theme of the text and the various topics. They are subordinated or generated from it, according to the narrative needs of the author.
For this task can be used:
Stem cells
Stem cells, or progenitor cells, are cellular units with the capacity to develop and manifest themselves as blood-type cells, either red blood cells, leukocytes, or platelets.
Topic: stem cells
Subtopic: function (develop and manifest)
The central idea of a book constitutes the most important message or content, with which the author sustains the informative content. To identify it, it is necessary to interpret the reading in order to distinguish the argument expressed by the work.
There are also secondary ideas, whose function is to reinforce the context of the main idea, but they are not essential to give meaning to work. At the same time, the central idea is what makes it possible for the author to narrate or expose his ideology or knowledge.
Some indications can guide you:
Animals are heterotrophic, which means they are incapable of producing all the vital substances they require for their subsistence. They need to obtain them from other living beings.
Main idea: animals are heterotrophic because of their type of feeding.
Secondary idea: they cannot produce all the vital substances they require for subsistence. They need to obtain them from other living beings.