I Believe in Theme

Theme: a unifying or dominant idea, motif, etc., as in a work of art.–dictionary.com

I know. <Ugh.>

All those stories we’ve worked so hard on have to have a general message or statement about the world, people, or events, aka ‘theme,’ hidden in them somewhere, right? Right?

That’s how I feel about some of my stories. However, the story I have been working on since November has a definite theme. In fact, it has about two or three, but the major theme is not only important, but purposeful. It has become the crucial thread that holds all the mini stories in this novel together.

Because my story has a plethora of characters and subplots, I need to work that theme to my advantage. I need every scene and every chapter to highlight that theme, and for that theme to giving meaning to the story’s events. This theme needs to illuminate the ramifications of all those character actions and reactions. In short, it needs to be the PB in the PB & J sandwich.

Tonight I watched The Tooth Fairy (movie) and it got me thinking about theme. I suppose that could be because it’s a kids movie and they like to beat the theme over the audience’s head. Which, actually, was kind of handy for me who has been ruminating about theme lately.

The major theme in The Tooth Fairy movie was believe. Yup. You probably could have guessed that one! BUT, it was for all the major characters. Ooh. Tricky.

Here’s the rundown on how the theme played out for all the characters…

Hockey player Thompson dude–needs to believe in his dreams again
Tooth Fairy guy without wings–needs to believe he can overcome the obstacle between him and his dreams
The head Tooth Fairy lady–she believes she can change Thompson and make him believe again
The mother/girlfriend–she believes her son and boyfriend will develop a true relationship
The son–needs to believe in himself
The daughter–she believes in the tooth fairy

Writing this out, I noticed something–all the men in the movie need to believe and all the women already do. Interesting. Is there another theme hiding in there? Maybe. Or maybe I’m just looking too deep. I mean, the movie did dress a professional wrestler in a pink tutu for goodness sake.

So, did this theme work? Did it pull it all together? Did it give the story unity? Yes, yes, and yes. The beliefs that the women had needed to be proved correct and the men needed to start believing. Once that all happened, everyone was able to live happily ever after. Awww.

How about you? Is theme something that happens intentionally in your stories, or is it a byproduct–you hope–that you discover afterwards? Do you think some genres use theme more than others?

The Movie Babel

We watched Babel last night. It was a good movie. It was deep, full of meaning, symbolism and even a warning or two about human nature if you are so inclined to look deep enough. What was nice about Babel was that despite it’s brainy aspects, I could follow it despite many, many interruptions. I caught symbolism and meaning and despite the fact that it is following four different stories and occasionally used subtitles, I felt that I was on top of what was going on.

I’ve been reading Frey’s book lately and struggling with premise. As practice, I have been looking at movies and books and trying to pinpoint the premise of the story. That is, when I remember. And when I am not too lazy. Problem is that I tend to come up with a fuzzy idea of what it could be, then another possible, even fuzzier alternative and then my mind wanders off, going ‘too hard, not concrete enough, la, la, la, la, la…’

So, what would the premise be? One grateful act impacts many lives in negative ways? (Spoiler Alert: A Japanese business man, as thanks, gives a rifle to a Moroccan hunt guide. He sells it. Some boys are playing with it and shoot a tourist. Because the tourists can’t come home, the nanny who has to be at her son’s wedding, takes their children into Mexico. They have trouble getting home and all get lost in the desert. Meanwhile, the shooting boys are freaking out when they hear they have shot someone while the Japanese businessman is oblivious to his involvement in what has become quite the incident. Still, you can see that his wealth and ambition to succeed has screwed up his own life in many ways.) So, maybe a different premise could be: Seeking wealth and ambition harms not only those you love but people barely connected to oneself. Or: Any act can have implications for people all across the world. I could ‘prove’ any and all of these premises, but it doesn’t mean that they are the best possible premises or even THE ONE.

As for themes in the movie, there is the obvious one of Babel and the revering the glory of man can lead to destruction. There is also a communication theme–also related to Babel. (Way back in the time of the Bible, some people built a huge tower in the glory of humans. Happens that this tower touched the Heavens. God got a bit peeved at this and destroyed the tower and scattered the little trouble makers, confusing their languages in hopes that they would not be able to communicate effectively enough to create another pesky tower.) The Tower of Babel in this movie could literally be the one the Japanese business man lives in. He lives on floor 31 (flip unlucky 13) which happens to tower above all others. His success has cost his wife her life and has resulted in his daughter being quite messed up. On the communication theme, his daughter is a deaf-mute. Over in Morocco, the boys miscommunicate/lie to try and cover their sins. The shot tourist’s husband has great difficulties communicating in the foreign language. Back home, their nanny speaks another language as well, but they are able to communicate somewhat effectively. But due to poor communication at the US/Mexico border, trouble ensues. 

You could also argue that there is a theme of deprivation/hardship/loss. The Moroccan farmer is experiencing hardship in a dry, forbidding environment (deprivation) and the loss of his goats to jackals. His sons are sent out with a gun to protect the family’s livelihood but their actions (shooting) create a hardship for the tourist. The tourist has already experienced loss as her infant son passed away shortly before the trip. She and her husband are in a bad place in terms of their relationship and are depriving each other of affection and a chance to get over their grief (due to different styles of conflict resolution). The nanny, back home, is deprived of the chance to see her son get married due to circumstances. She goes anyway and returns to Mexico. In the end, she is deported back to Mexico where she will experience poverty once again (hardship) and she will not be able to care for the children she has raised like her own (loss). Back in Japan, the business man’s daughter is really the one with the storyline. She is deprived of both a mother (loss) and her ability to communicate which is also a hardship. Through her deafness she experiences a sensory deprivation.

There is so much going on in this movie, I loved it. Kudos to the writer! And by the way, I’m really glad the Morrocan guide didn’t accept the large wad of well-intended cash when the ambulance finally came for the shot tourist. Could you imagine what the consequences would be? Well, I suppose it would be another great movie for me to watch!

Work in Progress

Hey there.

I am playing with the blog’s theme again. Slowly, things will shape up and change, so if you see some strange things, fear not. So things will shape up or I will discard the whole thing and start over. (Again.) I wanted to pull my banner into the blog, but I’m having trouble finding a suitable theme to bastardize. My hacking skills when it comes to code is very limited.

 Hang in there and let me know what you think of the new theme/look.