
Here’s another post on theme from 10 years ago. Theme is so important to your story, so I hope you learn ways to incorporate theme into your pages!
As we’re exploring theme here, I want to add a little aside about symbols. Tying symbols in with a theme is very powerful, and the movie Babe does a great job with the gate as a symbol throughout the movie. I imagine few people ever really notice the bit about the gate other than the way it adds a bit of plot and humor, but it serves as another theme by way of symbolism.
Symbols as Theme
Symbols are generally a visual object, but they can also be a thought, idea, phrase, or gesture. These can also be considered as motifs (Check out my blog posts on motifs and how to use them to enrich your story). But the great thing about symbols is they pack a lot of meaning in a simple way. When you use a symbol as a thematic element, you want it to reappear numerous times throughout your novel. Continue Reading…