When I was at school, English Literature was always my favourite subject. I was a total book-worm who dreamed of becoming an author, so you can kind of see why I adored English Literature. Reading books, talking about books and writing about books was my idea of heaven. Having said that, there was always one part of the subject that annoyed me at times. When analysing a text, the teacher would often ask us to think about what message the author was trying to get across. It was a question akin to the equally confusing one; what are the themes of the novel? I remember thinking, I bet the author didn’t know there was a message or a theme, or that we would try to work one out. I always considered that Shakespeare, Bronte and Steinbeck just wrote books because they had great ideas, great characters, and could string some pretty awesome sentences together.
But English Lit demands we find the messages and the themes, and yes, when you pick apart a text and analyse it within a classroom setting, you do tend to find them. But were they intended? I suppose I’m asking, did the author write the book with a theme or a message in mind? Or is it the reader who later determines what the potential messages are? I mean, did Steinbeck write Of Mice and Men because he had something to say about society or human nature? When I was a kid, I thought not. But it turns out I was wrong;
In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.
I remember trying to distinguish the themes of the novel when I was at school. What seemed so obvious to the teacher, had to be pointed out to us. I haven’t read the book since then, but it is on my to-read list as part of a reading challenge I’m undertaking, where one of the books has to be one I read in school. But I think I will see things differently now.
Why? Because I am approaching my fourth decade and I’ve seen enough of life, love, people and society to know that Of Mice and Men is not ‘just a story’ as I once mistakenly believed. It’s a book about dreams and aspirations, loneliness and solitude and the author had plenty to say about all of these things. I am now the writer I hoped I would be, and writing books is a fascinating process, which involves the seed of an idea germinating into an intricate plot full of characters who become real to you and set up camp in your head. But more than that, writing is about what you want to say to the world.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately after I received feedback from a beta on my still unfinished novel Elliot Pie’s Guide To Human Nature. One of the things she picked up on was the messages or themes of the book, and in particular, her observation that some of the characters had views very similar to my own. She felt this at times made the narrative somewhat preachy, or at least, it was in danger of heading in that direction.
I had to stop and think about what she meant. None of the characters are me, or based on me, or anyone I know. I plucked them up out of the thin air to build around the character and story of Elliot, who I really did know and believe in.
However, I have to admit that unintentionally, or at least sub-consciously, bits and pieces of the writer and the writer’s viewpoints seep into the writing. I knew what this book was about, and I knew from the beginning what I was trying to say, so as you can see, I have come a long way from my previous scepticism that books did not contain deliberate messages. On the contrary, I have had something to say in all of my books, and I think it very much depends on what is going on in my life at that time. For this book in particular, Elliot and his mother are like the two sides of me. One side is heartbroken and terrified about the state of our world and wants to withdraw from it all, while the other side is perpetually hopeful and joyful, determined to the best in everything.
So is this a good thing or a bad thing? I think my beta was right to point out the danger of appearing preachy in the narrative. I certainly don’t want my books to come across that way. I have to be sure it is the character’s viewpoint being explored, not the author’s. I have to be conscious of what is being portrayed as ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’ So at the moment, I am going through the book again, with the beta’s notes beside me. Sometimes it just needs a tweak, some words rearranged or deleted. Sometimes I don’t need to do anything because I think the character truly believes in what they are saying, and in doing so is remaining true to character.
This brings me to another question, though. Do people pick up books looking for messages or themes? Do most readers notice them, even if they are supposed to be there? I suspect that what one reader picks up as a message or theme, is very different to anothers. Do readers want to be spoken to in this way? I don’t think many people pick up a book looking for clarity or persuasion. I think they pick up books looking for stories. And stories involve people and their messy human lives, and messy human lives contain messages, whether intentional or not. Because they are written by one person, created by one person, and whether they were totally aware of it or not at the time, that person had something to say.
So, what do you think? As a reader, do you choose a book because of the message it seems to be conveying? Do you notice the themes of a novel as you are reading it, or do they become obvious to you afterward? Do you ever feel like the writer is trying to tell you something about the world or about life? Does this every feel like you are being preached to?
And what about you writers? Do you know what you are trying to say before you start to write the book, or does the message reveal itself to you in time? Are you aware of any themes in your book, and again, are these intentional? Do you ever worry that you are trying too hard to get a message across?
Please feel free to join in the conversation!
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The Glorious Outsiders 
Very interesting blog. I remember when we studied Iris Murdoch at A Level and one of my fellow students saying ‘I bet poor Iris Murdoch just wanted to write a book!’ – in other words, all the analysis and dissection that our lecturer and us students were putting it through, wasn’t in the author’s mind when she wrote it! I have seen similar in art – students on art courses having to come up with a lot of justification and conceptual ideas to get through the courses. When I studied literature at A Level I remember being a bit put off by all the dissection!
As a reader I’m not aware of looking for messages or memes. As an author, I don’t think I plan to write a book with a message either, though what I have found is that when it comes to writing the synopsis or pitch (usually after having written the book) then is the time I start to look for the bigger picture and themes. Then that will sometimes feed back into the editing of a book, maybe emphasising some of those themes and messages, perhaps.
A couple of editors once told me when I submitted my follow-up novel to my first published novel that was relatively successful that it was ‘bogged down in ideology’ and also another quote along the lines of an author’s first job is to entertain and if he conveys a message in doing so then all the better, whereas in mine the message was the vehicle for ‘a slight story’. It was pretty brutal but they were right of course. I was just too close to it at the time to see it!
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Thank you for your comment, Kate! I remember students saying the same kind of thing at school. I’ve always wondered since then, did those authors really mean for the work to be interpreted and anaylsed the way it is? Really interesting. I think with my stories, the characters come first, but of course, these characters have something to say about their lives and the world they live in, and that I guess, becomes the message of the book. It’s theirs, not mine. But i know what you mean about being too close to the subject to see it sometimes!
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I was like you in school – I always thought looking for the theme of the story was imagining something the writer never considered or intended. But with a few more years of reading under my belt, I now do think some writers are trying to make big statements. Sometimes they succeed so well you don’t notice the message until well after you finish the book, other times the message is like a mallet to the head. I don’t mind the books I read having messages, but I hate being hit over the head with them.
As I writer, I’m tending to find more and more that my writing has deliberate messages, though I hope they’re subtle and I’m not sure if any reader would pick up on them..
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Thank you so much for reading and commenting! I’m the same as you, I’m finding as time goes on I feel the urge to write with more deliberate messages, and yes, this is where we need to tread gently and try to avoid preaching. Which is where early beta readers are wonderful!
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I don’t tend to search for themes in books (I was also a bit put off in school – it felt like we were putting words in the authors’ mouths), but these days I do tend to spot them when they surface. And it seems to me that stories need them, that they’re what forms the heart of the book, but it’s certainly an art form to bring that across in a subtle enough way. In my own writing, it’s usually not until I read back through it that I see a theme’s crept in there – sneaky things!
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Thank you Kim! Yes, that’s happened to me too, themes have appeared as if by magic! Then other times, I do have a theme or message in mind to start with.
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