What is an emerging theme in literature?
I am going into Honors English this comming school year and I have a summer reading list. I have to read three books and every third of the book write a readers response. One of the items I am to write on is the emerging theme in the book. I have no idea what an emerging theme is. I would appreciate any help that anyone could give me.
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The main theme of the book
My GOD… a literate Teenager… I’m impressed.
The emerging theme of a book is merely the core sense of the book… if you are reading a Sherlock Holmes story you wouldn’t expect to see an emerging theme of an engineering text, you would expect to see a detective mystery novel. In short, it’s the purpose for the book to have been written in the first place.
I hope that’s clear… emerging themes can be a bit nebulous at times. If the book has a dustcover, the synopsis of the book is usually printed there and that’s a good indication of the theme of the book.
The 2nd comment on here is correct. An emerging theme is the central theme of the book. The Sherlock Holmes explanation is a good one.
When commenting on the emerging theme you might want to explore how the theme develops as the book continues.
A theme is NOT the reason a book or story has been written, nor is it a specific genre of writing. An author’s reason for writing is not necessarily the theme of his/her book. A theme is the central idea or message a written piece conveys to a reader. Most great works of fiction include several themes. (see the definition for “theme” in wikipedia).
An emerging theme may or may not be the actual theme(s) intended by the author. Rather, it is the theme you perceive, given the point you are at in your reading. Your analysis of the theme may change as you read on.