Language, Style, and Theme

The way a writer chooses words and arranges them determines his r her style. Style is the verbal identity of a writer, an unmistakable as his or her face or voice. Writers' styles convey their distinctive ways of seeing the world.

In the discussion of the language and style of fiction, we will concentrate on diction, the kind of word choices a writer makes; syntax, the order those words assume in sentences; and the presence or absence of figurative language, especially figures of comparison (simile and metaphor).

The imagery and figures of comparison that writers use enrich their prose and impart a personal view of the world. They are simultaneously indelible stamps of each writer's style and keys to understanding their works.

Theme

The meaning of a literary work consists of both our experience in reading it and the ideas we may absorb from it. With that I mind, let us clarify what we mean by the theme of a story. Simply put, a story's theme is its idea or point (formulated as a generalization). The theme of a fable is its moral; the theme of a parable is its teaching; the theme of a short story is its implied view of life and conduct. Unlike the fable and parable, however, most fiction is not designed primarily to teach or preach. Its theme, thus, is more obliquely presented. In fact, theme in fiction is rarely presented at all. Readers abstract it from the details of character and action that compose the story.

To be clear about theme, we should distinguish it from plot and from subject, what the story is generally about. in explaining a story's theme we do more than state its subject or summarize its plot.

Theme is related to the other elements of fiction more as a consequence than as a parallel element that can be separately identified. To formulate a story's theme, we try to explain what these elements collectively suggest. Since the theme of a story derives from its details of character, plot, setting, structure, language, and point of view, any statement of theme is valid and valuable to the extent that it accounts for these details.

A statement of theme derives from the particulars of a story's language and action. In fact, the very concreteness and particularity of fiction should make us cautious in searching out theme. We should avoid thinking of theme as hidden somehow beneath the surface of the story and instead see theme as the implied significance of the story's details. It is important to remember that here are a multiplicity of ways to state a story's theme, but any such statement involves a necessary simplification of the story. In clarifying our sense of a story's idea, we also inevitably exclude some dimensions of the story and include others. We should be aware that the themes we abstract from stories are provisional understandings that never completely explain them.

"Language." Wikpedia.
"Style." Handouts and Links.
"Theme." Literature.