The end of a story: theme and what we learn
The theme is the big idea of a story, something the story tells us about life, for example that small kind acts matter or that honest effort is worth it. It is not the plot (what happens), and it is not one word. To find the theme, ask: What does the main character learn or show by the end? What does the story want me to think about? Then write one sentence: The theme of the story is that … Support it with a clue from the story. Also compare the opening and the ending. A writer often returns to an object or a place from the beginning, and this shows how things have changed. Ask: What is the same in the first and last scene? What is different? In your reader, Chapter 6 is on pages 34 to 38, and its ending is part of the whole book. Read it and think about the theme, but do not retell it here.
| Question | Answer for our story |
|---|---|
| Opening | Hamza almost throws away a torn book |
| Ending | a girl returns the same repaired book |
| What changed? | he repaired it, and it made a child happy |
| Theme | small, careful work for others matters |
In September, Hamza found a torn picture book on the library’s return shelf and almost put it in the bin. Instead, he took tape and glue and spent the whole of Saturday morning repairing it. All term he did the same with other books: fixing pages, covering corners, writing small labels. Nobody thanked him, and he did not ask for thanks. On the last Saturday of December, a small girl came to the desk with a book and a drawing. “This is my favourite book,” she said. “Somebody mended it for me.” It was the same picture book, the one with the torn cover. Hamza looked at the drawing: a boy with tape in his hand. He smiled, put the drawing on the wall behind the desk and went to find the next book on the shelf.
Theme sentence. Think of a story or film you know. Write its theme in one sentence that begins “The theme is that …”. Give one clue from the story and describe one thing that is the same in the opening and in the ending. Do not retell the story.