How to determine the theme of a novel

Answer 1

To determine the theme of a novel, one could start from the following aspects:

** 1. From the reflection of the life field or the scope of the subject (in a broad sense)**
1. ** Life Scenery Category **
- If the story mainly revolved around the life, customs, and interpersonal relationships of the village, such as describing the farming life of the village, the short stories between the villagers, the inheritance of the traditional customs of the village, etc., then it might be a rural theme.
- When the story is set in the urban environment, it involves the competition of urban people in the workplace, urban love stories, urban family conflicts, etc., it can be classified as an urban theme.
2. ** Relationship **
- If the love between a man and a woman, the joys and sorrows of love, the process of getting to know each other and falling in love, the obstacles of love due to family or social factors, etc., were the core plot, it would be a love theme.
3. ** Special groups or activities **
- It could be used as a military theme to describe the life of the army, such as the training and combat of officers and soldiers, personal encounters, and the struggles of different military groups.
- If the main content was about the tomb raider's experience and the mysterious discoveries during the process, it would belong to the theme of the tomb raiding novel.

** 2. From the life phenomenon that is described in detail and reflects the theme of the novel (from a narrow perspective)**
1. ** Based on fantasy elements **
- ** Fantasy theme **: It is based on real events, but the fantasy is very rich. The character experience and the virtual world structure are mysterious and not constrained by too much reality logic. For example, it constructs a different world that is completely imagined by the author. The characters have superpowers or strange situations in it.
- ** Fantasy theme **: A world structure that is not completely rational. It is often based on history. The story structure is mostly based on myths, religions, or ancient legends. For example, the story world is based on ancient Greek mythology. There are mythical creatures and fantasy adventures.
- ** Magic theme **: Fantasy is based on magic. There are common characters such as elves and magicians. There are magic elements such as wands and the Lord of the Rings, just like the magic world setting in the Lord of the Rings series.
- ** Science fiction theme **: Use fantasy art to express the future of science and technology or the impact of social development on humans. As long as it contains surreal elements, it can be considered science fiction. For example, describing the interstellar travel of humans in the future, the complex relationship between humans and artificial intelligence, etc.
- [Cultivation theme: Through cultivation, one can transcend the secular world, and their abilities are far beyond ordinary people. They often have religious colors, such as Taoism, Buddhism, and other related cultivation systems. The characters in the story pursue the advancement of realms such as ascending to immortality.]
- ** Supernatural theme **: Using ghosts, spirits, and other strange life forms that have not been discovered by humans as the theme, or using supernatural special abilities in spiritualism, such as telling the experience of a person who can see ghosts in a ghost house.
2. ** Based on special settings or plot types **
- ** Reasoning theme **: Use reasoning to solve the story puzzles. Most of them include murder and detective elements, but some are mainly about finding lost things or solving the mystery of strange events. For example, the classic Sherlock Holmes series uses detective reasoning to find the murderer or solve mysterious events.
- ** Adventure theme (adventure theme)**: With various unusual adventure events as the central clue, the protagonist has extraordinary experiences, including two broad situations, one is the conflict between people and people, people and social forces, the other is the conflict between people and the environment, people and nature, such as the conflict between Crusoe and the natural environment on a deserted island and the adventure of self-survival.
- ** Horror theme **: The main purpose is to give the reader a sense of horror. For example, by creating gloomy scenes, terrifying monsters, or a tense plot atmosphere to make the reader feel fear, such as describing the horror experience in an abandoned mental hospital.
- [Virtual historical theme: Create a fictional new historical world based on a small amount of historical information. Although it is a little more fantastical, it belongs to the historical aspect. For example, set an ancient dynasty that is different from real history. In this dynasty, there is a unique political system, character relationships, etc.]
- ** Game theme **: Virtual games and competitive games as the theme, including fantasy, urban, Xianxia, and many other elements. For example, the story of the protagonist's growth in a virtual reality game, from a novice player to a top-notch expert in the game.
- ** Infinite Themed **: Usually involves the creation of an independent space, summoning real people to enter a parallel universe similar to the movie to train and other novel settings, such as the characters in the story constantly entering different horror movie scenes to complete missions in order to survive.
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