Theme and Thesis

Both theme and thesis are important to good writing. To write well, you have to go beyond your theme (subject matter) and delve into your thesis (your belief about or interpretation of your subject matter). Both are critical to reading and writing literature. It's not enough to be well versed in your subject. Just being knowledgeable doesn't translate into good writing. You also have to get beneath the skin of your subject and explore how you feel about it. This underlying belief is the message you need to communicate to readers. When reading a work of literature, you can only truly understand it when you get to the writer's emotional landscape, the way the writer views the world and the subject's place in that world. Likewise, when writing a work of literature, you have only truly written it when you've peeled your subject down to its innermost layers and revealed those raw emotions to readers. It is only then that you have truly communicated to readers. Writing is as much about discovering as it is about knowing. Flannery O'Connor expressed this best when she said, "I write to discover what I know." Know your subject well and you will write well; but know yourself well, and you will write sensationally.