Theme vs Moral
As children, we often read storybooks that ended with the sentence ‘The moral of this story is…’ Our parents wanted us to understand the importance of religious truths or to learn strong universal values. In literature, there are two concepts that can cause confusion: theme and moral. While the theme is often the central idea of a story or novel, it is not necessarily the moral or lesson drawn from it. This article will discuss the differences between theme and moral.
Theme
The theme of a text, story, or novel refers to its underlying concept, central idea, or topic. It should not be confused with the message that the writer wants to convey to the public, as this is a separate concept. The theme is rarely stated explicitly, and it has to be understood by the reader. Sometimes, the writer implies the theme of the story in a subtle manner. Universal values such as love, compassion, justice, betrayal, friendship, and honesty are often the themes of stories.
A story’s theme can be identified at various points, and it is a general concept already known to the reader rather than being stated at the end of the story as a message or lesson. Greed or lust can be the theme of a story, but it can’t be a lesson until the reader draws one from the story.
Moral
A moral is a lesson drawn from a story or novel that may be stated at the end of the story by the author, or it may be implicit in the text and has to be deciphered by the reader. In ancient times, morals were a common feature of stories and fables to help young readers learn something from the text and apply it to their own lives. While ending stories with ‘The moral of the story is…’ was very popular early on, it has gone out of fashion in modern times and is mostly implicit in the story itself. Love is a universal value often found as a theme in stories, but “love thy neighbor” is a moral that is conveyed as a message or lesson in many stories by authors.
Key Takeaways
- Theme and moral are overlapping concepts with minor differences.
- Theme is the central idea of a text that is implied by the author several times in a book or a story, while moral is the message or lesson that the author wants readers to get from the story.
- While the moral of a story was stated at the end of a story (children’s literature) in earlier times, it is implicit and not stated by the author nowadays.
