【正文】 al and unifying i dea of t he novel , i t must account f or all the major det ai ls and must not be cont radicted by an detail s in the novel. Since a t heme is dif ferent from a moral or a leson, one should avoid reduci ng a t heme t o a cl ich233。 and t he older wait er stops at a coff e bar on hi s way home—but whi le the event s themsel ves seem relati vely sli ght, the st or y as a whole is ful l of meaning. For a deep under st anding of t he meaning, we have t o look t o ot her el ements of t he story besides what happens in i t: nar rative, sym bols, t one, t he dialogue be twen the two wait er s, the monologue of the ol der wai ter, et c. Evi dently t he author int ends us to pay mor e at enti on to the thoughts and feelings of the older waiter, the character whose words echo t he author ’s voi ce. One t ry on the theme may be: “The older wai ter under st ands t he old man and sympathizes wit h hi s need for a cl ean, wel l l ighted pl ace.” But her e we ar e sti l talking about what happens in t he story, though we ar e not summing up t he plot. A t heme is usualy stated in general wor ds. Another t ry sounds li ke t hi s: “Soli tary people need a or der ly place wher e they can dr ink with dignit y. ” That i s a l it le bet ter. We have indicat ed that Hemingway’s story i s m or e than merely about an old man and two wait er s. We r emember that at he end the st or y is enti rely conf ined t o the ol der wai ter’s t houghts and percepti ons. How do we under st and his medi at ion on “nada, ” nothingnes, whi ch bear s o much emphasi s? No good statement of the theme of the st or y can leave i t out. Then we have sti l another t ry: “Sol itary people need a place of refuge f rom t heir t er rible awarenes t hat thei r l ife ( or perhaps, human li fe) is essential y meaningl ess. ” Nei ther this nor any ot her st at ement of the stor y’ s theme i s unar guabl y appropr iate, but t he statement at l east touches one pr imary i dea that Hemingway seems to be dr iving at . Af ter we r ead “A Clean, Wel l Li ght ed Place,” we f el that ther e is such a theme, a unif yi ng vi sion, even t hough we cannot r educe it to a t ag and we may stil l var y i n our opinion about , and statement of, the theme. Moral i nf erences drawn f rom m ost stories: Mor al inferences may be drawn fr om most stor ies, no doubt, even when an author does not i nt end his/ her st or y to be read t his way. In “A Clean, Wel Light ed Place”, we f el that Hemingway is indir ectly gi vi ng us advice for pr oper ly r egarding and sympat hizi ng the l onely, t he uncert ai n, and t he old. But obviousl y the story does not set f or th a leson that we ar e supposed t o put into pract ice. We can say f or sur e that “A Clean, Wel Light ed Place” contains sever al themes and other statement s coul d be made to take i n Hemi ngway’ s vi ew of love, of munication bet wen peopl e, of di gnit y. Great stori es, l ike gr eat symphonies, fr equentl y have mor e t han one t heme. When we say t hat the ti tle of Pr ide and Prejudice conveys t he theme of t he novel or that Uncl e Tom’ s Cabin and The Grapes of Wrath tr eat the themes of slavery and migratory l abor r espectively, t hi s is to use t hem e i n a l ar ge r and m or e abst r act sense t han i t i s i n our di scussi on of case t he novel ist i nt ends t o point out the profound cause of Gat sby’s tragedy. Dr. Wat son in t he stori es of Sherlock Hol mes serves as a foi l t o the hero, renderi ng t he det ecti ve smar ter than he woul d ot herwi se appear to t he r eader . By t he degree of t heir development, characters can be grouped as round charact ers and fl at charact ers. Thi s di vi si on i s pr oposed by E. M For st er . Round characters are full y devel oped whi le fl at charact ers ar e not. Or we can say that round characters grow whil e flat characters do not . Usual y the reader i s al lowed aces to t he i nner l if e of the round char acter and permit ed t o lear n about many sides of the round character. The fl at character i s a “closed” character to whose inner thoughts the reader i s denied acces. Usual ly one side of t he f lat char acter is shown in the novel . Most heroes are round charact ers who gr ow emoti onaly or spir it ual y. Chapter Three Theme Ari st ot le in Poet ics lists six basic elements of tragedy. Melody (song) and di ct ion (language) fal in t he general category of st yl e, and spectacl e i s relevant t o set ing in our discussion of f icti on. The other thr e aspects are mythos or plot, et hos or char acter, and dianoi a, which we general y tr ansl at e into “thought ” in Engl ish. Acording to Ari st ot le, plot is the “soul ” or shaping pr inci pl e or f iction, and char acters exist pri mar il y as funct ions of the pl ot . I n most of t he stori es, plot pl ays the role of pr inci pal st ruct ur e of t he story. But, as Nor throp Frye points out , besi des the internal f iction of t he char acter and his/ her society, t here i s an ext er nal fi cti on consisti ng of a relation bet wen the wri ter and the wr it er ’s society. We indeed have l iter ar y wor ks by the li kes of Shakespeare and Homer i n whi ch art istry i s pletely absor bed in t heir i nt er nal charact er s and we can hardly percei ve t he exist ence of the aut hor. However, as soon as t he author ’s per sonal ity appear s on t he horizon, a relati on wi th the r eader is established, and sometimes ther e seems no story at al apart f rom what the aut hor is conveying to his/her r eader. I n this case, the pr imary i nt er est in dianoia, t he i dea or t hought that r eader gets f rom t he wr iter, which in modern cr it ci sm we general y cal “theme”. I. What Is Theme? One of the saf est ments t o make about novels is on the theme. Everyone is entit led to ext ract a t heme based upon his under st anding of t he n