Alexander E. answered • 10/01/15
Tutor
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Methodical English tutor specializing in ESL
Although I cannot give you the specific instances wherein you will find evidence of the listed themes, here would be my advice about identifying and supporting evidence of a particular theme.
First of all you need to understand what we mean by theme. Unfortunately, most people don't do themes much justice or service in stating them in vague dichotomies or a single word. Really let's think of a theme as a message. That's what the advance placement board is probably looking for, anyway. If you ever state a theme on an advanced placement test, for example, you should be prepared to state it as more than "lost innocence" and should instead have a thesis statement. That is, the author of the novel (a bildungsroman) demonstrates how inexorable, violent struggles in youth whisk away innocence and replace it with an unfortunate blood lust. That should be indicative of the novel's message. You would then have to prove this with evidence.
Next keep in mind that a novel is typically extremely organized. In other words, it's rarely random, especially if it's a novel that's been canonized such that you read it for a class. As such, we can generally pick out themes from a novel by identifying key points. Let's call this mining. When you mine, you're looking for resource rich areas. Just as you can figure out what a theme is from these points, you can find evidence of the themes. Because a novel almost always has a beginning, a middle, and an end - those are key points, and likely to have the gold we're looking for. We can make this more specific, though.
Have you, at some point, heard of Freytag's pyramid? You probably have. Although it's a theory based on more specific rhetorical practices for plays in Ancient Greece, it's been widely adopted for all forms of storytelling, including (bingo!) the novel. The pyramid goes something like this: at the base, you have the exposition, the beginning, wherein the themes and plot will typically be exposed. You walk up the pyramid steps, and that's what we call rising action, where a problem with the theme, or more likely the character(s) understanding of the world, is introduced. That's conflict. Then we reach the top. Hurray! We call this the climax. This is probably the most important part of a book because typically it is accompanied by an epiphany, that is, a great realization at which the author has been hinting all along (that's what we call foreshadowing). But that's not the end of it (usually)! Then we have to get back down the pyramid. This is the falling action and this is where the conflicts of the plot and the subplots get resolved. Finally you reach the bottom of the pyramid again, and this is the denouement. Conflicts should have met some sort of resolution at this point. Keep in mind this doesn't always mean a happy ending either! Sometimes conflicts are not resolved, which tends to leave the reader unsettled. Other times, conflicts are resolved but in an unhappy way such as when a character ultimately commits suicide to resolve the apparent conflict of living.
Now knowing this. Let's have a short story.
Exposition: Bob's a great guy. He's got a house. He's got kids, and he loves his job. For some reason, though, he drinks heavily in secret. He keeps receiving phone calls from his father but he never answers.
Rising action: Bob leaves work one day and gets shot by a robber at random who was trying to get into his car. He's rushed to the hospital in the hopes that his life can be saved. When he gets there he's rushed to the ICU, and his family, hearing of his condition, rushes to his bedside. But there's another problem. Bob now needs a new liver because he was shot nearby that organ, and the heavy drinking has put too much stress on it. There are no matches in the family and even if there were, Bob's too damn stubborn to accept a liver from any of them. He decides he won't accept a liver from anyone. But his family chooses to try to help locate him a new liver. Bob curses his fate and the seeming randomness of the events.
Climax: A random guy steps forward to donate a liver. Bob's saved and the family is happy.
Falling Action: We find out that the man who donated the liver was Bob's estranged father, with whom Bob had a long fight and coldly never spoke to again, even after the father made several attempts to reach out and show that he still cared for his son.
Denouement: Bob and his dad are reunited, and they are chummier and happier than they'd ever been. Bob learns that his stubbornness has been hindering him and he wasn't, in fact, as happy as he thought he was in the beginning of our story. His estrangement from his dad was the cause of his drinking. He also realizes that had he not been hungover from drinking the night before, he might have seen the robber. Things weren't as random as they appeared.
In the introduction you may begin to get the sense that there's injustice of circumstance and randomness. This is true. But we find out later that there is also a karmic nature and actions have consequences. It's these sorts of patterns and ideas you want to look at.
Another tip, if you're looking for the climax, a little math generally does the trick. It's usually smack dab in the center of the novel, or somewhere between the center of the novel and 2/3 of the way in. Take a 200 page novel and you'll most likely find the climax somewhere between page 100 and 132. This isn't always true but if you pair this information with the knowledge of the event where everything seemed to be flipped upside down, you'll find the climax in no time. This is a great place to find theme rich material.
Another tip is that themes often become maxims. That is, they are meant to be universal laws in many ways.
Good luck!
