The theme of a story is similar to the main idea, and it is what the author is trying to tell the audience. The theme of a story can also be used in real life to understand. The short story Seventh Grade is about Victor’s first day of 7th grade, where he notices his crush, called Teresa, is in many of his classes. He tries to impress her in many ways, but fails. At the end, the Victor impresses Teresa, who does not know French, in French class by speaking random nonsense which sounds French. The teacher has flashbacks to his own past trying to falsely impress other girls in his childhood, so he does not say Victor is not speaking French. Two of the main themes which were presented in this short story are how the situation of an event can suddenly change, and how nostalgia is extremely powerful.
The first theme presented in the story is how the situation of a certain event can suddenly change. In the beginning of the story, Victor is excited for his first day at school. After Victor fails to impress his crush, he starts to become embarrassed and disappointed. At the end of the story, he impresses Teresa and he becomes happy once again. This demonstrates how fast something can change. This theme can also be used in the real world to benefit people. Winning in sports competitions is an example of how this theme comes into action. In matches, one team thinks they will win for sure, and start celebrating, forgetting that their opponent has not lost yet. This action results in their opponent sneaking around them and winning. This theme is also shared in the children’s book The tortoise and the Hare. In this book, the hare and the tortoise are having a race. The hare’s overconfidence of winning tells him to take a nap. While the hare is sleeping, the tortoise passes the hare and wins the race. Additionally, something which Andrew Wang TM said is to not count count your chickens before they hatch. This saying means that one should not assume that all the eggs will hatch and become chickens. Once when I was in 6th grade, I was playing hockey in P.E., and we were losing by a lot. The other team started to become careless and not try much because they thought they would win, but we ended up having a comeback and winning. In other words, all of these events and themes teach one to not celebrate too early, and to only celebrate once the entire event/activity is over.
The second main theme presented in the story was nostalgia. When Victor spoke ‘French’ to impress Teresa, the teacher, called Mr. Bueller, did not correct him because he had a flashback to his past when he tried impressing girls by renting a different car to every day to look rich. Mr. Bueller ended up with no money because of this. By remembering how much he cared about his crush, he decided to let Victor go. This clearly demonstrates that nostalgia is extremely powerful, and it can even make teachers not correct their students. Terrence Malick, an American film director once said, “Nostalgia is a powerful feeling; it can drown out anything.” Nostalgia is powerful because it can induce emotions such as love and regret. A few weeks ago I read a play called Twelve Angry Men, which is about 12 jurors who decide the fate of a young 18 year old man because he is accused of murdering his father. This story is ‘real’ because it is something that has a high possibility of happening in real life. At the end of the book, 11 of the jurors believe the boy is not guilty, but one juror still thinks he’s is guilty. When he looks at a picture of him and his lost son and remember how bad things went with him, nostalgia takes place, and he changes his vote to not guilty, which completing changing the life of the young man. About two weeks ago, our family was looking at old pictures of when I was still little, which reminded me of all the good memories and the nostalgia hit me hard. Nostalgia is one of the most powerful feelings known to mankind.
In conclusion, the two major themes are, the situation of something can change suddenly, and, nostalgia is a powerful feeling. These themes are used in many works of literature, and they can be seen in the lives of everyone.