Theme vs. Moral

When analyzing texts there is often a misconception of what represents a theme or a moral. Many readers believe that the theme of a story is synonymous with the moral, however, often times it is not. The moral of a story is traditionally a lesson that can be learned from the actions of the characters or the result of a series of events that took place in the story. These lessons are often quite simple; for instance, in the childrens story of  “The Tortoise and the Hair” by Aesop the moral of the story would be: never give up even when the odds are against you; this is a lesson that children learn growing up because it can be applied to their everyday life. Another way to think of the moral of the story is something that could be considered a universal truth; a lesson that applies to the incidents within the story and also to peoples everyday lives. Themes, as opposed to morals, do not usually represent universal truths, instead, they are more complex and, often times, much subtler than morals. Themes, generally, only pertain to the specific instances in the story and how these instances show the reader something. This something isn’t necessarily a lesson, it could be a question, idea or a statement. Going back to the story of “The Tortoise and the Hair”; the theme would be slow and steady wins the race. The author doesn’t necessarily state this within in this children's tale, however, throughout the story it is hinted at. This fundamental story, although very rudimentary, can be applied to other, more complex, pieces of writing; because of this, this children's tale serves as a great starting point to demonstrate the difference between the moral and theme of a story. In other stories, this fundamental difference between the theme and the moral can become more convoluted and harder to grapple with, however, the important thing to remember is that there is still a difference.