Theme is a rather new concept to me. It is sort of the story under the story. The general thought that underlines the entire story as a whole.
A theme is not always applicable (at least not a theme that encompasses the entire story), but since my story will run a rather singular storyline, I think it’ll work.
Henry kills someone. This is an isolated incident and killing people is hard both during and after. So he is bound to have some unresolved feelings about it. It is a giant blotch on his otherwise perfect life. He killed someone, but more importantly, he didn’t plan on it. He regrets doing it (but this will obviously be in conflict with the knowledge that he had saved Jasmine).
Jasmine agrees to act as a hostage for her boyfriend in his store robbing conquest. She comes from a poor background, so it isn’t such a huge transgression for her psyche. However, when Henry saves her, she sees that she can do better and probably regrets helping Irwin, or maybe even ever getting involved with his kind (interestingly, this will also be in conflict with another line of thought, being that she met Henry through the encounter). Maybe, as she starts her admiration for Henry, she realises how many opportunities she lost to rise to a higher class. She regrets many decisions.
Irwin, obviously, regrets that he got himself killed. Furthermore, when he sees Jasmine getting together with Henry, he may even regret ever getting mixed up with her. Maybe he even regrets his choices that led him to being a criminal. For interest’s sake, let’s say that there was an opportunity to kill Henry before the store incident (or maybe during, but before the shooting), but he had let Henry live. Therefore, he probably regrets letting Henry live.
Through a lot of things, regret seems to be a common theme. Regret for decisions made in the past.
Most probably, there will be other themes, but since this one is applicable for all three major characters, I’ll keep this one in mind while fleshing out the scenes.
Next week I’ll look at fleshing out Jasmine (and I’ll keep my theme in mind).
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