: Re: Is it acceptable to have the theme of a story remain hidden to its characters? I am trying to expand the depth of my writing beyond simple storytelling. Although my previous novel was an action/adventure,

@Dunderdale623

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I'm not sure.

Is the narrator of "All Quiet on the Western Front" aware of the themes of the story? He is very much aware of the horror and the tragedy of the war, and of how much it has changed him, but is he aware of how senseless and futile parts of it were? Like his own death? Is his awareness of the horror and the tragedy similar to the awareness of the reader?

Tevye the Dairyman is very definitely not aware of how his thinking himself smarter than he really is and his inability to notice what's going on around him cause his daughters' misfortunes. Nor is Don Quixote aware of being a parody.

On the other hand, Tolkien's characters explicitly talk about various themes in the "Lord of the Rings" (sometimes you cannot really come home, small people are capable of great deeds, etc.) As does Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago.

The writer should know what it is they're writing. But the characters and the narrator can be as aware or unaware as serves the writer's goals, I think.

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