Help Needed in Keeping a Consistent Theme

I know not everyone writes with a theme in mind, but for my current story that is what I'm trying to do.

So for my story I want the theme to essentially be a rebuttal to the prevalence of redemption arcs ending in death (basically I was inspired to write this after being fed up with experiencing not one, but two potentially great stories last year, that used this trope to their own detriment).

I really don't like that trope since it implicitly states that if you do bad things then you should just die, because society will never accept you.

So one of my PoVs is fine. His arc manages to capture this concept pretty well. Dealing with things like betrayal, regret, forgiveness, and the value of life. (In theory, we'll see how well I can actually capture all that.)

My other PoV... does not. Sure it shows up a little, but her arc seems to want to focus on her loneliness and longing for a home. Which while great for a sub-theme, it is making it so I can't figure out how to even end her arc.

One problem is that she is too good to need a redemption arc. Especially not one that could result in a death scene. But at the same time having her kick more puppies doesn't really seem like a solution.

The real problem seems to be that I'm writing two stories. One has the theme of redemption, and one has the theme of home. And while they intersect, they don't feel like the same story (in my mind).

So I guess what all this amounts to... what I really want to ask is: What kind of ending can a story have that promotes the idea of redemption and forgiveness when the PoV doesn't need to be redeemed or learn to forgive?

 

Hard question. Depending on how the story is set up you can maybe make it so that the second character learns to forgive the first character for something they've done which would maybe fit your theme of forgiveness? Or maybe through the second character's kindness and forgiveness, the first character begins to understand they're not that doomed after all and sometimes past actions can be forgiven.

To be honest, I am stumped. Hopefully, someone else has a better suggestion.

 

You might be trying to artificially shoehorn in a theme that isn't intrinsic to the material. Generally I don't start with an idea for a theme and try to build a story around it, I'm just developing a story idea and a theme emerges from it organically. Then everything will naturally arrange itself around the theme. Maybe you need to just work with the PoV that does fit the theme and remove the other one? Build a different story around it.

 

You may need to be a smidge thematically pedantic with the presentation of this idea you are rebutting because it's not necessarily the conclusion everyone reaches. To me, that element is about the character making an Ultimate Sacrifice™ in order to hammer home the unquestionability of the redemption, not that the person won't ever be accepted again. It's a kind of literary sainthood meant to serve as a bleach for whatever heinous deed was done. So again, since your rebuttal is keyed off of a particular conclusion, which is technically a petitio principi, you're going to have to make it clear that this is a fixed aspect.

While I don't agree with @Xoic that starting with a theme in mind will necessarily lead to a shoehorned presentation, in this case I think it does. If she doesn't have a redemption arc set up, then she doesn't. Making her kick more puppies isn't going to really make that happen any more than trying to inflate a car tire with a wimpy pump is going to get the tire inflated. The car just weighs too much. You need to give her one important puppy to kick.

I don't think they have to be the same story. In Alice Walker's The Color Purple, there are two very different stories happening simultaneously. There's the surface story of Miss Celie and Nettie and Miss Sofia and Albert and Harpo and Miss Shug and Squeak and Miss Millie and all the happenings that happen to them across the years. If you dig deeper, there's a second, more important story happening where all the women in the book are facets of Miss Celie. Not in a dissociative identity disorder sort of way, but in a symbolic way. Nettie is the idealized Celie. That's why she gets hidden away for most of the book in Africa, a land as strange and magical to Celie as any Fantasy or Science Fiction realm. Shug is the other side of Celie's coin, two women valued for what's on the outside, not what's on the inside. Squeak is her youthful frivolity. Miss Sofia is her stubbornness and strength. And even Miss Millie (who is so very different in the book compared to the film) is her ignorance and myopathy because even though that's ugly, it's also real.

The character either needs to engage the idea through the arc of someone else, or the character's presentation needs to change because the problem is the mismatch you point out.

 

You could write your characters to fit the theme. I know a lot of people think letting the theme develop naturally is best but writing with a theme in mind can be just as good. I've read plenty of material that was all about exploring the theme above everything else and it didn't feel forced. I always find a difference between material where the author has clearly thought about the themes and one who hasn't paid any attention. A theme isn't what the story is about. It's about what the story explores.

You could change the story so that character does need redemption and forgiveness. Or have her with someone who does need go do those things. Let your character see the consequences of someone who can't learn to forgive. Maybe your character isn't a very forgiving person and through this other character learns it can be better for her/his overall health.

 

Thank you all for the advice.

I do think I might be trying too hard to force a theme when I'm still too new to writing to even know how to do so. And it might be better to keep it in mind, but not care so much, at least not until I get to the editing phase.

Also I'm falling into the trap of trying to keep my characters likeable by buffering out any negative trait, and if I really want to explore themes of forgiveness and redemption, I'll need to have them do things that are hard to forgive.

I still don't know how exactly to change up her arc's ending so that it seems more satisfying, but at least I've got some potential directions to go in. So that the climax will be climactic and not just an empty action sequence, which is what is currently on my outline.

 

Personally I find 'finding a home' narratives very satisfying. And I do really enjoy a redemption arc, however from the way you're talking about setting it up, I'm a bit wary. If it is obvious in-text the author is Salty about the 'Redemption = Death' trope, then that is going to sap enjoyment out of the book. I'd recommend just concentrating on telling a good story, and let the theme be subtext.

Another thought to consider: Maybe both these characters don't need to be in the same story? I've several times realized that one of my MC's in a story would be better in a different one and shuffled them off somewhere else. More novels now!