Seven Themes You Can't Escape: How Our Deepest Longings Keep Showing Up in Story

What do Sherlock Holmes, Star Wars, A Christmas Carol, and Charlotte's Web have in common? Seven identical and profound themes. Actually we only use these four stories as examples of seven inescapable themes, found in whole or in part in every story of every medium from books to movies. I believe these themes are inescapable, not because our culture imposes them upon creators, but because they reflect our deepest longings. As I suggested earlier, even in our current climate of deconstruction, any story which truly denies all these themes at once does so only with the clear intention of ignoring these very themes, thus providing greater support for the inherent expectation for and love of these concepts in us. We would really like to believe this is real: this longing for meaning, for plot and design and divine appointment, for redemption, for justice. I have come to believe the good news that our desire for meaning arises from the truth that there is meaning. There is a story behind the universe which makes it all makes sense.Every story we write, draw, compose, or perform is a seeking after that one true story of the universe. This is why the themes continue to pop up in story after story.