White stated his idea,as Knickerbocker and Reninger noted,in reference to specific time and political terms:Socialist and Republican,and Frost converted this time-related statement to a"timeless comment"on human nature.White's"Socialist"and"Republican"will no doubt someday pass away,but the universal truth or the symbolic truth about psychological tendency in different stages of human existence（"radical when young"and"conservative when old"）as expressed in Frost's lines is likely to remain valid forever.
In"The Road Not Taken,"a poem about making a choice,the specific road in a forest（literal truth）is used by Frost to stand for a situation in life when people have to make a choice that will affect their lives irrevocably（symbolic truth）.
This double-level notion is extremely important to identifying theme.As we mentioned earlier that theme is the author's attitude toward the subject of a story,we'll begin with the subject.And the subject is to be ascertained when the story is read for literal truth.Once the subject is identified,we'll engage ourselves in the business of formulating thematic statements about the work.
Now let's again examine"The Fox and the Grapes"to see how this double-level approach works.At the literary truth level,the story develops out of the conflict between the desire the fox has for the grapes and his inability to get them.The story ends with his minimizing the reward he cannot get.At the symbolic truth level,we find that the fox exhibits normal traits:He needs to satisfy his hunger,and knows that he can get the grapes only by leaping for them.He is also normal enough to maintain his own self-respect by belittling the prize when he fails.These traits are essential to Aesop's moral（theme）,because the fable genre depends not on exceptional but on average,normal human character.Thus,the fox becomes typical of all human beings,and his behavior representative of all human behavior.Aesop talks not just about a specific fox（literal truth）,but about all human beings（symbolic truth）.
5.The Quality Story
No one has ever taken a census of the short stories published in English.The number must be enormous.But for ordinary readers,the stories they've read could be counted up to several scores,or hundreds,or they've read only those collected in anthologies.Stories selected by critics and professors in anthologies are generally considered quality stories.But how do we know that one story is better than another?What is then the standard critics and English professors use to evaluate stories?
Most critics agree that the quality story is well-written,original,and accepting the inevitability of certain circumstances.A well-written story is one that is related in terms of literary conventions,a set of rules both writers and readers follow in order for the story to be appreciated.Critics often examine a work to see if it uses rules for narration,deion,characterization,setting,point of view,symbols,and language,etc.in a way that is traditionally acceptable.Incongruity between conventions and a writer's over-idosyncratic or blundering use of the rules prevents communication between the writer and the reader.
Also,the quality story is original in that it deals with a matter that has not been touched upon,or has not been thoroughly explored."The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"is a quality story because,among other things,the effect of fantasy upon the life of an individual is a hitherto unexplored issue.
Finally,the quality story does not end up with a situation in which the main characters happily get what they want.Rather,they are discouraged,disappointed,or,more often than not,destroyed,physically or mentally.The quality story accepts the idea that justice does not always prevail,and that good people don't always get what they deserve.Hamlet gets killed and Othello is driven to suicide.
Contrary to the quality story,the pulp story is often sentimental and embraces the idea already generally accepted.It anticipates a happy ending and reaffirms the values and attitudes（love,honesty,patriotism）readers bring to the story.
Read the following two stories"Joy Cometh in the Morning"and"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"printed below to see the difference between the pulp story and the quality story.
Joy Cometh in the Morning——Dorothy Thomas
Augusta sang and rocked her baby to sleep in the little rocking chair,the only piece of furniture not homemade in the little sod-fronted house dug out of the side of a creek bank.Then she put the baby in his cradle,brought out tablet and brown ink,sat down at the table and wrote in her careful hand:
"Norton,Kansas
December 18,1889
Dear Ma,
We are all three in good health and baby is growing wondrously.I know you are counting on Mr.Thomas fetching us home for Christmas,as he told you in my hearing he would do when we were home last Easter.I am counting on it too and living toward it and have done much sewing to get us ready.While he has said nothing further about it since summer,I remind myself and baby that he is a man of few words,but as good as they,and am not anxious."
Here Augusta raised her quill and reread the little she had written.Then,being an honest girl,she drew a line through"am not anxious,"only to see that the retracted words set the letter itself at naught.She tore the page from the tablet and put it in the stove.Then she brought two potatoes and a small head of cabbage from the vegetable cave at the back of the dugout,took the bag of corn meal from the box cupboard and started to prepare supper,softly but determinedly whistling as she worked.