The emotional argument of your theme is between the message issue and the counterpoint.  But the question arises, "How does the audience know which is the message issue and which is the counterpoint?"

Simply put, the message issue it the human quality being directly explored in your story.  The counterpoint provides contrast to the message issue.  In a practical sense, the message issue must appear forefront, and the counterpoint paints the background.  This is accomplished solely through your storytelling approach.

The message issue is identified by being shown in sharp, definitive illustrations.  The counterpoint becomes the background contrast by employing illustrations that are more generalized or nebulous.

For example, in "A Christmas Carol," Scrooge's lack of generosity is shown in defined moments of specific choices, dialogs, and actions.  But the generosity of the counterpoint is illustrated nebulously through the prevailing good cheer and group activities of the other characters and the populace of London in general - the Christmas Spirit, as it were.

An old performer's adage proclaims, "Always leave 'em laughing."  When it comes to theme, this truism could be paraphrased as "Always leave 'em feeling."  Theme is an emotional argument, and the best way to make such an argument is by involving the reader/audience at a personal level.

Since the message issue is the human quality that your story is about, there is already a built-in level of attachment to your reader/audience.  But people don't like to look at themselves critically.  The trick, then, is to find a way to involve their emotions without pointing a finger at them.

Quick Tip - You can draw your readers/audience into an emotional bond with your message issue by devising illustrations that show the impact of that issue on characters they have come to care about, rather than preaching your message directly.  When it comes to theme, show, don't tell.

Your thematic message (morel or the story) has two sides: the Issue and the Counterpoint.  The Issue is the human quality under examination in your story (such as greed) and the Counterpoint is the opposite trait (such as Generosity), presented for contrast.  Together, they play both sides of the moral dilemma.  But how do you go about making your thematic point to your readers or audience?

The most important key to a successful thematic argument is never, ever play the message issue and counterpoint together at the same time.  Why?  Because the thematic argument is an emotional one, not one of reason.  You are trying to sway your reader/audience to adopt your moral view as an author.  This will not happen if you keep showing one side of the argument as "good" and the other side as "bad" in direct comparison.  Such a thematic argument would seem one-sided, and treat the issues as being black-and-white, rather than gray-scale.

In real life, moral decisions are seldom cut-and-dried.  Although we may hold views that are clearly defined, in practice it all comes down to the context of the specific situation.  For example, it is wrong to steal in general.  But, it might be proper to steal from the enemy during a war, or from a large market when you baby is starving.  In the end, all moral views become a little blurry around the edges when push comes to shove.

Statements of absolutes do not a thematic argument make.  Rather, your most powerful message will deal with the lesser of two evils, the greater of two goods, or the degree of goodness or badness of each side of the argument.  In fact, there are often situations where both sides of the moral argument are equally good, equally bad, or that both sides are either good nor bad in the particular situation being explored in the story.

The way to create this more powerful, more believable, and more persuasive thematic argument is as follows:

1.  Determine in advance whether each side is good, bad, or neutral.

Do this by assigning an arbitrary "value" to both the Message Issue and the Counterpoint.  For example, we might choose a scale with +5 being abolutely good, -5 being absolutely bad, and zero being neutral.

If our thematic argument is Greed vs. Generosity, then Greed (our Message Issue) might be a -3, and Generosity (our Counterpoint) might be a -2.    This would mean that both Greed and Generosity are both bad (being in the negative) but that Generosity is a little less bad than Greed since Generosity is only a -2 and Greed is a -3.

2.  Show the good and bad aspects of both the Message Issue and the Counterpoint.

Make sure the examples of each side of the thematic argument that you have already developed don't portray either side as being all good or all bad.  In fact, even if one side of the argument turns out to be bad in the end, it might be shown as good initially.  But over the course of the story, that first impression is changed by seeing that side in other contexts.

3.  Have the good and bad aspects "average out" to the thematic conclusion you want.

By putting each side of the thematic argument on a roller coaster of good and bad aspects, it blurs the issues, just as in real life.  But the reader/audience will "average out" all of their exposures to each side of the argument and draw their own conclusions at the end of the story.

In this way, the argument will move out of the realm of intellectual consideration and become a viewpoint arrived by feel.  And, since you have not only shown both sides, but the good and the bad of each side, your message will be easier to swallow.  And finally, since you never directly compared the two sides, the reader/audience will not feel that your message has been shoved down its throat.

The thematic topic is the subject matter of your story, such as "death," or "man's inhumanity to man."  No matter what topic you will be exploring, it will contain large issues, small issues, and everything in between.

In Act One, you need to introduce and establish your theme so that your readers or audience gets a sense of the kinds of issues you'll be exploring.  To do this,  you have three different approaches available.

1.  You could outline the scope of your subject matter with one or more large, definitive dramatic moments.   Then, in acts two and three, you would gradually fill in smaller and smaller details, adding nuance and shading to the overall topic as the story progresses.  This system is best when trying to apply topics that are often seen objectively or impersonally to everyday life.

2.  Conversely, you could begin with the details in Act One, then move to larger concerns as the story progresses.  This is a good way to elevate topics dealing with commonplace, mundane, or work-a-day issues to philosophical or global importance.

3.  Finally, you could mix it up, presenting a blend of issues ranging from the large to the small in every act.  This creates a feeling that the topic is an area to explore, rather than a statement to be understood.

Whichever approach you take, the pattern needs to be set up in Act One so your reader or audience can follow.  So determine which approach you wish to take and then create specific examples that illustrate your topic, both in a large and small way.

In baseball, they call it the "seventh inning stretch."  In stories, it is called the middle of act 3.

Up to this point, your characters and your reader/audience have been on a roller coaster that's been going higher and higher, in fits and starts.  In the last part of the third act, the tension will rise up that final highest climb, and then plunge all the way to the bottom as the outcome of the story is determined.

As with a roller coaster, there is more of a thrill if you see that hill coming.  So the middle of act 3 serves two purposes.  First, to give your reader/audience a little breathing room, and second, to set them up for the emotional upheaval to come.

If two characters had argued or fought at the beginning of the act, a third character might tell them they can settle their differences later, but if they keep fighting now, everyone will lose the bigger fight.  Realizing the truth of this, the two characters would calm down, let the adrenaline clear out of their systems, and then focus on the job at hand with the other party as reluctant allies.

In Volleyball, there is the set-up and the spike.  The end of act three is the spike, but the middle is the set-up.  No matter how much of a slam-bang finish you have planned for your story, it will mean nothing without the right set-up.

Some stories introduce characters as people and then let the reader/audience discover their roles and relationships afterward.  This tends to help an audience identify with the characters.

Other stories put roles first, so that we know about the person by their function and/or job, then get closer to them as the act progresses.  This tends to make the reader/audience pigeon-hole the characters by stereotype, and then draw them into learning more about the actual people behind the masks.

Finally, there are stories that introduce character relationships, either situational, structural, or emotional, at the beginning.  This causes the audience to see the problems among the characters but not take sides as strongly until they can learn about the people on each side of the relationship, and the roles that constrain them.

Of course, you do not have to treat these introductions equally for all characters and relationships.  For example, you might introduce on character as a person, then introduce their relationship with another character, then divulge the constraints the other character is under due to role, then revel the other character as a person.

This approach would initially cast sympathy (or derision) at the first character, temper it by showing a relationship with which he or she must contend, then temper that relationship by showing the constraints of the other character, and finally humanize that other character so a true objective balance can be formed by the reader/audience.

Don't forget that first impressions stick in our minds, and it is much easier to judge someone initially than to change that judgment later.  Use this trait of audiences to quickly identify important characters up front, or to put their complete situations later, thereby forcing the reader/audience to reconsider its attitudes, and thereby learn and grow.

No matter what approach you take, you have the opportunity to weave a complex experience for your reader/audience, blending factual, logistic information about your characters with the reader/audience emotional experience in discovering this information.

Over the course of the story,  your reader/audience has come to know your characters and to feel for them.  The story doesn't end when your characters and their relationships reach a climax.  Rather, the reader/audience will want to know the aftermath - how it turned out for each character and each relationship.  In addition, the audience needs a little time to say goodbye - to let the character walk off into the sunset or to mourn for them before the story ends.

This is in effect the conclusion, the wrap-up.  After everything has happened to your characters, after the final showdown with their respective demons, what are they like?  How have they changed?  If a character began the story as a skeptic, does it now have faith?  If they began the story full of hatred for a mother that abandoned them, have they now made revelations to the effect that she was forced to do this, and now they no longer hate?  This is what you have to tell the audience, how their journeys changed them, have the resolved their problems, or not?

And in the end, this constitutes a large part of your story's message.  It is not enough to know if a story ends in success or failure, but also if the characters are better off emotionally or plagued with even greater demons, regardless of whether or not the goal was achieved.

You can show what happens to your characters directly, through a conversation by others about them, or even in a post-script on each that appears after the story is over or in the ending credits of a movie.

How you do this is limited only by your creative inspiration, but make sure you review each character and each relationship and provide at least a minimal dismissal for each.

Character relationships should come under strain over the course of your novel or screenplay so that tension in the relationship rises.  To accomplish this, you need to create dramatic moments in which outside pressures put each relationship in an increasing vice-grip.

Conversely, overemphasizing tension might be detrimental, especially in particular genres.  For example, in light comedy, action stories, and so on, relationship issues are not likely to be all that crucial or central.  Nonetheless, relationship stress should still rise, just not to the same depth and degree.  In short, keep an eye toward the overall mood you want for your story, and within that scope, bring tension to its maximum by the end of the third act.  

Tension does not have to rise smoothly, but can lurch forward in fits and starts.  !  The key is to mimic real life and the naturally uneven nature of the stress in our lives.  Tension can rise slowly, then drop quickly in a momentary release, only to begin to rise again.  Or, it can snap into place precipitously, only to gradually fade away.  In fact, a single relationship might employ both of these techniques.

No matter how you get there, you will want to eventually arrive at a set of dramatic circumstances that brings each relationship to the maximum stress level.  That is the point at which the relationship will stand or snap - the character climax of your story.

Perhaps the most complex relationships among characters are the emotional ones because they can grow to any degree in any direction AND because both characters don't have to feel the same way about each other!

For example, how many stories are written about "unrequited love" where one character is infatuated with the other, but the other is repulsed by them, yet in the end both may love each other, both hate each other, or they may have swapped positions, emotionally.

Another example is the younger brother who tags along with the older brother.  To the younger, the older brother is his hero.  To the older, the younger brother is a pest.  Now, suppose the younger brother is attacked by a bully.  The older brother may come to the rescue and defend his tag-along.  But the moment the threat is gone and the younger brother looks up at his protector with glowing eyes, the older brother say, "Okay, get out of here and leave me alone."  Emotional relationships change with the slightest breeze and change back with the least provocation. 

Consider the emotional relationships among the characters in your novel or screenplay.  Now, consider your plot and also changes in situational relationships, such as who is second in command or married to whom.  Go over the emotional journey of each of your characters as individuals.  Then, imagine how each emotional relationships might shift, change, and grow for each of the characters due to changes in their situational relationships with others.

It is a fair amount of work, but you will find that this development more than any other will enrich your characters and the passionate experience of your story.