The theme in the short story "Condensed Milk" is survival, and it is developed through the setting and the conflict between the characters, as explained below.
We call theme the most important message behind a story, that one idea the author wants us to take away after reading it. In the short story "Condensed Milk," we can identify survival as the theme. The main character is at a Gulag, a concentration camp in Russia. He is exhausted and starving.
First, the author uses the setting of the Gulag to develop the theme, as the main character has to learn and adapt to the way things are if he wants to avoid death.
An example of that is: "We envied only our acquaintances, the ones who had been lucky enough to get office work, a job in the hospital or the stables..." As we can see, the character struggles to survive since he does not have an "office work."
Also, the author uses conflict between the characters to develop the theme of survival. The main character has to outsmart Shestakov, his antagonist. He uses Shestakov to get himself a couple of condensed milk cans, but he refuses to escape with him.
An example of that is: "‘You know,’ I said, carefully licking the spoon, ‘I changed my mind. Go without me.’" As we can see, the character needs to "beat" Shestakov in order to stay alive.
We can conclude, therefore, that the author uses setting and conflicts between characters to develop the theme.
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